How to Lament Well: Biblical Insights and Practical Steps || Pastor Adam Mesa

Praise God. Well, so great to see all of you this Sunday.

Thank you so much for joining us on all those first time visitors. I'm

excited to jump in the word with you this morning. And so, without

any further ado, if you're ready, would you go to a book in

the Bible that maybe you've never read before, maybe never you've never even spent

any time in. But we will spend a little time today and that's the

Book of Lamentations. That's what we're going to talk about today. And we've

been in a series called Walk It Out. And in this series walk it

Out, we've kind of taken some l's of what it looks like to walk

our faith out, both in church but also outside of church. So we've

shared about what it means to walk in love, what it means to walk

in leadership, what it means to walk in light. And then this week

we're going to talk about what it means to walk in lament. Walk in

lament, and if you don't know what that means, in a few seconds

we'll share what that is. But as you open Lamentations, would you turn

to Lamentations chapters three we'll read first. Together, we're gonna read verses nineteen

to thirty five or thirty six. But these are small passages of scripture,

so it's not very long at all, but it's powerful, you know.

Lamentations is known as lamenting poetry, or in other words, it helps give

you words to the pain that you're feeling inside and believe it or not in

God's word. He has given us multiple forms of poetry, and I'll share

it in a few moments. But there are psalms that are called lamenting psalms.

There are passages in scripture that are called lamenting passages. They are even

quoted in the New Testament as well. It's God's desire that when you and

I experience painful times in our lives, that God would help us find the

words and find the attitude to connect with God so that we can go through

it not in a way where we're complaining, but in a way where you're

healing. If we're gonna walk in our faith. Guess what lamenting well is

a part of that. Because lamentations, if you don't do it well,

either one it turns into complaining very fast, or two it turns into pain

very fast. And so if you have lamentations three ready, could you stand

for the honor of reading God's word? As we embark to share a little

bit about this poetry literature today, it says the Lamentations three nineteen or thirty

six. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall My

soul continually remembers. It is what it is, and is bowed down within

me. But this I called a mind, And therefore I have hope that

steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is

my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. The

Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who keeps

him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the

Lord. It is good for a man that he beareth yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him. Let

him put his mouth in the dust. There may be yet hope. Let

him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled

with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he

caused grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

For he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men,

to crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man

justice in the presence of the most High, to subvert a man in his

lawsuit. The Lord does not approve. Let's pray today, Lord, we

just lay at your altar today, Father God, as we sung earlier,

the good, Good Father. Lord. I just thank you so much God

that you are good, and through painful times, and through doubting times,

and through questioning times, you have given us a voice, and you have

given us space to air our grief, to air our lamit. And so

God, I pray, if there's anyone here today who has experienced any form

of lament, whether they're online or in this room, may you speak to

us today in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated. And so,

though we'll have a conversations today that may feel a little weighty, hopefully

it gives us hope and life. On the other side, there's some questions

we have to ask ourselves and that are commonly asked by everybody. Lamentations helps

us address it. The Book of Job helps us ex express it. Other

books in Isaiah and other New Testament passages like the Gospels help us to discover

a common question that every person has, whether they identify following God or not.

It's this question, does God ignore me when I'm in pain? That's

a very real question that you may ask, or everyone may ask, whether

they recognize who Jesus is or they do. We all wonder that question when

we experience life's trials, when we experience life's burdens, when we experience life's

hardships, we ask the question, is God aware about what I'm going through?

Is God aware about the pain that I feel? But also what can

I do about it? When something is out of your control? How can

you control it? It helps us discover the question what happens when I'm in

a broken place? What happens when I'm in a state of pain or shocked?

Do I get mad at God? Do I get even with people?

Do I cut off the world around me? Lamentations helps you and I explore

the right attitude to have when you and I are going through something. And

that may be you today, but I'll promise you this, and it's not

me saying that something's around the corner. But it is very improbable that you'll

go the rest of your life without any issues. So even if you're good

right now, hopefully lamentations will give you some hope that should something happen in

the future, you and I know how to approach what this is. I'll

just simply give you here's the definition of lamenting or lamentation. It is a

passionate, demonstrated expression of Greek. It's also a poetic action of lamenting.

