What About Suffering?

Today, I'm stepping into the next part of our series, and it's what about suffering? What about suffering? This week, I had a monthly meeting that I'm in. It's our monthly board meeting. Some people are like, oh, they fear board meetings. It's my favorite meeting of the month, actually, and our global board of elders meets. Now, global doesn't mean world domination or something like that, but it has to do with, we're actually four location church, and we gather together. There are lay volunteer people in our church that are affirmed at our annual vision night and business meeting every year, and those people come in, and we are, they're responsible, look at the finances of the church. The fiduciary responsibilities are there, and we are shepherds over our church, and so we spend time thinking about and praying for the congregation. It's a lot of fun. It's really intentional. This week, Pastor Choco, one of our advisory elders from outside the church, joined us, and do you have that picture? And we're in the boardroom, and we're, Pastor Choco was speaking to us, zooming in, and just speaking a word over our church, kind of prayed with us, and it was really cool.

That meeting was awesome this week, as normal. It is my favorite meeting of the month, but at the end of the meeting, we kind of were done with business, and we started just chilling out and talking, and as we were talking, we started talking about childhood stories, and it turned into a pour-off, meaning each of us had our stories of poverty when we were a kid, and we were laughing. We were crying. We're like, yeah, well, how many of you had powdered milk for your cereal, and how many of you wore the same outfit three years in a row for your class pictures at school, and how many of you had your heat shut off in the winter, never had a ride? I mean, there was just a lot of fun. There was one of us that outdid us all, and I'm giving my little wink out to Andrew. He had a great story. You'll have to hear it sometime, Andrew Mead, but as we were talking, and it went for about 15, 20, maybe 25 minutes, there was laughter and joy around really painful moments of our stories, because when we look back and we think about the things that were difficult in our history, it's one thing, you know, hurt, loss, didn't have something. Maybe your family went through a divorce, or there's a lot of pain.

What do you do with your pain? And for us, there was no shame in the room. We were talking about tough times, times that were a big part of our lives that included painful experiences, and because of Jesus, we can look back without bitterness. For all of us, we had a bond because of our journey. Our pain actually served us well as we grew and raised our own families. When you serve Jesus, suffering doesn't have to be the end. It doesn't have to be the end. In Romans chapter five, verse three, it says, we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation, and this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. It says in there that there will be problems and trials. There's gonna be moments in every person's journey that involve resistance. Suffering can be physical suffering from physical ailments and battles we face with our bodies. It could be mental suffering. This is the day and age of mental illness and depression and things that people battle in the mind, and the will, and the emotions, and sometimes suffering can be relational.

There's a breach in a relationship, or somebody has left, or there's animosity between family members or friends. It could be financial. Sometimes, how many, I don't even wanna show hands on the financial suffering side of things here today, but when it comes to financial suffering, it comes from many different reasons. Sometimes we have people in our lives that did us wrong, ripped us off. I know people that have been ripped off by somebody in the business world, and it causes. them a lot of distress. But then there are also our own bad decisions that lead us into great suffering and pain on a regular basis. So this is the deal today. I'm not wanting to point the finger at who's at fault for suffering, but what's happening because of that suffering. Because what it says in Romans is that the problems and trials can produce something in us. There's an opportunity in it. It could produce anger, bitterness, or despair, or self-pity. And that happens with some people. They get worse and worse over time and more bitter to be around. Or it can produce endurance, strength of character. It can produce hope.

Katergasamai is the Greek word for produce or develop. And it's to work fully, to finish, to accomplish. And the question is, whatever suffering, obstacles, pain that we run into, is it producing something in us? And if it's God at work, it will produce good. It will be finished. Our struggle can be used to award our benefit. In Romans 8, 28, later, Paul is writing and he says, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Now, this is a verse that gets used a lot by a lot of people, but it doesn't say that the elements of suffering are God's punishment. He's not necessarily wanting us to suffer. That's not the elements of that. But he does know how to take those suffering elements and weave them together toward the good. And I want you to see good develop through suffering. That's what I want to see in you. So let's talk a little bit about what suffering is. The struggle is real. Come on, somebody. Turn to the person on your right and left and say, the struggle is real. Suffering depends on your perspective. You know, when we're little, everything is suffering. When we're younger, every obstacle. Why is this happening to me? But as we grow older, there's a maturity that develops

