When Scars Become Beauty Marks

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I am honored to be with y'all.

Irene said, you know, I keep claiming that I'm a second cousin because I've loved Gateway for a long time.

And she said, actually, you just need to own the fact that you've become a crazy auntie.

And um, and so I'll take that.

Um I want to say, I'm so sorry.

I don't want to speak for, I don't have the right to speak for the hundreds of thousands, probably millions of people who are praying for y'all, who love you, who believe wholeheartedly in not just the restoration, but the revival God is gonna bring to this house.

Um, but I was with um we did a little steps of Paul uh tour in a couple of weeks ago.

It was so hot, I wasn't revived at all.

I was just praying for survival.

It was like 102 degrees in Ephesus, we were there, so I was not encouraged at all.

I thought words that aren't in the Bible, but I was with um I was with Carrie Job, a daughter of this house, and her husband Cody and Levi Lesco, who also loves you.

And we were praying for you the night that I got um the undeserved uh invitation to come back to Gateway.

And I thought how apropos that you are on our hearts and um and y'all trust me enough, Pastor Matthew, to allow me to come back during a season um that's a tough season.

And I um, I'm just so sorry.

I I know the future is gonna be extraordinary because I'm turning 61 in a few weeks.

And uh the one thing I've learned, the one thing I've learned in my six decades on this planet, 55 years of which I've been walking with Jesus, is that our God is a redeemer.

And nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing is wasted in the economy of our God.

Um, of course, that implies that we give him everything.

And so I stand before you as a foolish woman who has taken a long time to give God everything.

Um, I am much better at proclaiming praise than I am at admitting ache.

It's taken me a really, really long time to learn that stoicism is not a spiritual gift.

I um 20 years ago had to have a major back surgery because I was hit by a car when I was a kid.

I'm so sorry if I spit on y'all.

I'm a I'm a you know this, I'm a little bit of a spitter, um, and I don't mean to, and I can't stand up there because I don't see that well, and I'm not that professional.

I'm uh much more of a teacher than a preacher, and so my preference is to be closer, so I'll spit on y'all too.

I'll be an equal opportunity spitter, but um, I'd have a major back surgery because I was hit by a car when I was a kid and it broke my back in five places, and I've always been kind of prideful.

So I hadn't gotten the help that I needed.

And so by the time I was in my late 30s, I'd played volleyball in college and I'd race mountain bikes, and I had just trashed my back.

And so I was losing the control of my left leg and I was starting to lose control.

This is TMI, but we're family of my bladder.

And I thought, you know, I know depends are in my future, but hopefully not my immediate future.

And so I went into a neurosurgeon.

I lived in Colorado at the time, and they had to do all these tests, and he asked me what my pain level was.

And I said, he said, on the scale of one to ten, how much do you hurt?

And I said, Oh, about a one and a half.

Because in my family, stoicism is part of our spiritual DNA.

I mean, I could not skip school as a kid if I was sick unless I cut an artery.

You went to school.

And so I thought that was a positive thing that I was telling my neurosurgeon that my pain was about a one and a half.

Well, I knew when he operated on me, it was gonna expose my um my backside.

And so I was a little embarrassed.

I grew up half Baptist, so part of me is real modest.

And so I thought, you know, I'm gonna be flashing the surgeon that I just love so much.

And so I went out and I found a Bugs Bunny tattoo.

It was just, you know, temporary.

It wasn't the whole wild tattoo, it was just temporary.

But it was Bug Bunny and it said, What's up, Doc?

And I thought, this will just be a hoop, you know.

I'll put this on my bottom, and then when it's exposed, it'll be a greeting.

And so I thought, he is gonna love me.

I'm gonna be like his best patient ever because I don't complain.

And I and I greeted him in my birthday suit.

And so when I went back in for my post op visit, I was really shocked when my surgeon said I was his worst patient ever.

And I was like, Doctor, it kind of hurt my feelings.

And I said, I feel like I, you know, have been a pretty good patient.

I haven't complained, and I did the whole what's up doc thing on my bottom.

And he said this, I'll never forget it.