And so the point of this and what's beautiful if you think about what it

means to follow Jesus. One of the attributes of confessing Jesus as Lord and

Savior says that you and I must confess our sins to God. So there

is an outward expression that as you and I share our sin, share our

grief with God, there is healing, there's restoration that God can take place.

Well. To a Jewish audience, that wouldn't be uncommon because the Book

of Lamentations is all about God's desire that you vocally share what you're going through,

not mentally. A lot of times we're really good with just internalizing what

we're going through, or a lot of times we're really good at just kind

of passively aggressively sharing it amongst a family member or a friend. But the

Book of Lamentations gives you the permission to say, God, what in the

world is going on? What is happening? It gives you permission to speak

forward. Now, I know that's uncommon for some church people who we've been

raised with this idea that every single day someone asks you how you're doing,

you're supposed to say, Oh, I'm blest, I'm blessed, God's good

and so those may be true statements. Inside you're saying, I'm crumbling,

man, I'm in pain, I have doubts, I have questions, and

then we think to our but I can't bring that to God. Yes you

can. Lamentation poetry is all about you bringing it to God. And so

there's some steps it encourages us to do. And if you like this conversation

of lamentations, here's some psalms if you want to go and read these during

your own prayer life. I want to share with you Psalms ten. I'm

not going read them, you can read them on your own, but Psalms

ten sixty three sixty nine seventy four and seventy nine are all about lamentation.

Psalms most of them written by King David. But it's how King David outwardly.

We can leave it back on real quick. I'll read it one more

time. I see people with their phones out still taking pictures. Psalms ten,

sixty three, sixty nine, seventy four, and seventy nine. You

can also screen capture these on YouTube later on also. But if you go

read these, you'll find that there's an aspect where David is going through circumstance.

David is going through his own sin, David is going through enemies,

David is going through family crisis, David is going through divorce, David is

going through trauma, and he is outwardly through all these expressions. He does

not internalize. That's why the Bible says, how can it helps us process

questions? How can David have so many shortcomings, so many sins, but

still be considered a man after God's own heart? We because he knew how

to lament He knew how to bring his burden and his sins and his breakdowns

to God. He knew how to do that, And lamentations gives you permission

to do that. Eugene Peterson, the pastor and author, said this Lamentations

trains us to enter in and be present to the brokenness of life, and

in doing so, to encounter the presence of God who heals in restores.

And so the Book of Lamentations is only five chapters. It's very short read,

and it's read as a poem this type. But poetry that's used.

Is what it does. Is it does alphabetical poetry. And so if you

and I read Hebrew fluently, you would see in chapter one of Lamentations,

every sentence is a letter in the alphabet. So sentence one starts the word

starts with an A. Sentence two the word starts with a being. Sentence

three the word starts with a C, and so on and so forth,

all the way till it gets to the end. Now they don't have our

exact same alphabet, but all the way till it gets to the end of

their alphabet, so as to say, from your A to Z, God

is involved, or God is seeing your pain. He sees your pain.

So therefore there is not a painful thing you can go through that God is

unaware of. That's why it gives us an alphabetical statements or alphabetical poetry.

But by the end chapter five, it's not alphabetical. The alphabet is there,

but it's disordered, which means there are Sometimes you may not have answers

to everything. Chapter five ends with but God is still there. And so

God is there in your perfectly constructed life. God is also there in your

chaotic life. Lamentations helps us process that pain, but it also helps us

process the responsibility Israel had to have in the pain that they were going through

in the time. This book, this letter in poetry, is written during

five hundred BC. During this time, the Kingdom of Israel has split into

two nations, the Northern Tribe of Israel and the Southern tribe of Southern Kingdom

of Judah. Judah has just been infiltrated by the Babylonians, and they've ransacked

their temple, They've ransacked their streets, they put people on display, They've

raped women and children, they have murdered people. It says that kings are

now taken off to slavery. It says priests have been brought into poverty.

