It Happens

You guys can have a seat. I'm going to grab something

really quick. If you were here last week, you

might, you might recognize it, but I'm going to let you keep

thinking about it. I'm just going to sit it up here

right in your view. Don't get distracted.

So obviously I'm not Pastor Blake, but thank you for being

here. Yeah.

Who is? Who is this guy?

No, I am Jared Woody. Me and my lovely wife, Beatrice,

we get the honor of leading Elevate Student Ministries over

in that building. It is always something I try to

soak up when I get a chance to be over here.

I love being over here with you guys, but I do love the youth

over there. And that's where we are blessed

to be right now in the season of life.

And I'm just grateful for it. So Pastor Blake is in Guatemala.

We saw with the announcement video.

It looks like things are going well.

I don't know if you follow him on social media, but apparently

they had some good fried chicken.

So it seems like they are doing pretty well down there.

No, I'm excited to hear what God is doing through them while

they're down there and how their lives are being changed.

I want to give you just a little snippet of how I got to be up

here today. This was about 5 weeks ago.

We were at a staff meeting. We have staff meetings on

Mondays just so as a team we can be in line.

And what is the word kind of connected?

We know what's going on with the different ministries.

We know the plans coming up for the church.

We know events coming up, things like that.

And so Pastor Blake is going through his travel plans, right?

He's got some trips lined up. He's got Guatemala coming up.

And that's what he was talking about.

And I felt it coming. You, you know, when you're in a

classroom and the teacher is about to ask a question and you

don't want to answer it, so you just don't make eye contact.

I, I always sit. Cassie sits between Pastor Blake

and I and I always sit. And I was making sure I wasn't

looking at him, but it didn't stop him.

He said, Jared, are you available on August 30th?

So what? I mean, I had an idea that I was

pretty clear, but I was hoping I started flipping through my

electronic calendar, my phone calendar, my computer calendar,

started hoping that I had some kind of vacation plan.

I wasn't going to be available. Maybe.

No, I'm just kidding. It is.

It's an honor to be able to speak to you guys this morning.

And I want to thank Pastor Blake for trusting me to speak to you

guys this morning. And I'm praying that they get

back safely so we can hear all about it.

But it did. It stirred up a little bit of

nerves, I'm not going to lie. And then my Sunday was open,

right? I felt an excitement amidst the

nerves and I was like, what is this?

How does God? Are you already like planting

something there? What what is this?

And then I immediately questioned it because it can't

be God, right? I questioned myself, I

questioned God and then I took it to him and I said a short

little prayer right there. I said, God, if it's your will

to speak for me to speak, I'm going to need you to be pretty

clear on what I need to communicate, and I need you to

tell me what I need to say. And thankfully, over the next

couple moments, a couple weeks, days, he did just that.

But as soon as I said, yeah, my schedule's open, you know what

Pastor Blake did? He started laying out his sermon

series that he was about to go through.

And if you've been here for the past four weeks, you know that

it was spiritual warfare. Yeah, I get to talk.

But in the midst of that, and guess what?

When he comes back, we're not done.

So after I said I was available, then I find that out.

But it's good I'm here and I'm excited about it.

Now I know I'm a little weird. I would put it out there that

I'm probably weirder than most who are in here.

If you know me, maybe you agree with it.

If you don't know me, you're like, maybe, maybe not.

I'm kind of weird myself, but I have this question that I've

asked so many times over the past couple years and I'm sure

none of you have asked it before because I'm weird and you're

probably not. But why do bad things happen to

good people? You guys never asked that,

right? So many times in my life I've

asked this question, and maybe you have, but when I've tended

to ask it, up until about a couple years ago, it was just a

question that sat in my head. I didn't really do anything

about it. I didn't submit it to the Lord

and seek answers on it. I just kind of let it float

there. And I've learned that that's not

really what we need to do with our questions.

We need to take them to Him, submit them to Him and do and

our ability what we can to seek the answers for that.

Now, granted, not always going to get the answer.

You're not always going to get the answer that you want.

But I started wrestling, wrestling with it a couple years

ago and I actually took it to him.

I actually put in some effort in seeking maybe some clarity

there. And maybe many of you have asked

that same question, maybe not. Maybe you've asked one of these

other questions that I would tuck away in that same file

folder. Why do good people get cancer?

Why do innocent people die in shootings or car accidents or

other seemingly random tragedies that they had no control over?