20 years ago, I can still remember it like he was saying it.

He said, Lisa, you are a bad patient because once I got into your back and I saw how damaged your spine was, I realized you had lied to me about your level of pain.

And he said, the fact that you lied about how much pain you are in reveals to me how little you trust my capacity to heal.

And I just went, how often have I done that with God?

I'm okay, I'm fine, I'm okay, I'm fine, I'm okay, I'm fine.

I know you're really busy with these Yahu politicians in Iraq and Iran.

And so I'm okay, I'm fine, I'm okay, I'm fine.

Y'all, grief is not ungodly.

Grief is actually the gateway to restoration.

And the tears we don't weep during seasons of grief actually become barriers to revival.

If you brought your Bibles, turn to 1 Samuel, you know this story.

It's a very, very familiar story and biblical narrative.

But boy, the truisms in this story, I think, are so pertinent during this season for us all, not just for the family at Gateway, but really our global family.

Because never in my life have I seen sorrow so deeply as I see it now.

Divided culture, vitriol on social media, broken-hearted saints who are saying, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, and not receiving the healing we are so desperate for because of our own pretense.

1 Samuel, you know the story.

It's about a woman named Hannah.

And there's much I identify with about Hannah.

She was married to a certain man of Ramathiam Zophim of the hill country of Ephraim.

This is 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 1.

1 Samuel 1:1

I'm reading from the ESV.

Son of Jeroim, son of Elihu, son of Tofu, son of Zeof, and Ephraithite.

He had two wives.

Remember, polygamy is the cultural norm during this time.

It's not the norm now unless you live in certain parts of Utah.

But during this period of biblical history, polygamy is the norm.

Men who had a little bit of coin usually had more than one wife.

So this guy, uh, and his name is pronounced El Cana, had two.

The name of one was Hannah, and the name was the uh of the other was Panina.

And if you're truly Pentecostal, every time I say Panina for the next few minutes, you can hiss and boo because she is a Jezebel before we meet Jezebel.

She is an absolute Yahoo.

And Panina had children, but Hannah had none.

Isn't that a sad sentence?

Panina had children, but Hannah had none.

Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship in the sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phineas were priests of the Lord.

On the day when Alcana sacrificed, he would give portions to Panina, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, but to Hannah he gave a double portion.

Because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.

And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb.

So it went on year after year.

As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her.

Therefore, Hannah wept and would not eat.

That's the only part of the story I don't identify with.

Because Hannah would grieve and not eat.

The sadder I am, the more I eat.

When I'm in sad seasons, those are usually elastic waste pants seasons, too, because I'm an emotional eater.

Hannah grieved so much she couldn't eat.

And her rival Panina, boo hiss.

Panina, Panina provoked her year after year.

Here's the thing about ache.

Even if we admit it we want it to be brief.

In my experience, the depth of our ache is congruent with the level of restoration.

The depth we go to in our grief is usually congruent with where God restores us.

Make sure you cry all the tears you have.

When he tells us in the Psalter that he stores the tears, we cry.

The implication there is that we weep them.

He doesn't store what we don't cry.

Year after year.

It wasn't a brief provocation, it wasn't a brief ache, it was a long ache.

Year after year.

Panina, the fertile, provoked Hannah, the infertile.

And so this is how I picture it.

This is not biblical, this is my imagination, aided by caffeine.

I picture Panina and Hannah in a minivan.

And Panina is wearing a tube top and Daisy Dukes, and she's got ACDC tats because we know she's trashy because she's so hateful.

And they're on their way to Costco to get supplies for all of Panina's brood because she has a lot of children.

And so Hannah is driving because she's the responsible one, and she's the only one who's listed on insurance because Panina has had so many accidents because she listens to ACDC and talks on her phone while she's driving.

So Panina's in the passenger seat and she has her feet up on the dash and she's painting her toenails fire engine red.

And Hannah is driving to Costco.

And Panina's children are wild.

They're not disciplined.

She did not read Growing Kids God's Way.

She lets them have sugar and caffeine and they put gum in Hannah's hair.

