No Fear - Suffering

Sometimes the future's unexpected "twists" and "turns" straight up hurt! But we have a very real hope because Jesus has chosen to step into our pain and brings what only he can - new life, even in our darkest of seasons. 

For more info about RPYA check us out on Instagram @rpyoungadults or at our landing page on rockypeak.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My name's Anthony. Uh hello. Um yeah, I'm gonna be reading scripture today. Um, and if you guys would like to turn to John 11 uh verse 17. I'll give you guys a moment to turn. Logan didn't let me have a mic in the drum, so I'm gonna have a mic in the birthday. Perfect. Okay. On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask. Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? Yes, Lord, she replied. I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. The teacher is here, she said, and is asking for you. When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews, who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out. They followed her. Supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn them. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Thank you, Anthony. I appreciate that. Hey, it's always a privilege to be with you on these Sunday nights. And I want to give a special welcome to those of you that are here for the very first time. It's not always easy to walk into a large room and to walk into an environment where there's a lot of people that seemingly know each other. And so I'm really thankful that you're here. If we have not had a chance to meet yet, my name is Dre. I'm the young adult pastor here at Rocky Peak. I didn't know that a baby could have such a judgmental look until I found this picture of me. It's why I've got this giant wrinkle here from my life of judging others. But for those of you that are new, let me tell you a little bit about what you've gotten yourself into. Welcome to RPYA, that stands for Rocky Peak Young Adults. We are a community that meets every Sunday night at 6.30 in this building, designed specifically for 18 to 25 year olds. And the reason why we exist is that we believe wholeheartedly that God wants to unleash a movement of passionate, Christ-following young adults. And specifically when it comes to your generation, there is a lot that's being said and written about your generation. In particular, your generation is being called the anxious generation. I believe that God wants to rename your generation and to call you the transformational generation. And so that's why we're here to partner with God with what he wants to do in your generation. And one of the primary ways that we partner with God is these Sunday nights. We design these Sunday nights from the moment you get to the top of the ramp to the end of the night to be a place of encounter between you and the real Jesus. And the hope is that you walk in as you are. Jesus has no interest in any pretense, any mask, or any idealism. Jesus wants to encounter you exactly as you are, wherever you are. Some of you have walked in and life has been pretty darn good. Most of you have walked in dealing with finals, work, family, all of that. And you might be coming in at a place of depletion, a place of exhaustion. You might even coming in spiritually going, I don't even know if I believe in this, and I think you're all nuts. Awesome. I'm glad you're here. All of you, because Jesus wants to encounter you in this evening. And so the hope tonight is not that we're actually going to be able to answer all of your questions. Our hope tonight is to point you to Jesus and to start a dialogue between you and He. And so we're going to go into a time of teaching. We consider this a pretty sacred time, not because of me or anybody else that would be up here, but because we're going to open up God's word, which is living and active. We're going to walk through and see what it has for us this evening. And so as we prepare ourselves for this time, if you haven't done so already, I would love to encourage you to throw your phones on silent just to protect your attention as we go into this time. Also, there is a message note sheet, which is just going to be able to help we follow along and remember some of the key things that the Lord is going to be doing during this time. So I'm going to go ahead and pray for us. And so in that, would you go ahead and close your eyes? Would you go ahead and take one or two deep breaths? And just pauses us and just focuses us. And just in the stillness of your own heart, would you just take a few moments to yourself and would you just pray, Jesus, show me who you really are tonight? Jesus, that's our prayer tonight? That's our prayer every time we gather. That's my prayer for RP Way for this generation every day and every moment of their lives. That they would be saying, Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see the real Jesus. To see the Jesus that's revealed in Scripture, to see the Jesus that conquered sin, grave, and hell itself, to see the Jesus that is present with me in the good moments, in the terrible moments, and in everything in between. And so here we are as a gathering of saints and some that are not yet so, to say, show me who you really