Why do children get such terrible diagnosis or die at

such young ages? Why do natural disasters happen

that hurt so many people? Why do good people suddenly lose

jobs, lose whole careers and experience terrible financial

hardships? Why do bad things happen to good

people? And so that's what I've been

wrestling with. And when I've asked these

questions, looking back on it, it's usually when myself or

those around me who I care for, who I spend a lot of time with,

it's when we are going through circumstances like this, right?

It doesn't matter until we're actually in that right?

Doesn't exist until we're in that spot.

If you've got your Bibles this morning, you can go ahead and

turn to Luke 18, verse 19. We're going to be there shortly

Luke 18:19

as you make your way there and we get to jump in this morning.

I do have a disclaimer for you and I want to be clear, I do not

have all the answers. Surprise, no, you don't have all

the answers in shocker, Pastor Blake doesn't have all the

answers. Taking it even a step further,

I'm very confident there are things in this life, questions

that we are never going to have answered, questions about our

theology, question about why things happen that are never

going to be answered until everything is made right, when

we meet our Lord, right? But thankfully, our salvation,

it doesn't depend on how much we know or the good works that we

do. It's based on accepting a gift

that's freely given to us. Amen.

Speaking of having answers, I want to throw a little plug in

there. If you weren't here this past

Wednesday, Tom Hines gave a solid word and you can go back

and watch it. But he jumped into talking about

the veil being torn when Jesus died on the cross and the direct

access that that provided for humanity to God.

And he talked about how this direct access is something that

we can step into or we can choose to stay outside of it.

As believers, we can press in into that relationship with the

Lord into potentially having our eyes open and things revealed to

us, or we can choose to stay outside of that.

That choice is up to us. But let's look at Luke 18, verse

Luke 18:19

19. This is the account of the rich

young ruler. Those of you, there's many of

you probably familiar with this. And this is his encounter with

Jesus. The young ruler comes to Jesus

and says, good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal

life? And then in verse 9, we see

Jesus's response. Why do you call me good?

Jesus asked him. Only God is truly good.

Now in this interaction, I don't necessarily think the rich young

ruler was trying to trap Jesus into an answer or test him or

trick him like maybe the the Pharisees did.

But I think the bigger thing that sticks out is his maybe

attitude. If you look at kind of the whole

interaction, he comes to Jesus with this kind of

self-righteous, like, I think I'm kind of good.

I might be able to tackle this eternal life thing on my own.

And then he asked Jesus, and Jesus eventually gives him an

answer. And he would go on to learn that

he is, in fact, not as good as he thought he was on his own.

But the thing that sticks out here to me is that before he

even gave an answer to the rich young ruler, he addresses his

use of the word good. And I think that's relevant to

our question today. He let him know that no one is

truly and inherently good but God.

Now let's look at Romans 3, verses 9 through 12.

Romans 3:9–12

This is the words of Paul. He's quoting Psalm 14, and he's

writing to the Christian Church in Rome.

In verse 9 he writes, Well then should we conclude that we Jews

are better than others? No, not at all, for we have

already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are

under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say.

No one is righteous, not even one.

No one is truly wise. No one is seeking God.

All have turned away, All have become useless.

No one does good, not a single one.

As he addresses both the Jewish and the Gentile believers in the

Church of Rome, he explains that neither group is morally

superior to the other. As all people, that includes you

and I today, as all people fall short of God's standard.

And because of this, we all need His grace just the same.

When we look at these scriptures, we see that Jesus

defines goodness by divine standards and that God is the

only one true and inherently good.

Paul then double s down on this right there in Romans.

On this idea. He makes clear that no human

being or group of people can claim to be inherently good on

their own merits. Maybe that's a tough thing to

swallow. For me, it is sometimes because

pride, right? Maybe you don't struggle with

that. As much as I know it's true,

there's a part of me that doesn't really like hearing

that. It doesn't sound like a

glamorous truth sometimes in my life.

Now, with that being said, it doesn't mean that we are all

terrible, terrible people. It doesn't mean that we can't do

good things right. Rather, it means that no amount

of good that we can do can change our sin nature.

And I think if we are honest, we can fall into that same thinking

that the rich young ruler had. If we aren't actively aware in

aligning ourselves to the one who is literally the standard

for good, we start to define that on our own terms.

We start to start to filter what is good, what is fair, what is

just, what is good through our own biases and filters.

Anyone ever find themselves in that position?

