Good Grief | 1 Samuel 25:1

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. We are in the book of First

Samuel. If you have your Bible handy.

First Samuel 25 and the title of the message is Good Grief, Good

Grief. First Samuel 25 verse one.

If you have your Bible handy for Samuel chapter 25 verse one the

author writes, then Samuel died. And the.

Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him

at his home in Rama. And David arose and went down to

the wilderness of Puran. We're just going to stop there.

And I really want to highlight this one verse, and I want to

read it to you again. And I just want to read it to

you a little bit slower because I think this is a place of a

major pivot in the story of first Samuel.

Then Samuel died and the Israelites gathered together and

they lamented for him, and they buried him at his home in Rama,

and David arose and went down to the wilderness of Puran.

If you could just look at your neighbor and say, as we always

do here, neighbor, my neighbor, good grief.

Just say good grief. I'm going to.

Need you a little bit this morning.

Someone was asking me how I'm feeling this morning from last

week. All of you prayed over me and my

healing. I'm still battling Lyme's

disease. It is knocking on the door of my

life and it is there knocking today.

And I just want to thank you for your prayers.

But I'm going to need you a little bit this morning to help

push a pastor along. Is that OK?

All right, so I need you just to repeat after me neighbor, my

neighbor. Good grief.

It was the call that you wish you would have never had.

It was the unexpected call that I thought I would not receive in

the moment that I was in. It was a call from my dad

telling me that my mom was at Kaiser Hospital and while she

was on life support that they were about to pull the life

support off. She only had just a few more

moments to live. My mom was the life of the

family. This is my mom, Kathy Patricia

Kendall. She, if you knew her, is the

sweetest woman. The way she spoke was just

filled with kindness. The way she cared over people

was filled with life. She would be the one that was

constantly sending to people evangelism cards.

She, along with my father, placed in me a heart for those

who are marginalized, those who are outcast.

We constantly had people in our home because my mom and my dad

wanted to reach people for Jesus.

So much so we hosted a Bible study in our home and we didn't

have a worship team. We just played cassette tapes.

We played cassette tapes, cassette tapes like as the deer

panted fours the water. I said, Dad, can we just get a

worship leader? And my dad said, this is our

worship leader. And my mom would sit in that

living room and sing her heart out.

And on that day, as we drove to Kaiser Hospital, it was the

moment where I put my mom, my ear on my mom's chest for the

the very last time. I watched my mom breathe her

last breath on this planet and she stepped right into eternity.

Now understand, I really get it that being a pastor, I talk

about death all the time. I go and do memorial services

all the time. I sit at the bedside of people

all the time, and while I'm in this spot of preaching now I'm

actually experiencing the great pain of loss.

I understand as a pastor that it is appointed on to man to die

once, and after this comes the judgement.

I understand as a pastor that for God so loved the world that

whoever would believe in him, for God so loved the world that

he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in

him would not perish but have everlasting life.

But I just need to tell you, I wasn't ready.

I wasn't ready. All that I had preached and

studied and saturated myself in Scripture, I still wasn't ready.

You see, my mom was ready to meet Jesus.

I just wasn't ready for my mom to meet Jesus.

My mom passed at Kaiser Hospital breathing her last breath upon

this planet and just a. Few weeks.

Later, I had found myself walking into a counseling room

with a therapist because I just needed to talk to somebody.

And this is what my counselor told me, he said.

Your grief is good. And it kind of.

Threw me off because I never saw those. 2 words.

As friends I only saw. Them as enemies and.

As I began to share with him about my life.

And what I was. Feeling I told him when he said

your grief is good. I said it sure doesn't feel good

and this is what he told me that I would never forget that.

I want to deposit this in your heart today as we look at for

Samuel 25 verse one and that is this.

If you don't feel this, you will not heal from this, he said.

If you do not feel this, you. Will not heal from this and I

want to ask you a. Question this morning as you've.

Come in and that. Is have you ever been there

where you have radically avoided what you need to be, what needed

to be radically? Accepted.

And because it felt so bad, you're wondering, can God really

bring any good out of this at this place of grief?

Sometimes we view grief as a simple interruption into our

lives, rather than an invitation to our lives to grow and go

deeper in the things of the. Lord.

I believe as a pastor in in discipleship and I believe in

evangelism and I believe as a. The confession to you.

That I've done many people a disservice in discipleship.