So what it says is this their idea that Israel is going through it.

But it's clear to us the picture is that that was not part of God's

desire. That it was part of God's desires. Should Israel consistently be obedient

to following God, God would be their protector. But because Israel and a

Bible talks about it a lot in Deuteronomy in other places, God would say,

Israel, why are you divorcing me? Why are you cheating on me?

And so eventually God is Israel's husband, takes off his hand of protection

and provision, And every time the world around Israel was trying to succumb them,

God would create a barrier for them. But Lamentations is all about God

removes this protection to get Israel to wake up and realize how good they have

it under God's care because they have walked away from the Lord. And so

there's two big processes. If you read the Book of Lamentations that you have

to see Number one. Jeremiah the author is first recognizing individual responsibility for the

hell that he's experienced. Then he steps into a space a few chapters later

where he realizes as a community, how they have gotten themselves into this mess.

And so what we're gonna see today with a few notes if you want

to join us. We're gonna see three aspects of the lamentor, and one

of these three could be you. Today we see that lamenting is for number

one, the rebellious person. Lamenting is for the restless person, and also

lamenting is for the reconcile person. Let's first talk about the rebellious person.

Lamentations Chapter one, verse eighteen starts with this. It says, the Lord

is righteous, yet I rebelled against his command. He doesn't put any blame

on God. Immediately says God is good. God is righteous, and he

says I rebelled against God. Starts taking personal responsibility, and he says,

listen to all you peoples, look on my suffering. My young men and

young women have gone into exile. The Babylonians have taken them off to slavery.

And Jeremiah begins to reflect and say, not that he's taking responsibility for

everyone in the nation, but he's saying, in his faith, how can

he take responsibility on how he helped get Israel to where they're at. How

did his rebelliousness get to the point of disconnect from God. So immediately what

he starts to do is reflect upon his own sin. Now, I know

that's not very attractive. Because we like to wake up and we like to

think we're perfect. We like to make sure we don't fail. We like

to act like we've never made a mistake. We like to wait for everyone

else to say they're sorry. We like to say every someone else first to

say thank you. We want everyone else to get the door for us on

the way. And we don't ever sit though and think, how often has

I said thank you? How often have I forgave someone? How often have

I said sorry first or going deeper? How often has I have I sinned?

How often have I given myself to simple things? You know, the

Bible says that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. A lot of

us we like to think that we're born angels. I know your babies were

cute when they were born, But the Bible says, if we're gonna go

off the word of God, it says that you and I are born as

sinners because of Adam and Eve and so as angelic. You think your baby

is, just go hang around a two year old for a couple hours and

you will see how absolutely selfish they are. One of the first things they'll

learn. One of the first words that you won't even teach them will be

the word mine. That ought to be proof enough to you to see where

our heart goes Mine. Mine, Everything's mine, everything mine. Everything should

work out for me and my benefit. So the first thing Jeremiah does said,

how did my own rebelliousness towards God get me here? Sometimes we're in

trouble not because the enemy did it, not because Satan did it. Because

you gave yourself your own indiscretion. That is sometimes why we are in particular

predicaments. We repeat things over and over and over. Why because we are

unwilling to number one, recognize our sin. I talk to people all the

time and they're like, Wow, I gave it to God, And it's

like did you? Though, because you keep revisiting it, you keep falling

into the same temptation. You keep falling distant, more and more distant from

God. It's an own rebellious spirit and own rebellious attitude, and so vations

gives us an opportunity to number one. First, God, how have I

been rebellious in this relationship not only with you, but this relationship with others

in my life? There was a time. And over the years, I've

had the privilege that every once in a while I get to work with professional

athletes of all various sports and stuff like that. And so many years ago

I was working with professional football player and he had an opportunity. He was

pro and then he kind of got reduced to the second string for a season,

and they kind of told him, if you just work hard, we

might be able to move you to first string or recommend you to another team

if you just keep plugging away. What just so happened. When you get

signed and you get signed with a contract, even though it's a set limit,

it's a very nice pay for professional athletes. And so he had very

good pay, he had very great opportunities. And so what does he do

with that good pay? What does he do with that good opportunities? Well,

he starts picking up some habits. He's going out to clubs, he's

partying, he's going out with other players, he's showing up late to practice.