are. Show us who you really are. Open our eyes so that we don't walk out of this place the same way we walked in. And finally, Jesus is the communicator. I always pray the precious words of John the Baptist because it has not what's about to happen has nothing to do with me. Jesus, I pray, may I become less as the communicator, and would you, King Jesus, our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords, become much, much more. And it's in your name, King Jesus, that we all said, Amen, amen, RPYA. Hey, so several years ago, I was flying home by myself from having a week-long visit in New York City. New York City is my favorite place on earth. We can talk about that afterwards as to why. But as I was flying back by myself, it was a fairly smooth flight. In fact, it was crystal clear, and I was doing what I usually do on an airplane. No joke, I'm pretty much engrossed in my iPad reading comic books because I love comic books. And so as I had my head down reading this comic book, all of a sudden we hit some turbulence. And it wasn't like, you know, the small ramp-up turbulence. I'm sure this is not actually what happened, but it's the best way I can describe it. My friend Justin, who's a pilot, could probably tell me what this really was afterwards. It felt like when you're driving and you slam on the brakes. And you slam on the brakes hard. And so it moved me into the seat in front of me. It shook everybody up on the plane. All of a sudden, if you weren't awake or sober in that moment, you suddenly were. And I'm looking around, going, what just happened? And you know what made it the worst? Because it was unexpected. Sometimes when you're on a plane and you kind of have turbulence kind of build and build and it gets stronger, even though it's not pleasant, you're like, no, no, I expected that. But this felt like it came out of nowhere. It was all of a sudden. And for the rest of the flight, it left me with this anxiety. Every time the plane shook a little bit, I kept wondering and worrying: is it gonna happen again? Is it gonna be bigger? It left me with anxiety. Have you ever had those moments where logically I know that we're not we're not in danger? Planes are designed for this, but the entire time I'm sitting there going like, what if I don't make it? What if we don't make it back to LA? What if this happens? What if the wings fall off? What if the stewardess explodes? I don't know. But now I have this anxiety. And the reason why I open with that is I feel like this illustrates what for so many of us have experienced our future to be like. I feel like that illustrates what so often is what our future is like, what our tomorrows are all about. And for those of you that are here for the first time, for the first time in a long time tonight, last week we kicked off a brand new series called No Fear of the Future. Because the reality is when we think of tomorrow, while there is optimism and excitement, for many of us, there is a lot of anxiety, there is a lot of confusion, and there is a lot of straight-up fear and terror. And so, how do we root ourselves in the peace of God when we don't know what tomorrow brings? And that's what the series is all about, that often we're trying to root ourselves in ever-changing circumstances or mystery when the invitation is to root ourselves in the never-changing character and promises of Jesus the King. And so, as we recap a little bit, last week we busted the myth of what we think our future is supposed to look like. Many of us have an issue with our future because we think our future is supposed to be this straight, tidy, neat, easy to see and control linear line that is progressing in one direction. When the reality is our future looks like this. That's what our future is all about. Now, as we continue to talk about that, sometimes the twists and turns lead to good, even great places and experiences in our lives. I shared briefly last week how some of the biggest blessings I've ever encountered in my life came from the unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes those twists and turns lead us to places of difficulty and places of challenge. And sometimes those twists and those turns, they straight up hurt. Sometimes the future straight up hurts. And it hurts deeply. Kind of like that unexpected turbulence. Sometimes we go into tomorrow and we sit there and going, where did this come from? You don't need to raise your hand necessarily, but have you ever had your day or your week or your month ruined by an unexpected text message? Some of us we've experienced that the twists and the turns have led to ourselves or someone else experiencing some type of physical harm, some type of accident. Some of us have experienced that the future the tomorrows have brought us cancers and deaths and saying goodbye to life and loved ones. Some of us have experienced that our tomorrows have brought the dissolution of friendships that once seemed so strong. Families breaking down, breakups, whether romantic or in other ways. Some of us, our tomorrows have suddenly brought failures at school, school issues, not being able to graduate, not getting the classes that we need. For some of us, what the turbulence was was sin. For some of us, we are trapped