Inked Part 3 | Can Grief Be Good? with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected

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this message you feel called to make a change

in your life, text CHANGEME to 9700. Thank you

and enjoy the message. Good morning, everyone.

Just wanted to make sure you're all awake. Not

that you weren't already. If you're joining us

from home, thank you for welcoming us into your

space and being a part of our community of faith.

And here's the reality when we listen to a song

like that. Life is hard. It's not easy. Life

is difficult. In fact, ever since Adam's sin,

the world has been broken and everything on the

planet is broken. Nothing works perfectly. Our

bodies don't work perfectly. The economy is not

perfect. No relationship works perfectly. Your

marriage doesn't work perfectly. And life is

full of losses. We have defeats. We have disappointments.

And this is in heaven. That's why Jesus taught

us to pray, Father, your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. Because in heaven, there's

no defeats. There's no disappointments. But on

earth, nothing works perfectly all the time.

In fact, everything is broken. And the question,

how do we rise above the inevitable losses that

we're going to experience in this life? And to

answer that, I have to ask you another question.

So by a show of hands, how many of you want to

be blessed in the future? By a show of hands.

Pretty much unanimous. Of course, we all want

to be blessed. We all want God to bless our future.

But listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 4.

God blesses those who mourn for they will be

comforted. John, do I need to do something or

am I, is it me or? Yeah, I think so. Well, Holy

Spirit, come. God, we just give this technical

side of life over to you. And God, we just silence

any distraction, any confusion. And we just ask

that you move in this place, God. Move amongst

us. Change us, God. Make us more like your son.

So again, Matthew 5, 4, God blesses those who

mourn, for they will be comforted. Who gets comforted?

They. And who are they? Those who have the courage

to mourn. Basically, what is Jesus saying to

us? Cover -ups don't get comforted. If I cover

up the pain, if I ignore the pain, if I deny

the pain and pretend it doesn't exist, If I'm

too afraid of my emotions, then I don't get comforted.

And if I don't get comforted, I don't get blessed.

And all of us wanted to get blessed. Blessed

are those who mourn. So if we want to receive

God's blessing, we have to learn how to grieve.

And today we're going to be discussing how to

handle the losses in life and how God blesses

a broken heart. Now, I don't know what you're

going through right now, and I hope and pray,

in fact, that you're experiencing a relative

easy life. But chances are, if it's anything

like mine, you're not. You may be here this morning

and experiencing conflict, chaos. Maybe it's

a bad health report. You lost your job. Maybe

there was a fight with your husband, your girlfriend,

your boyfriend, or your wife. The money isn't

there. There's not enough to pay the bills. And

you're currently living under this tension. For

some of you, you've experienced a loss in life,

an unexpected death in the family, and you're

feeling these waves of grief within you. And

many of you know that we're in this series called

Inked as we work our way through the month of

May. And I want to bring to you an encouraging

talk on how to be blessed in a broken world.

How to be blessed in a broken world, which leads

us to our first thought. See, God doesn't expect

us to be happy all the time. This is a fact of

life. God doesn't, everyone say doesn't, expect

us to be happy all the time. There you go, you're

free, you can go home. See, there's this myth

that if you're following Jesus, that if you love

Jesus, that you should always be smiling, always

be happy, and always be cheerful. That we should

be skipping through the fields, picking flowers,

and talking about peace and love. But this simply

is not true. In fact, the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, there's a time for everything. A season

for every activity under heaven. In other words,

life is a series of opposites. Then in verse

4 we read, a time to cry, a time to laugh, a

time to grieve, and a time to dance. See, the

Bible tells us that sometimes weeping is appropriate.

Sometimes mourning is appropriate. Sometimes

grieving is appropriate because truth is our

world is filled with a lot of sadness, a lot

of brokenness. All we have to do is pause for

five minutes and read the news. And we're going

to quickly learn about children being kidnapped,

fires raging, murders in the city, wars, tornadoes.

I mean, there's a lot of pain on this planet.

And sometimes the only appropriate logical response

to life is grief. God doesn't expect us to simply

grin and bear it, to stuff our emotions and smile

in the middle of all the storms. And again, Jesus

tells in Matthew 5, 4, God blesses those who

mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses

us when we grieve. Why? Because a lot of people

believe that grief is only for funerals. Right?

