When Jesus Doesn't Fix Your Pain, Look for This | Seven Letters | Week 2

The first century city of Smyrna was 35 miles north of Ephesus on the Aegean Sea. The city was known throughout the Roman Empire as the glory of Asia because of its incredible architecture and harbor. The church in Smyrna was founded by Paul during his third missionary journey, but the congregation remained relatively small and uninfluential throughout the first century. The city was home to a large Jewish population and a magnificent synagogue. While emperor worship was mandatory for Roman citizens, Jews were exempt from this requirement. The first Christians living in Smyrna were included in this exemption because the Empire viewed them as a small, inconsequential offshoot of Judaism. However, the Jewish leaders of the synagogue in Smyrna had no desire for their religious freedom to be extended to Christians. They viewed these new believers as a threat to not just their theology, but to their way of life. As Jesus addresses the church in Smyrna, he encourages them to remain faithful in the face of intense persecution, not from the Empire, but from their Jewish neighbors. Despite their size and influence, despite the chaos around them, the church in Smyrna is one of only two churches to receive no rebuke from Jesus' letters. The Smyrnaean Christians weren't called to be more influential, more powerful, or more disruptive. They were called to remain faithful while being ignored by the Empire and persecuted by the Jews. This is Jesus' letter to the church in Smyrna. All right, Flatirons, what's up? We good? You're pretty good. That's all right. Happy summer. Hey, if you don't know who I am, my name is Ben. I was on staff here for years and years, but for the last three to four years, I've just been traveling at churches throughout the country, which is great.

It's great for my family. We love it. I love getting to see what God's up to all over the world. It's also great for you because if you hate this message today, just come back next week. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. It's also great for you because if you hate this message today, just come back next week. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. I don't work here. We're going to jump right in today. We got a lot to cover in a short amount of time, but we're doing something different throughout the series, which is at the beginning of the sermons, we're having everybody stand and then I'll read through the scripture that we're going to cover today. Then I'll pray. This is something that, uh, many churches have done for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's just kind of a way of showing God reverence and respect and showing his word, respect. And so if you're willing and able right now, I'd ask that you stand and I'm going to read through this. It's going to be confusing. Don't worry. We'll break it all down here in a minute.

But these are the words of Jesus. He says to the angel of the church in Smyrna, here's what I want you to write. These are the words of him who is the first and the last who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions. I know your poverty and yet you are rich. I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews, but they're not and they're a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for 10 days, but be faithful even to the point of death and I will give you life as your victor's crown. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. We'll break it down in a second. First, let's pray. God, thank you for this moment. Thank you for this church. Thank you for these people. God, I pray that you bless the next 30 minutes together. I know where we're headed and you know where we're headed. So just go with us and go before us and behind us and help us to learn something new and teach us some truth out of this ancient, ancient book of yours. I love you and I pray this in your son's name, Jesus the Christ, amen. All right, you may be seated. That's something I've never said in this church. You may be seated. All right, so what in the world did we just read together? What is that all about? If you missed last week, we're in week two of this series where we are tackling for the next seven weeks, tackling the first three chapters of the book of Revelation.

Like that one, the big, scary book at the back of your Bible. And when you hear that, usually whenever we talk about Revelation, people get split into one of two camps, right? Camp number one is like, bring it brother, Revelation. I'm ready for it. Camp number two is like, I finally brought a friend today, can we please talk about anything other than Revelation? If that's you, I'd say just relax, it's cool, there's nothing to freak out about. That's because the first three chapters of Revelation are by far the most straightforward chapters of Revelation, and that's because the first three chapters are simply seven real letters written by Jesus himself to seven real churches that existed in seven real cities in the first century world. And Jesus wrote letters to these churches in order to challenge them, sometimes to rebuke them, and always to encourage them. And so really our job this morning is pretty easy together because we don't have to decipher a bunch of symbology around serpents and dragons and lambs and beasts and scrolls and swords. Instead, we're just kind of eavesdropping in on these letters that Jesus wrote to his people. And the reason that we're eavesdropping is because still in 2026, these are still letters that he wrote to his church.

