Distorted | Week 2 | Message

And now he's writing to him the second one. There was another Corinthian letter in between that's been lost. I don't think God wanted in the Bible because he even talks about it. Was pretty severe, and and maybe he regretted and shouldn't have sent it. I don't know. But he because what happened is he loves them. They loved him. He got this started, then he moves on to leave. And while he's gone, they started following these false teachers.

And and and and they were they were he calls them later on in the book super apostles

because he's an apostle, this guy that goes and teaches. And he calls them the super apostles because they were so they they loved these guys, and they compared them to Paul, and they were kinda ripping on Paul because apparently, these guys were better communicators than Paul. They're probably better dressed. You know, they they had more charisma,

and and and they were coming. So he calls them super apostles. What is it super? Did did they wear capes? Did John Williams write them a a soundtrack? Like, da da da da da da. You know, the super apostles show up. When he was joking, well, he was kinda, you know, being serious. They they they look all super.

They talk all great, but they're telling you lies. They've twisted the gospel. And it was kind of a mix of what we would say today is legalism that, hey, you do this for God and that you obey the rules, and your relationship with God is kinda contractual. You do the rules, and then he gives you what you want.

That's kinda what legalism is.

And and mixed with you'll get what you want, which is we would call the prosperity gospel today. That if you have enough faith, if you trust God enough, you're gonna get always prosper. Not gonna be overwhelmed. You're gonna get everything you want, you know, and all that. And it's just not true, but it would be. And then the reason they started following this is they did start to suffer. They were handled they were having some tough things happen.

And and and so in that moment, they were drawn to these teachers. Well, he has to write them to encourage them even though they're ripping on them and see how hard that would be to try to encourage someone when you're like, we like this guy better than you and you're terrible. Like, if you know anything about a guy that gets up and preaches, we don't like to get told that that you're not that good and they are. You know? I've never experienced it. I'm usually saying it to other people, but still.

And and and yet he writes. And in chapter one, he chooses to even though he had to challenge them for your because he loves them, you're following the false teaching. You're not gonna get what you're looking for down this road.

He starts off by encouraging him. The whole first chapter is about how God is the one who brings comfort. And what he's doing is he's trying to say, it's not your circumstances. It's not even the things you do to get God to give you something you want. It's God who comforts. And in in verse eight through 11,

he gets really raw and real. And here he is being compared to these great guys that look good. They seem like they have their acts together. And what he chooses to share is how he felt like a failure and was overwhelmed and crushed as he was serving God. He got real.

And I think in those few verses, we can see what's going on and kinda answer the question of, okay, if God does give us more than we can handle, but not more than he can handle, why? And what is he really doing? And so I wanna read this verse and then take it apart and show you four reasons, four things from these verses

on why and how this should help us. He says, we think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia.

Now he doesn't list the details in the province of Asia, but we know from other letters and other scriptures some of the things he went through. And and it's probably in all the above situation. Several of things he was dealing with was,

one was happened in Ephesus. A riot broke out, and he got almost got killed. And and that happened several times. Another thing was he, also

had some type of physical thing. They don't if it's physical, but we know it's also emotional and spiritual. He was being crushed, but he had some kind of he called it his thorn in his flesh. Most Bible scholars when you read about it think it was something physical

happening with him that he three times prayed to the God, take this away, and he had a good reason. And I was like, hey, I can serve you better if I'm physically okay. And God said, no. And finally told him, no. My grace is sufficient for you. Because and he says, because when you are weak, then you are strong.

So all that's going on. And he says, I wrote to tell you about that. You knew about that just like you're going through trouble, but here's what he's learned. He goes, we were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our beyond our ability, if you have your bible, you like to underline our ability, that's key, to endure.

