It's Not Supposed to Be This Way | Pastor Bryan Jarrett | Northplace Church

pastor in North Place Church in the Dallas Fort Worth area for almost 20 years. We're one church that meets in multiple locations even on multiple continents and today you are one of those locations. The church is not about buildings, it is about people and we have the privilege today of sharing the hope of the gospel with you right where you are. There is no way I can know exactly what you're going through or dealing with right now but for almost 30 years I have preached about a God who I know, I am confident, knows you, your struggles, knows the very hairs on your head and the thoughts that you think before you think them and he is passionately in love with you and our prayer today is that in our time together you feel our love for you and his presence and we pray that this time together gives you hope. Thank you for joining us. We're gonna lift up the King of Kings in this place. Come on put those hands together. He's changed every idol. He rains with our rifle. He goes by the name of Jill over. Jill over. He speaks into nothing. And darkness goes running. He goes by the name of Jill over. Jill over. Let's call his name. Call the name. Call the name. Call the name. Jill over. All our praise. All our praise. All our praise belongs to him. Come on are you grateful for Jesus today? His bones will be silent. Come on that's a promise. He's fighting for fire. There's no wonder. There's no other guy like Jim over. Jim over. His arms are never tired. His eyes are on fire. There's no other guy like Jim over. Jim over. Call this name. Call the name. Call the name. Jill over. All our praise. All our praise. All our praise belongs to him. Call the name. Call the name. His name is Jill over. All our praise. All our praise. All our praise. All our praise. If it all belongs to you Jesus. Oh it's so grateful for you. Come on if you're grateful. Sing this out today. Jill over Nissi fight your battles. Come on it's a promise this morning. Jill over. Jaira, meet your knee. Jill over. I'll heal your body. Jill over. Shall be a peace. Let's sing it together. Jill over Nissi fight your battles. Jill over. Jaira, meet your knees. Jill over up and heal your body. Jill over shall be a peace. Jill over Nissi. Jill over Jaira. Jill over up and heal your body. Jill over. All our praise belongs to you. Come on it's fighting under the house this morning. You're provided in the room right now. Jill over Jaira we need you.

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You're over, John, I need you! You're over, John, I need you! You're over, John, I need you! You're over, John, I need you! You're over, John, I need you! You're over, John, I need you! All you want me every day For the honor of my life or your glory life My whole life, for your glory my whole life For you all the everything For the honor of your name And in my days, tell a story, let it be All you want me every day For the honor of your name Oh how I love you Oh how I love you Jesus, come on, can you tell us this morning Oh how I love you Oh how I love you Jesus, I love you For your glory my whole life For you all the everything For the honor of your name And in my days, tell a story, let it be All you want me every day For the honor of your name Oh how I love you And oh how I love you Jesus, I love you Oh how I love you

And oh how I love you Jesus, I love you How we love you Oh how we love you It's no one like you, Jesus No one like you, Jesus I could see your name for all my life And still find more to love each time Jesus be the name of your own lives It's sweeter every time that I call on There's just something 'bout your name There's just something 'bout your name There's just something 'bout your name It makes me cry only There is no other name There is no other name There is no other name Jesus, you're worthy And you have been the friend who never left I won't forget your faith for death Jesus, me the name of your own lives Oh it's sweeter every time I want to clear this There's just something 'bout your name Oh God, there's just something 'bout your name There's just something 'bout your name It makes me cry only There is no other name There is no other name Oh there is no other name

Jesus, you're worthy There's just something 'bout your name There's just something 'bout your name There's just something 'bout your name To the name of every other name Oh Jesus, we're worthy There is no other name There is no other name Nothing can stand against you Jesus, oh Can Jesus your name is like the morning light The one that darkness can't deny The resurrection and the life Jesus, in Jesus your name Can save your name, can heal Your name can make the stormy still You never fail, you never will She, come on who believes that today In Jesus, the bread, the life from Him for us The world, the land, the world, the one, the first, the last, the same who to come Jesus, Jesus, the King, the world, the great, the Lord who will forever reign The name above all has the name, Jesus Jesus Jesus, be the name, oh Jesus, be the name, we give you all the praise Jesus, Jesus, be the name, oh Jesus, be the name, the rest of your name That can solve her glory, oh Jesus, be the name, Jesus, be the name Jesus, be the name, that can solve her glory, oh Jesus, be the name, Jesus, be the name There's no other name that's hot, oh Jesus, Jesus, we speak that name over every circumstance that they had Jesus, be the name, come on Jesus, be the name, I need you Jesus Jesus, be the name, that gets all the glory Oh, there's healing in His name There's healing in Your name, There's healing in Your name There's salvation in Your name, There's salvation in Your name It makes me cry home There is no other name There is no other name There is no other name We bring you the glory