And then when things happen in our lives that don't align with

our definition of what should be good and just happening, we feel

like there's an injustice and we start to wonder, why does God,

who factually we know is good, and just, why does he allow

these things to happen? So with this new understanding

that no one is good aside from God, I think it's important that

we correct that original question because good and bad

can so often be subjective in our lives.

I think the question is better represented as what do I do when

things happen that I don't understand?

Pretty fair. Fair by your definition.

Nevermind. We just learned from Pastor

Blake over the past four weeks about the spiritual war

happening around us. We learned about the unseen

battle. We learned that even though we

can't see it, there is a battle happening and guess what?

We're a part of it. We learned that there is an

unseen accuser, the enemy Satan, there is an unseen accuser and

he laid out the accusers battle plan for us.

I hope he took notes. Then week 3 Pastor Blake

explained the unseen hosts. I'm be I'm be honest, that one

got a little weird. He started talking about the

Nephilim. Now you guys can go back and

watch it. I'm not even going to attempt to

try to explain some of those things, but seriously, go back

and watch it because this is stuff that we need to know

about. And then last week he finished

up that series talking about the unseen truth.

And that is that you and I, as believers, as followers in

Christ, we fight from a position of victory, right?

The battles been won. Why?

Why doesn't it feel like it? What do we do when this war gets

personal? Right?

When we get punched in the face out of nowhere by life?

Maybe you haven't been there. Maybe you have.

What do we do when the pains of this life and this war start to

distort our vision of the victory that we factually know

that God has already got right? And I thought vision was right

there. It reminded me.

I didn't give you an update last time I spoke to you.

Sorry, this is a rabbit trail and I'm going down it.

Last time I spoke to you, it was Palm Sunday and I had some

glasses and I talked about my eyesight.

I want to give you an update because many of you have sent

the friendly reminders and the jabs saying, hey, did you get

your eye appointment? You get your glasses yet?

I'll give you an update so we can calm those those thoughts.

I got a prescription, but I'm fighting through denial to

actually order the glasses. So all right, out of the rabbit

trail, here we go. This morning I want to share a

few things that I've discovered as I've repeatedly wrestled with

this question and finally took it to God, sought some answers.

I hope this morning is multifaceted.

I I hope to give you clarity somewhat, maybe with some things

surrounding this question or at least some food for thought and

your walk with Christ. I want to give you encouragement

to get back in the fight if you find out that maybe you haven't

been in it. But most importantly, I pray

this morning will help us all to recalibrate our trust in God's

wisdom and His character amidst all the uncertainties that life

is going to have. That when we don't know why it

happens, that we can rest in the confidence of who we know and

that He is good. If you like, you can go ahead

and turn to Job one. We're going to be looking at job

a lot this morning, but Job 1 is where we'll be very shortly as

you get there. If you want to note these down,

you can, but I'm going to quickly look at Genesis 11 and

Jeremiah 3325. Again, that was Genesis 11 and

Jeremiah 3325. They're going to help set the

stage for us before we get the job.

And the first thing that I discovered is that maybe you've

heard it before, maybe you haven't thought much about it,

but God created a world with order, not a world without

consequences. In Genesis 11.

It seems simple enough. Many of us probably haven't

memorized because it's the first thing we read in the Bible plan

every year, and probably the Scripture we've read the most

ever. But in the beginning, God

created the heavens and the earth.

Easy. God is the creator of the world.

Creation wasn't random. It was done with intentionality.

And with creation, God established order.

In Jeremiah 33 verse 25, we see a message from the Lord to God's

Jeremiah 33:25

people through the prophet Jeremiah in verse 25.

But this is what the Lord says. I would no more reject my people

than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and

sky. Here we see God's response to

critics maybe claiming that he abandoned the descendants that

he of Jacob and David that he chose right.

Through Jeremiah, God compares the promise that he made to them

to the unchanging natural laws of heaven and earth.

Day follows night. Seasons come, seasons go.

Creation operates according to laws and patterns that got

established from the beginning. And just as nature functions by

these fixed rules and laws, God's moral covenantal promise

to restore the descendants of Jacob and David stood firm.

These two scriptures show us that God created a world where

things operate according to an order, and when God creates

something with order, that means there are consequences to the

way that that order works. What do I mean by that?

Gravity works still working. Fires burn for fire started

until something stops it. Actions have consequences,

choices have consequences, and that means sin has consequences.

I'm going to simplify what I'm trying to say a little bit.