in a sin that just a few yesterdays ago we never thought we would give into. We never thought would have a wrap in our lives. For some of us, we're dealing with the sins of others that we never thought we'd be dealing with, that we never thought they would be susceptible of. For some of us, our tomorrow's brought in anxiety and a fear that we didn't see coming. For some of us, our tomorrow's brought in anger we didn't see coming. And so, as a starting point there on the top of your note sheet, we have to acknowledge one important reality. Because remember, God doesn't live in a fantasy, God lives in reality, in the real world. And the reality, the bummer truth, is this your future will include suffering. Your future will include suffering. And isn't that the feel-good message you came to church tonight to hear? But again, if we want to experience the beauty of what God has for us in life, we have to live in reality. Not in a myth, not in a fantasy, not in idealism. We need to live in reality. We live in a world that's been wrecked by sin. And so, because of that, our tomorrows are going to bring suffering. But here's the beautiful thing, similar to what I mentioned last week, there's a reason why the message starts with this. Because if that was the end of our story, then yeah, lay down and let's give up. But God has so much more. So the bummer truth isn't the whole truth. It's a part of it. But there's something bigger there in your nocies, what I call the beautiful truth. Jesus invites you to live in a real and tangible hope. Jesus invites you to live in a real and a tangible hope. And we need a better definition and understanding of hope. Too often in our world, we actually have a very low, our pastor calls it a very anemic view of hope. And we basically use hope as a synonym for wish. It's kind of like if you're a sportic fan, when you sit there and go, man, I really hope that the Lakers win, or I really hope that this happened, or I really hope there. You're asking for something that you have no idea how the outcome is gonna come. That is not the hope that Jesus is inviting us into. Jesus is inviting us into a real hope, a tangible, meaning you can touch it, you can live in it, it can impact you. He's inviting us into something more because of who he is. Just like we were talking about last week, our hope is not in our circumstances, but our hope is in the person of Jesus. And that's the foundation of this whole series for the next couple of weeks, that we don't have to fear the future because of Jesus who is with us. And so that's why Anthony read the passage that he did, because we see actually in there hope and the character of Jesus when our future hurts, and it hurts deeply. And so, as we go back to our scriptures, if you've got your Bibles open in your apps on, I'm gonna be hopping around a little bit, but one of the things I want to tell you is why the Bible is so important and so essential for life as well as when we are hurting. Because sometimes we have this mythological view of the Bible, that the people in the Bible were these like Christian superheroes that always obeyed, never struggled, always said, Yes, God, whatever you want, and were just capable of being Clark Kent, Superman, whatever they could do. The reality is you learn that myth burst real quick when you actually read the Bible. Because when you actually open up and read the Bible, what you find out is the Bible is filled with real people. And what I mean is not that they existed, they did. Real people like you and me who are hurting. In fact, most of the Bible was written at times of crisis, times of suffering, times of pain. And so when you read the Bible, you realize I can understand and relate and empathize with these people, and that means that the word of God is relevant to us. There's a quote there in your note sheet that I love. So Matt Chandler is a pastor of a large church in the Dallas, Texas area called the Village Church. In 2009, when Matt was in his early 30s, he passed out on Thanksgiving morning and woke up in the hospital to find out that he had a brain tumor. That was an unexpected tomorrow. And through that, he learned beauty from God when you are suffering. And so years later, he wrote a book called Joy in the Sorrow. And he says this the Bible isn't full of clean and happy living. You could argue that it's a book more full of tears than smiles. And so, what does that tell us? That the Bible speaks exactly to real life. Because real life hurts. And so the Bible is speaking directly into it. And so that leads us back to our passage. I gotta give you a little bit of context. I dropped you into a movie that's already going on. And do me this favor, I don't have the time to go into the entirety of this passage. There is a lot in a lot of amazing things happening in that passage. So do me the favor of reading the whole section when you leave this place. But a little bit of context. Jesus gets word that a family, a set of siblings that he adores, Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus are experiencing an unexpected crisis. Lazarus has fallen gravely ill, and that leads to his death. And so Jesus is walking into the death of this dear brother. And so as we go to verse 17, on