If you lose a loved one or someone close to you,

then you grieve. But let's be honest. There's

a lot of losses in life. We can lose our health.

We can lose our job. We can lose our money. We

can lose our reputation. We can lose our energy.

We can lose a dream. There's all kind of losses

in life. And God says the only appropriate response.

To the losses in life is. Stop faking it. Face

it. Don't walk around grinning and pretending.

But actually begin to grieve. The Bible tells

us to mourn our losses. Which is bad things that

have happened to us. The Bible tells us to mourn

our disappointments. Which are good things that

didn't happen to us. The Bible says we're to

mourn our sins. I'm to grieve my sins. The Bible

says we're to grieve and mourn over the suffering

that's in this world. The Bible says that we're

to grieve over friends and family who don't know

Jesus and are spiritually lost. God desires that

we grieve and we work through the pain of life,

which leads us to our first tattoo. Let's take

a look. Sarah writes, Throughout my childhood,

I rarely attended church. It's not that I was

a non -believer because I definitely believed

in God, Jesus, heaven, and hell. I just wasn't

a practicing Christian. During college, my father,

with whom I have a tumultuous relationship, introduced

me to the church he was attending. I enjoyed

going to church and was baptized in 1998 when

I was 19 years old. I felt the Holy Spirit move

through me and would find myself excited to go

back so I could continue to experience it again

and again. Over time, though, I began to move

away from actively attending church because of

my father's and church's hypocrisy. Moved forward

23 years to April 19, 2021, and my life as I

had known it to be, the dreams I had for my future,

and my faith in God was rocked to its very core

with my youngest son, Aiden. died from suicide

at the very young age of 15. We had no idea he

was struggling with his mental health to the

depths and degrees he was and to feel, believe

that ending his life was a better option than

remaining here on earth. He had no idea that

he wouldn't have to fight alone, that his dad

and I would have stood in front of him and taken

the hits he was being forced to take from his

relentless bullies. Losing Aiden left me shattered.

No parent should ever go through the death of

their child. I couldn't understand, couldn't

fathom how God would allow such a tragedy to

happen. I've kept questioning him. Haven't endured

enough in my life with all the abuse I was forced

to grow up with. What more did I need to prove

to you? Why wasn't enough for my child to keep

him from choosing to die? Why would God give

me such an amazingly wonderful, empathetic, sensitive,

intelligent, hardworking, athletic, friend to

all, inquisitive, passionate, full of life child

only to take him away from me too soon? Rather

than turning towards God, I turned away from

him. I blamed him for my suffering, for Aidan's

suffering, for my oldest son's grief, for my

husband's feelings of guilt. I thought if God

was real, there's no way he would have allowed

my life to be decimated. Move forward again this

time to October 2024, when some of our greatest

friends invited us to their church they'd been

sharing amazing stories about for months. The

first Sunday we attended, I was guarded. I wasn't

sure I could trust a church or God ever again.

I would classify our first service as unremarkable

for me. I didn't feel the Holy Spirit in any

way that I had wished or hoped for. During our

second visit, the Holy Spirit took up residence

in my soul. I literally felt it wash over me

and the love that poured down my cheeks wasn't

something I had felt in over three years since

Aiden's death. I hadn't felt a love like that

in a long time. Since that time, I've only missed

one service. And the messages I know have been

placed on my heart have been God's way of reminding

me that he is here. And in fact, he has always

been here, even when I wasn't open to receiving

him and his gifts. It's through God's love. That

I hope and I believe he will help and lead me

out of the darkness I've been drowning in for

almost four years. Friends, God doesn't expect

us to be happy all the time. Which leads us to

our next thought. See, grief is essential to

our health. Grief is essential to our health.

Grief is essential to our emotional health, our

spiritual health, our physical health. And our

mental health. In fact, if we never grieve or

are sad about anything, it means one of two things.

One, we're out of touch with reality because

there's a lot of things that be said about in

this world. Or two, we're out of touch with our

own emotions and we're living in denial. Because

when we love, we experience sad things. That

makes us grieve. Grief is a painful emotion,

but listen. I want to encourage you, it's a healthy

emotion. Grief, in fact, is God's gift. It's

his tool that he gives us to get through the

transitions in this life. We must remember there

is no growth in our life without change. We can't

grow without change, and there's no change without

loss because we lose some of the old when we

experience the new. And to go through life without

grieving is like a mother who says, I want to

have a baby without the pain of labor. See, there

are two unhealthy actions, two losses that we

experience in life. One is repression and the

other is suppression. Repression is when I unconsciously

try to block painful thoughts out of my mind.