And Hannah is just driving very patiently to Costco.

And Panina says, Can you believe it?

I'm Preggers again.

I've lost count of how many children I have because I am fertile, myrtle.

Too bad, so sad, Hannah.

You haven't even been able to have one kid.

Must be a bummer.

How do you feel being infertile?

Can you imagine the torment?

Not just to be sad because your womb is empty, but to be saddled with a Yahoo like that.

Somebody who provokes over and over and over again.

People like I've seen on social media saying things about Gateway the last month.

Isn't it interesting how sometimes Christians masquerade as mean-spirited critics?

I think one of the holiest things, one of the holiest things we could do this season is to discipline our thumbs.

Because criticism with impunity is godless.

Year after year, Panina provoked Hannah year after year, and Hannah didn't eat.

And after the rest had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose.

Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.

Verse 10, she was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.

And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.

That's a Nazarite vow.

That's basically Hannah saying, If you will give me a child, I will dedicate that child to you.

I won't forget that the restoration comes from you, that you're the only one who can redeem this.

As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.

Hannah was speaking in her heart, only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard.

Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman.

And Eli said to her, How many mimosas did you have before worship service today?

That's the message version.

Put away your wine from you.

But Hannah answered, No, my Lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit.

I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.

Do not regard me as a worthless woman.

For all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety.

In other words, I haven't curated my emotions, Eli.

I have brought everything to the Lord.

Because I don't just trust him, as Pastor Matthew said, with the pinnacles.

I trust him with the valleys.

And the end of this chapter says the Lord heard.

I think one of the biggest misnomers in Christendom is that God is so busy with other more important things that our cries go unheard and unanswered.

Unanswered is very different than unheard.

Let me say that again.

Our perception of a quiet God is very different than a God who doesn't care for us.

Our God always cares for us.

We can cast all our anxiety on him because he cares for us, but he doesn't respond based on our eye cast.

Panina was provoked and vexed and in torment year after year.

And the Lord heard the whole time.

And she was honest enough to bring her tears, her lament to the Lord with so much authenticity that the head of the church thought she was drunk.

How often do we curate our emotions to make it more Christian-like?

We're so quick to raise our hands and so slow to weep.

And yet the majority of scripture talks about sorrow.

There are more psalms in the Psalter about lament than there are about thanksgiving.

How long, oh Lord?

How much longer?

How much longer do I have to sit next to this Yahoo with nasty feet?

How much longer do I have to listen to her mocking the fact that I haven't given birth to a miracle yet, that I've just miscarried time and time again.

Lord, I will bring all of it to you.

Let me ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes.

We're not doing a worship response yet, but bow your heads, close your eyes, lift up your right arm and make a fist, because this is going to be private.

This is between you and the Lord.

If you have been hurt by what happened a month ago here at Gateway, I want you to open your right hand.

Now close it.

That was all of you.

If you have honestly mourned, if you have cried all the year, tears you have, I want you to keep your fists closed.

If there are tears, anger, lament, and bitterness that you have only expressed in private or not at all, open your hand.

Almost all of us again, you can put your hands down.

Grief is not ungodly.

Grief is an avenue to comfort.

Why is it that we bring our perky emotions to the Lord in praise, but we withhold our grief?

Do we not trust in his capacity to heal?

Hannah trusted God with her grief, and the result was a son named Samuel.

And the priesthood took a nosedive.

After the third chapter of Samuel, there is no more priesthood to lead God's people.

That's the era of the prophets and the very first prophet is Samuel, the baby.

Hannah shed so many tears, and God birthed a miracle through that lament.

A miracle that we stand on the shoulders of Samuel.

Jeremiah, turn to the right about an inch, unless you have a Schofield Bible, and then it'll be two inches to Jeremiah 29.

You know this passage.

Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans for wholeness and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

That's usually the only two verses anybody knows from Jeremiah because the rest of Jeremiah was really sad.

The whole book is a lament.

He's called the weeping prophet.

Why?

Because Israel has turned her back on God.

And then Israel gets captured and taken away into exile in Babylon.