Did you see? I've taught you how to be

passionate praisers. I've taught you how to be worthy

of a witness. I've taught you how to be

students of scripture. I've taught you how to be

unceasing in prayer and devoted to Orthodox doctrine.

But many times, as pastors, we've not taught you how to

grieve well. We don't want to talk.

About grief. It kind of gets a little messy

when we talk about. Grief, but the.

Bible is full of stories about grief and how God can actually

work through it. Do you see?

I have met many, met many people who have majored on theology.

I'm talking great theology, Christology, pneumatology,

soteriology, anthropology, ecclesiology, eschatology,

bibliology, hamarteology, angelology.

We've studied all of these things as majors, but I believe

we've minored on the theology of agony.

We really don't want to talk about how to handle hard places

and confusing spaces and the agony this morning of not seeing

their face sitting at the Thanksgiving table.

That is something we oftentimes don't want to wrestle with in

our lives. But what I want you to know this

morning in whatever loss you might be facing, is that there

is a good grief in your life. There is something of the

natural process of grief that God can bring healing inside of

your heart. I, I don't want to just quickly

Passover First Samuel chapter 25 verse one.

1 Samuel 25 · chapter mention

There is something about this verse that we could just read it

and we can move on. First Samuel chapter 25 verse

1 Samuel 25 · chapter mention

one is tucked within 43 other verses.

And many times this one verse falls in the shadow of the story

of Abigail and Nabal with David. And you might remember that

story. But I don't want you to miss

this important pivot in the story of David's life and in the

story of the nation of Israel. And I pray today that this would

be something that you stop ignoring in your life.

And that is the way that you grieve over someone that you've

loved. I don't want to just pass by

this. I, I want us to kind of set up

a, a tent, if we, if we were to, to camp here a little bit to, to

see the view that was around us of what it means to, to know God

and walk with God and to see God.

I believe that if we're willing to slow down, I believe we will

understand that your healing is not in how fast you go, but how

faithful you will be. And I think in these moments in

our culture, we live within that which is simply fast, that which

can happen quick. I would say that we live in a

microwave culture. We are able to post news, read

news within seconds, but death and grieving takes time.

But we just don't have. The time.

But if we don't take the time to grieve, we will not have the

time to heal. And in the shift of this story,

we move from this story of David being chased down but not caught

by Saul. And it shifts from David and

Saul in First Samuel. And it goes right into the life

of Samuel. And I want you to highlight

this. I I want you just to see the

first word in the the verse, then if you could just.

Circle that or highlight that. Or, or just just just pay

attention to the word then, because this is something that

we could just simply move along quickly.

Then then you, you know the story, don't you?

You know the story that that that here in this place, that

this was the the then moment the Bible says then Samuel died.

Then in an instant things changed in an instant things had

moved along it. It's short but but but I just

don't want you to miss this. Then your mom.

Died. Then your dad died.

Then your brother died. You fill in the blank.

Then you were diagnosed with cancer.

Then you lost your job. Then you'd found yourself in a

place where your son ran away. Then your marriage started

falling apart. Then they committed adultery

against you. Then they lied about you.

Then you could fill it in. Your son ran away.

I was talking to a young girl, she said.

Then I saw my brother lifeless and I was the first one to grab

his lifeless body. Then is something that pivots so

quickly, but we want to run from the vens so quickly.

But I don't want you to run so quickly away from the vens

because it's in the ven that God meets you there.

And we have to realize that there will be so many Vens in

our lives. There's going to be so many

seasons that go and quickly they pivot away from what actually

seems normal to us. This is not normal to David.

Then Samuel died Samuel, if you would just highlight the life of

Samuel, you know the story in the book of first Samuel that

Samuel was the the the prophet of the nation of Israel, but not

only was he the prophet, he was also their priest.

But not only was he their priest, he was their judge.

Samuel came to us in first Sam. First Samuel chapter 1 where his

1 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

mom Hannah and his dad Elkanah had Elkanah had another wife

named Pinana, but she had children, but Hannah had no

children. And Hannah goes to the altar of

God and says, God, I want to have children and Eli Caesar and

Eli says, you must be drunk. And she says, no, I'm sorrowful

of spirit. I'm asking God.

And she's he said to her, you will have a son next year.

And what God gave to the nation of Israel was a prophet, but

what God? Gave to Hannah was a son.

You know. The Life of Samuel Samuel.

Was a man who heard from the. Lord.

