What we get to do, what we get to do, hopefully, is we get to engage in our faith when we gather
together. And today is one of those days where the opportunity to take a risk, right? I don't know
about you, I want to be a part of a family where we are known for taking risks of faith.
No, just me. Cool. All right. Well, I'm going to close in prayer and we can get it. No, but the
reality is that we get to like the highest calling of you as a human being, the highest calling of
what you were created for was to walk in relationship with God, which I don't know if you've been around
God much, but that is a risk, right? Faith is a risk that I would be dependent on him, that I would
let my ego die, that I would let my desires die. And I would go, man, I'm going to trust you, God,
I'm going to be dependent on you. That's a huge risk of faith. And I want to be a part of a
community where we are growing into steps of faith, where we are taking risks when it comes to faith.
And it's interesting, if you've been here the last few weeks, as part of the critical journey,
you know that we've been using critical journey is not ours as a church, someone created it,
and we've been walking alongside to go, how do we map out the spiritual journey? That's what the
critical journey explains. It's a way of trying to put language to how is the human soul formed,
right? So in the current state, how is God growing us and maturing us? What are some of the natural
stages, processes that people go through that we could somehow map and go, this is what it looks
like. And so if you were here a few weeks ago, you got to see people take risks of stepping out and
going, I need to give my life to Jesus as my savior or my Lord, but I need to hand it over to Him.
And we celebrated as people came down the front, they took a risk in front of everybody else.
We celebrated the people that were brave enough to go, and in stage two, the life of discipleship,
hey, I need some help. I need somebody to walk with me. And then equally as brave, the people
that went, hey, I'll walk with someone. And so there's this kind of each week we've seen this,
right? And then last week being challenged to, hey, maybe God's calling you forward into a
productive life doing work for God. So we worked our way into stage three, right? The home base of
being productive, doing work for God. And hopefully as that's taken place, we've seen people begin to
take steps of faith into serving and into leadership. And we hit this week.
And this week may be the riskiest of them all when it comes to faith.
Because you see on that side, people cheer for you, right? On that side, but on this side,
it's me now further in the journey going, hey, it's me today. I got to take a step of faith.
Like taking a risk. I was talking to my daughter recently, the one who's in Long Beach, she's 23,
Sierra. And what you need to know about Sierra is I coached her at club soccer. And so in the off
season, I was always like, you need to do something, right? Like you need to keep, you got to get your
cardio up, whatever it looks like. And so she would, she's my kid. This kind of helps you
understand who she is. She loves a cozy spot on the couch with a blanket. And she loves a
couch with a blanket and her favorite like coffee drink and a book. And so like getting out and
running is just not her thing at all. And yet she would try. She would leave our front door and
she would come back way too quick. And I'm like, how far did you go? And she's like,
I think I went far. And I'm like, I don't even think that's a mile, right? And she's like, well,
it felt like it. And so she'd go out the next time and come back. I'm like, how far did you get? And
she'd get a little further down the road. And I'm like, I still don't think that's a mile.
So you can imagine our surprise about a month ago when we're on the phone with her and she goes,
she didn't have the language of taking a risk, but she goes, I signed up for a half marathon.
Which I was like, you know how far that is, right? But that she's signed up for half marathon. I'm
like, how did you get there? And she goes, I had this friend, we started working out together and
we just started running and we started running and having somebody to do it with made it easier.
So we kept running and we now want to do this. And so there's this thing though, about a half
marathon, about long distance type events, sporting things that at some point you hit a what?
A wall where your legs feel like jelly. You don't feel like you can go on anymore. And all of a
sudden you have to push through the wall as an athlete to complete what's ahead of you.
It's very similar in your spiritual journey that there is going to be a moment
where a wall is put in front of you. You come up against the wall. What is a wall?
A wall is a pain that you cannot get around. You cannot get over. You cannot get under.
You cannot run away from. It is a pain that meets you face to face. And the only way,
just like a marathon runner would tell you, you have to push through the only way to continue
and push into further into your spiritual journey is you have to push through the wall.
But it is a pain you cannot get around.
The wall is where I come face to face with God Almighty and his will. The wall is where my ego
dies. The wall is where I die to myself and surrender to what he wants, not what I want.
The wall is immensely painful, and yet it is key to your spiritual journey.
