A Path Through Pain | Pastors Ed & Lisa Young

Welcome to Free Life Chapel, where we

help you discover and live the free life

in Christ. My name is Cotti, and I'm so

glad that you decided to tune in with us

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about what's happening at your church.

There's an amazing message in store just

for you. I hope you're encouraged.

>> This is Lakeland, Florida, and there are

a lot of lakes around here. I grew up.

we would assume Lake Lakeland.

>> I grew up in a neighborhood that had

this little lake. And I'll never forget

what happened. I was a little kid, you

know, and my brother was a little kid.

And one one evening, my father said,

"Boys, let's go to the lake and watch

the sunset."

Okay. It was kind of an adventure. So,

we took a little path through the little

little bit of woods and we made our way

to this bank and we're just standing on

the bank of this little lake.

And then as the sun is melting into the

horizon, my father goes, "It Ben, have

you ever seen a water moccasin before?"

You know, I'm talking about the snake. I

go, "No, there's one right now."

Wow.

THERE'S ANOTHER ONE. WHAT? AND another

one. And then my brother WAS LIKE,

"THEY'RE AROUND OUR FEET, TOO." I don't

know what happened. I don't know if it

was some sort of a mating season or

whatever. I've never seen that many

snakes in one place in my life. They

were all water moccasins. So, here's

what dad did. Dad goes, "SONS, JUMP ON

MY BACK. I'M GONNA CARRY YOU OUT OF

HERE." SO, WE were grabbing onto my

father's back while he's making his way

to the woods, pulls out this flashlight,

this cheap flashlight, finds the path

because now it was dark, you know, dark

30 and and and we make our way down the

path and I'll never forget it. I

remember the the the the porch light was

on in our house and I knew if we made it

to that porch light everything will be

great. And sure enough, even though we

were waiting through water moccasins,

literally sure enough, even though we

walked through this treacherous path, we

made it home.

Today, we're going to talk about a path

of a different kind. A path through

pain.

You might be thinking a path through

pain. Yes, life has pain. If you've not

noticed, if you have lived unscathed,

just wait around. You will experience

some pain. We live in a fallen,

infallible world. People make bad

choices. And we live in a place where

there's pain and suffering. So, I want

you to picture yourself standing on the

bank of that little pond.

I want you to picture the water

moccasins you're dealing with right now.

You might be saying, "Well, it's a

spouse, it's it's a child, it's someone

at work, or it's a financial setback."

What are those water moccasins that

you're dealing with? Because I have

great news for you. Our heavenly father

is looking at you and me AND SAYING,

"JUMP INTO MY ARMS.

>> I'll carry you down the path that I have

for you." And God's path for your life

is unbelievable. In fact, if I could

show you, okay, here's God's path for

your life is just in this book. YOU'D BE

LIKE, "WHAT?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" IT is that

unbelievable.

a path

through pain.

>> But is that something you were thinking,

"Oh, God's plan is so great for me." And

then a path through pain. Yeah, they go

together. Believe it or not, they go

together. In Proverbs 3:5 and 6, it

Proverbs 3:5

says, "Trust in the Lord with all your

heart. Lean not on your own

understanding. In all your ways,

acknowledge him and he will make your

path straight." It's interesting when

you think about the path of life. Ed and

I of course were in ministry. We loved

the Lord. We both gave our hearts to

Jesus when we were children. And we've

walked this path with him. But what

we've come to discover is that this path

does have water moccasins of different

sorts. years ago, Ed and I were well

probably about four years ago, five

years ago, we were talking with a

publicist, a a a book agent, which

sounds so bougie, but just it's really

not. It's just a person who happens to

help publish books. So, we were talking

with them and she had was talking with

us about possibly writing a book on

marriage. We've written several, but she

said, "I think it would be great to do

another one." And as we were talking to

her, I told her, I said, 'You know, I

just read this statistic, this study

about what things you experience in your

marriage that could possibly lead to

divorce. And as I was sharing these

things with her along this, you know, at

that time it was about 40 years of

marriage. Now we're here at 44. But

along all of our years of marriage,

certain things that we've gone through

which statistically would say it would

really hurt our marriage. The first one

was Ed and I got married when we were

really young. We were 21, which I don't

think of as being very young.