that we don't see it the same way. Or hopefully that happens. People can suffer from diabetes or headaches or depression or grief and loss or divorce or abuse or abandonment or poor decisions. But it involves painful, difficult experiences that feel like something is being done to you. Then, unfortunately, after that experience is over, the original experience can live on through PSTD in our lives. And we get triggered by something else and we go all the way back to a previous era in our life of other pain. Unfortunately, sometimes that's an eruption on the people in our lives. Somebody hurt us before in a painful experience and all of a sudden we're triggered and boom, we respond with the full emotion of what happened years and years and years ago. When I look around at the people in the world that suffer, perhaps you do as well, look at evil people, governments, kids are born into refugee camps and grow up in suffering. Even if you aren't suffering, you can begin to ask, why do innocent people suffer? Why doesn't God let this happen? Why is he letting this happen? What is going on here? My goal isn't to answer all of your questions today,

but to point toward what do I do with this? Whatever it is that I'm feeling in the moment, my observations, my emotion, my thoughts. And the Bible doesn't avoid the subject of suffering. It's all over the pages of the Bible. God allows for honest prayer and something called lament from the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end. There's a whole book in the Bible called Job that's about suffering. Where somebody lost, Job lost everything, went through pain, and he had some friends around him who were trying to say, this is why. If you just do this, it's your fault. And all these other voices are trying to speak to him. Any of you ever have a friend like that? And of course, at the end, he has a friend. Everything restored, the entire book of Job is not about Job trusting God, it's about God trusting Job. There's something about that, that he is able to persevere and God trusts him to do that. Did you know God is trusting you right now? He's trusting you. In extreme pain and suffering or whatever you're walking through. You know, other places in the Bible like Ecclesiastes and Psalms, they give voice to pain and the questions they have before God. Psalm 13, it says this,

Oh Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? That's just raw. It's like, this is how I feel right now. And it's allowed, it's in the scriptures. Some of us love to look at David conquering Goliath, but what about David on the run for his life hiding out in caves? And then David himself sings the psalm, the famous psalm in Psalm 23. He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. There's something about an acknowledgement that in real life, you can talk to God about where you're at. It's not off limits. Even the Messiah in Isaiah, where there's this messianic passages in Isaiah 53, he's referred to as the suffering servant Jesus is. You see, God doesn't remain distant. He enters into suffering. Jesus endured great suffering, as a matter of fact. He was betrayed, he went through pain, and then he died on a cross. Jesus' crucifixion is the ultimate example of someone who went all the way.

Suffering didn't stop him. This is why we can look at Hebrews 4.15, and it says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. This is what I want you to catch. The God of the Bible, the God of Christianity, Jesus, the truth, the way, the truth, and the life, isn't someone that expects perfection. Actually, he acknowledges and lived a life that went through moments of suffering, pain, and trial. And because Jesus did this, he has great empathy for you and for me. He actually is touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He understands it, and he gets you. Turn to the person next to you and say, he gets you. He gets you. And he can handle your honest prayers, by the way. Now, sometimes when it feels like the world is against us, we try to make sense out of this, and we begin to say, please, make it make sense. And we can't. I don't think we'll ever understand in the moment of trial. We'll only maybe make sense of it later when we look back. Our perspective is always unclear at the moment. So I want you to turn with me to Psalm 73. If you have your Bibles, hold them up, let me see. Wave them in the air like you just don't care.

I see some electronic ones, I see some paper ones. Isaiah, or excuse me, Psalm 73. Psalm 73. The writer of the Psalm is going to express The writer of the Psalm is going to express what his perspective is on life. And it's not the same at the beginning as it will be at the end of the Psalm. Look at this, starting with verse one. Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. But, he's making a statement. Yeah, God is good. But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping and I was almost gone. I envied the proud when I saw. All of them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives. Their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don't have troubles like other people. They're not plagued with problems like everyone else. They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty. These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for. They scoff and speak only evil in their pride and they seek to crush others. They boast against the very heavens and their words strut throughout the earth. And so the people were dismayed and confused, drinking in all of their words.