That's repression. Suppression is when I consciously

try to block the pain out of my mind. And in

both of these circumstances, they're denials.

When we go through difficult times and our heart

is hurting, God doesn't want us to suppress it

and God doesn't want us to repress it. In fact,

God wants us to express it, to get it out to

friends and to confess it to him. He wants us

to let it out. And if we don't let it out, then

we're going to act it out. If we don't let it

out in healthy ways, we're going to act it out

in very unhealthy ways. And see, some of us were

hurt many years ago while growing up. Maybe you

experienced a divorce, abuse, negative words

spoken over you. It was painful. And as a child,

you didn't know how to grieve healthy. So as

children, what do we do? We stuff it. We push

it down. We never grieve that hurt, that pain,

or that trauma. But if we want to move forward,

we have to go back. You have to grieve over it.

Because if we don't grieve the losses in life,

and you know what's going to happen? You get

stuck in that stage. And you don't move forward.

I'm going to say that again. When we don't go

through grief, when pain happens in our life,

and we simply stuff it, then we get emotionally

stuck at that stage of life. And we spend the

rest of our life reacting to something that happened

years ago. We take it out on the people that

are around us right now and simply say that it's

just not fair. It's unhealthy to stuff it. If

we don't talk it out, then we take it out on

our own body, on our own emotions, and on other

people. When we swallow unhealthy emotions, you

know what happens to our bodies? They get sick.

David says it this way in Psalm 32, 3. When I

refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away

and I groaned all day long. And see, when we

experience a loss in life, maybe it's a job,

a loved one, a marriage, a relationship, you

can either mourn or you can moan and you can

complain. Moaning is negative. What is mourning?

Mourning is positive. That's when we're blessed.

Listen to Psalm 39 too. But as I stood there

in silence, not even speaking of good things,

the turmoil within me grew worse. The negativity,

the trouble that we experience in this life,

it's not always our choice. Sometimes it happens

to us, but grief is a choice. When we choose

to get it out, when we choose to let it out,

We have to choose to experience the sad emotions.

And none of us like to be sad. But not everything

that's helpful feels good. Not everything that's

healthy feels good. I hear it from you all the

time. I can't walk. I can't run. I can't exercise.

It hurts too bad. Of course it does. It's called

getting healthy. But if we don't mourn the losses

of life, we get stuck at that stage of life and

we don't experience Jesus' promise in Matthew

5. God blesses those who mourn for they will

be comforted. And I want God to bless your life

in spite of all the bad things that have happened

and in spite of all the bad things that are going

to happen because more are going to come. And

in order for God to bless our life, we have to

mourn because it's then that God comforts us.

Right? Listen, we don't just get over grief,

which leads us to our third thought. God encourages

us to walk through our grief. One of the most

famous passages in the Bible, Psalm 23. The Lord

is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets

me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside

peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides

me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

When I walk through the darkest valley, I will

not be afraid. For you are close beside me. Your

rod and your staff protect and comfort me. Here's

the reality, church. We can't go over grief.

We can't go under grief. We can't go around grief.

We have to walk right through it. And if we're

afraid to express our emotions and refuse to

go through grief, Then you're going to get stuck.

And you're going to be unhappy. And you're going

to be miserable. But God wants to walk through

our grief and our pain with us. Notice what it

said. He comforts us. He draws us close. Psalm

34, 18 says, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. And

quite often when we grieve, if you're anything

like me, you feel like God's a million miles

away. When in reality, when we're grieving, we

just learn that he's never been closer. See,

what we feel and what is real are not always

the same thing. Not everything that we feel is

real and not everything that's real do we actually

feel. And the Bible says God is close to the

brokenhearted. He pays attention to us. He's

not distant. He's not far off. He hasn't forgotten

us. Hebrews 13, 5, for God has said, I will never

fail you. I will never abandon you. And that

means even in our worst pain, our suffering,

our anger, and our most embarrassing moments,

our failures and our doubts, God will never abandon

us. He never leaves us. And in fact, God grieves

with us. See, the reason we have the ability

to grieve is because we're made in God's image.