>> No. And and we're we're proponents of

getting married young. Young and dumb.

Emphasis on dumb and emphasis on young.

Young and dumb because you figure things

out. If you wait too long, I mean, I'm

not saying it's not going to work if you

wait too long, but if you wait too long,

you're all set in your ways and you have

all these idiosyncrasies, especially

guys do. Guys, you know what? The longer

a guy stays single,

>> we we can go a little weird on you.

>> Women is not the case.

>> I just wanted to say that.

>> So, yeah, I don't like

>> I don't know why that's in the Bible.

I'm not sure it's in the Bible, but

>> but anyway, so but that's that's what

statistics would tell you. I would like

to argue those statistics, but that's

one of them. Another one is, you know,

when you have children, it's a

transitional stage, but if you have um

experienced infertility, and Ed and I

went, we had our first daughter, Lee

Beth, and then we had what was called

secondary infertility and could not get

pregnant, could not get pregnant. And

finally, God blessed us um with a

bouncing baby boy, just a child that we

had prayed for. And at four months of

age, we found out that he had a genetic

disorder called neuro fibromyitosis.

Now, not only could I not pronounce the

word, I couldn't understand

what like we prayed for this child, you

know, you hear people say 10 fingers, 10

toes, that's all I'm asking for,

whatever. And I I've come to realize

that God has

a normal and it's sometimes different

than our normal.

>> That's good. And so little EJ was born.

And this disease actually just in a

little nutshell is where tumors form on

nerve endings on your uh body like

brain, vocal cords, it could be

anywhere, but very debilitating,

sometimes life-threatening. So when he

was four months old, the future was very

unknown.

And then we, let's see, after that, we

were blessed with twins.

>> Twins. Now, now let me stop here. I want

to interrupt you for for a second cuz I

have the gift of interruption.

>> Kids kids keeping intimacy at a distance

successfully. Kids

>> that really doesn't have anything to do

with what

>> No, I just thought about it though. I

just

>> But obviously it's very much on his

mind. Yeah.

So, you know, we had we had EJ, you

know, having a child with a a a health

issue is is a big marital trauma.

Another one is having multiples. And I

mean, isn't it funny? A child,

infertility,

a child, twins. I mean, this was just

unbelievable. So, you know, we navigate

through that. Then fast forward, we move

to Dallas to start Fellowship Church. A

new job is another one of the markers.

>> Yeah. Starting a company or Yeah. That

>> finances pressure.

>> We moved to Dallas, one car, one dog,

one child, and we had no idea how we

were going to pay for any of it.

>> And yet, you know, we persevered. Fast

forward from there, our one of our do

our twin daughters struggled in high

school with an eating disorder. And it

was I I couldn't understand it for the

life of me. I'm like, you're beautiful.

you you know God has a great plan for

your life. I mean you're happy, you're

joyful, and yet she could not see the

beauty of what God had created in her.

And as a mom, it was very frustrating.

It's like how how or dad, how can we

help her see that? So we navigated that.

Um move on. Our oldest daughter, Lee

Beth, beautiful young woman. She loved

the Lord, loved everything about the

church and ministry

>> on our church staff,

>> worked on our church staff, but she went

through a series of relationships that

ended badly. She was struggling with

anxiety and depression

and she tried to self-medicate with

alcohol.

Now, we're pastors, ministry leaders,

we're the ones who are supposed to have

it all together. And yet I've just named

for you a bunch of situations

that through our lifetime we were

experiencing. One of which extremely

difficult where you have a child who's

dealing with substance abuse. And she

would she wasn't like a partyier. She

would just drink to medicate by herself.