And so we should still feel challenged and rebuked and encouraged by these letters from Jesus. And so that's what we're doing today. We're just trying to figure out what might Jesus be saying to us through this ancient letter that he wrote. And the letter that we just read together is a letter that he wrote to his church in a city called Smyrna, right? And like every other letter that he wrote in Revelation, he wrote this letter to challenge his church and he wrote this letter to encourage his church. But unlike the other letters, he doesn't rebuke the church in Smyrna. In other words, he doesn't look at them and say, hey, I love you guys, but you really gotta clean up your act in this one area over here. And the reason that Jesus doesn't rebuke the church in Smyrna is because Jesus can read a room and he knows that he's talking to a bunch of people who are suffering and they're suffering greatly and they're suffering in his name. And I bring that up at the very beginning of this thing just to say that if you walked in the room today and you feel like you're suffering, if you've had a rough go of it for the last little bit, then technically this letter that Jesus wrote is a letter he wrote to you too. And so what we're gonna do

is we're gonna get into this letter but before we do that, we'll just kind of take a step back. We'll get some historical context for the city of Smyrna because if we're gonna figure out what his letter means, we've gotta first figure out what it would have been like to be a Christian living in ancient Smyrna. And then after we do that, we'll dig into the letter. So Smyrna, what's up? What's up with Smyrna? What's Smyrna's deal? Some general information on Smyrna. It's in modern day Turkey, right? The city still exists. Today the city is called Izmir, which is just a modern form of the word Smyrna. And Smyrna, first of all, it's an ancient, ancient city. We find the word Smyrna in documents well before Jesus even shows up on the scene. So it's an old city. It's also a port city. And especially at this time in history, every city kind of has their thing, right? It's like this city over here is all about farming and this city over here is all about logging and timber. And if you were a port city, your whole town, your whole culture revolved around the marketplace, around business and around trade. In fact, the name Smyrna itself comes from the number one export of this town,

which was myrrh. Thus the name Smyrna, right? It's kind of like if Idaho were to be called Spatatosna, right? And so that's Smyrna. And I learned a ton about Smyrna. I could nerd out with you, but for the sake of time today, we'll just talk about the most important thing we need to know about Smyrna in order to understand Jesus's letter. And the most important thing to know is that being a Christian in Smyrna was no joke. It was not a walk in the park. Instead, faithfulness actually costs something for Christians in Smyrna. And there were a few big reasons for this. We'll just kind of round out some of the details of the stuff we learned in that video. The first reason it was not easy to be a Christian is because Smyrna as a city was tight with the Roman Empire. Okay, at this point in history, the Roman Empire has spread to engulf most of the known world at the time. It swallowed a bunch of cities. But in reality, for a lot of these cities, they would pay taxes to Rome and they would give lip service to Rome. But really, they're just kind of doing their own thing. It didn't affect their day-to-day lives too much.

Not in Smyrna. Okay, Smyrna is the opposite. Smyrna is like the teacher's pet of the Roman Empire. My daughter would say that Smyrna is pick me, which is a slang I just learned. It means you're attention-seeking. And one of the ways that they're trying to seek attention from Rome is they're trying to show their loyalty by worshiping Rome. And they built temples to the goddess Roma, who was the goddess of the city of Rome. And it was just, it's weird. Like by the time that Jesus followers start showing up on the scene, Smyrna has been bowing down to and literally worshiping the city of Rome for hundreds of years. Okay, there's temples to worship Rome and they proclaimed that Caesar was God. They said that Caesar was, quote, Lord of lords and King of kings. And so Smyrna is all in on Rome and it's weird. Okay, we don't even really have a category for it. Because I know that American politics can get crazy and out of hand sometimes. At least we don't have literal temples where you can go and literally pray to presidents of the past. Right, we don't go to a place and be like, dear William H. Taft, please bless this food