The only reason we have any emotion at all is

because God is an emotional God. God is a suffering

God and God is a sympathetic God. How do I know

that? Well, Isaiah 53 tells us he, meaning Jesus,

was despised and rejected. A man of sorrows acquainted

with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him

and looked the other way. He was despised and

we did not care. See, when we come, to Jesus

with our pain, he relates to it. He understands

it because he lived it. He walked it out. Grief

is an evidence of love. The more we love, the

more we are going to grieve about things because

we're going to lose them. The more we love, the

more we're going to understand grief. And I want

to encourage you, sadness is not weakness. Jesus

was the strongest man that ever lived. And we

know that Jesus wept. For a man or a woman to

show emotion is not a sign of weakness. It's

actually a sign of strength. And is it okay if

I speak to you men a minute? Weak men are scared

of their emotions. Weak men are afraid of tears.

A strong man shows emotion just like Jesus. Which

leads us to our next tattoo. Let's take a look.

Madison writes this. I've been through a lot

in life, from chronic illness to losing my father

to cancer. Despite these hardships, God has been

there for me through it all and teaches me new

things every single day. We can find salvation

through Jesus and the Bible, which is good news

for us all. Having this tattoo reminds me daily

of my purpose in life and that God is there for

me on both the good and the bad days. See, God,

he uses our grief and our pain to help us grow,

to help us change, to help us become more like

Jesus. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4, 17 through

18. 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. See, the pain that we may be going through

right now, It's just preparing us for heaven.

Right? Our present troubles are preparing us

for an eternal glory that will make all these

troubles here on earth seem like nothing. And

we must realize God is more interested in our

character development than our comfort. Because

we're going to experience comfort for billions

and billions of years in heaven as we worship

in God's kingdom. And see, what we're walking

through now is the get ready stage. This is the

learning stage. This life is not all there is.

We are living for so much more. And when we take

that into perspective, that's what we celebrate.

Because the amount of time we're going to spend

here on earth is basically nothing. We get 80

or 90 years at most. Some 100, very few. But

that's nothing in comparison to God's kingdom.

To eternity. And we have the hope of heaven,

church, living inside of us. We have to tap into

that source when we're walking through those

dark valleys, which leads us to our final thought.

There is purpose in our pain. See, God uses our

pain, believe it or not, to help others. And

this is the most important part of grief. I mean,

think about it. Who can better help a mom that

is struggling with a special needs child Than

another mother of a special needs child. Who

can better help someone who has lost a son or

a daughter to overdose. Than another mother or

father who lost a daughter or a son to an overdose.

Who can better help someone who has gone through

the pain of an addiction. A marriage failure.

Abuse. Than somebody who actually walked through

those experiences. See God does not want us to

waste our hurt and our pain. He wants us to embrace

them. to grieve them, 2 Corinthians 1, 3 -4.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source

of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles

so that we can comfort others. When they are

troubled, we will be able to give them the same

comfort God has given us. See, our greatest ministry

comes out of our deepest hurt and our deepest

pain. And I want to encourage you, your friends,

your coworkers, your classmates, the world is

watching how we handle adversity. That's what

they want to see. They don't care about our successes.

They don't care how rich you are. They are watching

how you handle adversity because everybody handles

adversity different. And our suffering brings

us credibility with others. Every day, we either

need to be comforted Or we need to be comforting

others. And right now, we're either walking through

pain or we need to help others. And maybe God

wants us to do both at the same time. Because

I'm going to encourage you, all of us are wounded

healers. All of us. And as we recognize that

and move forward with that, that more and more

lives are transformed by the power of the Holy

Spirit, which leads us to our four simple action

steps. I want to encourage you, church, start

healing today. You can start the process right

now this morning. And the first step is this.

We have to list our losses. We have to list the

losses. God blesses those who mourn for they

will be comforted. I want to encourage you. We

need to take an inventory of our lives. We need

to examine it, and we need to begin to list the

different losses that we've experienced. It could

be the pain of rejection. It could be the pain

of a loved one loss. It could be long -term illness.

Maybe you lost a home or a job that you thought

you would have for your entire life. Well, those

losses that we do not or have not grieved, those

losses that we've just pushed down and moved

on with life. Well, I'll get another job. I'll

take three days off and I'll grieve my father

and then I'll just start working again. Some

of you are thinking, well, I don't know if I

grieved, Chris. Well, then ask God if there is

pain associated with your losses. Because if

there's pain associated with the losses, newsflash,

you haven't grieved. It's kind of like a wound

that's festering. I mean, many of you know if

you cut your arm or you cut your finger, the

first thing we do, what is it? We clean it out.