"'What does God know?' they ask. "'Does the Most High even know what's happening? "'Look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease "'while their riches multiply.'" Woo! Now I don't know, that might sound like some of you, right? Might sound like me. Because when we get in our pain, the first thing you see the psalmist do is compare himself to somebody else. But they don't go through stuff like I go through things. They're evil and God blesses them just like he does me. They don't have pain like I have pain. They don't have trouble like I have trouble. You know, comparison is a dangerous piece of bait dangled in front of us when we're in suffering. It's like, snatch it. Start comparing yourself to somebody else. And the result is if you take the bait, now all of a sudden you're gonna be getting mad at God. Why, God, am I feeling pain and they're not? Why did my sister get the right guy and I didn't? Why did that person get the house and I didn't? Why did they get a promotion and I didn't? Why do they have a good job and I can't find one? Why do they have health and I have to struggle? Why, why, why? The result of comparison leads to anger against God. Because we're like, why are you letting this happen to me? Look at the next verse, verse 13.

Did I keep my promise to God? Verse 13. Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason? I get nothing but trouble all day long. That's just that phrase, all day long. It feels like it's relentless, right? Every morning brings me pain. If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people. So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper, but what a difficult task it is. All day long, every morning, and when I tried to understand, let me just say this, I tried to understand. Let me just say this to you. There are many of us, maybe all of us, I don't know, that when the pain or the struggle is only in our head, it gets worse. The more we chew on something, we put our head on a pillow at night and we begin to replay the day and try to say something different back to the person in a conversation that is over. We're trying to, we're wrestling with things, and as long as it only stays in our head, it only gets worse. And it feels like it's getting worse, and then we're fitful sleepers,

and then we wake up with dread instead of get up and go. And he says, when I tried to understand all this, which means we all do this, we all try to understand, we try to figure it out, and when we try to figure it out, it doesn't work. And then there's a moment in the psalmist that I want you to catch today. It's like a door hinge. I got a picture of a hinge on a door. You know what that hinge does? It allows the door to swing open. It can be closed, and it can swing open. Hinge works right, it puts all the weight in the same spot, and it allows the door to do something else. And what I want you to see is in verse 17 is a great hinge on a door. Because up till this moment, everything is bad inside. And then in this next moment, the door swings open. He says, then I went into your sanctuary, verse 17. Oh God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked. Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction. In an instant, they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. When you arise, oh Lord, you will laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning. Then, everybody said then. Amen. Verse 17, if you got a paper Bible, circle that word then. If you got a electronic Bible, highlight it

because this is the hinge of the door. I went into your sanctuary, oh God, and I finally understood. Understanding others and understanding myself instead of comparing myself to other people, now he would understand kind of everything. See, when it lays up inside and things bother us, it's unresolved. But when we enter the presence of God, something happens. Verse 21, then I realized that my heart was bitter and I was all torn up inside. I was so foolish and ignorant. I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you. Yet, I still belong to you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart. He is mine forever. Come on, somebody. That's... He says, when I realized what was in my heart, it was bitterness. I was torn up inside. I was foolish. I was ignorant. Yet, I still belong to you.

You hold me. You guide me, your counsel. You lead me. He says, my health may fail. My spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart. He is mine forever. Amen. There's something about leaning in in the middle of it. When you go into his presence, things begin to change. So, I wanna give you four hinges that open God's promises in suffering. Four hinges that open God's promises in suffering. The first one is this. Honest prayers. Honest prayers. There's something about just saying it like it is, and God's not afraid of that. Lamentations, a whole book of lament. Lamentations three, he says this. I cry out, my splendor is gone. Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost. The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss, yet I still dare to hope when I remember this. There is just something about just saying the way it is in this particular lament. Lost is home, lost is, bitterness is inside.