She lived alone. She wasn't married.

And uh she went to rehab. did well,

got out of rehab, did well until she

wasn't. And on January the 19th of 20121

after a binge weekend of drinking,

she

collapsed, was just doing horribly. I

was out of town uh helping my mom get

transitioned into a assisted living

facility. I was in South Carolina. I got

a phone call. It was from Lee Beth and

something wasn't right. I just heard

mumbling on the other end of the line.

So, I called Ed. He rushed over to her

house, picked her up, helped her get

dressed. You know, it's just a parent's

worst nightmare. and took her to her

therapist, got getting her sobered up,

getting her food. And um Lee Beth not

only was drinking for self- medication,

she took Adderall, which is a typical

ADHD medication that she had taken by

prescription from a doctor for many

years, but she began to abuse that and

bought it off the street. 99% of aderall

or any drug purchased off the street is

laced with fentanyl.

And so she's a statistic of fentanyl. On

that day, later in the evening, Lee Beth

had massive heart failure and she died

in our home. Ed was alone with her. I

flew in. We, you know, faced this new

reality. But all of these

water moccasin, if you will, on our path

of life can absolutely wreck you. It's a

storm that you don't expect.

But again, either you've experienced

horrific pain, you're in the middle of

horrific pain, or you will face it in

the future. So what is that anchor

that can keep you stable in the storms

of life? And that goes right hand inand

obviously with Proverbs chapter 3:es 5

and 6. As we've said already, trust in

the Lord with all your heart. Lean not

on your own understanding. Okay? In all

your ways acknowledge him. He will make

your paths straight. This word trust,

I want you to think firm

and secure. Because

the Hebrew meaning, one of the meanings

is security. And when I think about

security, I mean, I'm a big I'm a big

fisherman. I I I think about anchoring.

I think about the importance of

anchoring a boat. When you anchor right,

you're going to fish right. If you

anchor wrong, you're going to have some

serious, serious problems. Lee Beth's

favorite thing to do, like me, was was

to fish. And the last fish we caught

together several months before she went

to heaven was a shark. And

and so when she when she died, I

resolved to try to catch a great white

shark

on a rod and reel. I I searched online.

I mean, who who fishes for great white

sharks? That's a small small small group

of people. So, I found this guy. We

become good friends. And we went out and

we caught, you'll see this this shark.

That's me. It weighed between 2500 and

2,800 lb on a rod and reel. It drugg us

around the ocean, literally our boat,

for for miles. And finally, it just

tired out and turns over. And then we

had a shark scientist on board. I knew

the shark was big when she started

crying.

>> Wow.

>> And to one of the reasons it was an

emotional time, I ended up naming the

shark Lee Beth after our daughter. If

you Google Lee Beth, great white. This

this story went viral around.

>> So that was her official tag.

>> The great white scientist tagged her,

named her Lee Beth, and actually she

traveled farther than any great white

shark tag ever tagged

>> in North America. So, she's setting her

own records, which was typical of

>> And what's scary was scary.

>> We've tracked this great white shark on

Shark Tivity app less than a hundred

yards from the beach.

>> Yeah.

>> Now, that

>> they're out there.

>> Scary. They're out there.

>> They're out there. But

>> but anchoring was a big part of that.

>> But anchor Yeah. People say, "Well,

how'd you catch that shark, dude?" Well,

obviously I was with a great fisherman,

but

he not only used the right bait, which

of course is obvious, but he also is a

professional at anchoring the boat. You

would think, I mean, is that important?

Are you kidding me? All the currents and

and and and specifically targeting a

fish like a great white. So he has this

complex system of anchorage that we

used. So that really because of the

stability gave us the opportunity to

catch this fish. The bottom line is

the Lord Jesus is an anchor. He's the

anchor. And the Bible says in Hebrews

Hebrews 6:19

6:19, thinking about trust in the Lord,

we have this hope as an anchor for the

soul, firm and secure. It enters the

inner sanctuary

behind the curtain. So in reality, part

of this anchor is in heaven and then

well it is in heaven of course and it's

in our lives as well. But honey, had we

not had that anchor, we would have been

in serious serious uh waters and and the

same lake with the water moccasins. You

remember that story? Yeah.