[Music] Amen, as we welcome our campus families into the services today I want to start with a confession first of all, let me just say this, I lost You know what I mean, I mean these, I have fought this for so long, when I became pastor here 21 years ago my notes were like size 10 font and only took up eight pages over the years the font got bigger now I preach on an iPad not because I'm techie but because I can raise the font I'm finding myself losing my place and so I had to give in and try them where the glasses This is an adjustment for me in the lights preaching in glasses and the moral of the story young people is age wins Beauty creams it there is a timeline. It is just ain't gonna work anymore age wins, all right, so I have I have lost today, so So bear with me as I try to adjust preaching with these glasses, all right I do want to celebrate something with you we had an incredible serve day yesterday Hundreds of you served and is just beautiful Several hundred of you in over forty five different locations One of the beautiful things was 200 of you right at 200 a little more It was the first time you'd ever served on a serve day Which is beautiful that you guys came out for the first time ever and joined us for serving and we did some really incredible things We packed over a thousand meals for one of our partners that work with the homeless community We were in multiple schools one of the cool things we do especially for families that serve together is we go to fire stations and the church pays for food and the families go shop the kids get to be involved in shopping to bring food to the Fire stations and we served 16 different fire stations yesterday and stocked their kitchens and their and the kids and the families got to deliver that together Really really was a special day And then one of the cool things was a couple personal stories The Seguros are one of the team leads on serve day They invited some friends to come serve with them when they went out to go to their location to serve their friends had a flat tire So they just jumped in and went and served But our team went into action and when their friends came back from serve day They had a brand new tire. It was installed mounted on their car I mean, that's the way to give honor and add value

Okay, just incredible and I love this because high school athletic coaches kind of shaped my life and helped disciple me when I came to Jesus And we have some incredible public educators and coaches in our church and Coach non-grace and coach Jordan are baseball coaches in the Wiley school district They coach a baseball team there and you saw a picture there They mobilized the baseball team to come serve with them as they invested in their lives. It was just beautiful It's awesome. And I just want to thank all of you Number one, we couldn't do serve day if we didn't have the resources to do it financially and your generosity is why we're able to do that But if we had the resources and you didn't show up It would be pointless. So giving of yourself Giving of your resources. It's what makes all this work And we just want to say thank you and pray that God richly bless you for it. Lord, would you open our hearts to your word today? I mean, I just pray you bless these people Lord. They they they mobilize themselves. They came out as families I pray something was planted in the heart of young leaders as they served with their parents yesterday that shapes the future of this nation shapes The future of this church with a servant's heart Representing Jesus and here's what I pray Lord that yesterday we did some good work But Lord what we were trying to do was create an audience for you in people's hearts So that there's credibility there and I pray that Lord the church earned relational equity But more important you got a seat at the table in somebody's heart And I pray the seeds planted would bring life to those people and those places that we impacted in Jesus name a man in a man a few weeks ago Haley my wife received a phone call informing her that Her first cousin had suddenly and tragically passed away at the age of 57 Due to a stroke Wayne was a pastor in Indiana and he may have been the kindest person I've ever known in my life The voice on the other end of the line was Wayne's brother Ken made the phone call while he was still in shock and he just said stroke No warning no goodbyes. I can't believe this has happened and then over and over again He just kept repeating this phrase. It's not supposed to be This way It wasn't an argument. It wasn't a theological statement. It was just his shock Finding the only words that fit and I couldn't get that sentence out of my head