He comes in. You know, when you're in you know, when

you're mostly in football, you have to watch film. And so he's coming

in and you have to watch the other team that you're gonna play in a

couple weeks and watch how their tactics are and stuff, and so he would

come late to it. When he was in there, he wouldn't really pay

attention because he had a lot of natural gift, a lot of natural talent.

So he thought, man, I just whatever happens in this space doesn't

matter. As long as I'm on the field and I show up, I'll

be good. Well, one day he comes in late to practice and one

of the coaches pulls him aside and says, listen, son, we're letting

you go today. Today's your last day. You're fired. You haven't taken

practice serious, you haven't taken the thing serious. So they let him go.

That next Sunday, the first string person pulls their hamstring, and on

that game day they had to pull the third string practice person to play that

entire season because he was gone. It just so happened that that year that

team won the Super Bowl, and that person on the third string is now

a first string player for many professional teams, and that person is no longer.

He never could get hired after that. And so when I often sit

with professional athletes, this is one of the first stories that I tell is

because you can all day. Blame someone else. You can all day while

that coach was hard on me or they, But I showed up a regardless

you were rebellious, regardless, you did your own thing, regardless, you

made your own decisions, regardless you made your bed you got to sleep in.

That is God forgiving one hundred percent. But because God forgives, does

that mean that that separates you from consequences of your sin? No? No,

it does not separate you consequences from your sin. And so what happens

is lamentationous. Chapter one is all about. First thing is going God,

I accept the consequences. That's the first step to lamentations, and say,

God, if I got myself in this mess, how can I accept these

consequences. I talked to a young man last week and it was so beautiful

because he said, I'm giving my life to Jesus Christ today. And he

said, I have spent my life doing my own thing for so long and

messed up so many things that it's time I give it to God. And

I looked at him and I said, you won't believe how rare it is

that people make that statement right there. Oftentimes we want to blame other things

and there is lamentations helps you the scan circumstance and your community. But the

first step first is saying, was I rebellious in any way? And that

is what we have to ask ourselves, because then if you are rebellious in

any way, you can own it, you can confess it, you can

repent, and you can begin to restore yourself both with God but also with

man. And then the second process that we see with individuals is that there

is a restlessness for some people who are lamenting. And what lamentation shows us

in the restlessness process and the points upon the screen in the restlessness process,

this is a process that as you scan the world around you also what's happening

in your life, but also what's happening in your community. It is this

restlessness that you just don't know what's going on. It's like you read the

newspaper and you look at election, like, God, what's going on with

these elections? It's restless, God, what is happening? You look at

what may be happening in your own backyard or your own community thing, what

is happening right your workplace? You're looking and they're just chaos. Like promoting

people they normally wouldn't get promoted, or they're firing people that are really good

employees, and you're going, like, what is going on? Or all

of a sudden, stuff's going on in your family that you can't make sense

of. Stuff's going on your man and you're going, what is going on?

We were good ninety days ago? What happened in ninety days? And

you don't know? So you're restless, cause if you had an answer,

good, you could sleep at night. But lamentations also helps us for the

ones that go what like why did Babylon come after us? There's one aspect

that Israel was falling into sin and so God released his provision. But there's

also another aspect of saying, but the stuff that they're doing is ridiculous.