to nourish my body, or whatever. It's weird. I defy you to think of a funnier president than Taft, by the way, but. It's weird, but that's the relationship between Smyrna and Rome. It's a relationship of worship. And it affected everyday life in this culture. If you wanted to get ahead in business, which is important in Smyrna, or if you just wanted to have friends within the community, or if you wanted to have any sort of civic influence or leadership, and most dramatically, if you did not want to be arrested for treason and imprisoned or possibly killed, then you needed to play the game. And the game was worship Rome and worship Caesar. This is, of course, a problem for the Christians living in Smyrna, because as Christians, still to this day, we believe that only Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And still to this day, we don't bow the knee to anyone or anything other than Jesus Christ himself. And so the Christians in Smyrna, they're being persecuted just by the world they live in, by the culture they live in, but they're also being persecuted by this small group of Jewish leaders that was in the city. And here's what that looked like,

and then we can dig into the letter. But during this time in Rome, Rome had an official policy called the Jewish Exemption. And the Jewish Exemption meant that it granted Jews the right to be excused from having to worship Rome or Caesar, right? It was considered a very democratic move at the time. Rome was like, we're gonna respect your religion because it's ancient. And like the video said that we saw, it's like at this time, Christians were not yet considered their own distinct religion like we think of it today. Instead, at the time, they were kind of viewed as like this offshoot or almost like denomination of Judaism, which essentially we are. And for that reason, like many Christians at the time could kind of sneak under the umbrella of the Jewish Exemption and they didn't have to worship Rome but again, not in Smyrna. There was this core group of Jewish leaders, they went out of their way, they wrote letters to Rome, they visited Rome and they pleaded with Rome to not consider the Jesus followers in Smyrna as Jewish people and they pleaded that the Christians in Smyrna be persecuted, be punished for not worshiping Rome. And at this point, 95% of you are like, I learned all this stuff about Smyrna in first grade, why are we talking about this? Here's the reason we're talking about it.

It's because we have to picture what it would be like to be Christians in Smyrna if we're gonna understand this letter and if you were a Christian in Smyrna, you were attacked from absolutely every angle everywhere you looked. Okay, you were persecuted by your culture, you were persecuted by your neighbors and by the marketplace and by government and by religion and if you were a Christian in Smyrna, very likely you have lost businesses, you've lost jobs, you've lost money, you've lost home and very likely you have lost friends and family to imprisonment and political murder, why? Well, because the pesky Christians in Smyrna refused to worship anyone or anything other than Jesus Christ. Again, faithfulness actually costs something in Smyrna. And now with that context, we can try to figure out what in the world did we just read at the beginning of the saying? And we're gonna focus on two things, we're gonna focus on a challenge that Jesus gave Smyrna and that he gives us and we're also gonna focus on the encouragement that Jesus gives Smyrna and that he gives us and we'll start with the challenge. Because in this letter, Jesus says to these people, he goes, hey, I know, I know you're suffering, right? I know that some of you have been locked up, I know that some of you will probably even die and I know that this is all happening.

because you worship me. But then after that, he does not say something like, but don't worry, because I'm magically gonna take your suffering away. He doesn't say that. He also doesn't say something like, hey, so listen up, here's how I want my people to organize in order to overthrow the corrupt system. No, instead, he just gives a challenge. And the challenge is this. He says, be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown. What does Jesus say? He says, I know that you're suffering, but don't give up. Remain faithful, even if it costs you your entire life. And if you do that, I will give you eternal life as a reward. And I believe that in that verse, there's still a challenge for Jesus followers in 2026. If I were to put that challenge in my own words, it would be this. Will we be faithful even when it costs something? Being faithful when life is easy is easy. Being faithful when it costs you something, that's a whole other ballgame. And I'll speak for myself here, but when I hear that question, will I be faithful even when it costs me something, really what I picture in my head is more like, man, would I be willing to die for my faith?