It is needed for your spiritual journey. If you've been with us so far, these have all been
natural, right? These are all natural steps. You meet Jesus. Awesome. Okay, let's learn about
who Jesus is. Great. You belong to the community. Great. The community has, and you feel your
responsibility, so you start to serve the wall. You're going to serve the wall. You're going to
serve the wall. You're going to serve the wall. The wall shows up sometimes before the next stage.
It is not a stage in itself, but it shows up before, sometimes during the next stage.
And we'll talk about what that is next week. But today we're just going to sit and talk about the
reality of the wall and how important it is for your spiritual journey with God.
And so in 1 Kings, there's a story that kind of maps this journey, 1 Kings chapter 19.
But what's important is to understand the context of how you get to 19. And in chapter 18, Elijah,
who is a prophet, which means he just speaks on behalf of God. He shows up and does things on
behalf of God. And so Elijah has been doing some pretty epic stuff for God. And the context of our
conversation, he's been doing work for God, right? Like he's been busy for God, right? He's seen the
miraculous happen. And then in chapter 18, there's this showdown that takes place. If you haven't read
it, you got to read it. It's maybe one of the most gangster parts of the entire Bible. Okay. And when
you read it, think gangster, because on one side of this showdown, you have 450 prophets of Baal.
On the other side, you have one prophet of God Almighty. And the deal is this, they're going to
have this duel, right? And so they're both going to create an altar. And Elijah's like, Hey, there's
a lot more of you. So why don't you go first? So that way the prep of the bull and the altar,
you can get that done because there's more of you and we'll take the time and let you go first.
So they prepare their altar. They got their bull on there. And then they begin to cry out to their
God. And the goal, the goal is this, that the true God will send fire from heaven and light the
altar. Right. And so they're calling, they're calling, nothing's happening. They begin to cry
out to their God. They're calling, nothing's happening. They begin to cut themselves.
Nothing's happening. So much so that Elijah on this side, I told you it was gangster. He's making fun
of them. He's like, maybe your God went to the bathroom. Like, really, that's what it says.
Right. Like maybe he's relieving himself. Right. Like maybe he should yell louder. Right. And so
there's this, there's this dynamic happening where they're not getting an answer. And then, and then
they're in a season of drought. If you were in a drought, you're short of what water. And so they're
in a season of drought and, and he takes a step of faith. He goes, Hey, dig a trench and pour water
around this altar. Let's bring the stakes up if you like. And so pour water once. No, no, no, let's
do it again. No, let's do it again. Three times. And so now the trench with water and he begins to
cry out to God and fire comes down from heaven and consumes the entire altar, including the water.
And then he then goes and takes care and has the 450 prophets of Baal slaughtered. This is an epic
victory in the kind of grand scheme of God's story. And so then within this, then he's there to tell
them, Hey, it's going to rain. And so now he goes up to a mountain with a servant. And he's like,
Nope, no clouds. And he sends them out seven times. And he said, the servant comes back and he goes,
Hey, there's a, there's a cloud about the size of my fist on the horizon. He goes, go tell the king,
go tell Ahab it's going to rain. And wouldn't you know it, it rains. Like Elijah's seen some stuff.
That's the mountain top he's on. And then you get chapter 19, verse one, what's going on? And he
's on. And then you get chapter 19, verse one. Now Ahab, the king told Jezebel everything Elijah had
done, how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah to
say, may the God's deal with me be it ever so severely. If by this time tomorrow, I do not make
your life like one of them. She sends a messenger to go, Hey, you're a dead man by tomorrow.
You guys Bible times are so much better than our time. Like we would send a text, you're dead.
This is a messenger shows up and the messenger gets there and is like, Hey, she's going to kill
you. Which then verse three, Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba and
Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.
He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough Lord.
He said, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. Wait, what?
You just saw a fire fall from heaven and consume the altar.
You just called out, it was going to rain and not only the rain, it rained.
You just saw God do all that and you get a text message from the queen who, yes, her history is
she killed a bunch of prophets and you go on the run. What's happened to Elijah is common to what
happens to us. He is in the middle of being in God's work, right? He is doing work for God and he is
doing it on some platform. He is seeing God work. He is seeing lives change. He is, he is at the
highlight reel and in the midst of the highlight reel, what shows up? The wall. Why? Because God is
far more concerned about your growth and maturity to become like Jesus than he ever is about what
you will do for him. And the wall is the way that you come face to face with the will of God.