And yet, something begins to happen with lament. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it takes weeks and months. Grieving is a process. Those of you who have lost a loved one know that it takes time. But when you process that with God, instead of leave it, the door closed, you open the door up and you begin to talk to God, something begins to change inside of you. Psalm after psalm is this way. It might begin with, the water's up to my neck and I'm sinking, where are you? But in the middle of the song, you'll begin to say here, yet will I trust you, my God, my rock, and my savior. There is a beginning, but that's not the end. There's something else. The door opens up and once God is in your story, in your pain, in your trial, in your suffering, something is possible. You get perspective again and you're able to go back out and face the world. He lifts us up. God joins you in your song, and everybody has a song. You might not be a singer, but you have a rhythm to your life, what you talk about, what you think about, what the narrative is that keeps coming out of your life. And if you don't just talk to everybody else, now, I don't like being around whiners, okay? Whiners, hmm.

But I will be honest, sometimes I whine in my own head. And as long as I'm whining in my own head, I don't feel better. I would argue those of us that whine outside with people, we don't feel better. We just throw all that toxic stuff up on everybody else. But when we talk to God about it, he knows how to go in and take the sludge out of our hearts and replace it with the purity and the strength that we need. We can talk honest with God. Confession is a hinge. It opens the door to Jesus' help. This is what I had to learn to do in my own story. I wanted to be, I wanted to do everything on my own. Even as a pastor, there's a point in time at which I had a grand mal seizure, which I've shared with the church before, and it was a result of lack of sleep and stress over a combined number of years. And the result was that I needed to learn to sleep at least seven hours a night for the rest of my life. And that's why I talk to you about the difference between hope and despair is eight hours of sleep. Sometimes, that's not a complete story because there's other things that we have to deal with. But that was a good starting point. If I can get some sleep, I can tackle the next day well. If you stack a bunch of days with no sleep on, on top of each other, things don't go better, right? But there was a moment after I went through that experience

between the moment of my seizure and the moment of knowing what it was and what it was. And I didn't have epilepsy, and I didn't have anything else. I didn't have a brain tumor. But in between, I didn't know, and I was trying to understand it. And we went to the Mall of America, Jody and I did with our four sons who were very young at the time. And all of the fear started creeping into my head. What is it? What could it be? And I didn't realize it. Jody, I sat down. I said, I'm not feeling well. I sat down. Jody went and took the boys on a ride. And she's super mom, by the way. Give it up for Jody. She's super mom to this day. Anyways, but while she was gone, this stomach ache started coming up. And I started feeling pain, and it went a little bit higher. And then I couldn't breathe. And then I called her on the phone, and she got the emergency personnel in the Mall of America to come, and I was on the ground. And they gave me an oxygen mask, and I had had a panic attack.

Panic attacks give you real physical symptoms. But as long as all of that stays inside, that's what it leads to. So I had to learn to take even my fears to God. Because once I opened the hinge of the door to God, now, all of a sudden, I didn't have those panic attacks anymore. Or hear what I'm saying. You're like, I didn't expect my pastor to tell me he had a panic attack in church today. That just means it's normal if we don't figure out how to process right. All right, number two. Sharing with trusted, empathetic, faith-filled friends. If you wanna open the door of that hinge, you gotta have some friends to help you out. It's okay to not be okay. Turn to the person next to you and say, it's okay to not be okay. But it's not okay to go it alone. It's really important that we are together. Isolation leaves you vulnerable to the enemy. This is why Jesus references a story where one sheep leaves a flock of 100. And Jesus said the good shepherd leaves the 99 to go after the one. Why? Because that one is vulnerable to the enemy when they're not with the flock. When you're in isolation, you're vulnerable.

It's important for us to stick together. I love James 5, 16. It says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Confess your sins to each other. This is a community of believers. It's not talking just about sin to get saved. It's talking about our weaknesses, and in community, we need to be open with one another. We need godly, spiritual friends that are there with us when we're walking through suffering. It's not good to suffer alone. We need each other, and by the way, I'm not only preaching to those that are suffering. I'm preaching to those who are alongside other people who are suffering, and it is our responsibility to carry it together. Jesus, when there's the story of the crippled man that four friends picked up and took him on a roof and dug a hole in the roof and dropped their friend to Jesus, every one of us needs friends to carry us at times, and we need to be friends that carry them, and our faith needs to be strong for them when they're weak, when they feel like quitting, giving up. We gotta be the ones that say, don't give up. When they haven't showed up at church two weeks in a row, we're the ones that give them a call.