He was there and he heard God calling him and he runs the

Eli's room and he says, was that you?

And he says no. And Eli tells him the high

priest, next time you hear it say, speak, for your servant is

listening, Samuel. Heard from the Lord.

Samuel was brought into this world by the.

Power of the Lord Samuel was the man who.

Would anoint David to be king of Israel.

Samuel was also the man who would anoint Saul to be the king

of Israel. Samuel was at the beginning of

David's story to us. You remember out of all the

brothers, God said Nope, Samuel, don't take the best, tallest,

good looking man. I there's another, there's

another one. Here and Samuel.

Says, do you have any other sons, Jesse?

And and he says yes. And here in this moment, God

brings Samuel to David, and David anoints him.

Samuel anoints David to be the king of all Israel.

Samuel. Was there in the beginning.

Of all of this, Samuel not only anointed David, Samuel counseled

David and not. Only did Samuel counsel David.

Samuel would hide David. He would keep David safe.

The life of Samuel and his death is the end of an era, and I

don't want you to move from that.

The prophet, the priest and the judge is dead, and here in this

moment, he is gone. David no longer has Samuel as an

encourager and a supporter. He's actually gone in an

instant, and here, in this moment, the emotions that must

have been rising from David's soul.

The. Text doesn't tell us of.

Of the agony. But read the book of Psalms and

feel what David felt in the midst.

Of this I think David must have. Felt like I felt.

On my birthday, my wife said what do you want for your

birthday? I said I want to hear my mom's

voice one more time. I just want to hear her speak.

I just want to hear the sweetness come out.

And this must have been David in this moment of grief, that the

man that he had looked to and loved was now gone.

I think we have to understand what grief is.

If you take note, grief is the hollow ache where someone or

something once lived in your. Life.

Grief again, is the hollow ache where someone or something once

lived in your life. How can this be good?

In the midst. Of something that seems so

painful. Because the word.

Good means bountiful, suitable and profitable.

Listen, death is painful. It takes your.

Breath away when someone dies, it feels like you've been.

Socked in the stomach and slapped in the face and pushed

down to the ground. Death is cold, it's harsh, it's

brutal. But.

You want to know what's? Even more brutal is we begin to

leave believe that the end of their life is the end of our

life. That's just as brutal.

And here in this moment of this end of the season, it's not the

end of your season, the ending of this.

Just because our heart is broken, it doesn't mean that it

will always stay that way. For I know a God that David said

in Psalm 34 verse 8, I know a God that the Lord is close to

Psalms 34:8

the broken hearted. I know a God who saves those who

are crushed in spirit. I know a God, my heart and my

flesh will fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my

portion forever. I know a God who heals the

broken hearted and he binds up all their wounds in Isaiah 61.

I know the God who is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in

all of our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who

are in any type of trouble. I know a God who who separated

the sea for Moses. I know the God who tore down the

walls of Joshua, of Jericho for Joshua I.

I know the God who called Noah at 640 years old to build an

ark. Talk about a senior ministry.

I know a God who takes the life of Ruth the Moabitus and gives

her a husband named Boaz. I know a God who gives sight to

the blind and causes the deaf to hear again.

I know the God who raises the grave, the dead out of the grave

by the name of Lazarus. Isn't it amazing how we can know

this God but yet still live in our wounds?

I know a God who defeated death and gives life to those who will

surrender. I know Jesus, and because we

know Jesus, I don't have to live within the wounds of my life.

I can live within the scars in which he bore and still bears

for all. Of eternity.

Did he see your scars are not what's damaging you your wounds?

Are what's? Damaging you and we're

constantly feeding the wound rather than letting God heal the

wound, turning it into a scar by the way, that we're unwilling to

grieve. And so we might be asking if we

know him, how can we live in this way?

And I just want to submit some things to you now.

Grief is a journey and it feels like it's messy.

It feels many times very should I use this strong word

disgusting. The emotions that you feel

within yourself. You're wondering if you're even

walking with the Lord. That's what grief does.

Grief brings up anger and doubt and questions and sadness.

But how do we respond to a season that we've.

Loved, but it's debt. How do we respond to a person

that we've loved and they've gone into eternity?

How do we respond? To the.

Samuels that have died within our own lives, this is what we

do. Write this down and I want to

encourage you to do this with all of your heart.

Number one, I want you to lament.