>> Well, I I would fish in that lake in a

little rowboat and and wind would just

hit this lake. It was like uncanny. So,

I decided to make myself a homemade

anchor. Don't ever do it because it

doesn't work. I got some clothes line

and a Clorox bottle. Fill the Clorox

bottle with sand. Went out in the middle

of the lake. It was just the wind was

just howling.

I dropped the anchor overboard.

I misjudged the depth of the lake. This

lake was like 20 feet deep and my anchor

was maybe 10 feet. And then when the

sand hit the water, it dissipated and I

was blown all over the lake. So the

take-home is don't use clothes lines and

Clorox bottles for anchors. There's only

one anchor. His name is Jesus. the other

anchors that our world tells us, "Oh,

that works. Oh, girl, that works. Hey,

dude, that works."

>> Yeah, we try to anchor Clorox bottles.

>> We try to anchor with finances. Oh, if I

just make this amount of money. Oh, if I

just had this job, oh, if I just could

get married and have a family. We We

think all of these different things are

the proper anchors that are going to

sustain us in life. And no, those are

Clorox bottles and clothes lines. Only

Jesus can steady you in the midst of a

storm. We We're here to testify to that.

We've been through it. We have the

receipts for it. Only Jesus is the

anchor that can hold your soul.

>> And as a guy, you know, man, when when

when you're young and everything and and

even as as as we age, we're like, "Wow,

what if tragedy struck? I mean, what if

something happened to my spouse, to to

our kids? Could I survive? I used to

think that regularly as a pastor, I

mean, could I make it? WOULD MY FAITH

still have that holding power that a

good anchor has? And then all of a

sudden, as I looked at our oldest

daughter

who literally died in my arms,

I I all of that came rushing into my

mind and into my brain. But at the same

time, the anchorage

and the peace in the midst of this

hellacious time

began to envelop Lisa and I. And and

we're not saying that we we have not

expressed anger to God. We're not saying

that we've not asked questions like why.

I mean, why us? WE'VE GIVEN OUR LIVES TO

YOU, GOD. We've been in the ministry for

all these years and we've asked those

questions and we we we've dealt with

about

with doubt, you know,

>> and hey, if you have doubt, good for

you.

>> Doubt means you have faith.

>> That's right.

>> It's not certainty here. It's faith.

>> Anyway, that's another that's another

message. But

>> but anyway,

>> can I can I can I go through this real

quick? There there's some questions,

four critical questions I want people to

ask themselves about Proverbs chapter

3:es 5 and six. I'm going to fly through

them. Ready? One, two, three. Number

one, what? What? What should I do? Trust

God, bro. Trust.

>> That's dependency.

Why? Well, because I don't understand.

Lean not on your own understanding. I

mean, I'm smart. You're smart, but we're

not as smart as God.

>> So, at the end of the day, we have to

trust him. So that's fluency. We have

fluency. Then number three, when when

when is this time when when should I

start trusting God with all of my heart?

Well, it says now because in all your

ways, everything in all things trust

him. That's immediacy. And then where he

will make your paths straight, that is

the intimacy.

One time I met a guy

that invented the weed eater.

>> I mean,

>> that's pretty unbelievable, isn't it?

>> You know what a weed eater is?

>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. We Okay.

>> Yeah.

>> Great invention.

>> They're amazing.

>> And they will clear out some serious

weeds.

>> The Bible tells me

time and time again in the Old and New

Testament how the Lord goes before us.

And God is weed eating right now in your

life. He's weed eating steps you haven't

even taken yet. Is that awesome?