And what happens in this moment is now Elijah's face for the wall. And what does he do?
I'm out of here. He's on the run. He's going. He's avoiding what is there.
It makes me wonder, like, when we talk about wall,
how many of us understand a wall and the concept of grief? If you've ever lost somebody you love,
if you ever talk to somebody who's lost somebody, you'll hear language like,
I had to go through it. You can't ignore your grief. You can't run from grief. It will eventually
catch up with you and still be where it'll still be there. And walking through grief, you have to go
through a process where you take it brick by brick by brick. And that wall looks different than the
next person's wall of grief. Why? Because God is bringing you face to face with him.
For some of you, that wall looks like a divorce.
It's so painful and it hurts so deep.
And you know the wall is there. For some of you, it might be your marriage that you're still married,
but it's hell on earth in your marriage. You're married, but it's so hard and it's so difficult
and it's so painful that you just don't know what to do. For others, it may be a really hard time.
It's so painful that you just don't know what to do. For others, it may be a relationship.
It may be older kids that are estranged from you. Your wall may be in the form of depression that
is just so dark and you just haven't, you're trying to ignore this darkness that's there,
but you know it's looming and you know it's a part of your story. Maybe it's an abandonment
that somebody somewhere has abandoned you, betrayed you. It could be, your wall could be that you've
had a public, and by public meaning people know about it, failure. And that public failure,
you can't run from it, you can't hide from it. It's now part and it's extremely painful.
And the only thing you can do is go through it. You see Elijah's faced with a wall. And what does
Elijah do? He turns and he runs. Our responses to the wall. When God puts something that is painful,
he's bringing it because he wants you to work. Here's what's amazing about this journey. The
first parts are kind of like, you can kind of look at them and go, man, I can see how you progress
from one to the other, to the other. When it comes to the wall and it comes to what comes next,
which we'll talk about in the weeks to come. When it comes to the wall, it gets really messy.
There's no timeline. There's no frame for it. It's your unique spot that God's got you to what?
Come face to face with him. And yet what we do is we try and like Elijah, we try and run from it.
Right? Or maybe you're that person that you've got, you got like a strong ego. You know what I mean?
You're the toughest guy in the room and you, or you got strong control issues. And so you're just
going to control this wall. You're going to bend it to your will. Right? And so you're just going
to overcome it. I don't feel pain. You feel pain. I'm going to climb this wall. I'm going to get
over it. Here's the problem. You cannot climb the wall. You are not stronger than the wall.
Some of you try and burrow under it. What do I mean by that? That you self-deprecate, right?
You're like, well, I deserve it. I made those choices. It's my fault. No pain is pain. And the
pain is designed to press you further into the person of God. And yet we are pain adverse. And
so what we do is we just start to take it on and we try and burrow thinking, if I just put myself
down enough, if I just put it all on me, then somehow I'll make it under this wall. It does not
work that way. Some of you are dancing in front of the wall, meaning you know that you've got pain
in your life. You know that God is calling you to go brick by brick through this wall. And what's
happening is you're dancing in front of it. You are avoiding the wall. You are trying to
distract yourself from the wall. You are taking your cultural narcotic of choice. Sometimes
that's in the form of going on an app and shopping with money you do not have. Why? Because it
distracts you from the pain that's in front of you. Some of you, it's entertainment, right? Like
you are watching every Netflix series you can find. Why? Because you just want to be distracted. I
don't want to think about it. Some of you are stepping into addiction. Some of you have
addictions where you're addicted to some form of narcotic. Like you're just trying to, if I can
just get to that point every night, then I don't have to feel what's actually here. I don't have
to come face to face with this. But don't miss for Elijah, the wall is a gift to come face to face
with the living God. Your wall is a gift. Your pain is an opportunity. Your pain is an opportunity.
Your pain is an opportunity that God wants to use for you to come face to face with him.
So Elijah is run, right? He's hiding under a bush. Verse five, then he laid down under the bush and
fell asleep all at once. An angel touched him and said, get up and eat. He looked around and there by
his head was some bread baked over hot coals in a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down
again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, get up and eat for
the journey is too much for you. So he got up and ate and drank strengthened by that food. He traveled
40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God, 40 days and 40 nights. Maybe one
of the key factors of the wall and key factors of pain is don't rush it. Don't rush it. Right? God's
not in a rush. What you see here is, is there's a journey that he takes with Elijah, but what's,
what's amazing about Elijah is, is that in this moment he falls asleep and what does God do?