his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Now, the beautiful thing about context is it's not about just gaining an academic answer. Context makes the story and the word of God become bigger and come to life. And so there's a very important note about the fact that he had been dead for four days. In that culture, there had been a superstition that when a person died, there would be a possibility of them coming back to life. The superstition was that their spirit or their soul or whatever you want to call it would hover around their body until their body began to decompose, which would happen on the third day. The fact that the gospel tells us this note means that there is no mistaking the fact that Lazarus is dead. And hear me. It started with Lazarus is gravely ill. Jesus come. It has now escalated to the fact that now this crisis is bigger. These sisters are suffering. And again, there is so much good in this passage, but I want to focus specifically on the response to the sisters when they see Jesus. And so as we go ahead, Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And think about how honest that is. Jesus, if you had been here, you could have done something. If you had been here, he would still be alive. Where? Where were you? And then as we skip ahead, Mary, when Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell on his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. The same plea. And so what do we see in both these sisters? Honesty. They're hurting. This is not what they wanted. This is not what they expected. They believed in Jesus. They believe that he's who he says he is. They believe that he's the Messiah. They believe that he is God's chosen. They believe that he is powerful. And they're confused. They're angry. They're upset. And they go to him and they go, Jesus, where were you? And my favorite part about this is what Jesus doesn't do. Jesus doesn't shush them. Jesus doesn't correct them and go, Do you know who you're talking to? Jesus doesn't give them like a Sunday school answer and just trust, because God works all things out for the good. Do you know what Jesus does? He stands there and lets them be hurt in his presence. Do you know why this is so important? Because this is an invitation that Jesus makes to you as well. Jesus doesn't want you to be this idealized mask-wearing fake, it's all gonna work out. Jesus knows that life sucks sometimes, and he invites you to come to him and go, I don't like this. Jesus, why didn't you? Jesus, why don't you? Jesus, where are you? Jesus, where were you? Jesus, why didn't you give? Jesus, why aren't you there? You know why? Because that builds intimacy. Because now we're talking for real. And you know what I love about the Bible's invitation to be honest with God is that the Bible doesn't just do it in these two verses. The Bible does it all throughout. In the first half of the Bible, the Old Testament, there is a literal book called Lamentations, which is all about lamenting to God. God, Job, Satan, our time when we started was reading at a chapter of God. Job spends most of that book going, God, what the heck? What are you doing? My favorite example are the Psalms of the Old Testament. There are 150 Psalms, poets, songs, and over 70 of them are laments. And most of those laments are angry at God, wondering, where are you? In fact, one of the most famous laments written by David, who would become king, who slayed Goliath, this great biblical hero. In Psalm 22 says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? Why didn't you show up when I needed you? Why are you so far from saving me? So far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer. By night I find no rest. And I want to tell you something. As an older brother in your life, did you know that you could talk to God that way? Because not only can he take it, but he can do something about it. He can take it. But he can do something about it. And the most important thing that he can do is to show you that you're not suffering by yourself. What do we learn by how Jesus and by how Jesus treats these sisters? Well, the first fill-in, and though that's actually nochi, why we have hope is this Jesus enters into our suffering. Jesus enters into our suffering. You know how they teach you in English class not to define a word with itself, but I'm going to. Jesus is Jesus. And so he could have snapped his fingers and done this from afar, right? He could have sent a note to be like, I got it, just do this, and Lazarus is gonna be fine. No, he chose to walk into their darkest day. He chose to walk into their darkest moment and to be there present with them. That's a model for what Jesus chooses to do in your life as well. That when you're hurting, when you're falling apart, when you've lost control or the pretense that you were ever in control to begin with, when you're crying, when you're yelling, when you're doubting, when you're throwing things, Jesus enters into it to be there with you. And the beautiful thing about Jesus entering it into is that somebody only enters into your pain to show you that they care about you. Somebody enters into your pain to show you that you are not alone in this. The thing about Jesus is he is not unfeeling when it