And we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. Now you gotta understand, we throw words around and act like we say them as figures of speech, oh, that was the worst. I thought it was gonna die. I couldn't take it. Mainly, I hear that from some of you when I'm preaching, but still,

we say it like that, but we aren't really going to die. Did you die? No. He's not using this as a figure of speech. He literally almost died and was pretty sure he was going to be killed. And and and so he's talking about genuine real problems here. And he goes, but

this is the key. But, You gotta like the the the the buts in the Bible. I like big buts and I cannot lie because this is a big one. This is a big one. That's my dad joke. Happy Father's Day. Okay? Get it out of the way early. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely on only God.

Now think about that. We stopped relying. This is the apostle Paul. This is the guy. And by saying we stopped relying on ourselves and learned, what does that imply he was doing during this process? The reason he was so stressed is he says, we got into where it was beyond our abilities

and the only answer was to realize we can't rely on ourselves like we have been. We have to learn to rely on God. And part of the thing he says, hope is, he says, who raises the dead.

You've realized he's the God that can bring life to where there's death. He's the one that can do more things than I can do. He's the one. So when he asked us to do something, what he realized, what Paul realized is he called me to go down this road and it got hard like this, but I realized I need to trust him and rely on him because he's the one that's gonna make it work. I just gotta obey.

And that's what he says he learned. And then he says, and he did rescue us from mortal mortal danger. You notice he didn't say he rescued us from all the other problems? He just said, we didn't die.

And he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. Placing confidence, confidence, that word there doesn't mean, I really, really, really believe. Confidence is I honor, I obey,

I go where he told me to go even though it's scary and hard and doesn't seem to be working right, and I just have confidence that even though I'm in over my head and I can't handle it, God can. That's the key of what he learned. And he says that. And then he says, and you are helping us by praying for us,

then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

So right there, when he gets real and Ronnie shares kinda what he was going on and what he learned, there's four things in these verses right here that really do show us what's going on. And Paul let us in on this, and and we have these four things that says, why does God allow us to have more than we can handle?

And and it's not just when we are doing the wrong thing. It's when you trust and follow him. Matter of fact, most of the time when you do it, you follow the word of God of here's what I want you to do. If I'm a Christian and I'm gonna be a part of a church, this is how I need to arrange my life.

That's gonna bring you the hardest issues, and we have to understand that.

So so here's here's the first one. Like we said in these first verse here. God lets us hit our limit, so we stop pretending that we don't have one.

See, think about Paul. He was so good and and has so gifted and he'd been doing had so much success that sometimes when you when you're following God, he says, sometimes it's easy to start relying on yourself. Like, hey, I'm doing this. Because God does give us gifts and we use them, but sometimes we forget that it's what he gave us. And so we start getting confident. And I think he was having that happen. I think even he was having a little bit of confidence in that and forgetting, and he needed a reminder that he hit a limit. God put him in over his head. He ran into so much weight on him that it's like he had he had nowhere else to go. It's like he realized, wow.

I don't have enough ability, enough energy, enough resource. I don't have enough of me to bring to bear on this. And on top of that, they're trying to kill us physically. How about you? Do you feel like that sometimes?

It's interesting. George Barna did a study in 2023 with just Christians, church people, and found that fifty two percent of Christians feel overwhelmed all the time. And seventy seven percent try to manage the stress alone.

Maybe the managing the stress alone is part of the problem. Actually, it is. We'll see that in a couple points. In other words, what what is God doing? He's it's I love how Tim Keller, great theologian pastor, put it this way. You don't know God is all you need until God is all you have.

God will constantly put us in situations, even in obedience, to where you have come to the end of yourself. You know why? Because we so often need to come to the end of ourselves to get to the beginning of God, the one who can raise the dead. And that's what makes being a Christian

in in a in a pretty free society where we are very affluent so difficult. Because most of us can come to church, sit in a row, and then live our entire Christian life within our own abilities and our own power, and then we get used to it.

And then when life gets hard and I say, hey, God, here's what God's called us to do. He wants us to trust us in this way. We fall into this this mentality of a a when and then kind of theology. And we say when and well, I can't do that.