I'm going to give you an illustration that might make you

a bit hungry. If you know my wife, you know

that she likes to bake. If you don't know that, I'm

sorry, it's unfortunate. But if she creates a chocolate

chip cookie, right? Any chocolate chip cookie fans?

Yeah, they are delicious. When she creates a chocolate

chip cookie, I don't just get a cookie.

That's not the only thing that's created there.

What do I mean? I get the heat in the kitchen.

Heat rises because the oven's on to create that cookie.

There is an aroma that fills the house.

Hallelujah. There are physical changes to

the ingredients in that cookie, right?

There are additional calories. I'm OK with it.

I want them all. And there is a rise in my blood

sugar when I consume what was created.

When something is created, there are often many things that come

along with that that don't immediately maybe come to our

mind. That cookie has consequences

because it exists in a system of cause and effect.

But listen closely, because I already see wheels spinning and

you're trying to connect with the things that I've already

said. So consequences do not mean that

everything that happens to us is something we caused.

I want you to hear that. And this is where Job comes in.

The first several verses in Job tell us that Job wasn't living

in rebellion. As a matter of fact, we see that

Job was righteous jumping into verse 6 there.

This is Job's first Test, and I believe Pastor Blake has

referred to this through the series we just went through.

One day the members of the heavenly court came to present

themselves before the Lord and the accuser, Satan, came with

them. Where have you come from?

The Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord.

I've been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's going

on. Then the Lord asked Satan, Have

you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the

earth. He is blameless, a man of

complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from

evil. Are you guys seeing what I'm

seeing in my head? The only thing that I image wise

and experience wise have to try to picture this is an actual

courtroom. Anyone been in a courtroom?

You don't have to admit to anything, but if you've been in

a courtroom, there are depending on which court it is, General

District Court is very busy. There are a lot of buzzing and

murmuring happening. And the attorneys will go up to

the judge between cases and they will have maybe a conversation

here, conversation there because they have got a lot going on.

But here you see the Lord and Satan like having a a

conversation like aren't they supposed they're like rife, like

mortal enemies, like it's not explosive here.

It's not a crazy action scene, but that's maybe you don't see

that and I was just trying to help you imagine it.

Continuing in verse 9, Satan replied to the Lord.

Yes, sorry, yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.

You've always put a wall of protection around him and his

home, his property. You've made him prosper in

everything that he does. Look how rich he is, but reach

out and take away everything he has and he will surely curse you

to your face. All right, you may test him.

The Lord said to Satan, do whatever you want with

everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically.

So Satan left the Lord's presence and then as we know,

Job loses nearly everything, his livestock, his servants, his

children. Eventually Satan would come

back. God would say just don't take

his life. He would lose his health.

The account of Job right here in the beginning lets us kind of

peek behind the curtain here. Something terrible is happening

to Job, but he doesn't know why. We know what's happening because

we get this peek behind the curtain, right?

We get to see a glimpse into the spiritual realm here.

Satan challenges Job, God allows testing to happen, and Job knows

none of this that we are reading about so often.

It's so easy for us to fall into the mistake of thinking someone

must have done something bad to 'cause this bad thing happening

in their life. Job.

The story of Job breaks that equation.

Sometimes terrible things happen to people just doing their best

to follow God. So why does God allow it?

And this is where, again, I want you to hear me carefully.

I'm not standing here telling you that I can explain why every

bad thing happens. I can't.

You can't, Pastor Blake can't. There are so many things that

happen that we're not going to fully understand, and at some

point we have to come to that understanding.

But we can understand some things about the world.

God created. People have free will.

Actions have consequences. Creation has been affected by

sin. Natural laws continue to

operate. Should we check it again?

Yep, still working people can make decisions that harm

themselves and or other people. God doesn't constantly override

every consequence or bad choice to make life perfectly

comfortable. If he did, I think we would all

agree that he is not a just God. I was talking to Pastor Blake

and I was running through kind of a warm up of this sermon and

he brought up Bruce Almighty. And so with his permission, I'm

going to use that illustration. How many of you know Bruce

Almighty? OK.

It's a movie where Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston are husband

and wife. Morgan Freeman plays God and

Bruce, he's got an Anchorman job he puts in for promotion,

eventually doesn't get it. Things start to go really bad.

Bad things, excuse me, bad things start to happen in his

life and then he blames God. So God Morgan Freeman comes back

and gives him the opportunity to play God.

He gets the power, but he has 2 rules.