comes to our pain. I don't have the time to get to it, but later on, when he gets to Lazarus' tomb, Jesus weeps. The Greek word is that weeps, sheds tears, is weeping, which is fascinating because he knows he's going to resurrect Lazarus in a few moments. And so why does he choose to weep? Because he wants to show you that he feels the hurt that you feel, that he has entered into this with you, that he is not unfeeling, he is not uncaring. Jesus chose to suffer in his own life so that he can empathize with your suffering. He has entered into our suffering because one of the most important things we need to know when we are hurting is that we are not alone. Man, I remember several years ago when I was going through my health crisis, and I don't have the time to get into it a lot, but there was some scary years and scary moments. And I remember at its worst, I remember sitting there. I don't want anybody to tell me that it's gonna be okay. I just want somebody to be here with me when I hurt. Jesus has entered into our suffering, and that alone is beautiful, but he enters into it for the purpose of doing more. And so as we go into the next scripture, Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. And what we need to understand in John's gospel, the four, the last of the four biographies we have in the second half of the Bible about the life and teaching of Jesus, John's gospel highlights these seven statements called I am statements that Jesus makes to people for people to understand what it means that he is king, that he is authority. And so he says, I am the resurrection and the life to Martha. And we need to understand a bigger picture of this. Jesus is not just referring to the fact that he will rise from the grave after his death. He is not referring just to that. He is saying in this moment, right now, in your life, to say that he is the resurrection is to say that he is the only one with the authority to bring life out of where there was once death. And so when Jesus says to the sisters, I am the resurrection, he is saying the same thing to you and I that when it comes to your hurts, when it comes to your suffering, when it comes to your broken dreams, when it comes to your pain, Jesus can bring life out of where there was once death. And that's our next fill-in. Jesus brings new life out of suffering. Jesus brings new life out of suffering. You know what's really interesting about new life is that pretty much always it starts in the dark. If you think of a baby being born out of the womb, it started in the dark. If you think of planting a seed in the ground, that life first starts to sprout in the dark. If you think of the resurrection of Jesus Himself, he rose in the dark and then came and brought something out into life. Hear me. God's design, God's vision for us and our world did not include pain and suffering. That's a result of sin. That's a result of rebellion. That's a result of being separated from God the Father. And yet, even though the pain and the suffering is a result of our sin and our rebellion, God loved us so that he didn't want that to be the end of our story. And so you and I, we're limited and we can't stop, we can't solve the pain that comes into our tomorrow's. But Jesus is not limited like you and I are. And so he steps into my story, he steps into your story, your pain, your mess, and he steps in with the authority to do what no one else and nothing else can do. And that's called new life, where there was once pain and death. In fact, we see this in his cross. Remember, as the disciples were watching him die, they thought this was game over. You're dead. It's a Roman cross, only reserved for traders. We just lost. And what did he do? He took the most vile symbol of death, and today we wear it around our necks because now it signifies life. And so we may not always understand what Jesus is up to. He often will work in ways we don't expect. He often will work at different timetables than ours. But what we do know is we know his character, that he is always at the at work to bring life where there was once pain and suffering. And I don't want you to raise your hands, but I just want you to think about it. I bet you if we went around this room and you really got to think and you got to share, wouldn't some of you think, man, some of my most beautiful and my most important times with God were the result of pain and suffering? Let me give you a couple of examples. There are some of you that you would say, honestly, I would not have come back to church. I would have never come to church. I would have never come back to Jesus if it wasn't for the pain and suffering in my life. That was new life. For some of you, you would say, I would have never repented and given my life to Jesus. I would have never believed. I would have never experienced his forgiveness if it wasn't for the pain and suffering in my life. For some of you, I would have never had these deep friendships. I would have never joined a life group. I would have never walked up and asked somebody to pray for me and that started a mentorship if it wasn't for the pain and suffering in my life. For some of you, if it wasn't for the pain and suffering, I would have never known the idols in my life, the sins