And honestly, I answer that question very overconfidently because it's not my reality on a day-to-day basis. So when I hear that question, I'm like, all day long, bring it, right? I'm ready to die for this faith. I've lived my life for it. Why not die for it too? But is that really a helpful question to ask myself given my context, right? That was for sure the context of Christians living in Smyrna, but it's not really mine, so maybe it's not a helpful question to figure out how I'm doing with my faithfulness. Here's a parallel to maybe make sense of what I'm talking about. Think about parenting, okay? Parenting, I would say, just like I hope 100% of the parents in this room would say, yeah, without a shadow of a doubt, I don't gotta think twice about it, I would absolutely die for my kids, okay? Follow-up question, does that mean that I'm a good dad? It's like, well, no, not necessarily. Just because I answer yes to that question? No, I would expect you to judge my parenting based on how I treat my kids in the normal day-to-day routine, right? It doesn't really mean a lot for me to say I'm willing to die for my kids if I'm not also willing to get off of my phone

and hang out with them after a long day of work, right? I'm not being asked to die for my kids on a daily basis. That's not where my parenting will be strengthened and tested and challenged. Instead, my parenting is tested and challenged and strengthened in just the normal day-to-day sacrifices that I've gotta make as a dad, right? Like, am I going to engage my kids even though it costs me energy? Am I gonna be patient with my kids even though it costs me pride? Am I gonna go to all the ball games and all the events even though it costs me time? It's in the little day-to-day sacrifices that evaluate how I'm doing with my parenting. And I believe it's the same thing for Christians in modern-day America where, thankfully, our literal lives are not at risk because of our faith on a day-to-day basis. And so if we wanna figure out like a barometer for our faithfulness, we should not be asking ourselves, am I willing to die for my faith? Instead, we should be asking ourselves, am I dying to myself on a daily basis, okay? For the church in Smyrna, Jesus's challenge was remain faithful even if it costs you your life, even unto death. For us in modern America, it might look more like remain faithful even unto all the little deaths

that you've gotta make as a Jesus follower on a day-to-day basis. Example of what I mean. Jesus had a lot to say about forgiveness as an example. I mean, that's kind of his thing. That's kinda what his whole life was about. He says that we, Jesus followers, should be leading the way in our families and in our communities and in our nation. We should be leading the way in the act of forgiveness, even to the point of forgiving our enemies. Are we gonna be faithful even if forgiveness costs us our pride? How about this as an example? He has a lot to say about sexuality and the role that it should play in our lives and the areas in our life where it's a gift and the area in our lives where it's not. Are we gonna be faithful even if purity costs us pleasure or if obedience costs us an actual whole relationship? Are we gonna be faithful if integrity costs you the promotion you were trying to get at work? Are we gonna be faithful even if, you know, having faith itself causes you to lose friendships at your school or at your work or you name it? Will we be faithful even when it costs something? Because here's the tough truth. Having faith is free, okay? Saying that I believe that Jesus is the Christ

and I wanna follow him, that costs you nothing. It costs Jesus everything, costs us nothing. But even though having faith is free, faithfulness, being faithful always costs something, always. That is how faithfulness is displayed. Even back to the Old Testament, faithfulness always requires some sort of sacrifice. Are we gonna pay the price or not? And frankly, if Jesus looks at the Christians in Smyrna and he says, remain faithful even if it kills you, I think it goes without saying that he's telling us, hey, you also have to remain faithful unto all the little deaths that you've gotta make day in and day out to follow me. Like, you gotta remain faithful even if it costs you pride or position or money or time, you name it. And so that's the challenge to the people in Smyrna that I think we would be wise to place ourselves under. The challenge is, will we be faithful even when it costs something? That's the challenge. But remember I said there's a challenge, there's also encouragement in this letter. And honestly, the encouragement is the bigger theme of Jesus's letter to the church in Smyrna. And again, it's not just encouragement for the Christians in Smyrna, but it's encouragement for any of us in the room who are suffering.

And so if you feel like you've really been going through it lately, it's time to lean in and listen to the words of Jesus because he does nothing but encourage people who are suffering in this letter from front to back, from the first verse to the last verse. And we'll just kind of walk through it so we can point it out. So look at this, he starts encouraging us even by the way that he addresses himself in the letter. Look at this, he says to the angel of the church in Smyrna, I want you to write, these are the words of who? Of Jesus. But what he calls himself is these are the words of him who is the first and the last, who died and came to life again. He starts the letter by reminding anyone who's suffering that he is the first and the last. He's the beginning, he's also the end. He knows the beginning of your story. He knows the middle of your story that you're living today. He knows how your story's gonna end. He also reminds us that he has died and come to life. He's someone who suffered for his faithfulness even unto his death. Other place in the Bible says that he's the firstborn among the dead. He reminds us, I am the first one who had life placed on my head like a victor's crown. He reminds us that he knows what suffering feels like.