He's not saying that from a perky place.

He's not on a pinnacle, he's weeping.

And he says, I'll bring this sorrow to you because I know you will redeem.

Y'all, exile is not always punishment.

Sometimes exile is part of God's purpose.

Do you ever think that being without an official shepherd right now might actually woo you so much closer into the great shepherd?

Do you ever think that the humility of everybody knowing what happened at Gateway, that might just be what burns off dross and makes you more righteous as a family?

I have absolutely, absolutely zero judgment.

Isn't it interesting that the one tree we couldn't eat from in the garden, one, just one.

There's a bazillion trees.

They've got mango trees and banana trees and queso trees.

They've got a million trees.

And God says there's just one you can't eat from.

What is it?

It's a tree of good and evil.

Why?

Because he loves us so much that he knew if he gave us the capacity to judge, it would ruin community, and that's what we're so desperate for.

He knew humans don't have the capacity to carry judgment.

It makes us mean.

It takes away the tenderness and the community and the intimacy we were created for.

So be careful this season.

Guard your hearts, guard your mouths, discipline your thumbs.

Walk in humility.

Be honest about your ache.

Be careful to stand in judgment.

Be careful.

Lest you be judged by exactly the critical eyes your view and everything else.

And be careful.

But be honest about your ache.

Jeremiah said, This is awful.

Jerusalem is ransacked, the temple is destroyed.

We are being Exiled from our home.

I ache.

But I know the plans you have for us.

Plans for a hope and a future.

He didn't preach that from the pinnacle, he preached that from the valley.

Grief is not ungodly.

Grief is a pathway to restoration.

Grief is a sign of belief in the context of Hannah, in the context of Jeremiah.

Grief is a sign of faith.

It's our our souls picking up rocks and carrying them to the beach of the island of suffering we think we're stuck on and spelling out SOS.

Our tears say this is not what God intended.

But I know the plans he has for us.

Grief is a sign of belief, godly grief.

Don't store your own tears.

Don't store your own tears.

Turn to Matthew.

Last passage.

And it's okay if you don't make tears.

There's places where your heart still weeps.

It doesn't have to make water.

Our hearts can still be broken and not make literal tears.

Matthew chapter 25, verse 36.

Matthew 25:36

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane.

And he said to his disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray.

And taking with him Pete and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even unto death.

Remain here and watch with me, and going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

So Hannah's lament led to the birth of Samuel, first prophet of God's people.

Our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaddy of a pastor.

Jeremiah's lament led to the restoration of Israel from exile.

And Jesus' lament, the ache he honestly expressed in the garden, led to the gospel of salvation for you and I.

We would not know our separation from our Creator Redeemer had it not been for Jesus aching and saying, Not my will, but yours.

Isaiah describes Jesus as a man of sorrows.

The author of Hebrews said he prepared himself for the cross through pain.

You want to look like Jesus?

Then learn how to shepherd sadness.

Don't stuff it.

You want to look like Jesus, be honest about lament, not to prostrate ourselves before the world and whine and air dirty laundry.

But to say, we can't do this apart from Jesus.

I have no hope apart from Jesus.

He is my hope, he's my restoration.

So I'll bring everything before the Lord, trusting that he will redeem it all.

Somehow, some way, even this will work out for my good and his glory.

I was praying for y'all last night, staying at the Hilton right across the interstate.

And I just thought it just feels right to get on my knees.

I don't know what else was on the carpeting, but I thought it's okay.

I'm gonna get on my knees.

And as I was praying, and I apologize, I know I've overconnected.

I don't know most of you personally, but just as a Christ follower, you're family to me.

Some of y'all will probably be in the same apartment complex in glory.

And I can't cook, so I'm coming to your house and expecting you to feed me.

And I just I can't I can't wrap words around my ache for you last night.

But it wasn't a hopeless ache.

You know, hope includes sorrow.

Because hope is for something we can't see.

And to recognize it's supposed to be different is to recognize that it's broken.

If we don't acknowledge something needs to be fixed, there can be no restoration.

And so I was aching for y'all, but with hope.