I want you to lament. Notice then Samuel died in the

Israelites. The Israelites are those who are

governed by God. They're God's chosen people, the

Israelites, those who are governed by God, they've

gathered. Together the Bible.

Says and they lamented. For.

Him Now this is important that we understand that God's chosen

people, God's children, are not immune from suffering and from

death. God's children are not immune

from pain. God's children are not immune

from agony. Don't just buy into the the the

lie that just because you started walking with the Lord

that it's going to be an easy road ahead of you.

God's people suffer. And the rain.

Falls on the just. And the unjust?

We face death until the. Lord will come again.

And that is a very painful. Process to walk through.

But the Lord is your shepherd in the valley of the shadow of

death. You have to fear no evil, for he

is the one who is with you. But notice what the action was

when Samuel had died. They gathered together on Sunday

morning at Bridgetown and all the people lifted their voices

and they lamented. Now we're not going around using

the word lament all the time in Glendora.

I don't hear you in Upland saying did you lament today?

I don't. Hear it in Arcadia or Monrovia

or Duarte or Covina or Laverne or San Dimas.

I'm not in. Old Town Glendora downtown and

people are like, hey, I heard someone lamenting today.

That's a word we're not usually bringing up in our vocabulary.

But I want you to understand that though this.

Is not accustomed. Many times to Western.

Culture, it is what the. Bible normally falls back to

when someone is grieving. They begin to.

Lament the first time this. Word is ever used is in Genesis

Genesis 23:2

23 verse 2 where it says that. Abraham lamented and mourned for

his wife Sarah. The bond of this word, the agony

of this word. I want us to go back to this

place in lament. Now you might be asking, well

what does it mean to lament? The word lament is used.

Again in Genesis 23 verse 2, but this.

Genesis 23:2

Word in Hebrew will say it together as sephod, Sephod the

word sephod. Is this it means to tear the

hair and beat? The breast.

Listen to this word. To tear the hair, to beat the

breast, to wail out loud. Notice their pain.

Samuel died. Notice the place.

This was not a private place where someone was wailing and

crying and mourning. This place is a public place.

They all gathered together and notice this I, I want you to see

the people there are all of the Israelites that are joined

together around the death of Samuel.

Now notice verse one says, then Samuel died and the Israelites

gathered together and they lamented for him.

And notice so, so many times people say, well, you're not

really focusing on God if you lament for that person.

No, no, no, no. Listen.

You can lament for them and still stay focused on Jesus just

because. The Bible doesn't.

Say in this text that they look to God.

They lamented for him, they lamented for this man that was

in their life who was so. Powerful and.

Prominent who was a piece of their story and although they

lamented for him, they did this publicly, they did this in their

pain, they did this many times lamenting as they sat in ashes

and in dirt. Now, now, Can you imagine if you

came into church and and people were on the ground?

And they were throwing dust. On their head and crying out oh

God we miss them. Can you imagine that the the

agony of these people? I, I want to, I want you to to

just. Submit this in your.

Your heart I want to just download this in into you the

best way for you to experience. Peace.

Is to express your grief, you hear me?

Please listen the best way for you to experience.

Peace is to express. Your grief now we're raised in

a. Culture that oftentimes doesn't.

Allow us. To to, to do that and and in

this moment. I I.

Think it can become very awkward?

Just last week I was moved in my life by all of you in my own.

Struggles with this my disease of this Lyme's.

Disease I did not think. Church was going to end the way

that it ended last week. Do you see?

Because as a pastor, I set my expectation.

That when I come into this room, I'm given all I have for you and

for Jesus. And last week I was a little bit

embarrassed for myself because I wanted to portray myself strong

for you, but what you really needed to see was my weakness in

the moment. And all of you gathered around

me and you laid hands on me and you prayed over me and, and God

strengthened me. And God moved in my heart and in

my life. He didn't heal my disease yet,

but God did do something in my spirit and he lifted me up out

of that ground and showed me this.

God showed me in my life that it wasn't just.

Going to be. About me pouring myself out.

It is about his power pouring out.

On us, and that can only happen when we are weak.

And this is normally what? Happens is when weakness is.

Confessed God will manifest his. Power.

I believe when you are vulnerable you get a greater

vision. I believe that when you are not

just. Vulnerable and gaining a.

Greater vision that when you get honest in your heart about your

struggle, it is there that Jesus will speak.

I want you to see that Jesus said this.