>> Yep. Yep. Yep.

>> But we find it so hard

>> to trust

>> to trust God.

>> Oh yes.

>> And I I I liken it to how many times I

struggle with trusting God with the here

and the now. Like asking those

questions, well why God? And that's

okay. If you read the book of Psalms,

David questioned God in the midst of his

pain and his difficulties as people were

coming after him. He he he questioned

God, but he leaned in

>> and trusted him. We trust him with our

eternity.

>> Yeah.

>> Why can't we trust him with the

situation? Of course, we can.

>> Then we expect

the God of the universe to give us an

explanation.

It's really kind of funny. of every

single thing in life. Well, we don't

have the bandwidth to even comprehend

it. One day in heaven, yeah, that's on a

whole another level. We'll understand it

then. But right now, we don't. The

Bible, though, is not a book of

explanations. It's a book of promises.

This this kind of numbers guy came up

with all the promises of God. There are

over 9,000 promises of God in the Bible

from God to man. 9,000.

>> Okay. The devil, he said, has nine

promises. Is that pitiful?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. And they're pitiful promises.

>> 9,000.

>> I mean, that's not even it's not even

close. But, you know, we we still

struggle, don't we, with those nine?

>> We do, sir.

>> We do. We do.

>> Yeah. I uh when Ed and I were going

through the midst of this,

of course, in the immediate hours, I

flew back from South Carolina where I

was with my mom, got home as quick as

possible. That day was just a blur. Uh

people started gathering at our home.

They were shocked. You know, we had a we

had an inner circle, if you will, of

friends, including your pastors, who

were privy to the information of what

Lee Beth had been struggling with

because we knew they were confidants who

would pray, who would help us with

decision making and things of that sort.

So, of course, you know, they knew that

there had been a struggle, but then

there were others who were completely

shocked. And so, people started

gathering in our house. And there was

one recurring statement

that I heard over and over and it was,

"Lisa,

h how can you prepare for something like

this? I mean, how how does this happen?

How how can you even process something

like this?" And I was like, you know, it

was like a rhetorical question, but in

my mind, I'm thinking, I know you can't

you can't prepare for something like

this.

I was preparing a message. In fact, it

was the first weekend Ed and I were back

at Fellowship Church. So, Lebeth passed

away the end of January. We took some

time off with our family just to absorb

what was going on and came into the

season where we were going to come back.

And it was Palm Sunday and Ed asked me

to speak that weekend. And so, I did.

And as I was preparing the message about

the Lord coming in for the triumphal

infantry into Jerusalem and how

everything shifted and it went from

praise

to persecution.

We have been going through the Bible in

a year at our church when Lee Beth

passed away. And the week before she

passed away, we were studying the life

of Joseph.

So, as I was preparing for this message,

I looked back at my journal

where I would have time alone with God

and then write in my journal just notes

that I thought this is what the Lord is

sharing with me on my heart. And in my

journal, I wrote about Joseph and how he

was thrown into the pit, then sold to,

you know, Egypt and went there and then

he was in a house and he had a

relatively good life, but then he was

thrown in prison. And so it was like up,

down, up, down, up, down. And I mean, he

faced these unbelievable betrayals and,

hardships,

pain. And I wrote in my journal, I said,

'Lord, prepare me

for any time where I may

be in a pit in my life or in a hardship.

Show me how I

can glorify you even in those moments.

>> That was five days before Lee Beth

passed away. And in that moment, I

realized

when I said you just can't prepare for

it, that I was very wrong.

You can. And God had been preparing me

since the time I trusted him when I was

9 years old. Because throughout those

years,

little insignificant things or things

that I thought was insignificant, but

they weren't. those times when I was a

little girl and my parents took us to

church and I sat at the feet of a Sunday

school teacher and I listened to her

Bible stories and the application and

then when I would have my allowance and

later got a job and I would tithe what

very little because I didn't make that

much but I would tithe and I would show

up for church and youth group and I

would go on the retreats and I would

have my time alone with God and I would

journal and those were little

insignificant things I thought,

>> right?