Here's what he says next. He goes, I also, I know, I know you. I know your afflictions and your poverty and yet you're rich. He encourages us by reminding us like we worship a God who knows. Okay, he knows your name. He knows the number of hairs on your head. And so of course he knows what you're struggling with this morning. He has not turned a blind eye. He has not fallen asleep at the wheel. Jesus continues. He goes, I even know about the slander of those who say they are Jews but they're not and they're in a synagogue of Satan. So at this point, Jesus gets incredibly specific to the situation that the Christians in Smyrna are living through, right? He's not, of course he's not talking about the Jewish people at large. He's talking about that core of leaders we talked about who are persecuting the Christians. So Jesus leans in, he goes, I don't just like know that you're suffering. I know what you are suffering through. This is the equivalent of us coming in today and Jesus looking at us going like, I know that you have depression. Or I know the kid that you lost.

I know the car wreck that took the loved one from you. I know the diagnosis that you just got. I know the thing you're suffering through that you've told no other soul about. Like I know what you're going through. Jesus starts this letter by reminding us like I know what it feels like to suffer and also I know exactly what you're suffering through. And right after that he says, and so do not be afraid of what you're about to suffer. Do not be afraid. Those are typically the first words out of the mouth of just about every angel you'll ever see in the Bible. It's typically the first words out of the mouth of the resurrected Jesus, do not be afraid. He's reminding us that he is the great fear killer. If you're scared of, if you have anxiety over the suffering in your life, Jesus says, lock your eyes on me then. Here's what he says next. He goes, I tell you, the devil will put Some of you in prison detest you and you will suffer persecution for 10 days. Okay, the 10 days, of course, is not literal, right? Many of us, many of the Christians in Smyrna, we've suffered for way more than 10 days. Instead, that's a poetic way of Jesus saying, our suffering is temporary. He's trying to encourage us. Again, he's going, here's one of the reasons

you don't need to be afraid. Jesus says, it's because I put an expiration date on your suffering. I know what the date is. He looks at a room this big and he goes, I know the end date of all the suffering for every soul in this room. After that, Jesus gives the challenge, which has encouragement buried in it. Remember, he says, be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown. He goes, here's the other reason that you don't need to be afraid. It's because you can trust that on the other side of your suffering is life, eternal, perfect life. I'm gonna place it on your head like a crown. And then Jesus ends his letter to Smyrna by saying, whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. And if you keep on reading Revelation, you learn that the second death is a reference to hell. And so Jesus ends by repeating himself and saying, again, you don't need to be afraid of your suffering because I know the date that it's gonna end and I know that I have given you life, eternal, perfect life. It's waiting for you on the other side of your suffering. Jesus, from front to back, every word in the letter

to the church of Smyrna, it's encouragement. It's encouragement from Jesus to those of us who are suffering. And if I were to sum up the way that Jesus chooses to encourage any of us who are suffering, if I were to put it in my own words, I would say it like this. Jesus is reminding us we can only endure the middle of our stories when we know the end, okay? This is how Jesus chose to encourage Smyrna. He says, I know, I know you're suffering today. I know it hurts. I know it's painful. But Jesus says, listen, I'm the first and the last. I know the beginning of your story. I know the middle of your story. And I have already written the end of your story. And the end is victory. It's victory for you. It's victory for me. It's victory for every faithful Jesus follower. Jesus encourages Smyrna by saying, I know that the middle of your story is being written today. I know that the middle of your story is a story of pain and sorrow and hardship, but you can take heart because I have already written the end of your story and the end is victory. The end is life. And that same encouragement stands for us today in 2026. Like this morning, Jesus is still encouraging you