And so Philippians chapter four, I think gives us a beautiful picture that as

Apostle Paul, he kind of this a form of lamenting that he's doing in

this passage, and he says this not that I am speaking of being in

need, for I have learned in whatever situation i'm to be a content.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to bound in

any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of flate, facing plenty,

and in hunger, abundance and in need. I can do all things

through Him strengthens me. You know, this is a very famous passage,

and normally we just quote the I can do all things through Him who strengthens

me. But we got to remember what he just said previously. This is

a man who's been in prison, and in his prison, he has been

beaten, he has had mental physical disabilities, he has had issues with people

who didn't like him, who gossiped about him, you name it. The

apostle Paul went through it. And so he makes this statement to say,

guys, I've been in plenty, I've been in need. He said,

I've been healthy, I've been unhealthy. And he said, what I've realized

is I can do all things through Jesus Christ, who strengthens me. In

other words, what he says is he says, when I've been broke,

it is God who strengthened me. But when he has been rich, it

has been God who has strengthened him. When he has been healthy, it

has been God who strengthened him. When he has been unhealthy, has been

God who has strengthened him Philippians. For he tells you for the restless person,

Jesus is the answer to give you strength. He is the answer.

There is no other answer that can fully give you the rest or the peace

that we need, that can abound what we're really looking for. Man,

man, if I just if I just got that promotion, I think it

would solve everything. You get the promotion and you're not working seven days,

you're working ten days a week. You don't even know how that happens.

There aren't even ten days. What was it? Not? What you pray

for? You see a lot of times what Paul saying is he's saying,

don't let circumstance drive your worship for God. Because if circumstance drives your worship

for God, and God just blessing you on the outside will determine whether you'll

give God your worship, then Paul says, listen, then you are not

abounding in His strength. You are abounding in your once. And if you're

abounding in your once, then all the enemy can do is remove your things

from you, and then now it all to fight your worship. So lamentations

is all about God. Whether I'm in Babylon or I'm in Israel. We

need to worship you. And it takes this ownership to say God. In

chapter three, like we read the Lord is My portion. What he's saying

is that statement that's very famous, the Lord is my portion Lamentations, chapter

three. That is a real estate terminology. And anyone in the days of

Israel, if you were a priest or you were a king, everyone was

given a land portion. Of the twelve tribes of Israel, each tribe was

given a land portion. And so what he says in the Book of Lamentations

is he says, I don't need real estate to love God, because everyone

thought we needed Israel. If we just had Israel, then we could have

a relationship with God. If we just had our land, then we can

worship God. If we just had our space, then we could give God

our best. And he says, no, no, no, no,

no. Your real estate is not your portion. God is your portion.

And if you value Him as your portion, then you can take God everywhere

with you and you're not defined by circumstance or situation. And so the restless

person, we find ourselves oftentimes defined by the circumstance. When I was one

of my first jobs here at the church. My first job was at a

skate shop called Zoomies, but my first shop at what was then Abundant Living

Family Church. My first job here was I helped edit videos because I learned

how to do editing when I was in high school. And so in two

thousand and seven I started working here helping the youth ministry and helping do commercials

on the weekend. So we would film just like you saw today, you

saw some videos, and so one of my roles was to cut and edit

those videos. And so back then in two thousand and seven, I had

to get a hard drive to store all the videos because the amount of video

storage it wouldn't fit in your computer. So I needed a secondary hard drive.

And so back then I needed a one terabyte hard drive. And I

remember going to Best Buy and I bought a hard drive that kind of looked

like this. It was one terabyte, and it was fifteen hundred dollars for

that one terabyte hard drive. And so I would like I had a laptop,

and I was in slowly, like shortly after I went to college.

So in college, i'd have my laptop in a backpack and I'd have like

my hard drive like this, like under my arms, and so I'd go

to like Starbucks, and I'd set up my hard drive like this, and

then I'd set up my computer and then this had all my video files.

And so I'd like when I was carrying this thing, there was no way

to forget it. Like I never lost this hard drive. I never forgot

this hard drive. It was like and it was heavy, it was like

ten pounds. And so when you you knew you had it. But then

today one terabyte hard drive looks like this, and you'll get one of these

for like fifty bucks. And so just in fifteen years, one Terrorbyy hard

drive went from this to this this one. You can now put it in

your pocket. But here's the thing. They stored the same amount of information.