He can't mess with anyone's free will and no one can know that he

is God. So the whole movie is kind of

depicting that storyline. Entertaining, yes, but Bruce

starts to use the powers. He starts to use them for

personal things, things that if we're honest, I think we would

probably be doing selfish things.

But then he also realizes that God has all these other things

that he has to do. He has to answer prayers, and

Bruce has to figure out how to do that.

Now. He eventually sets on just

saying yes to everyone's prayers, which as you can

imagine, would cause quite a chaotic world.

But I think sometimes maybe we wouldn't say it, but maybe we

think that we might could do God's job better.

Maybe, no, maybe you wouldn't put it out there like that.

But I think if we were to ever have that opportunity to step

into that, I think we would quickly learn, like Bruce did,

that God's responsibilities are so much more complex than our

understanding of the world. In the same vein, God being good

doesn't mean he prevents every painful thing from happening.

And God allowing something to happen doesn't mean that he

caused it. God created a world with order,

not a world without consequences.

But it does not mean if something bad happened to you

that you caused it. OK, Job shows us that that's not

true. And sometimes it happens.

Sometimes the bad things happen, sometimes the diagnosis happens,

sometimes the death in the family happens, sometimes the

financial struggles happen, and sometimes we don't know why.

But that lack of understanding and that questioning of why is

where the the real struggling begins.

And the second discovery that I want to bring to you today is

that when life doesn't make sense, we have to get to the

place of taking it to God. I know it sounds elementary, but

do you take it everything to him?

You don't have to answer that. We recently broke down Psalm 13

over an elevate. We're doing a study through the

book of Psalms, and we were talking about lament and grief.

Now, this is often considered a prayer of lament.

It's written by King David. If you want to go there, you

can. Again, it's Psalm 13.

Now this is potentially written while David was on the run from

King Saul or from Absalom. We're really unsure about when

exactly, but it's a Psalm that gives us an example of bringing

our deep grief and our pain and our confusion to God.

Lament. How many of you have heard of

that? Probably a lot.

It's characterized by taking an action step and moving from just

just sitting in this grief, in this pain.

But it turns into lament when you take that action step and

you say, yes, I've got that, but I'm trusting and giving that to

God. I'm taking it to him and I'm

putting in action and I'm trusting him with that.

OK, so Psalm 13, Oh Lord, how long will you forget me forever?

How long will you look the other way?

How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow

in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the

upper hand? Turn and answer me, O Lord, my

God, restore the sparkle to my eyes or I will die.

Don't let my enemies gloat, saying we have defeated Him.

Don't let them rejoice in my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.

I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

I will sing to the Lord because He is good to me.

Notice how David's words and his tone shift.

He starts with questioning how long?

I mean, he says it what, four or five times?

How long? How long do I have to deal with

this? And then he moves to a request.

Oh God, turn to me. I need an answer.

And then he moves to I will rejoice because you have rescued

me. I will sing to the Lord because

He is good. I trust in your unfailing love.

David doesn't hide his pain from God.

He takes it to him. He makes an active move from his

deep grief into renewing and reclaiming his active trust in

God. How do you normally handle your

pain? You don't have to give me an

answer, but just think about it. When it happens in your life,

you normally sneeze. Never mind.

Oh man, how do you normally handle the pain in your life?

When it happens in your life, Everything that we've mentioned

under that word it and you find yourself hurting, how do you

normally respond? I'll give you an example here of

a time in my response. This was some pain in my life.

I had a grandma, loved her and she was struggling with cancer

for about 9 months and this was back in 2021 or the end of 2020.

Beginning of 2021 and my birthday was coming up.

At the time I was working at New Bern Police Department and I was

on the street working patrol. I was on night shifts so I would

go in at 6:00 PM, get off at 6:00 AM, but I was sleeping from

the day before and I get a phone call that she passed away.

Guess what? So my birthday.

That hurt still hurts looking back at it.

Why? Why, right?

God, you could have just moved that.

Like I get selfish, right? You could have just moved it a

day here, a day there. Why'd you have to mess up my

birthday? It's not about me, right?

But we still have those questions and being straight

honest with you, the next, I don't know, 2-3 years.

I didn't want anything to do with my birthday.

I just wanted it to come and go because that hurt was there and

I didn't take it to God. Just being honest.

I was selfish with it and I was feeling some type of way about

it, but I finally did. I took it to him.

I said, God, here, this is this hurts.

Why'd it have to happen? I don't know.

And that's OK now. Still hurts, but.

Taking it to him, it was revealed again.