We use soap and water. We wash it out. We flush

it with peroxide. Why? So it doesn't become infected.

But quite often in life, we don't take the time

to grieve. We don't take the time to grieve the

painful experiences that we've been through.

And we allow our spiritual and our emotional

wounds to fester and fester over and over and

over. And why? Why do we allow spiritual and

emotional winds to fester? You want to know?

It's one word, fear. We're afraid of the emotional

toll it will take in walking it out. We're afraid

to forgive because we are hurt too bad. We're

afraid we'll never be healed. We are afraid that

others will judge us. God blesses those who mourn.

God blesses and comforts when we grieve the losses

that we've experienced in this life. There's

nothing to fear, just freedom. I mean, there's

a reason that 365 times in the Bible it is written,

fear not. Because every day of the year we have

to get away from fear and move closer to Jesus

so we can experience freedom. We have to walk

through that pain. Number one, list your losses.

Number two, lament. You have to have the courage

to lament. Now, some of you have no idea what

that even means. Lament, it's a big Bible word.

It's one that's not used much in today's culture.

Lamenting is a kind of action we must do for

us to be healthy emotionally and spiritually.

The definition of lament is this, a passionate

expression of grief to God. That's lament. I

cry out to God. I shout to God. I may weep or

yell at God. It's a passionate expression of

grief to God. Lamenting is actually an act of

worship. And you're like, what? So you're telling

me, Chris, if I'm yelling at God, it's an act

of worship. Yeah. Including arguing with God

and complaining to God. Both are forms of lamenting.

Now notice, I did not say, I did not say complain

about God. That's a sin. I said complain to God.

I wanted to make sure I got that right because

I know somewhere in social media world, if I

got taken out of context, oh, see, he doesn't

know his Bible. He doesn't understand. He's teaching

heresy. Complain to God because he can handle

it. See, God can handle our rage, our resentment,

our regrets, our anger, our complaining, and

our accusations. And God can handle our pain

because he already knows us. He already knows

what's in our heart. He's waiting for us. He's

like, okay, Susie, release it back to me. Get

it off your chest so you can experience freedom.

I mean, the Bible is full of emotion. Raw emotions

that are expressed to him by real people that

are struggling. There's 150 psalms in the Bible.

65 of those psalms are psalms of lament. I mean,

David writes this in Psalm 22. My God, my God,

why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far

away when I've grown for help? Every day I call

to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every

night I lift up my voice and find no relief.

Haman writes this in Psalm 88. You have taken

away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is

my closest friend. Darkness was his own. I mean,

that man was struggling. Every emotion known

to man is recorded in the book of Psalms. And

that's why it's so important to read the book

of Psalms. But listen, don't just read the book

of Psalms. I want to encourage you. Start reading

the book of Psalms every single day. And as you

read them, begin highlighting the different emotions

that you see in those Psalms. And then that way,

when you're struggling with those emotions in

the future, what do you do? You go back and you

read. And you're encouraged. You're lamenting.

Because it's so important for us to lament back

to God, which leads us to our third step. Why

not ask Jesus to heal your heart? You know why

a lot of people notice Jesus to heal their heart?

Because they like the pain. Because they think

that's their identity. And they think that they're

burdened with that for the rest of their life.

To which I say, I disagree. Luke 4, 18. The spirit

of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed

me to preach the gospel to the poor. Now notice,

this is Jesus' mission here on earth. He has

sent me to heal the brokenhearted. There it is.

God doesn't want you to walk around and through

life with a broken heart, grieving, upset, angry.

He wants to set you free. He wants to proclaim

liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to

the blind, and set at liberty those who are oppressed.

Jesus is understanding. He is close to us, and

he desires us to be free. And when we bring our

losses to Jesus, what's he do? He understands

and he relates. We just learned. From the prophecy

in Isaiah that he was a man of deep sorrow. It's

what he came to do. As we walk through the valley

of the shadow of death, we look to Jesus because

he draws near to us. You know one thing I learned

this week in preparing for this talk? I learned

something about shadows. Because remember, we

walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Do you realize wherever there's a shadow, there's

a light? And as we walk through the valley of

the shadow of the death, the grief, the pain,

the suffering, God is encouraging us, turn your

backs away from the scary, intimidating shadows

and turn toward the light. Because the light

is brighter than the darkness. Stop looking at

the shadows and look to the light. And let's

take a look at our next tattoo. Kelly writes,

I began my walk of faith just under four years

ago. Jesus was finally able to reach me during

my time spent in my garden, which is an entire

testimony of its own. As I've grown in my faith

and spent time in my garden with Jesus, I found

myself listening to praise and worship music.