through his ancient words, and he's reminding us we can only endure the middle of our stories when we know the end. And in fact, I would argue, along with virtually 100% of every biblical scholar ever, I would argue that this is the entire reason Jesus gave John the revelation in the first place. This is the whole reason that big, weird book is at the end of your Bible. I believe Jesus was giving us this strange, mysterious, dreamlike vision of the end, and he was giving it to us so that he could give us the hope that he knew we would need if we're ever gonna be able to endure the middle. And so I can't help but think what it would have been like to be a Christian in Smyrna. Try to think of it like to be a Christian in Smyrna who finally gets a hold of a copy of the revelation of John. You hide it immediately. You get some of your friends together. You go lock yourself up in a house because it's technically illegal for you to even be holding this document. You sit down together, you light a candle, you start reading through it, and it's like boom, right off the bat, like in chapter two, Jesus personally wrote you a letter. And so you feel seen, and you feel a little less alone, and you kind of stand up a little taller.

You feel a little more confident. And so you keep reading through the revelation. Your interest is piqued by all the crazy symbology in there, and it's like, nah, you don't understand entirely what everything means, but you're getting the vibe of the vision because the vibe of this revelation is that Jesus will reign victorious. The whole vibe of that book is like, even if you don't understand all the details, the vibe of it is like Jesus saying, I will come back, and when I do, I will be victorious, and I will reign over Smyrna, and I will reign over Rome. I'll reign over every human power. I'll reign over suffering. I'll reign over death. And so the Smyrnans are just like, they're fascinated. They keep reading, and they're turning the pages, and then they eventually get to the end of the letter that we're about to read together, the end of the revelation. And it's where John describes this epic turning point in history that is coming up. It's this moment where it's like it's the end of the end and it's the beginning of everything new. And I can't help but think that the Christians in Smyrna, they're reading this part and they're floored. Why? Because, man, it's exactly what you need to hear as a Jesus follower if you're suffering. And today, 2026, it's no different.

This vision that we're about to read together, it's exactly what we need to hear if we are suffering this morning. John says this, he goes, then I saw, this is the vision of the end of the end. He said, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared for me. Out of heaven from God prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. John then says, and then I heard a loud voice from the throne, and here's what the voice says. It says, look, behold, God's dwelling place is now among the people. Like, God's just gonna come and dwell with us. He's gonna physically live with us. John says, they, we, will be his people. And God himself will be with them physically. Like, he'll walk with us, he'll talk with us, he'll be their God. He will personally wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. That's the old order of things. That's the old way of doing things and the old way of doing things is dead. And then he who was seated on the throne declared, behold, I am making everything new.

And then this king on the throne, he turns to John and he looks him in the eyes and he says, write this down. For these words are trustworthy and they're true. And if you are a faithful Jesus follower in the room today, that is the end of our story. That's how it ends. It's as good as done. He just told us himself that the words are trustworthy and true, meaning you can count on it. Stop, this isn't imagination. This isn't playing games, right? You and I can count on being physically present for that moment. It's wild. And once you start to understand the vision of the end, that's when a little bit of hope can fire up in life. Because some of us, right? Like I'm one of them. Some of us, we walked in, we're burdened. Some of us were burdened by grief. Some of us were so scared, we're so anxious, we're so freaked out about the future of our lives that we're having trouble sleeping anymore. Some of us, we've been so burned by other people, we don't know who to trust anymore. Some of us are so sad, we're so angry, we're so confused. It's almost like, it feels physical, like we've never even felt anything like it. Why?

Because we're hurting. And if that's you today, if you're hurting, man, the vision of revelation was written for you. Because the vision of revelation is Jesus saying, hey, listen, I'm here, I see you, and I know, and I know what you're walking through, and I know it hurts. But revelation is Jesus saying to us, listen, I have overcome death, and I have put an expiration date on your suffering, and I will put eternal life on your head like a crown, and I will wipe every tear from your eyes, and I will make everything new. And if you and I are ever gonna endure the painful middle of our stories, it is only gonna be because we have placed our faith in the end. So here's how we're gonna end today. We're gonna try to practice what we preach right now. Right, we're gonna try to show Jesus that as bad as life hurts right now, we wanna choose faithfulness, we wanna trust in his vision of the end, and we're gonna do that by singing a hymn together. Okay, it is a hymn that was written over 150 years ago. It's probably one of the most influential songs ever written. Okay, this hymn was written by a guy named Horatio Spafford, Horatio Spafford, and he wrote this song after tremendous suffering.