>> But they were preparations,

>> and I I liken it to a spiritual bank

account. You make these little deposits

and you think, "Oh, it's not that much.

>> It's not that much. It's not that much."

But then when you need to withdraw,

right? Because you're you're you're uh

bankrupt

>> and you need to go withdraw, it's there.

>> That's right. Because faithfully,

faithfully,

even when you didn't think it mattered,

it mattered.

>> And so God is using your life right now

to prepare you for something you may not

even know is ahead. And I'm not trying

to scare anyone.

>> No, this is not like a dog you down or

anything.

>> This is to say that God's way works.

Yes.

>> Trust him. It works.

>> Trust him. So we've asked these four

critical questions. What, why, when?

where now let's kind of segue Lisa and

discuss some powerful principles

that we can take home you know handles

if you will where we can go all right I

can put shoe leather beneath them in

other words I can walk them out are you

ready for this number one when it comes

to the path God has for your life

understand realize own the fact that God

established it. God, I'll say it again.

I'll say it. Spray it, wheel it, deal

it, make you feel it. God has a great

plan for your life.

>> A great plan. As I said earlier, if you

could see that plan, YOU'D BE LIKE,

"WHAT? IT'S THAT GREAT." One time I was

out praying. This sounds like I'm the

Apostle Paul. I'm not. But I was out

>> I'm not laughing.

>> Yeah. No, I was out I was I was out

praying and I was on this ranch. In

fact, the reason I was praying, the the

guy that led this retreat told us to go

and pray. I mean, I pray anyway. I just

I I don't want you to think

>> just tell the story.

>> I don't want you to think I'm walking

around. I'm just going to go pray now.

Yeah. You know, that's great. So,

anyway, I I found myself praying in this

on this Texas ranch. And I brought my

Bible with me and I turned to this verse

just halfhazardly. Psalm 37:23

Psalms 37:23–24

through 24. It says, "The steps of a man

are established by the Lord. He delights

in his way. Though he fall, he may not

be cast headlong.

For the Lord is the one who upholds his

hand." I even wrote a song because I'm

very ADD and I wrote a song about this

verse and and I'm going to sing it. This

is the first Sunday I've ever sung it in

my life. Are you ready to hear it? Yes.

>> The steps of a man are established by

the Lord, and he delights in their way.

When he falls, he will not be held

headlong. For the Lord is the one who

holds his hand.

That's it.

>> Is that it?

I've got soul, man.

All right. So

>> basically earth, wind, and fire right

there.

>> Oh, yeah.

So, so, so

>> when the twins were small, fathers,

you've done this before. All right. When

your kids are small, when when our kids

were small and and and we would, you

know, they didn't understand about

traffic and all this stuff and you know,

you cross like an intersection, you grab

their hand

>> and for a while they're holding your

hand, then you can feel them kind of

releasing, but no, you've got them. Even

though they're trying to release their

grasp, no, you've got them. That is the

picture of our heavenly father. He's got

you. Even though I've tried to go, I

don't understand that, God. I'm having

doubts, God. I'm dealing with this God.

He has got my hand and he has Lisa's

hand and he will have my man your hand.

>> And you asked the people, you asked,

"How can Ed and I have this joy?" You

know, we're laughing. We're joyful

>> and yet we're still

>> And many times we get tearful.

>> Yeah. We're still walking with a limp. I

mean, this is an outof order death,

having a child pass away. Um,

>> you never give over, you never get over

it.

>> You don't. But joy and pain can coexist.

>> Uhoh.

>> Because of Jesus. I mean, Jesus is in

our heart when when we go through this

pain. He didn't, you know, say peace

out. No, he's he's with us along the

way. He established the path. He's with

us on this path. Yes.

>> So, God established this incredible

path.