I can't give money because I'm broke. I know and I'm stressed. And I'm just I can't give time. I'm too busy. I can't love my wife that way because she's not respecting me in this. I can't do this because I'm I'm overwhelmed. I can't do it. And what you're saying is once I get, then I'll go. And that's because we've fallen for the same trap these super apostles were teaching. We just don't understand what the word really means, legalism.

Legalism is this idea that I can do and then God gives. And the rate what we're really saying is, I can't trust God in that way because he hasn't given me upfront what I need to go do it. And see, so legalism turns our relationship in with God into a contractual contractual thing. Thing.

I you you I do this, you do this. I provide this, you provide that. And we feel like when God says, I want you to do this, well, you haven't provided. You're you're you're you're coming short on your contract. Why aren't you doing it? I understand this because that can get you really in a frustrated relationship. As long as everything's going good, you don't need to worry about it. But what happens when something goes bad? Now you're worrying about it. The reason I know this is because until last night,

I had spent twenty days in a not in my own bed and only eight of them were because I was on a road trip. The rest has been because my air conditioning started going out right when I was leaving. And I've been dealing with a warranty company for the last twenty days.

And and the reality is I got caught in Groundhog Day. And and and and and technically, they're right by the rule, but I feel like, hey, you owe me this. And the whole biggest deal is when you say it's an emergency, the warranty company I'm dealing with to try to elevate it to an emergency,

they don't understand because they're not based the people I'm talking to don't live in Arizona. So we had a huge dispute over the meaning of we'll get you service in a timely manner. Timely manner means something very different when it's a 110 versus 82 outside. And I'm mad at them because, hey, I gave you this

and you I have not asked you for anything in nine years and now I need something for you and you're slow. And a lot of us, that's how we are. When we are affluent and doing fine, we come to church, and as long as things are doing fine, you sit in the row and you think this is great.

We don't wanna take the next step. We don't wanna go where God because we're happy. We're doing fine. And then it gets hard, and we're like, hey, God. What the heck? That's what legalism does. So getting in over your head, God makes you confront, what is your relationship really like with God? How do you really see it?

And he's saying, hey. How about you? Because at least the second point is very related to it. It's the very next thing when he says, but we were crushed.

Crushed and overwhelmed. He says, God also lets life crush us so we stop trying to rely on ourselves. Instead of going back at God because we don't understand this, now we're like, oh, wait. We need to have that realization that Paul did is, God isn't being unfair. I've been trying to do this on my own.

Allowing life to crush you is usually God trying to get our attention and say, hey. It's never gonna work until you trust my power. And that's why he throws in the God who raises the dead. That phrase, the gospel, the whole resurrection, the power that he can bring life where there's death, the God who raised the dead.

In the in the New Testament, it uses a word for power that's dunamis in the in the Greek. And dunamis is where we get the English word dynamite, the explosive power of God to move things. Well, guess what? When it said Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God, it said the dunamis.

But when all of sudden, God called his disciples and started this thing called the church, and he says, when you come to know Christ, even they knew him, but now he says, wait before you're gonna go. He gave us a mission. He gave these 12 guys a mission. You're gonna gonna carry on after I'm gone.

And I'm like, wow. You tried to do this mission and got yourself killed. Now we're supposed to go follow in your footsteps and take this to the whole ends of the world. Yeah. By the time Jesus after he resurrected, he ascended to heaven, he'd been with him for, like, like, fifty whatever days after.

So now he'd been there for three years, dies, is with him another fifty days. He had 120 followers.

And he tells them, go to the ends of the earth, taking the gospel to everybody. Help them know, grow, and go. And when you sit there and go, how you're gonna ask me, you were here for three years, died, came back, and now there's only a 120 of us? That seems impossible.