I was choosing to depend on more than Jesus. I thought the sexual relationship, I thought the pornography, I thought the pride, I thought the accolades, I thought the money, I thought that was gonna bring me meaning and purpose, and it all fell apart. If it wasn't for that pain, I would have realized that Jesus and Jesus alone is king. For some of you, if it wasn't for the pain in my life, I would have never taken the step to go to counseling. I would have never taken the step to go to regen. I would have never taken the step to work on sobriety. I would have never taken the step to experience healing in my life. For some of you, if it wasn't for this pain in my life, I would have never gotten involved in a ministry or in a life group or in a way at my church that is that is reaching people that were hurting just like me. I was walking out of getting one of those like scans where you have to drink the like gross yogurt stuff. And as I'm walking out, it was also, you know, the radiology department, and I happened to lock eyes with a young woman your age who was sitting in a chair. And I don't know her, but I could just tell she was scared. And not only could I tell she was scared, I could tell that whatever she had going on had to do with cancer. And I just remember as I looked at her, we locked eyes, and I just smiled, and she smiled at me. And as I kept going, I kept praying. Oh my god, I don't know who she is. But I know she's probably going through one of the darkest times in her life. Would you just show her that she's not alone? And it was as I was praying that this hospital, whenever a baby is born in the loudspeaker, they play a lullaby throughout the whole hospital. And I remember I just paused and I listened, and I just reflected on the fact that how beautiful that in some of our darkest moments, there's still new life happening. Jesus brings new life out of the out of the dark. And so there in your note sheet, you got a statement that I call neon lights. It's what I say most weeks that if you don't remember anything else from this pass from this message, remember this. And here's that statement today's hope in Jesus overflows into our tomorrow's. This whole time we've been talking about how we have a very real hope because Jesus has entered into our suffering, and Jesus can bring light, new life out of our sufferings. We get to experience that today. And when we do, we take that into our tomorrows. Whatever our tomorrows may be. But I want to go back to this question that he asked Martha, the first sister. He says, I'm the resurrection, I'm the life. He goes on to say that anybody that believes in me will not die, but will have eternal life. And he says this, do you believe this? And I really want to emphasize that word, believe. Do you believe this? Because here the heart of Jesus, he is not being accusatory of, you're not doubting me, are you? He's not doing a pop quiz and asking her to answer the right theological answers. He is inviting her, as Jesus only can to experience a new level of trust in who he is. And so by asking this, he's saying, Will you choose to believe this? Will you choose to trust? This is, if I can paraphrase, what Jesus is not only asking Martha, not only asking Mary, but what he's asking you and I tonight. Because he's standing right here. And so by saying, Do you believe this? Jesus is saying, now that you see that I'm here with you. Catch that. Now that you see that I'm here with you, do you trust that I can see and do what you cannot? Now that you see that I'm with you, do you trust that I can see and do what you cannot? And if you were here last week, that was the heart of this passage we looked at in Ezekiel. Sovereign Lord, meaning you are all powerful, meaning you have no limitations. I don't know what the next step is. I don't know what tomorrow brings. I don't even know what the next 30 seconds bring. But I know you. And I know that you're right here and you're not limited like I am. Sovereign Lord, you alone know. And so as we go back to that question, do you believe this? Jesus is teaching us an important depth of what it means to trust in God. Because hear me on this trust is not automatic. Trust has to be chosen. Trust is not natural. Trust is not dictated by our emotions. Trust is intentional. We have to choose to believe. And think about the most important relationships in our lives. We have to choose to stay friends. We have to choose to stay married. We have to choose to stay in the lives of our kids. We have to choose to come to church. We have to choose to trust that Jesus is who he promised he would be. It is not natural, but it is intentional. And he has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower and to strengthen us. And so when Jesus asks this question, do you believe this? He is inviting you to experience a new level of trust by choosing to say, Jesus, I don't know anything, but I'm trusting you because you are here in this moment. And finally, you've got a section in your note sheet that today's choice has an impact on tomorrow. And this is how we develop trust. Choose to remember. And so the next step that we get to take, hear me, not that we have to take, that we get to take, is a step of remembering who Jesus