Come on, somebody. We need each other, and by the way, just doing it online is not enough. We need each other skin to skin. We need each other praying to each other. We need to hear each other. We need to touch and agree. We're two or three gathered together in his name, in agreement, Jesus shows up. We need trusted, empathetic, faith-filled friends. This is what the church can and must be. Now listen, people in here, you already know if you're hurting. I don't need to tell you you're hurting. I don't need to tell you you're suffering. I can tell you, don't do it alone. I can say, reach out to people. That battle that you're facing in your head, don't leave it in your head. Some people might be battling suicidal thoughts or other things. Don't leave it in your head. Talk to somebody. You're dealing with depression, talk to somebody. Well, I don't wanna bother them. They need you. They need you. There's a part of their faith that won't be activated if you don't share how to pray for you. We need each other.

Turn to the person next to you and say, don't leave it in your head. Number three. The hinge of looking for opportunity in the struggle. Looking for opportunity in the struggle. James chapter one, verse two. Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Other versions say, count it all joy. Each of those moments are opportunities. It's an opportunity to evaluate and ask yourself this question. If you can, write this question down. What is forming or developing in me? What is forming or developing in me? What's coming out of this? Something needs to come out of this. Even Jesus, as our example learned from his suffering, Hebrews 5a, even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. He learned obedience. I don't know, I don't get that. Why did Jesus need to learn anything? You know what I think Jesus was doing?

He was not letting the enemy get the victory in his pain. Oh yeah, you're gonna throw that at me? I'm gonna gain something out of this thing. I'm not gonna be the same anymore. Many of us, we can learn from our experience. What are you learning? What are you gaining? Are you gaining fruit of the Spirit? Are you becoming more godly? Are you squeezing the junk out of you like you would squeeze a toothpaste? Is all the bad stuff getting pushed out? Thank you, enemy, for giving me that week because I got to get rid of my critical attitude and my complaining and everything else. It forced me to go to Jesus with my pain. You are not getting the victory in the middle of this. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Know Jesus better in the middle of it all. C.S. Lewis, great author, he said, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Let's listen to what we can gain and grow in the middle of this, because once you go through the pain, you'll have something to offer to others. You'll have great empathy for others who are in pain. Joni Erickson Tada, one who was paralyzed from a swimming incident and was a paraplegic

for the rest of her life, she said, people suffering great conflict always have something to say to those who are facing lesser conflict. Isn't it true that when you go through pain, you're more aware of the people around you and what they're going through? When Jodi and I first had kids, or actually, before we had kids, we used to observe other families in restaurants and grocery stores, and we would go, why is that parent letting that kid act up like that? Why are they letting them scream in the balcony? Why are they doing that? And we began to go, we began to go, until you have your own kids. Come on, somebody. And now, all of a sudden, you've got some empathy for the people around you. I'm trying to preach, I'm trying. Number four, looking at life with eternal perspective. Looking at life with eternal perspective. Second Corinthians 4, 16. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don't look at the troubles we can see now, rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.

For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. Our strength and our resolve comes from looking at the right things, not just at what we see naturally, but looking at the things that we can't see naturally. We've got to pray, we've got to read the Word, we've gotta live in faith, and look at the things that will last forever. When we do that, the door swings open to God's promises. This is not all there is. Minnesota's great, but it's not heaven. Come on, somebody. There's so much more on the other side of this, and not even just in the sense of eternity and where we're gonna live forever, but also the fact that, you know, I still got my mom and the words that she used to say that just bugged me. Honey, this too shall pass. How many found that to be true? The thing that is overwhelming in one moment passes away, even when we can't get rid of something. Even, it's kind of with us for a long time, I remember when I broke my leg, and I was playing basketball, broke my leg, and then I had this stuff on my leg, and for the next three months, anytime somebody asked me, how you doing? Oh, my leg is killing me. Oh, it's a lot of pain. All I could talk about was my pain.