Pastor Blake just went through Ecclesiastes was a little bit

ago, right? Bible study Wednesday night.

And what do we learn? There's a time for everything

under the sun. There's a time for being happy.

There's a time for being sad. There's a time for death.

There's a time for life, and you know what?

Just because that happened on my birthday doesn't mean that I

can't remember my grandmother and still celebrate this gift

that God has given me of another year, right?

So let's jump ahead to Job 3, just maybe a couple pages over.

This is Job's first speech after seven days of silence.

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

He said, May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said

a boy is conceived that day. May it turn to darkness.

May God above not care about it. May no light shine on it.

May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more, May a cloud

settle over it. May blackness overwhelm it.

He finally speaks after sitting in silence for seven days.

He curses the day of his birth. His pain is real, his emotions

very real, his questions very real.

He doesn't get the answer to his why, but he does something that

in my situation I wasn't necessarily able to do for a few

years. He doesn't let it push him away

from God either. One thing that I'm learning,

although it isn't easy, is that maybe instead of asking God why

would you let this happen, it would be more beneficial to pray

God? I don't understand any of this.

This is how I feel. Lay out all your emotions, your

feelings, and it's frustrating, God, but I'm bringing it to you

and I'm trusting you because of who I know you to be, because of

the evidence that I've seen in my life.

Now, pain. We're going to talk about it a

little more, but it does not determine my purpose.

It doesn't determine your purpose.

I'm jumping even further ahead. Job 19, verse 25.

Job 19:25

We see Job's response to his friend Bill Dad as he is going

through some intense feelings of loneliness and physical pain

here. But in verse 25, I know that my

Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand on the earth.

Everything in Job circumstances seemed like God had abandoned

him, but he did not let His circumstances define what He

believed about God. He knows that his Redeemer

lives. If we jump ahead, way ahead to

the last chapter, chapter 42, verses 2 through 6, we see Job's

last reply to the Lord. He says I know that you can do

anything and no one can stop you.

You asked who is this that questions my wisdom with such

ignorance? It is I, and I was talking about

things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.

You said Listen and I will speak.

I have some questions for you and you must answer them.

I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you

with my own eyes. I take back everything I said,

and I sit in the dust and ashes to show my repentance.

Job admits his ignorance and his lack of knowledge to comprehend

God's reasoning, and even still, he chooses to trust God's wisdom

and in God's consistent character.

It might be hard, but how many of you know we need to admit our

ignorance and our lack of knowledge sometimes, some of us

maybe more than others. I don't know.

Eventually in verse 5, verse five, Job says he has seen the

Lord with his own eyes. Sometimes when we're hurting, we

forget the history that we have with God.

Sometimes that pain anyone ever experienced like an excruciating

pain and it's almost like tunnel vision, can't think about

anything else. Sometimes when we're hurting and

we're feeling that pain, we forget that history that we have

with God. We've become so focused on what

He isn't doing right now that we forget about what He did do and

what He has done. So how can we better remember

that? How can we better remember what

He has done? How many?

You know what a testimony is? Yeah, every one of us has one.

Share that. Share your testimony.

And I'm not just saying when I'm having a tough day mentally

think about things, although that might help, but I'm saying

verbalize it. Put it out there.

Put it out loud to your small groups, to your communities, to

the people that you trust. Vocalize and share your

testimony because why? Because when you start to speak

things and you hear yourself speaking these testimonies and

you hear other people speaking these testimonies, that builds a

confidence, that builds a confidence, and it strengthens

our confidence even more in who we know God to be, Right?

Last week, I know some of you were like locked eyes here and

you haven't moved. You're like, what is this?

Last week Pastor Blake used this jacket and this rope for an

illustration. He had Abigail come up here and

the jacket was essentially to hold the rope to him.

So I'm just going to use the rope, but I hope you'll stick

with me and you can see where I'm going.

So this rope he talked about was things that happened to us that

maybe we don't fully handle, maybe we don't fully heal from.

We don't necessarily take it to God and allow him to help us

deal with it. These things, maybe it's a death

to a loved one that we don't fully understand why.

Maybe it's a diagnosis. Maybe it's a part of, I don't

know, a family just out of nowhere seeming to have issues

and like God, what is happening and all of a sudden you have

these these things that are not being dealt with and they

become, we learned last week, hand holds for the enemy that

maybe we don't always see. But if you can imagine someone

behind me, like last week pulling on the ropes, they

affect me, right? He can kind of move me around

and affect me if I'm not dealing with these hand holds.