And God reminded me of yet another one of my glaring mistakes.

Uh three years ago, almost four now, I got COVID pneumonia, and I thought, oh, these people are being sissies.

You know, I'm fine.

I'll just drink orange juice and take Tylenol.

And I refused to go to the hospital.

And by the time they had to carry me to the hospital because my blood ox was 82, I almost died.

And the surgeon then said she's waited so long to get help that the pneumonia in her lungs has hardened to shards like glass.

And it has shredded her lungs.

And she will probably always be on residual oxygen because she waited so long to get help.

And he reminded me of that.

And I already confessed to y'all, I'm I'm half stiff.

You get a half Baptist to do prophecy, it's like a nine-year-old with a Porsche.

We're not sure how to drive it.

But I sensed God saying to me, the tears gateway does not bring before me are going to harden.

And they're gonna shred the heart that I have for them, and they're gonna impede the restoration I have for them.

I don't glory in emotion that isn't given as a sacrifice to the Lord.

Karen and I both are involved in a lot of women's conferences, and sometimes we just whip up estrogen and call it revival, and it's not.

It's just elevated emotion.

So I'm not trying to manipulate us into a response that really isn't godly.

But if you have tears that you have not shed in the firm belief that God will redeem and restore, I can tell you from experience, they will harden into shards of bitterness.

And they will lead you to despair.

They will not lead you to restoration.

I have a platonic crush on C.S.

Lewis.

I have platonic crushes on a lot of dead guys.

But uh C.S.

Lewis is my pretend theological boyfriend.

And I want to read together something that C.S.

Lewis wrote that I think is profoundly applicable to all of us this season.

To love at all is to be vulnerable.

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries or social media or gossip with somebody else who got hurt at Gateway and has a story to tell.

Avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change.

Your heart will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

We're gonna have a family time of lament.

Again, not to glory in emotion, but to have a season where we go, my heart hurts, and I know he is my healer.

My heart hurts, and I'm gonna bring it before the Lord and trust that all these tears will fertilize revival.

Some of y'all I'm trusting may want to come to the front and repent because you've already used your thumbs to gossip, and you've already used your thumbs in a way that if you're honest with yourself, have been divisive.

Be quick to repent.

Be quick to say, Lord, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, because there's nothing I said, there's nothing I spoke that is restorative, that's redemptive.

Don't glory, don't glory in adding salt to someone's wounds.

Glory in the fact that we have a wounded healer who is even in this moment making all things new.

So, pastors of all the other campuses, y'all can um take over the rest of this family meeting.

I trust that y'all will shepherd with um with deep, deep compassion and empathy.

Um, I think if God has given any of you who lead a small group, uh small group in your home, leaders should be the first to be in our face before the Lord.

We should be the first to model, I'm gonna bring my ache to Jesus because this is a sign of faith.

This is a sign that we live in a broken world.

We live in the already, but the not yet people mess up here.

There is no perfect church.

If there was, the moment I entered it, it would be imperfect.

We don't need Jesus just for salvation, we need him for sustenance, we need him for healing.

He's our hope.

I want to say something that is um I haven't earned the right to say.

If your hearts aren't repentant, not because of your sin.

Just because we're sinners.

It doesn't matter who the elders choose to leave this house.

It doesn't matter.

We've gotten it crooked in America and we have top-down church, and God never intended it to be that way.

Because the king of all kings said, I didn't come to be served.

I came to serve.

I came to give my life as a ransom for many.

So it doesn't matter how gifted the next pastor is, doesn't matter how incredible a communicator they are, it doesn't matter what their pedigree is, if the family isn't on their face, going, Jesus, Jesus is the leader of this house.

Jesus is the leader of this house.

And so as a guest who has not earned the right to be so bossy, thank you for allowing me to speak so frankly.

Um, I would invite you to the altar.

I would invite you to come forward over these next few minutes, those of you who ache, those of you who feel bitterness beginning to grow in your heart, in your mind, those of you who are just, you can't even wrap words around what you feel right now, but you're just stinking sad.