Probably because I felt those same feelings before and I'm sure you have to I've heard it expressed in hospital hallways. I've heard it on the phone from people after they I've heard it from people that have been judged, dismissed, and overlooked for nothing more than the color of their skin. I've heard it from people holding divorce papers that they never imagined they would be holding. It's not supposed to be this way. And I have no doubt that some of you walked into this service today feeling those words all too real in your own life right now. Maybe you're barely holding on. Maybe if you're not already, you're on the verge of getting bitter at God because you're wrestling with some really hard, honest questions. How do I know? The middle of this week, I had this deep sense of urgency and I felt the Lord completely changing the direction of what I was supposed to preach this weekend, Wednesday afternoon. I completely switched directions to focus on this, to focus on you. And just know, because of some personal things that I won't go into detail about today, I'm not preaching to you as a distant voice outside the suffering. My family is facing some personal challenges that we would probably describe

as some of the most difficult of our lives. And I've found myself saying in this season, it's not supposed to be this way. There's not a single one of us immune to suffering, grief, loss, heartache and injustice. And the hardest part is just the pain that comes with it all. It's the questions. God, where are you? If you really love me, why is this happening? How does a good God allow so much evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? These are age old questions. And there have been books written to address them that span thousands of pages. So obviously, I'm not gonna be able to adequately answer them in the next 20 minutes. But I do want you to understand something today. I'm not afraid of these kinds of questions. And neither is God. I'm not gonna give you tidy, neat answers, because tidy answers make poor medicine for the soul. But I believe the scripture gives us something better than tidy. It gives us truth. Jesus tells us clearly that this life is not going to be an easy one. He even tells us that hardship is supposed to be expected. He says plainly in John 16, 33, in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.

Jesus addresses attention here. Our trouble is promised, but so is his overcoming. And the key is for us to learn how to live in the space between those two realities. And I think doing so starts with that very true statement. It's not supposed to be this way. That short little sentence says four things at the same time. It says something true. It says something honest. It says something convicting. And if we let it lead us where it's supposed to, it says something comforting. It's not supposed to be this way. That's true. It's true. Here's what I mean. When somebody dies, especially somebody that's young or somebody like Haley's cousin Wayne that was died way too early in the middle of a good life, the kindest person doing God's work, their families are reaching for some type of comfort in their loss and grief. And far too often what church people offer is well meaning, but it's shallow. We throw around empty Christian clichés in the face of grieving with things like, oh, he's in a better place or everything happens for a reason or God needed another angel. Friends and family and the people feeling loss need more than our empty clichés.

They need truth that is anchored in the word of God. In that statement, it's not supposed to be this way, it's not only true, it's biblical. In the opening chapter of your Bible, in Genesis 1, when God creates the world in all that is in it, six times there, it says creation is called good. And then on the sixth day when God created man and woman, he looks at the pinnacle of his creation and God says this is very good. In the world that God created as he intended it, when it was as he intended it, there was no decay, no disease, no diagnosis, no divorce papers, no hatred, no hunger, no funerals, And the second chapter of Genesis paints this beautiful picture of what life was supposed to be. When it was lived in the world as God intended it for us. He walks in the garden, in the cool of the day, with Adam and Eve, and they experience his unfiltered presence. They are unhindered, they are unafraid, they are unbroken, there is nothing missing, nothing wrong. They are whole, they are complete, they are with him. That is the way it was supposed to be. That is what God intended. It was never supposed to be this way, which is why when Paul writes about death, in 1 Corinthians 15, he refers to it as something that is unnatural. He doesn't call death a transition, he doesn't call it a passage, he doesn't call it a graduation, he calls death an enemy. He says, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." It's an enemy, an intruder. Why? Because it was never supposed to be a part of our story. It wasn't in God's original plan. So in a moment of heartache and loss and suffering and disease, when someone yells out, it's not supposed to be this way, that statement is not a failure of their trust in God. It is simply the ache in their heart for Eden. They are longing for the world they were truly made for. The great Christian thinker and writer C.S. Lewis was an atheist for years, and his greatest argument against God was the presence of cruelty and evil and injustice in the world. But then he realized something. You can't call a line crooked unless you have some idea of what straight looks like. You can't call something unjust unless somewhere there is a standard of what just is. Lewis says, "The sense of justice that is