Come unto me all, you are weary and heavy laden.

I want you to hear what what the life is of Jesus that has given

to us in Isaiah 53 that he was despised and rejected.

A man of sorrows and he's acquainted with much grief.

John Chapter 11 says that Jesus wept over Lazarus.

John 11 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 19 says that when Jesus was walking into the city

Luke 19 · chapter mention

that he saw the city and he just wept over it.

So can I encourage you to do this?

Start expressing how you're feeling now.

This is not an excuse. For you to be rude.

This is an experience for you to be righteous.

This is an opportunity for us to to to lament, to to come

together and and stop doing this in our lives.

Stop hiding it and holding. It.

Stop hiding it and stop. Holding it.

When I'm hiding and I'm holding. What I'm grieving about.

It. Leads to harshness, not

holiness. And I don't know if you've ever

met someone that's just harsh. Many times in our lives we're

holding things that God is. Telling us not to hold.

On to and So what we need to do, what God gave us as a pathway

for that healing is to lament. It's to lament.

I love what Pete's Gazero wrote. He said.

When we deny our pain, losses and feelings year after year, we

become less and less human. We transform slowly into empty

shells with smiley faces painted on them.

Sad to say, that is the fruit of much of our discipleship in our

churches. But when I began to allow myself

to feel a wider range of emotions, including sadness,

depression, fear and anger, a revolution in my spirituality

was unleashed in Christ. I soon realized that I failure

to appreciate the biblical place of feelings within our larger

Christian lives has done extensive damage keeping free

people in Christ. In slavery, the people lamented.

They cried out to God. And I.

Want to encourage you and maybe in your.

The way you were raised, it's weakness for you to sob.

You were the problem because you were too emotional and so.

Because you were the problem. Because you were too emotional.

You've learned how. To live in secrecy.

But not in step with the Holy Spirit.

And so because you're too. Emotional and because you

cannot. Express the way that you're.

Feeling it's not many times. An issue with your heart?

But the person who can't handle caring another person's emotion

now when I. Say that again, Understand.

That this is not an issue for you to start going around stores

and because you're grieving, you're just mad at everybody.

This is not for you to be driving on the freeway and

you're like, I'm grieving and you're a jerk to everybody.

I'm not saying that what I am saying is coming into a safe

space into these people and say I'm hurting.

I'm hurting. This is honest reflection and

this is where transformation begins.

They lamented. And as they lamented, notice

what they did next. If you would just write this

down, They buried. They buried, they come to the

life of Samuel and they. Do this they.

Lament for him, and then. They buried him at his.

Home in Rama Rama was the. Center figure of the life.

Of Samuel Rama was the place where his mom would go back to

and he would. Have his.

Prophetic ministry birth out of We know that Eli.

Was in in Shiloh as the high priest.

In the the the Tabernacle this. Worship place was in.

Shiloh, but Samuel, his home town was in Rama.

And there they buried him. Notice they buried him.

They didn't burn or cremate him like the Philistines would to

desecrate people's bodies, but they buried him to honor him.

And I submit this to you this morning, and that is this.

You can honor your past, but you don't have to live in your past.

You can still. Bury things and be.

Honoring in what you're burying so we can grieve.

Over our past. We can honor our past, but we

don't have to live in the past. What this takes from people is a

healthy reflection of the hurt. And the.

Pain and the agony. Of what you're feeling this.

Is a deliberate expectation of the hope that you have that

you're willing to bury. What was old that had?

Wounded you and now you're looking forward to what is

coming. Now I want you to.

I want to submit this to you. Just because it's blurry right

now doesn't mean you're not healing right.

Now. You don't get the full picture

of of how all of this is going to work out, but just because it

doesn't seem as clear doesn't mean that you're not going to be

healing in your life. So I wrote down some things

about burying our past or our hurts.

Or our wounds. And those things that have died

in our season that we often find ourselves in because it's going

to be important that you lament. But the second portion is that

you bury. We can honor it, but we don't

have to live in it. And this is what I do to live in

that type of honor. I choose to live life.

One day at a time. I just choose to.

Live life. One day at a time, I'm going to

be. Thankful for the moment that I'm

in, not the future I wish I had. Can you remember this?

Enjoy the blessing in life today to its fullest.

The people that are sitting around you are a.

Blessing to you. Just look.