>> Okay. Notice something else. Not only

did God establish it, God illuminates

it. Think back to the first story I told

you about. Dear old dad had that

flashlight, REMEMBER THAT? GUYS, JUMP ON

MY BACK. SO, the flashlight, it

illuminated some water moccasins.

And then we found that path back home.

And the Bible is a lamp. The Bible says

in Psalm 119 105, "Thy word is a lamp

unto my feet and a light unto my path."

And many times it just shines enough

just for the next step

>> and the next step and the next step.

>> Amen.

>> So God established it. God illuminates

it. And then number three,

I can, and this is going to sound weird

at first, alter it. Alter it. Alter it.

What do I mean by that, Lisa?

>> We can place our pain on the altar of

God. Romans 12:1-2 says or 12:1 says,

Romans 12:1–2

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and

sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer

your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy

and pleasing to God. This is your true

and proper."

>> So, we can't a ter it.

>> We can't a ter I can't alter the

situation, but I can place it on the

altar.

>> Alter A. And I could tell you, Ed and I,

I mean, again, in ministry, this is not

an easy path for anybody to take, but

yet people look at us and think, "Oh,

you've got it all together, blah, blah,

blah." And we had very well-meaning

people who said to us, you know, you

could just say that she had a heart

condition

and leave that whole alcohol thing out.

Yeah, we could have.

But again, we've trusted God with our

son's health, with our daughter's eating

disorder, with our move to Dallas, with

all these different things. Why wouldn't

we trust him? That's right. This is not

about us. This is about him. Exactly.

>> What could he do with this story if we

placed it on the altar? And I can tell

you, I know for a fact because I've seen

letters and heard testimonies of people

who've heard our story and they've

walked into a recovery group.

>> They've they've said, "I need an

anchor."

They've they've learned. Lee Beth's

testimony in the past five years has

been strong. It wasn't articulated by

her words. And oh, how God, I prayed

that it would be because of her victory

over alcohol and she would be here

standing here today to share this story.

Oh, how I wish that was the way it was.

>> But it's okay. Why would I mean, she's

in heaven. I can't even fathom the life

that she's living right now cuz she

loved Jesus. That's right.

>> She did. She had made a decision to

follow him. She put him as the anchor in

her life.

put it on the altar.

>> You know, when Lee Beth

in essence passed from this life to the

next,

I made a little bed for her in our

playroom.

And I said I said, "Honey, you know, I

know you're coming off this high and and

all of this, but I said, "If you need

me, I'll be right there in my office

just like one room away." She goes,

"Okay." She goes, "Okay, Dad." So I

kissed her and I said, "I love you." And

then I walked to my office. As I was

sitting down in my office, I was

preparing a message on Abraham and

Isaac. So I was just writing. I'm one of

these old school guys that likes to

write. So I'm writing and I wrote this

Genesis 22:7. Where's the lamb? Of

Genesis 22:7

course, I'm, you know, talking about the

story. the Lord will provide. And then I

wrote this sentence, laid him on altar

on top of wood. And then I heard a sound

like I've never heard before.

Ran into the playroom and in essence,

Lee Beth

was gone.

So honey,

this is about the altar, isn't it? And

it's our prayer that you would put the

totality of who you are

on God's altar

because he will use you in ways you

can't imagine even as you walk the path

through pain. Would you pray with me?

Father, thank you so much for this great

church. I thank you for these great

friends, these great pastors. And I ask

Lord that you would just move and

minister as only you can and touch us at

our deepest point of need, in our

deepest pain. And Father Lisa and I

don't know what everyone's going

through, but we know God that you want

to take

all of us through this path. So Lord, we

give our lives to you.

We ask that you would lead us and guide

us as as you again light up that

incredible path. We ask these things in

Jesus name. Amen.

>> I told you the message would encourage

you. For more encouraging messages, feel

free to visit our website

freelifechapel.org.

Until then, I hope you have an amazing

day.