But he goes, no. But wait for my holy spirit. And he says, when he comes, you the power will come on. Guess what word it says? Du namis. Meaning when we rely on God, we have the dunamis resurrecting power of God working through us. When you do it on your own, bupkis, it says. That's the Greek word.

And so a lot of times when you're like, how is it encouraging when I'm overwhelmed for you to tell me to do something God asked me to do when I already can't even do what I'm trying to do? That's the tear. That's the distortion. That's the way to the power. That's the way. And and, yeah, it's gonna be tough.

Following God involves sacrifice, involves scary moments. But guess what? Not following God does too. But when you follow God, there's hope on the other side. There's power on the other side. There's victory on the other side. If you're not trusting God, there's nothing but more pain and hopelessness on the other side.

And and and so he will let us get crushed. In other words, I like to say this, God allows breakdowns so trust can break through. God will allow breakdowns in your life to give a chance for trust to break through.

Elliot, Elton Trueblood said this, faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. And what he's what this is really saying is when you have that legalistic mindset,

contract, that misunderstanding, that distorted view, the view that God won't give you more than I can handle because you're assuming it's a contract type thing or you just whatever you're assuming, is what we really think and we get frustrated and we get overwhelmed. We say, well, God, if you want me to do this, I need more of this. I need this. I need that. I need that. We make it a capacity thing.

We make it all about, I need more capacity. God, give me more time. Give me more energy. Give me more money. Give me more willies. Give me more we always turn that into a capacity issue. And what God's trying to do when you're overwhelmed is he's trying to tell you it's not a capacity issue, it's a connection issue.

I need you to be more connected to me. Don't worry about the capacity. Worry about I'll do something through you. Trust me. If you trust me, you'll have the capacity you need to do what I've asked you to do. But you need to trust me. But if we get stuck on capacity,

we will never go where God wants us to go. We will never do what he wants us to do. You know why? Because he asks you and I to do the thing that we can't do. He purposely steers us to storms. He purposely takes us to places that we cannot do. But guess what? It'll happen anyways because he will do it.

All we have to do is obey. And remember that. That's what Paul's saying here.

There there was a guy who just thought the idea of, you know, I'm just gonna trust God and he's gonna do it. So what does that mean? Trust God and do it? Yeah. That sounds good. Well, a flood hit, and he got to the 2nd Floor of his house. His bottom floor was already filled,

and he was praying to God. He's, God, I trust you. You're gonna save me. I believe you're gonna save me. And as he was praying, looking out his window, a boat came by, a neighbor in a boat. Hop on in. I'll get you out of here. And he goes, no. God's gonna save me. Guy argues with him. Alright. Fine. Leaves.

Waters go up higher. He has to get on the roof. Now he's on the roof praying, God, you gotta save me. You gotta save me. And an emergency helicopter flies over, comes down, sends a ladder down and tells him, get up the ladder. We're gonna save you. And he goes, no. I I am confident in the Lord. God's gonna save me.

The helicopter leaves. Water sweeps over the top of him. He actually drowns, and he dies. And now he's standing before God in heaven. And he goes, God, I don't get it. Your word promised that if I trust you, you would save me.

Why didn't you ever answer my prayer? He goes, I did. I sent you a boat, and I sent you a helicopter. And you sent them both away because you're an idiot. Because you don't understand, son. My plan a is people. So that capacity, connection over capacity is not just a connection to God.

A lot of the times we're overwhelmed and we struggle is back to this this this Barna survey that most Christians handle it all alone.

We try to handle it alone. And you gotta understand that the problem isn't the problem, and that's a problem. We are overwhelmed. We are and we think we just if we had more capacity, the problem goes away. No. A lot of times, you would not be struggling even with the same problems if you had good people in your life that weren't telling you God won't give you more than you can handle. Because that sets you up to say, I gotta beef with God because he has a terrible warranty process.