is. And the fact that the sovereign Lord is present with me. And so how do we do that? We remember, because can we be honest, we are forgetful creatures. Even in the best of circumstances, I am a forgetful creature. There are only two phone numbers in life that I know by heart. I don't remember where things are in the refrigerator. We, I've said this before at YA, do you know why you're wearing name tags? Because I don't remember your name. We are forgetful creatures. But especially when life hurts, when life is moving too fast, when there is suffering and pain, that is one of the greatest temptations to forget that Jesus is with us and to forget who Jesus really is. And so one of the ways that we fight the spiritual battle that we're in, one of the ways that we fight against the enemy, one of the ways that we claim victory in spiritual warfare is simple and it's profound. It's by being intentional to pause and remember that Jesus is with me, and I'm choosing to trust in that. Years ago, I was at a funeral for a friend of mine's mom. She had passed away after a battle with cancer. And we knew that she was with the Lord, but man, it still hurt. It hurt very deeply. And so my friend got up there to share the eulogy, and I was really impacted by what he said. And as I'm paraphrasing, he said that as I thought about what I wanted to share about my mom. One of the things that God put on my heart is to ask, what would my mom want shared with you today? And what she would want shared with you is how good Jesus is. And so he began to share the gospel. He began to share how good and loving and faithful Jesus is. And he invited people in one of his darkest moments to experience a new life that can only come from Jesus the King. I don't know, for the most part, what you walked in here with. I don't know what you're walking into tomorrow. But I know Jesus. I know his promises. I know what he's capable of. And I know that he's enough. And so what I want to do, as we usually do, is when we wrap up our times of teaching, I never have any intent on speaking at you. I want to come and learn alongside you. And I think a great way to learn is not just to listen, but to also be able to engage and to learn what it is like to pray when it comes to real life. And so what I want to do is I want to give us an opportunity to reflect and to kind of set that up. On the back of your note sheet, there's kind of a lengthy quote. Some of you have heard me talk about, but in this picture is a married couple, Catherine and Jay Wolfe. They're about my age in their mid-40s. And I don't know them personally, but they've become my heroes, one of my sets of my heroes over the last couple of years. Both of them were raised in Christ-following families. They got married young. And when they were your age, when they were young adults, it seemed like everything was going well for them. Catherine, they're both from the Georgia area. They moved to Los Angeles. Jay was finishing his law degree at Pepperdine. Catherine had been a beauty queen. She was a model. She was pursuing acting. They were young parents. And one day when they were home at lunch, Catherine suffered a massive spinal stroke. And while it didn't kill her, the only way for the surgeon to save her was actually to hurt her further. He had to cut out a part of her brain to be able to stop the bleeding and save her. But if you notice, half of her face is paralyzed. That was the consequence of doing that. And from that moment on in her early 20s, Catherine has lived quite an arduous life. She's had surgeries, and the number of surgeries have been in the double digits. She could not swallow for about a year or two. She had to learn how to re-re uh re-speak, write, and all of that. And one of the beautiful things about what God has done in their life is when you listen to them speak, they've written books. When you listen to them tell your stories, the first thing they will tell you is while our life has not been easy, we would not trade it. Because it has shown us the beauty of what God does in the midst of pain. And there on your note she, but it's going to be on the screens, this is what they write in one of their books. The story we had told ourselves all these years about who God was and what he was doing in our pain had not taken away our future struggles, but it had taken away some of the overwhelming fear, sadness, and doubts. In their place, we had a new peace and a deep trust that we were going to be okay no matter what happened, because it was all still true. Today could be the best day, the worst day, or the last day of our lives, but we don't have to live in fear. Even in the face of the unknown, we can remember what and who we do know, that's Jesus, and help each other remember it too. In doing so, we can start to know the truest things again. We can preach them to our hearts until we actually believe them. And so that's why I wear the word hope on my wrist. It actually comes from them. They run a ministry called Hope Heals. And it reminds me that even in the darkest of days, and hear me, Jesus does not want you to pretend like it doesn't hurt. Jesus is not into interested in minimizing your pain, but he wants to show you that your Payne does not get the final word.