What happens is is in your lamenting, if you don't know how to

process your feelings with God, then what happens is you'll just get good at

shrinking the pain. But it doesn't mean it doesn't mean that the space hasn't

changed, It doesn't mean that the storage hasn't changed. And so in time,

yeah, when you get divorced, at first, this hurts. It

feels like this. It feels heavy, it feels big, it feels like

you're taking it everywhere with you. But if you don't heal from that and

you just get good at carrying, what happens is you just learn how to

carry the files in a smaller thing. And then when you get in a

second marriage and they unlock something you haven't released to God through lamenting, you

just pull that hard drive out. You put it back in your heart,

and you flood those emotions back out. And so you think to yourself,

just because it's diminished, or isn't as heavy anymore, or isn't as loud

anymore, you think you're good. You think you're healed. You think or

your own sin. You think, oh, I don't watch porn anymore.

I don't do this anymore. I don't do But let you go through one

stressful situation. Let you go through one argument, Let you go through one

heated moment at work. And now all of a sudden, you're getting a

twenty four pack on the way home. All of a sudden you're calling your

dealer again, and you think to yourself, where did this come from?

I thought I had it under control. No you didn't. No, you

didn't. You didn't have it in control. You just got good at shrinking

because you've never confessed it to God. You've never repented to God, you

never released it to the Lord. And so God can't heal what you don't

confess. God can't come and deep burden that which you won't give him.

And so we have to get good at taking these files and delete them.

You gotta delete these files because you will go through hard times again, and

you need that space. You need that emotional space, you need that spiritual

space to go through that with God. But a lot of times we just

keep storing, and we just keep proving. Our spouse says something again and

you're like, oh, I'm filing that away for later. I'm we use

that later, so you don't release it. Or your kids go through something,

you say, oh, I'm filing that for later. And so therefore

we just start storing things and storing things, and at first they feel really

big, but when we don't heal, we just learn how to carry them.

We get really good at faking the funk until times get hard. So

lamentations encourages us. Don't wait to get it out, let it out,

talk to God about it. Release that confess that you look at society and

you're restless. Take it to God, Take it to God. I'm glad

you feel like Facebook is a safe space. I'm glad you feel like neighborhood

app is a safe space to share about how you hate your neighborhood or whatever.

That's fine, but that is not a way of healing. I'm good,

I'm good. I took it to Facebook and all my friends told me

that I'm loved and I'm special and I'm good, and like, I'm good

because I got affirmed by people. Well, what happens when people don't affirm

you? So we can't be defined by that can't be defined by. Last

point is this is we realize. Oh, let me share this quote by

Dietrich Bondhoffer. He says, in the lament, we are completely honest with

God, telling him everything that lies heavily on our hearts. That's what it

is. There is no secret you have to keep from God. You can

totally bear it all. And then the last thing is the lament is for

the person who's ready to reconcile back to God. The reconcile back to God.

Lamentations, Chapter four, Verses one to two, says is how the

gold has lost its luster. The fine gold becomes dull, the sacred gems

are scattered at every corner. What he's saying is he's saying Israel was defined

by its opulence and its beauty. It was defined by its wealth, and

so it had these beautiful streets that had golden casings. The temple had diamonds

and rubies and emeralds and gold. And when the Babylonians came in, they

tried to pillage as much as possible, but they left a lot behind at

the same time too, because they're just they're warriors, so they're you know,

they weren't ready to haul back all of their architecture, and so they

leave a lot of it behind. And what Jeremiah's doing is he's looking at

the city that the beauty actually wasn't defined by the beauty of the city.

It was defined by the hearts of the people that gave definition to the city.

So once the people of Israel aren't there anymore, once they're all broken,

he goes, the gold is not so goldie no more. He like,

you're not so pretty no more. When there's no one to wear it.