imprinted on us is the imprint of our Creator on our souls, that ache in your chest that says, this is wrong. This is not the way it's supposed to be. That is not a malfunction. That is a memory. It is the ache in your heart for Eden. Our Creator wrote it into our DNA, and that ache is an echo of the world that you were made for. The statement, it's not supposed to be this way. It's true. But it's also honest. Sadly, one of the things I've learned is a pastor for 36 years now, is that the church is often the least honest place in the world in moments of heartache and suffering. We try to function in this toxic positivity, and we label it as faith, and we live on cliches and Christianese, and we rush through grief and ignore loss and put on mask of pretending for the sake of appearing spiritual, we fake it. We're not authentic and honest about we or others are going through, but we need to learn from our Lord's example. Remember what he does in John 11? He's standing outside Lazarus' tomb, and he knows. He knows he is about to raise Lazarus. Resurrection is moments away, and yet it says, Jesus wept. Get that. If the one who held resurrection in his hands still wept at a tomb, that means grief, heartache, and brokenness are not failures of faith. They are the appropriate human response to a world that groans under something it was never built to carry. And Jesus isn't the only one that shows us this. A third of all 150 Psalms. A third of them are Psalms of lament. Psalm 13 opens with this. "How long, Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" That's in your Bible. God doesn't edit out the honest questions. The prophet Habakkuk looks at a world full of violence and injustice and says, "Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?" The Bible is full of godly people, people of faith asking real, hard, honest questions of God. Listen to the question that Jesus asked on the cross in his darkest hour. from Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why?" Why have you forsaken me? Catch that. Even the Son of God asked God, why? So please understand, your honest questions are not an insult to God. They are, can actually be an act of trust, encourage, and faith, because you're going to the right place with your questions.

You're still talking to Him. You're still asking Him. That is an honest faith. And notice this. Paul doesn't tell us that we're not supposed to grieve. He just tells us to not grieve as those who have no hope. Being a Jesus follower doesn't protect you or insulate you from grief. It just changes the way you experience it. There is a way to grieve with hope. There is a such thing as a hope-filled grief. The tears are honest. The questions are honest. Not knowing what to say is honest, but the hope is still real. They can coexist. And if saying out loud, it's not supposed to be this way helps, then say it. That's not weak faith. It might be the most transparent, honest act of reverence in your life. It's not supposed to be this way. That's true. It's honest, but it's also convicting. It's convicting because it exposes us, the human race, for what we are. It really wasn't supposed to be this way. But the reason it is, it's on us. Why is the world like this? Why is there evil in the world?

Genesis 3 answers the question everybody asked under their breath. God gave the human race a garden and a choice. He didn't make robots because love is not love if it's forced. If there is no freedom to say no, then there is no real yes. So He gave us the dignity of a real choice. And we chose our own way over His. And when we did, we overthrew God from the throne of our hearts. And Scripture is honest about the cost of that choice. God says in Genesis 3, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you will return. We destroyed the world God originally intended with our sin. And what we're living in right now is the result. We are living in the world that our sin created. Paul puts it plainly in Romans 5. When Adam sin, sin entered the world, Adam sin brought death. So death spread to everyone for everyone sinned. And in Romans 8, Paul said that ever since that day, creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

There is a groaning in creation. Like literally, it's creation's way of saying it wasn't supposed to be this way. Cancer, strokes, broken bodies, broken minds, broken families, that's the groaning, that's eaten lost, still playing out generation after generation. This, and this is the convicting part. The ache we fill in our hearts today from all the loss, suffering, war, injustice, death, and grief is not something that's snuck in from the outside. This is the inheritance of a sin-infected human race. We don't live in the world, God made. We distorted that world. We now live in the world we made when we chose our way over his. The heartache, the pain, the suffering, the loss, it's not all God's doing. It really wasn't supposed to be this way. That statement is true. It's honest, it's convicting because it exposes us for who we are, sinners that distorted God's plan. But here's where it turns. It's also comforting. People often ask the question, why age-old question in Luke 13. He's there in the crowd, and somebody comes up to him and brings him news that Pilate has slaughtered some worshipers that have gone into the temple to worship. And after receiving the news, Jesus turns to the crowd, he was talking to and asked him, "Why do you think this bad thing happened to those people?"

Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee? Is that why they suffered? He said, "No, not at all." And to drive his point home further, he references a tragic current event that they must have all been aware of when he says in the very next verse, "And what about the 18 people who died when the tower in Silom fell on them? Were they the worse sinners in Jerusalem?" The answer is, "No." You see, Jesus will not let us turn suffering into a scorecard. The people that are hurting the most are not the ones that deserve it the most. Please hear that. If you've ever been told that your pain was a punishment, that's not the voice of Jesus. In a fallen world, suffering doesn't check your resume. The only true good person who ever lived experienced the worst suffering unimaginable. I can't tell you why. Why now? Why her? Why him? Even Joe. Never got a why. What he got was a who. I can't tell you why, but I can tell you three things. God didn't cause it, and he's not going to walk away from you while you're in the middle of it, and he's not finished with it. Because Scripture doesn't end in Genesis 3 when all hell broke loose. It ends in the book of Revelation when God restores what was lost in Eden, and he renews the world back to the way he intended it. It says in Revelation 21, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying, for the old order of things has passed away."

Listen to that closely. It doesn't say God is going to explain suffering. It says he will end it, not manage it, not reframe it, he will end it. And the old order, that is the order where strokes and cancer and divorce and racism and grief and goodbyes too soon end completely. The old order will be gone because the whole world is headed back to the way it was supposed to be, the way God intended it. We're just not there yet. That means every one of us lives in the in between. Eden lost behind us, Eden restored ahead of us, suffering grief, loss and heartache are simply the tolls we have to pay to walk this road in the middle. Theologians call it the already, but the not yet of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has broken in through Christ, but it has not yet come in full. And we live in the tension of the in between every day, and many of us are filling the full weight of that tension right now in our lives. But every so often, something happens in our life that makes the not yet of the kingdom of God come closer, a worship moment, a sermon, a prayer time, a conversation, an unexpected moment in the presence of God in my prayer today as that this conversation pulls the not yet of the kingdom of God a little closer to you today, that in your suffering you get a hope filled glimpse of what is to come. In Romans 8 Paul says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us, not because the suffering is small, but because the promise of what is to come is just that big. There is a moment at the end of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, specifically The Return of the King, where Sam wakes up Gandalf and ask, is everything sad going to come untrue? That is the question underneath all our questions. And the gospel's answer is yes. And when Jesus makes all things new, He doesn't just erase the evil, He redeems it. pain and in the end he's not going to waste a single one of your tears. The psalmist said in Psalm 56, "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected

all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. He tracks them and collects them because he has promised not to waste them." If you need some help today, some hope today in the middle of your own heartache, listen closely to me for the next few minutes because I want you to understand where all of this is headed. There is a day coming when the one who was condemned by a corrupt court will sit on the throne as the judge of the whole earth. Isaiah says with righteousness he will judge the needy with justice. He will give decisions for the poor of the earth and this just judge of all the earth will do right. There is a day coming when every wrong is going to be made right, every injustice answered, every hidden sin brought to light. Nobody is getting away with it and nothing will be forgotten. It won't always be this way. There is a day coming when the one who wept at Lazarus tomb is going to personally wipe the tears from your eyes, not an angel, not a delegate, not a stranger, him, those same nail scarred hands that were nailed to the cross is going to wipe your tears away. It's not always going to be this way. There is a day coming when Isaiah's vision is going to become a reality, the lion and the lamb are going to lie down together, the predator and the prey all at peace because even the food chain is going to get redeemed and if God can make the lion lie down with the lamb he can heal your family, he can men watch broken, he can restore your body and he can reach your protocol. It's not always going to be this way. There is coming a day where John looks around heaven and sees are great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, language, standing before the throne of the lamb, every nation, every tribe, every people, every language and you know what's missing from that picture dividing walls, hatred, fear, rankings, they're all standing before the same lamb in the same light, singing the same song. It is not always going to be this way. There is a day coming when the last enemy, the one that took your mother, the one that took your child, the one that took your spouse, death is going to meet its end and we will say death has been swallowed up in victory. Where oh death is your victory, where oh death is your sting, it's not always going to be this way. This is our