When I found out what happened here, and I found out what happened with Dr.

Evans, who I esteem so highly, I had to sit down.

I felt like somebody had punched me in the stomach.

I just sat down and I couldn't breathe for a minute.

I thought these are men that I would follow off a cliff.

And Holy Spirit said, Lisa, I'm the one you follow.

And I said, Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir, yes, sir.

Let's have tender hearts.

Let's be quick to say, I'm sorry.

Let's pray for our leaders.

Let's pray for restoration.

Most of all, let's come before Jesus and say, I remember that you're the one who restores.

I remember that you're the one who stores our tears.

I remember that you're the one who redeems pain.

And you know every single place we ache because you are a man of sorrows.

Would you come to the altar?

Would you bring your family to the altar?

Would you come and offer a sacrifice of lament?

Would you come as a testimony that you believe that God won't waste a single thing?

Some of y'all have pain in your past.

My dad left my family when I was a kid.

Devastated me.

I thought if I was only sweeter or prettier, or use my inside voice more, maybe dad wouldn't have left us.

And then my mom married a man who was abusive.

And so daddy for me, father for me was a painful term for decades.

I believed in the holiness of God.

But to believe that the Heavenly Father was a dad whose lap I was safe in, that's still hard for me.

So when spiritual fathers hurt me, it presses on wounds from the past.

And the only one safe with that pain is Jesus.

And I have to come before him and say, Goodness gracious, Lord, I thought I was healed here.

But there was a scab underneath what I thought was a healed place.

And so heal me deeper, Lord.

Heal me deeper.

Break my heart for what breaks yours.

Some of y'all uh have felt pain that goes beyond what happened at Gateway.

In his mercy, he's exposing a wound that you didn't realize was still there.

In his mercy, there's more healing for you.

It's not just about July 2024.

It might be about July 1984.

And he says, I love you so much.

I don't want you to still have that in your spirit.

There's more healing for you.

Would you come to the altar with any tears, any angst, any bitterness you have as a result of what's happened in this house, or as a result of what's happened in your family of origin?

As a result of what's happening right now, there's a lump in your breast.

You prayed and prayed and prayed that it would be benign and it's not.

And you're so stinking disappointed because you thought, if I just do better, if I pray harder, God will heal me.

And right now, it looks like physical healing has not been God's yes.

Some of y'all thought, if I if I just work harder in counseling, he'll restore my marriage.

And y'all are this close to divorce, maybe he's already filed the papers.

And your heart is heavy because hope has been deferred this season.

Would you bring that before the Lord and trust him with it before it hardens into resentment, before it hardens into apathy, before it hardens into bitterness?

Bring the broken places of your heart before the Lord.

He is trustworthy, y'all, he's trustworthy, he's trustworthy.

But you have to cry him for him to count them.

It's gonna be really easy for y'all in the top section to just be observers.

Please remember biblical narrative.

God parted the Red Sea, but then when they got to Jordan and it was in flood stage, he said, You're gonna have to get your feet wet.

I'm not gonna do this for you right now.

You're gonna have to participate in the miracle.

It's gonna be real easy for y'all to be consumers because of how far away you are.

Do not be consumers of restoration.

If God is moving, please come forward, even if you have to walk down, please come forward.

If Holy Spirit is moving, respond to Holy Spirit.

If you don't respond to Holy Spirit, the enemy can harden even a believer's heart.

Nebuchadnezzar believed God.

And then because it because he didn't stay tenderhearted, he became an animal on all fours.

Do not resist Holy Spirit.

If Holy Spirit is saying right now to you, come bring that to me.

You might not get answers today, but you will get presence.

God doesn't promise that He'll answer every single question.

He does promise his presence.

He's close to the brokenhearted and he's near to us when our lives feel crushed.

Those of you who are prayer counselors here at Gateway, would you please come and pray with our friends?

Those of you who know one of these saints at the altar, would you please come and just put your hand on their back?

If you've got somebody in your small group up here, please be family.

The body of Christ is not a metaphor, y'all.

It's how we live.

Come be the body of Christ.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.