And and and and and and you wouldn't do it. See, because that's the third point as we see in this passage. God meets us in our pain. He does show up,

but he brings people with him. People is God's plan a in our lives. That's why we talk about getting in community. That's why you can't just come to a church service, you need to be a part of a church. And you can't do that in just rows. We have to have circles. Do you have a circle?

Because Paul did. He had lots of them. That's why he says, when he says, and you are helping us by praying for us. He started the church. It is so easy for being mad at these people when they're following these false teachers, because while they're praying for him, he had

he brought the gospel to him and sacrificed greatly to do it.

And and and and now he's he's there. They've denied it. Now he's writing to encourage him, and he says, now you're helping me when you pray. That means he met with them. He was in their homes. He prayed. They prayed. He had good relationship for people there, and he goes, and you know what? It's helping It's encouraging us. It helps us to remember to rely on God. It helps in that battle. It it it is part of the process. He knew he needed people.

Paul needed people. Jesus had a small group, needed people.

What makes you think you can get through the problems of life and not have people in your life? Why I don't have time? You don't have time to do the very thing that God said this is what's gonna save you? You're basically when we won't get in community, we don't serve, we don't do these things and trust God, it's not God trying to get something from you, he's trying to get something for you. Because when you do that, you're saying, send the boat away. I don't need the helicopter. And then you're like, God, why won't I be able to get through this?

We have to accept that the connection is not just to God, it's to other people. But here's the problem, especially this is a good point for us on dads for us dads on Father's Day, as men.

I think we don't like to be seen as weak. Like the idea that Paul with these super apostles just getting up and said, man, I I was blown it. I didn't trust God. I was a loser. I was getting crushed. He's just real. He's real. It's why I try to in my stories I tell how many times am I the hero?

And there's been one time I hit a home run that won a game, and someone complained about that. Oh, he was prideful just talking about himself.

Like, serious? Come every week. You'd be like, that guy's a pathetic loser. I don't even I got I got a lot more reasons for you not following me than the fact that I won a game by hitting a home run. It's to be show an example like Paul, like geez like, hey. When we are weak, then we're strong.

Wanna set an example to say it's okay. It's okay to look weak because otherwise, we'll isolate, and then we will get stuck, and we'll get overwhelmed. We'll be in overhead. And not only are we not connected to God, we're not even connected to the people who could probably help lighten that load and help us get through.

An example of that is, when I first moved into the the the neighborhood to start Rock Point, my little cul de sac was a bunch of houses being built. It was gonna be, like, 12 houses. There was only, like, three of us that have lived in our house. So my closest neighbor was, like, four lots away. And,

I was lifting weights in my garage and didn't have an air conditioning at the time, so I had the the the door open. And, and the way I'm I was bench pressing, and the way I'm bench pressing, my the head the the garage door's on this side of me. And so when I sit up, my back is facing to the street.

And there's a golden rule. You shouldn't go heavy on especially a bench press when you're alone. My wife, nobody was home. There was nobody to spot me. You need a spotter. You need other people. But

I felt strong that day. So I kept lifting. I put more weight, more weight. And I finally went up to a big weight, and I go, I think I can get this six, eight times.

And man, first three, boom, boom, boom. Fourth wasn't bad. And then all of a sudden, get to the fifth rep, and he's like, I got this. Got about halfway up. I go, I don't have it anymore. I'm like, it's

not moving. I'm putting every bit of strength to just make it not come back down. And I'm like, I can't handle this. I'm overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed. Oh, here it comes. Now it's stuck on my chest.

Now when you're in this moment and you've been a weight lifter, there's two options. There's two moves you can make. The first and and easiest one is you just kinda

tilt it and let all the weight fall off on one side, and then let go because the bar is gonna go wherever the bar is gonna go, and then it's gonna fly over. The problem is you better not have anything valuable very close to either side.

I was dumb. My wife had bought a real big new mirror that I hadn't hung yet sitting on one side, and I had a big screen TV. I'd moved into the garage to set up a little area for the kids to hang out on the other side.