Horatio was married, he had five kids. He had one son, four daughters. The first suffering was he lost his son, his only son. He lost him to scarlet fever. Shortly after that, he was a businessman, and he lived in Chicago, and the great Chicago fire of 1871 ruined him financially. He burnt his business to the ground. After that, he decides, you know what? My family needs a change. I'm gonna completely change it up. businessman, I'm gonna try to do ministry. And so he talks with one of his friends who lives in England. He's like, hey, I'm gonna sail over and come do ministry with you. So he books a ship for him and his wife and his four daughters. But what happens is last minute, he's got some loose ends with his business he needs to tie up. So he tells his wife and his four daughters, hey, you go on ahead of me, I'll catch up with you in two to three weeks. What happens is the ship collides with another ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It sinks, it kills all four of his daughters. Only his wife survives. She sends him a telegram. It's the most devastating telegram I've ever heard of. It's two words, it says, saved alone.

Horatio Spafford was a man who, he knew what suffering felt like. He knew what hardship was like. He knew intimately, he felt it in his bones. He knew what grief and sorrow was like. And yet he was one of us. And so he knew how his story would end. And so he wrote a song. He wasn't even a songwriter. And we found a couple other poems that he wrote. This is a song written by a totally normal, average man who had seen a lot of suffering. And the song is called, It Is Well. And it's a hymn that suffering Christians have clung to for 150 years and counting. Man, it is a song that the Christians in Smyrna would have clung to if it was written during their time. And so what we're gonna do right now is I'm gonna pray. And then as an act of trust and worship, we're gonna sing this song together, just as a way of telling God, it is well, it is well, it is well with our soul, only because we are trusting in your vision of the end. Let me pray over us. God, thank you for this moment. Thank you for this morning. God, there's a lot of us who walked in the room and we're just, well, all of us are suffering in some way. All of us have gotten hardship in some way. Some of us walked in the room

and we barely made it in today. The first half of this thing, we're like, why did he even show up to this thing today? We're just hurting, we've been burned. Some of us, we've made life hard for ourselves. Some of us, we were faithful and it did cost us something. But we walk in here and we just, we're burdened with hardship and suffering and grief and we're not even sure how to make it through it. And meanwhile, through your letter and revelation, you tell us, like, I know, I know what you're going through. I've not turned my back on you. I've not turned a blind eye towards you. I did not fall asleep at the wheel. I know what suffering feels like. I know how you feel right now. And then after that, you tell us, but don't be afraid. Stand up, stand up tall under all of this suffering and under all of this hardship, why? Because I wrote the end of your story. The end of your story is life. The end of your story is victory. It's just, it's a whole other thing to move that from our head and to our hearts, to a place where we trust it, to a place where we live confidently out of that truth. So God, would your spirit move through the hearts of your children? God, would you help us, teach us what it looks like to cling to the hope of your vision of the end?

I know you'll do that right now, so I thank you in advance and I pray this in your son's name, Jesus the Christ, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. When peace like a river When peace like a river attendeth my way attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll when sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot Whatever my lot

thou hast taught me thou hast taught me to say it is well it is well it is well with my soul My sin O the bliss O the bliss of this glorious thought of this glorious thought of this glorious thought My sin My sin ♪ In not in part but the whole ♪ ♪ Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sighed ♪ ♪ The clouds be rolled back as a scroll ♪ ♪ The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend ♪ ♪ Even so, it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ Well, hey Flatirons, we're so glad that you joined us this morning.

Listen, if you are in need of prayer, we have an awesome team up front that would love to pray with you. Until we see you next time, we hope that you have a great week and we love you. Bye.