After a while, I got used to the pain, to the pain, and when people ask me how I was doing, I didn't talk about my pain, I talked about my day. I talked about my wife. I talked about my kids. I talked about other things because those are the things that matter. Don't be caught talking about your pain only. Fix your eyes on what is unseen. Would you stand with me today? Hallelujah. I gotta watch it, I'm just like, I could preach another hour right now. This is like, good word. This is the word, right? This is the stuff. We're gonna have communion together, and our door hosts have some extra, they got buckets in the aisles. If you did not receive one of these, they'll be coming by. You can wave them down. Before we participate in communion together, I'd like you to close your eyes in the room, if you can. You don't need to open it up yet. Just hold on, chill out for a sec. If, before we go into communion, I wanna give an opportunity, if there's anybody here that you do not have a relationship with Jesus, but God has been talking to your heart,

you need to repent, you need to turn to God. You need to give your life to Jesus today. Before we go into communion, I want you to be able to have communion with us. So I'm gonna pause, you're really important to me. If you need to give your life to Christ because you're away from God, or you wandered away from it, you need to repent and turn around and come back to Jesus. I wanna pray with you. Nobody's looking around right now, but if you're here right now and you need to give your life to Christ or come back to him, just lift your hand. Say, that's me, Pastor Nate. I need to give my life to Jesus. I need to come back to him, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Seven people that I saw, I don't get to see everybody, but I wanna lead you in a prayer that is, Jesus is gonna forgive your sins. You're gonna be made new right now, but you gotta talk to him. You gotta open the door. You gotta let that hinge open up of confession before God. You need to give your life to Christ. I'll give you words to pray. You can repeat after me, but mean it from your heart as you're talking to God. Just pray this prayer and everybody else you can join right in.

Say, Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you came to the earth, died on the cross for my sin, and then you rose from the dead. And I know that you're alive. Today, I give up and surrender to you. Please forgive me of my sin. I choose to turn and follow you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Yes. If you just prayed that prayer, you're a new creation. You're in the family. Welcome home. And now you can participate in communion. Communion is not for members of the church. It's for any follower of Jesus that's put their faith and trust in him. Call him Lord and Savior. Go ahead and open up the top to the bread. The reason I wanna do communion at the end today is because Jesus said for us to do this every time we gather together. It's really the fellowship of communion, co-munion. Unity comes from sharing something together. In Jesus, in his death, his suffering, he chose suffering to be the thing that binds us together. So no matter what experience you're going through, no matter what battles you're facing, no matter if it's a physical problem or if it's a relational problem,

whatever is broken, when we come to Jesus, we're opening that hinge, the door, moves the door open to Jesus' promises. So when we come together today, we can open that door to the promise of physical healing in our bodies. We can open the door to the promise of broken relationships coming back together again, for God to restore what has been lost. And today, we're gonna trust God for that. If you're in this place right now and you've got something that you need healing for, physically, emotionally, mentally, relationally, or you have something broken that needs to be put back together again, I want you to just lift your hand up with the bread in your hand, because we're gonna pray. We're gonna trust God for healing today. Lord, we come before you, and we remember in your suffering, by your stripes we're healed. We remember you. And we ask, oh God, as we open the door, Lord, that the promise of healing would be made known in the lives of the believers that follow you by your stripes. Be healed in Jesus' name. And I pray, God, Lord, of course, through bodies, emotions,

you put broken relationships back together again. Lord, and you would make us whole, we ask in Jesus' name. The same night Jesus took the bread, he said, take it. This is my body, broken for you. Let us eat. Hallelujah. Taking the cup, Jesus said, this is my blood, poured out or spilled out for you. is in the blood so it's it's kind of a weird tradition we have that Jesus left us with but his actual blood sets sinners free his actual blood takes even what was handed to us by DNA from our parents that's not right the curses passed from generations and his blood breaks the curse you are truly made new because of the blood of Jesus so when we gather together in our pain our hope is not in the IRS giving us a bigger check next year our hope is not an Amazon giving us the correct delivery our hope isn't in a politician our hope isn't in a pastor our hope is in Jesus he is what gives us life that night taking the cup he says this is my blood poured out or spilled out for you let us drink hallelujah hallelujah