And so I'm like, well, I'm not doing that one. I'm going for option two. Option two is you roll the bar down to your waist. Imagine, rolling out dough.

I had a lot of dough to be rolled. And I'm like, I got right here. And I'm like, I get it right to my hip bone,

and then you sit up. And then what you're supposed to do is just kinda use all your strength and stand and then drop it off of you. The problem is, if you know, garages are designed to have a little bit of an angle for water to not to stay in them. So when I sat up,

I'm kind of at this angle that I can't just go straight up and use my leg power, and the height of the bench had me in a position that the only way I would be able to stand is I have to go forward in order to go up, and I couldn't do it. I was like,

I'm like, I should have done more leg days. No. I'm sitting there and I'm like, now I'm sitting here going, now my toes are starting to tingle from all the weight. And then I go, well, I got one option here. And And that was wrap my legs back behind me. Pull like this and flip with my with my hips.

And then as it goes out, pull back as fast as I can so nothing else gets damaged.

So I did that. I went and it went I did it. So then I decided I just stood up in victory and yelled, yeah. But as I stood up, I didn't realize the bar had pinched my underwear and my shorts under it. I pantsed myself. I am now mooning my neighborhood yelling, yeah.

And I knew I knew in that moment because this is Bush's Law I call it. If something knuckleheaded could go worse, it's gonna happen to me. And I go, I have two neighbors. It's the middle of the day. What are the odds? I just knew. I go, there's someone behind me. I know it. I know it.

And as I turned, I saw my neighbor with her kid in a stroller. And I could tell from the time I looked at her, she'd seen and had already went like this and was actually almost running. And I did the only thing I knew that a good strong male Christian that wants to reach his neighbor could do, I never talk to them again.

Now that's a funny version, but it actually describes what we often do. I get in over my head a lot of times because I'm lifting alone. And to get stronger, you're supposed to lift more than you can handle.

And that is why you need spotters when you do a lift like that, that you can't just drop the weight. You need someone in your life. So God wants to load up the weight. He wants us stronger, but we're not supposed to be alone in that. And then when we're alone, our solutions get us caught with our pants down.

And that alienates us from people. And I had a terrible testimony to my neighbor now because they think I'm a creeper that wants to moon her and yell, yeah.

Now, is that what we're doing? The world sees more from our our witness is stronger. The world learns more from how we handle the tough moments than how we handle success. And and that's really the this this last point. Because Craig Groeschel first says, you can't heal what you hide.

We need other people to build that strength. But this last point, God turns our hardest moments into someone else's hope. The very last line, Paul says, then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety. Many people. He didn't say, you guys.

So he's not talking to the church, the people that he's praying for. He's saying there's these other people. He's talking about the world. He's talking about your testimony in your community. The willing to prove move the gospel forward is our testimony in our failure, in our in the way we handle being crushed.

When we do something different than everybody else would do in the world, it confuses the world. And then they can see the Jesus, the God who raises the dead through us. And it gives us a chance, and that brings them hope.

The way it works is is there's a couple of passages Paul talks about. In Romans, he says, God will work all things together for good.

Notice, he didn't say all things are good. In fact, actually, he's trying to tell you a lot of the stuff you're gonna go through is not good. It's overwhelming. It's too much for you. But he will make it all work to good. But then there's also a qualifier. Everyone another distortion we're not talking about was linked to this one is everything has a purpose.

No. It doesn't. Everything has a purpose if, what he says next, is if you are called and live according to God's purposes.

Meaning, if you follow and trust God with your life, he will make everything have have a purpose. Even the bad, he will make it work for good. Even the bad. If you're not called according and living according to God's purposes or you don't know the Lord, there is no purpose in your pain other than it sucks to be you.

That's true. That's what it's saying. It's it's and so the idea is we have to be called according to and then understand that he will take it and make it together for good.