anchored hope. It is not a wish. It is not some uncertain, I hope so kind of hope. It is a promise signed in blood sealed by an empty tomb and the Bible doesn't just say it's not supposed to be this way. It says the one who holds the pen that is writing the story of history has already written the last chapter and in that last chapter he is sitting on the throne saying I am making everything new, not some things, everything, the diagnosis redeemed, the verdict redeemed, the world knew, the body knew, the tears gone. It won't always be this way. People of God, hold on, the fight is long. I know it may be dark but the scripture says weeping endures for the night but joy comes in the morning and the one that walked out of a grave is coming back to finish what he started. It won't always be this way. That's the good news of the gospel. The Bible doesn't just tell us it's not supposed to be this way, it tells us that God did something about it. The cross of Jesus Christ is God's defiance of everything wrong in this world. Jesus didn't just observe our grief and suffering from a distance. He entered into it. He wept at a tomb. He bled on a hill. He experienced the very death that Genesis 3 unleashed and he let it do its worst to him. Romans 6 says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal Jesus took the penalty of death that was meant for you onto himself so that the gift of his life could belong to you. And when you put your faith in him and exchange happens, he takes your sin and your death and gives you his eternal life. That's why he said in John 11, "I am the resurrection in the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die." That's not a wish. That's a person. And Jesus isn't just pointing our way

to a restored Eden. He is the way to the restored Eden. Ken was right when he called Hailey. It's not supposed to be this way. But here's the promise. It won't always be this way. So here's your invitation today. If you've never put your trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, let me just be carrying your pain by yourself and you don't have to. If you're sitting here today, not sure, not absolutely sure where you would spend eternity. If this was your last day to live, this can be the day that changes everything. Jesus is not far from you right now. He is as close as the mention of his name, the close as close as your next breath, your next whispered prayer, call out to him. I need you, Jesus. Forgive me, come into my heart. I surrender my life to you. If you're a believer this morning, you're tired. Maybe grief has so grabbed your heart, suffering that you become angry and in your anger, you've drifted, maybe you've even stopped praying because you stopped believing it would even matter today. Yes, you're feeling the full weight of living in the between. You're living in the full not yet of the kingdom of God or the full reality that the kingdom has come, but it's not yet here.

But hold on to the promise. It's not always gonna be this way. Turn your heart back to him, grief, but not as those who have no hope. You don't have to earn your way back. Just turn your eyes back to Jesus and say, "Lord, I'm yours, I've been yours." Would you help me carry me in this season? I want you to stand with me, if you will, across the room today and I'm gonna ask our prayer teams here in Saxe and if all of our locations would make themselves available to serve you today. My heart is heavy for you. It has been since Wednesday. It's been heavy for people that have hung around religion and hung around church, but really never put their trust in Jesus. Put your full weight on him. You can trust him, he's trustworthy. He's not scared of your doubts. He's not scared of your questions. Put your weight on him. You don't have to do this alone. And if you're a believer and you're hurting and you're angry, you're not that far from a whole lot of people the Bible tells us about. Some of our heroes of faith, just come back hurting and angry. Just have an honest faith, not a hiding faith, an honest faith that brings all that to him.

Keep going to the right place. I promise you, he'll meet you there. Just come back home to him. The greatest honor of our life today at every location, every prayer team, if you're living the dark night of your soul, that's what the great history of Christian writers have called that darkest hour of your life, the dark night of the soul. And if you're in that hour of your life right now, we would love to help shoulder that load with you in prayer. If you want to surrender your heart to Jesus and somebody to walk you through that, we'd love to do that today. Lord, I pray over this room today as people unpack this word in the next few moments and days that there would be revelation. There's so much we blame you for. It's not on you, God, it's on us. You've done everything you can to redeem what we've messed up. And we can experience some of that now as we put our faith in Christ and we're gonna experience it fully when you renew all things. God, would you give us the grace in this season to live in the in-between, to suffer in grief, but not as those who have no hope. Today, I pray you'll bless them that you'll turn your countenance their direction, and that you'll give them your peace today. In Jesus' name, amen. These altars are open today. God bless you.

Hey friends, I just wanted to spend a second with you at the end of this message today and just encourage you if in some way you've made a spiritual decision. Maybe you've given your life to Christ. Today, you've recently given your life to Christ. You want to talk to somebody about giving your life to Christ. Our team would love to help you. We're on the Pando app and have several ministries into various prisons because God has called us to you. We have a heart for forgotten people and forgotten places and that means we serve widows and we serve orphans and we serve special needs kids and God has given us a heart for men and women in the prison system because I believe Jesus died for you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and we want to help you know that and discover that. There is an address on the screen that you can communicate with us. We have a team of people that would love to hear from you, especially if you've made a decision to follow Jesus so that we can resource you and point you to tools that can help you grow. Just know that we're praying over you and we're genuinely honored that you've taken time to watch our channel and these messages from North Place Church.