It's just it just sits there. It's a paperweight. When there's no

one to clean it. It then just gathers death. So he's looking and

he's saying, man, we gotta get our life right. And then in

chapter five, verse twenty one to twenty two, he closes and he says,

God, restore us. So he's realizing, like God, we valued

the wrong things as a people of Israel. So he's like, God,

all we're asking you to do is restore us so that they might return and

renewed days of old. He's not talking about the beauty of the city.

He's talking about their worship back to God, to not worship pagan gods anymore,

to not do the practices they were doing. He said, God,

bring us back to yourself. And he says, unless you have utterly because

what he's saying is I don't He doesn't know the mind of God. So

he's like, unless you have utterly rejected us. So it's not that God

has, but that's how he feels in the moment, is God, have

you rejected us? But if you can restore me back to the days of

old, where I can worship you and I can praise you, and we

can serve you. What he's exclaiming is he's saying, regardless of the circumstance,

we are going to pursue worshiping God above all else. And it's through

them expressing their lament and their pain that they see hope that only could be

found in God. The things they once took for granted, they now become

valuable, which is a relationship with God. There's a famous hymn that you

may or may not know. If you grew up in church, you would

definitely know this. It's called It Is Well, and it's it's a song

called it Is Well. And I'll share some lyrics in a second. And

I also want to encourage some people in a few moments if you're going through

a season of lamenting. I want to do a little bit of ministry as

we close today. But the story is the person who wrote that was a

man named Horatio Spafford. In eighteen seventy about eighteen seventy one, there was

the famous Chicago fire. He's a very very wealthy real estate guy. And

what happened in the Chicago fire because back then there was no digital currency or

anything like that, and so what happened was in the Chicago fire. He

lost all of his wealth in the bank it burned down, so all of

his money it was gone, it burnt. He was very, very wealthy.

In the same year, his four year old son died to the Scarlet

fever. So one year so far, he has lost his four year old

son to the fever. He has lost all of his wealth. And then

a few months later, to try to just gain a little bit of rest,

bit, a little bit of rest, he tells his wife and his

four daughters, let's go to England and just spend some time recalibrating, find

out what's next for our future, try to heal from our son's passing.

And so he sends his wife and his four daughters ahead of him while he

finishes his closing out some business dealings and during that time selling from America to

England. There was a very famous storm that came and is shipwrecked that ship

off the coast of London. Two hundred people died in that shipwreck, four

of which were his four daughters. They drowned. His wife survived. Upon

getting to London, she sent a telegram to her husband because he had no

idea. She said, all four of our daughters have died. I am

alone. Please come, and he gets on a boat and he races to

London as fast as he can. While he's on the ship, the captain

comes to him, brings him outside from under the cabin and says, this

is where it's been told that the shipwreck happened, where you lost your four

daughters. So in just about eighteen months, he loses his wealth, he

loses his son to fever, he loses his four daughters. And then he

processed this with his wife, and his response was he immediately grabbed a pen

and paper and he wrote a song, a hymn called it is Well with

My Soul. This was a person that immediately began to lament to God.

He immediately took his burdens to God, creating a song that has ministered to

people for almost two hundred years now. And some of the lyrics go like

this. He says, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when

sorrow's like see Billow's roll, his daughter's drowned. So he talks about the

sea. He says, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to know,

it is well, It is well with my soul. What he began to

tell himself, is God, as long as I have you, it's gonna

be okay. You're gonna help me get through this. As long as as

long as you're with me, you can help me through this. And he

began to pin, and he began to talk about how Satan would throw things

at him, and how Satan would try to discourage him, but he says,

it is my God who can restore us. It's through this song that

so many people have found hope and healing. And when we hear it,

we go, oh, my gosh, that's so beautiful. But most of

us have no idea why it was written. Because when you lament well,

beautiful things can come out of it. Beautiful things can come out of broken

moments for a person that is truly, truly saying, God, where are

you in this? I need you? I'm broken, So I want to

encourage you at this moment. Could we stand to our feet and we're gonna

sing this hymn out loud a couple times together, and we're gonna allow just

this song. If you're in a process of lament in your life, whether

you're trying to put some things, some addiction, some darkness to the past,

or there's some circumstances out of your control, but they are tearing you

down. You feel restless. We're gonna sing this hymn out loud, and

I pray that through this hymn God would begin to minister to you and speak

to you. I want to encourage you that if we sing this hymn right

now, if you feel like just coming to the altar and just signifying that

you're laying it at the altar of God here at the front, I encourage

you to do that. We're gonna sing for just about five minutes in worship

together, and we'll leave here together. But let this be a moment that

the Holy Spirit begins to speak to you. Let God begin to restore you.