And then he actually says even more clear in other passages, when we go through something that's suffering and hard, he says, you know God will if you trust him, eventually, you're God's gonna put people in your life, and you're gonna come across people that are now going through the same thing you did,

and you will be their hope. You will be that person.

You will be their spotter. But if you pull back, if you just whine about, I can't trust God because all the problems, I can't take this, and you retreat, and you're like, well, the biggest thing we do when we have that legalism attitude is we pull away. I can't worship. I'm too overwhelmed.

You want me to sing to God, or you want me to serve you, and I can't do it. I'm sure no. Those are the moments we show the world that we just keep moving forward and rely on God. And that's where the peace comes from. In

other words, the the way I'd like to stay this last point is weakness can be your most powerful witness.

And that's why a lot of us don't get in community. We don't wanna share the weakness. We wanna go through it. We don't wanna spot each other. We want and then the church just sees a bunch of people to go to a meeting once a year and acts just like them and then yells at them and tells them they're all gonna help.

And we miss out on the mission. Wouldn't you love to know that the pain you went through becomes the hope for someone else? That's the key. And if you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Horatio Spafford. You can tell by the name this is an old timey guy. I don't think there's any Horatio Spaffords around today.

Someone stands up. I'm my name's Horatio Spafford. That would be hilarious. But back, like, in the eighteen hundreds, he had lost a son to a disease. And then just not long after that, he also lost his fortune in the great Chicago fire. And then right at that same time,

as his wife and four daughters were traveling on a ship back to where they lived, the ship sank. It wrecked. The wife barely lived, but the four daughters drowned.

Lost a son. Lost his four daughters. Lost all of his money. And then he had to take a ship back to his wife, his grieving wife. And that ship had to go over the exact same waters where his daughters drowned. And as he sat on the boat looking at the exact same place, he wrote these words. You'll be surprised by what he wrote.

He wrote, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul. Do any of you recognize those words? Now you know Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. And a lot of us think,

oh, it's great to sing it as well with your soul, but you're not going through what I'm going through. We think that these are written in a moment of strength. Horatio Spafford did not write the words to that hymn in a moment of strength. He wrote it in a moment of crushing sorrow, of uncontrollable fear for his future,

in a moment where everything he thought that mattered had fallen apart. And he loved the Lord, and God allowed this in his life. It happened. He didn't write this from his strength. He wrote it from his weakness, but not just his weakness. He wrote it from the fact that he chose to have faith and rely on God in that moment.

Worship is not just a result of everything going right. It's worship is not just the celebration after the victory. It's the battle cry and the weapon we take into the fight. It's a chance to refocus. It's a chance to look to God and say, hey, I am going to choose. How did Paul stop relying on himself and start trusting God?

He just chose to look at it from that point of view. And then step out in faith and trust in confidence that the Lord will make it right. How about you? What we're gonna do is we're gonna sing this old hymn. We're gonna go old school right now.

And what I'm gonna ask you, if you can stand, you can sit. I don't care. But what I hope you do, especially if you're going through one of these times, is make the words of this song your prayer. Make it the closing prayer.

And as you're doing that, what I really hope we understand from this story, the scripture, from who God is, if you are under a great weight, I just wanna challenge you to remember this. Your pain has a purpose if you trust. It has a purpose. Your weight isn't wasted. It's not wasted. Hard isn't hopeless. You may be crushed,

but you're not cursed. And most importantly, in this moment where it just feels so hard and you don't understand why is it why am I in over my head? I can't take this. I don't know what else to do. Remember this, you may feel and be overwhelmed, but you are not overlooked.

Because the God who raises the dead died so you could have life. That he wants to bring life back into every dead thing in your life. He wants to bring you that love, and he wants you to trust him, and he wants you to know that, and he wants you to just simply cry out to him and say, it is well with my soul because I know who God is. I know who Jesus is. I know he is the God who raises the dead.

Amen.