Around you right now, your dad, your mom, your sister, your your

your friend at church. That the, the blessing that God

has given to you. You're like, they're not really

a blessing, Casey. You don't, you don't understand

what they've put me through. No, no, no, listen, they're a

blessing to you. Your kids are a blessing to you.

I don't know why three moms just said Amen.

Your kids are a blessing to you, wives.

Your husband is a blessing to you.

Come on, wives, we we need you. Your husband's a blessing to

you, husbands. Your wife is a blessing to you.

Church people are a blessing to you.

You're like, I don't know about that one, Pastor Casey.

You know, isn't it messy? It is messy.

It's awkward sometimes. It's weird.

Oh, man. I receive that.

Receive the blessing. Now here's where I fall many

times is you don't believe you're worthy of the blessing

because you've placed yourself back in your identity in the

past of what people said you were, and you always had to

perform for it and work for it and you had to earn it.

And now because you didn't earn this blessing, you have a hard

time receiving this blessing. I want to encourage you, don't

focus on the fear of the what ifs in bearing.

Don't focus on the fears of the what ifs.

What if things change because of Samuel being gone?

What if this happens? Can I encourage you to write

down what you're grateful for? Write down what you're grateful

for, especially as you enter into November.

It'll be stronger than a Turkey, more powerful than the gravy.

It will be your gratefulness. Can can you write this down?

If we're going to bury, we're going to have to capture

thoughts. We're going to have to capture

our thoughts. Don't let your mind become a

playground. It's a battleground.

Capture your thoughts. And can you remember this

please? The end of something means the

beginning of something new. The end of something means the

beginning of something new. So they lament, they bury, and

this is what happens. Check this out.

The Bible says and David arose and went down to the wilderness

of Quran. David did what he arose.

The last thing I want to encourage you to do is rise.

If you're going to move forward, you're actually going to have to

stand up first and you're going to have to arise.

Now, this is sometimes the the false idea of what we preach.

Sometimes is just because you arose, you're actually going to

start feeling better. It's not based on how you're

feeling in that moment. You just need to rise because

David was led into the wilderness of Piran.

Now the wilderness of Piran actually looks like this in the

story that the the wilderness. I don't know if you guys can get

a good picture of that. I don't know if we could turn

these lights off so you can kind of see the wilderness of Piran.

But this this is not like the Sequoia National Forest.

This is not like you coming in and going how everything's now

filled with life and it looks good.

This is where David went. It's dirty.

It's dry, it's parched. Victorville.

Wow. OK, I guess it does have, it

does have a lot of similarities. Just because you face death and

you do what's right doesn't mean that you're walking into this

beach scenario. Sometimes you're walking right

back into a desert and that's even more confusing because how

can a God be so good, keep you in the wilderness for so long?

He does it because He's forming greatness in you.

He does it so when you are dry and you know what it's like to

be dry, that He brings you to people who feel dry and you've

received the living water that you can give them something.

This is what I want to encourage you to do, and that's rice.

Some of you are going to have to stand, some of you are going to

have to be honest. Some of you are just going to

say, I don't understand why I'm in this spot in my life at this

time in my life. But what I am going to do is I'm

just going to rise. And then when you rise, God

sends you right back into the wilderness.

It was all part of the plan. God's sovereignty LED David back

into the wilderness. Now there's a greater king that

David pointed us to. It is the king named Jesus, and

that Jesus is baptism and being filled with the Spirit of God,

He was led into the wilderness. You see, God does something in

the wilderness, and that is he strengthens your heart for the

season that you are in and the people you're about to face.

And that's what God does. So I want you to know that your

grief can be good today. Some of you are not weeping

because someone's dying. You're weeping because you feel

like your marriage is dying. Some of you, you're not weeping

because you feel like, wow, they're gone, but because you're

single. Some of you are weeping because

the school that you had to move away from now is now something

you didn't expect in your life, the job.

That you thought you had. Is gone.

It's the Lord. Is leading you through the.

Wilderness and as you're wandering.

He turns you into a. Worshipper who lives in wonder

because when you. Walk out of that wilderness.

You have a greater perspective of who God is, and I just want

to encourage you today that your grief is good.

Be willing to cry. Be willing now to bear.

Be willing now to rise and take your first step forward.

We hope you enjoyed this message and we'd love for you to join us

in person every Sunday at 10:30 AM.

For more information and updates, visit

wearebridgetown.com. Thanks for tuning in and we'll

see you next week.