So Pastor Blake encouraged us to deal with them, get rid of them,

and he sat them on the stage. Now, I came in here Monday or

Tuesday and I saw the jacket here and I was like thinking

about my sermon and what I was going to be talking about.

And I just couldn't kind of get away from this thought that I

think we can take this even further and actually connects

with one of my points. So when we deal with those

things, we put them in a grave, right?

What is a grave for? It's to lay something or someone

to rest. What does that mean?

You're putting it down and you're moving on.

It doesn't mean you're forgetting.

That's not what I'm saying, but you're putting it in the grave.

Again, pain is real. These things actually, they

happen to you. I'm not discounting that.

I mean, I was getting choked up just talking about one that I

feel like I have dealt with. OK, emotions are valid now.

They don't validate all of your actions because of those

emotions. Some of you take that and chew

on it. I had to for a while, but pain,

that rope, whatever happened doesn't have to become my

identity. It doesn't.

Disappointment doesn't have to become what I believe or know

God to be. What happened to me doesn't get

to control what God has next for me.

My pain does not determine my purpose.

Now I want to jump back to night of worship, beginning of this

month. If you were here, you got to

experience it. If you weren't here, you better

come Wednesday night because it's going to be fantastic.

But I was at night of worship. I was worshiping.

They did the song made for more. If you know that song, maybe you

don't, but I'm going to read you the chorus.

I wasn't made to be tending a grave.

I was called by name, born and raised back to life again.

I was made for more. Why would I make a bed in my

shame when a fountain of grace is running my way?

I know I am yours and I was made for more.

Can I be honest with what happens sometimes with these

these things in our life now? I know the song specifically

says shame. Maybe this thing down in the

grave is shame over something you've done in the past.

Maybe it's an addiction that you've worked through, or maybe

that you're still fighting to get away, get out of the grips

of. Maybe again, it's all those

things that we mentioned, but you've put it in the grave.

But if we're not careful, I think we find ourselves coming

back here. I think sometimes we might even

pull it out. We might start to relive it.

We might start to maybe allow it to start forming our identity

again. I don't know.

We have to stop tending graves in our lives, and we have to be

an active participant in God's will for our lives.

If we were made for more, why do I want to come back here and

live in a cemetery? Why?

Guys, God has so much more for us.

It's frustrating. I know also when you see people

who are doing that, that you care for and you can't make that

decision for them, but you can encourage them.

You can be there for them and you can speak truth in their

life. You can speak testimony into

their life, right? We got to stop tending the

grave. We got to stop living in that

cemetery. Some of us has been sending them

for so long. Maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe

years, maybe decades. We keep visiting what hurt us.

We keep rehearsing what happened over and over and over.

We keep replaying the disappointment in our heads.

We keep asking why I don't. Don't hear me incorrectly.

I'm not telling you again to pretend that that grave is not

there. I'm telling you that you are not

created to spend the rest of your days living in that

cemetery. Job lost things that he could

never replace. But Job story did not end in the

ashes. Some of us have been tending

graves for so long that we forgot we were created to live.

Pain is part of your story, but it does not have to become your

purpose. We spent the last few weeks

talking about spiritual warfare, and the reality is there's an

unseen battle happening around us.

And here's something that we have to remember about war.

Wars have casualties, people get wounded, people get exhausted,

people get knocked down, and sometimes people need to be

carried off the battlefield for a little while while they can

heal. That's not weakness.

It's not failure. That is what happens in war.

Liberty Church, if you're visiting today, I'm talking to

you too. I believe Satan would love

nothing more than to take as many casualties as he can get us

off the battlefield, whatever that looks like.

If that's tending to 5/10/20 different graves and not living

the purpose God has for you, that's what He wants.

He would love to see you wounded and convinced that you have

nothing left, or to see you hurting and move into isolation,

because that's what we tend to do.

And close yourself off to those around you who care, who want to

support you. He'd be thrilled to see your

disappointment and your pain become your identity.

Or to see your questions and your doubts.

Or how you excuse me. Or to see your questions and the

doubts that you have define what you know about God.

You love it. But here's the truth.

And I want, I really want you to hear this.

Andy Flom, you matter in this fight.

Peter Austin, you matter in this fight.

Colton Liberty, you matter in this fight.

Cassie, you matter in this fight.