Let God begin to reconcile you. Let God begin to touch you and

heal you in maybe places you have never allowed God to touch before. You've

never let him healed that area before. But let today be a day that

you may need a reconciliation in a marriage, you may need a physical healing,

You may need God to do some miracle in your life, or you

may just need to lay your sins at the foot of the cross. Whatever

it is, let's worship a little bit, and if you feel lead,

come to the altar and just lay these things down to God. Today.

Let's sing it as well. Read pea a grive a died my wit wind

sous like see bows road ward land. Thou has turned me to know heies

heties with my sole. Heies well with my soul. My s he swell,

he is well my shot. So of course he gave me as well.

He is wells well with my soul. Shoes twell, heies well with

my shot. I put my fathes my go to the ground my whole band

firm foundation. She'll allowed me of b B got to my home five foundation.

She'll die me do a put not thy my go to my home fare

foundation. Will now I'm the lone met a poor buy my go to my

hob firm founding. Remember les yanking, he'll no happy. Don't see the

woman time I poot a put the thang yea my go to the my home

man firm founding. Sh He'll no let me. She'll greed is your sake

create It's to faes bo grazy pas your face for the rising sun from the

nty son to the samey take my greate your grated. Great is your face

to me? I could my say, I come on Church, turn the

volume off. My my huban firm foundation, my man firm founded. Let

me down. He'll let how my fading to my God to crown my home

man finn voald, He'll may the whole time. I put my face in.

I'm pulling bar fade the jeep my to Thelord, my home man,

per fat He'll have. Great is your faith for this? Say great,

deez, everybody say great praise to me. From the right side. From

the rise, I will pray. Sing that again. From the rise the

rise sad, Come on John to stay there, from the rising sun safe

from the rising s Yeah, I will praise. I will no matter the

situation. From the rising from the risey sent, I will praise. Yeah.

Come on, sing it again, no matter the difficulty. From the

rising, from the rising center. I'm gonna praise your name one more time,

singing like you know it from the rising, from the rising sun to

the I will praise. Great is your faithfulness scene great. Let's pray today.

God. We thank you, Lord for your healing. Today, God,

we thank you for your reconciliation. Lord, we thank you for your

restoration in this place. God, we thank you God that regardless of circumstance,

regardless of paying God, you are not far off, but you are

near. Lord. I pray that as many of us have laid some things

at the alter of grace, today, God, I pray that is by

your spirit that you give us strike today. God, I pray we rest

on you today, God, the restless spirit, the running spirit, God

that alienated the exile. God. I pray that today they would find hope

in you. Lord. I pray they would find peace in you today.

God. I pray that today we would see that you are with us every

step of the way. God. And if there's anyone here that feels far

off and is ready to make that decision to make Jesus Christ their lord and

savior, and you're ready to stand before God one day, not upon your

own works, or your own salvation, or even your own sin, but

to fully rest your life on Jesus Christ. Some of you are in here

today, some of you are watching online. Some are in the cafe that

are saying, I'm not gonna run anymore. I'm not gonna be in exile

no more, but I'm gonna join the family of God by making Jesus my

Lord and savior. I'm gonna confess my sins. I'm gonna lay it at

the foot of the cross, and I'm gonna follow Jesus. If that is

you here today. Would you all join me in affirming this prayer out loud

that the spirit is already at work today. Would you join me in saying,

Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I confess my sins. I

believe in my heart that you died on the cross and you rose three days

later, And from this day forward I commit to make you my Lord and

Savior in Jesus' name. Amen.