The juxtaposition of how dead I had felt spiritually,

physically, and emotionally, and then how alive

and absolutely blooming and thriving in my faith,

especially been worshiping with music, truly

changed my life. I wanted that captured as not

only a reminder for myself of where I'd been

in my journey, but when someone asked me about

my tattoos, I got the incredible opportunity

of sharing my testimony. Not what you would expect

when asking about a very grateful, dead -looking

piece of art. Evangelism through tattoos, which

leads us, church, to our final step. Not only,

right? Do we list our losses? Not only do we

lament, not only do we ask Jesus to heal us,

we worship. We have to realize that in God's

kingdom, in heaven, we will be worshiping Jesus

for all of eternity. This life is just what?

It's just the opening act, and there's so much

more. Look at Revelation 21 .4. He will wipe

every tear from their eye. There will be no more

death or mourning or crying or pain. The old

things are gone forever. The pain, the suffering,

the loss that we experience in this life. What

is it, church? It's temporary. In the next, we

will be free. And we need to point people to

that reality, that hope that we all have. Look

at our final tattoo. Kelly again writes, hard

fall. Hallelujah. This song speaks to the battles

I face and the courage to fight for faith through

those difficulties and the praise that comes

in the midst of. Will you stand with me? I'm

going to invite you. Now listen, I'm going to

invite the Holy Spirit to come. I felt like we

needed to enter a time of prayer. And this is

how I want to do it. As I was praying this week,

I knew this talk was going to be a challenging

one. Because it's real. We all struggle. We all

go through loss. We all need to grieve. So I'm

going to ask you to be bold. If you're here this

morning and you're struggling, and it could be

any type of loss. It doesn't mean that someone

died. It could be loss of a job. It could be

loss of a husband. It could be anything. I want

to invite you to sit down. Just sit down right

where you are. Sit. Come, Holy Spirit. You're

grieving. Just sit. Now, if you're around someone

that's sitting, they're the ones that you're

called to help. They're the ones that you're

called to stand in the gap for. So if you could

get around, get some hands on shoulders. There

you go. Agree with them. Grieve with them. Holy

Spirit, come. God, you know the pain. You know

the heartache. You know what's going on in each

and every one of these individuals that have

sat. We just ask God, we cry out, God, for your

mercy to come. Your peace to be released. Your

love to wash down over them, God. God, we just

ask that they see, they understand, God, that

the pain in the midst of the pain, though it's

hard, they're going to come out on the other

side better. That you are close to them. Draw

close to them, Jesus. Surround them, God. Holy

Spirit, well up within them. We just pray for

freedom today, God. We pray for a release. We

pray for a release of the pain. The anguish of

the turmoil. We just pray for purpose. Meaning.

Love. To be released. Come Holy Spirit. Change

us God. Move in this place. In Jesus name. I

just want to close. You know that we pray a simple

prayer here. Every single Sunday. And listen.

We're all going to spend either eternity with

Jesus or without him. And there's no better way

to deal with pain and heartache than allowing

Jesus to set you free. So search your heart.

If you're far from God, if you've walked away

from God, if you've never had that relationship,

we're all going to pray with you because we believe

God wants to set you free. Let's pray. Jesus,

I'm broken. I'm full of doubt, shame, regret.

sin. Change me. I believe you're God's son. I

believe you died for me. Set me free. Fill me

with your spirit. Help me, God, to give back

and to serve others. In Jesus' name, amen. So

if you prayed that prayer, let me know. So I'd

encourage you to get baptized and give you some

next steps. Next week, we continue our Inc. series.

And listen, it's going to be another challenging

Sunday of testimonies as I focus on forgiveness.

Forgiving others for pain that we've experienced.

It looks like I'm going to this door. I'm going

right, so that door won't open until I get there.

I love you. Have a great week. Thank you for

joining us online. We look forward to connecting

with you again next week. Working out.