And I can go through and I can tell each of you that

one-on-one, I'd be happy to do it if you want, I'll be back

thereafter. And I'll tell you that every

single one of us matters in this war, in this battle, in this

fight. The Army of God functions better

with each of us at our best. Though now we know the victory

has already been won, right? We don't have to worry about

that. But again, we're talking about

when life distorts that. And I think it's true.

The Army of God functions better when we are all individually,

spiritually at our best. If you're listening today and

you realize that you're doing your best to continue fighting,

but you're limping pretty good right now, that's OK.

I highly encourage you to evaluate it.

Maybe ask a trusted friend, see what they're seeing.

Maybe you need to step off the field for just a moment.

Maybe you need to get around some people who can help you

heal. Maybe you need counselling or

medical attention or to get back in God's word consistently.

Maybe you need to say I'm not OK.

Take the time that you need to heal because the goal isn't to

keep limping around the battlefield pretending that

we're fine. The goal is to get healthy and

return to the fight because it is still there.

There is another side to this though.

Sometimes we can get so comfortable sitting on the

sidelines that we stop really wanting to get back in.

We overuse the word healing when we're really just trying to buy

our time hiding out because maybe it seems easier than

getting back into that fight. I, I really pray that you hear

me this morning. Someone is depending on you,

someone in your family. They might need your faith.

Someone in your church might need your encouragement.

There might be someone who needs the testimony that God is

bringing you through to be shared with them.

So please don't stay on the sidelines forever.

Heal properly, get back up, and when you're ready, get back in

the fight. OK, if you're realizing that

maybe you need to be taking some steps to get back into the

fight, have some action steps for you.

And I'm a little over, but I'm going to go through it quickly,

OK? Some practical, practical things

that we can do to get back in this fight #1 be honest with

yourself, with God, anybody. Honesty is good.

Feel your emotions, guys. Men, that's not something that

we are necessarily raised to do. Feel your emotions.

If you've never learned what that looks like, we have a

conquer ministry that goes on here.

I would love to talk to you about it.

I'm sure there are plenty of guys here who would love to talk

to you about it. Feel your emotions and work

through that. And be honest with God.

Take it to Him, lay it out for Him.

He doesn't need to see you all happy, dandy, perfect, best

version of yourself. Go to Him and be honest with

Him, but trust him because we know he's good.

Get healing. Maybe that's counselling, maybe

it's therapy, maybe it's finding a hobby or reigniting a hobby

that you've done before. Maybe it's a medical evaluation.

Maybe it's forgiving someone or forgiving yourself.

Get healing and do it the right way.

Sometimes we ignore this because we think it's it's noble to keep

keep limping in that fight. But again, we need each other to

be at the best version of ourselves to continue forward in

this third get around community. We just had a call for small

groups last week. Community will help you get

through things if you engage in them, if you open up, if you're

honest in them and you give people another chance.

Yeah, people hurt people. Don't let that keep you from

what God has for you. Don't let that pain determine

your purpose. 4th, get back in the Word.

Get back into worship in the spiritual disciplines.

They matter and they are important to this fight.

And 5th, get back to your purpose.

Start serving again. Maybe you got hurt in in

serving, whatever that looks like.

It doesn't have to be volunteering here at Liberty

Church. Whatever serving looks like to

you, get back to it. Love again.

Love big love people. Yeah, you're going to get hurt

again. Probably actually, most

certainly. But don't let that keep you from

what God has for you. Give again and live life.

We all have questions of why? Why did this happen?

Why didn't God stop it? Why didn't He answer my prayer?

And the truth is, we're not going to always know that.

Why? Job never got every answer.

But Job came to know God more deeply through it.

And that's what I want to leave with you today.

I might not know why, but I know who and I know He is good.

I can trust Him even when I don't understand everything and

all of his reasoning. And to be honest, I think my

brain would explode if I tried. And here's the beautiful thing.

God never intended for us to walk through this life alone.

Next week, Pastor Blake is going to be back.

He's going to be beginning a series on the Holy Spirit, and I

think that's the perfect spot for us to go next with this.

I'm excited for it. I hope you guys would join us

back next week. Because when life doesn't make

sense, when we're wounded, when we're trudging through a battle,

God has given us his presence. The Holy Spirit is our helper.

He's our comforter. He reminds us of what's true.

He strengthens us. And we don't have that on our

own. And we don't have to go through

this battle alone. So maybe you don't need God to

explain everything to us today. Maybe we just need to trust Him

and trust in his consistent character and who He's always

been. Because it happens.

But God is still good. He's still with us, and we're

not alone. Thank you guys.