He provides his presence. If you've ever been in pain, one of the things you can often feel is what
God has forgotten me. And yet it's in the presence, in the loneliness that what God is proving
himself. Hey, you thought you could go to a wilderness. I'm still there. And what is he
doing? He's providing, Hey, you're hungry, champ. You need to eat today. And so he eats. You see the
patience of God, by the way, he lets him fall back asleep. Right? Like if we're God, we're like,
okay, you ate, let's go. It's time to hike. And God goes, no, let him sleep and let's feed him again.
And then he takes him on this 40 day, 40 night journey, the presence and provision of God
had provided in the midst of the pain. Verse nine, there, he went into a cave and spent the night
and the word of the Lord came to him. What are you doing here? Elijah, what a phenomenal question.
What are you doing here? I mean, the easy answer is, well, God, you told me to go. God, you let me
here. Right. But what is God doing with the question? He's forcing him. He's forcing him to what?
Sit at his wall in the midst of the pain. And what God is doing is forcing him to put language
to the pain. We'll talk about this in weeks to come in spirituality and your growth. You have
to connect the psychological and the spiritual. Why? Because you are a holistic human being.
And what sin has done is broken that apart. And we'll talk about that in weeks to come. But what
he's doing here is he's going to Elijah, put words to where you are, put words to what you feel and
listen to what Elijah says. He replied, I have been very zealous for you, the Lord, God Almighty.
If there is ever stage three language, the doing work for God, it is this right here. I have been
very zealous for you, God. You can hear it in his tone, right? Like the, wait, I've been working
and working through this growth and I've been growing. And now I'm this profit for you. And
I've been doing all this work for you, God. And it's not supposed to turn out this way. I've been
walking through the things that I knew when I'm here now and it's not supposed to fall apart. God,
it's not supposed to be like this. I've done my part. I've been very zealous for you.
You know, in stage three, most people burn out because they're so busy doing for God
that they think God owes them something. They're so busy serving God that God, you got to show up
and show up the way I want you to, which what does pain do? What does the wall do? It forces
us to come face to face with what the will of God, where I surrender my will to his will.
And Elijah, you catch it in his language, right? I've been very zealous for you.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant. They tore down altars and put prophets to death with
the sword. He's like, Hey, it didn't turn out how I thought it would. And here I am. I'm in pain.
I'm the one doing the work and here I am. And what are they doing right now?
I am the only one left. And now they are trying to kill me to that. I am the only one left. Pastor
Ben reminded me last night. That's a lie. Obadiah in chapter 18 had hidden 100 prophets of the Lord
in caves in your pain, in the darkness, it's easy to believe lies.
I'm the only one. And they're trying to kill me to the Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain
in the presence of the Lord. There's that word presence again, right? What does God want him to
know? I'm with you in the pain, right? Go out and stand in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is
about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart, shattered the rocks
before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. I think about it for a second. Where would have
Elijah out of everybody? He's seen all kinds of miracles. He's seen fire fall from heaven.
Where would Elijah go? I expect God to show up. It's in the miraculous when the wind comes and
the wind is shattering rocks. It's in the powerful that he would have expected God to show up. Why?
Because that's where he'd seen God. And it says that God wasn't in the wind.
Halfway through 11, after the wind, there was an earthquake. The earth is shaken, but the Lord was
not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Those were the miraculous. Those were where he was expected. When the earth is shaken,
I see the power of God. Surely God is, and he goes, good Lord was not in that.
After the fire came a gentle whisper.
Why a whisper? Well, if you're going to whisper to somebody,
where do they have to be to you? They got to be close.
They got to be in proximity. A whisper is intimate.
What is God trying to tell Elijah? Hey, in the midst of your pain, I am here
and I am meeting you close enough to whisper.
Oh yeah, I'm the God of the power, but I'm the God of the whisper in your pain.
I have not lost sight of you, Elijah.
God has not lost sight of you today in your pain.
That thing that hurts so bad today, that thing you can't run around, you can't get over,
you can't get under, but God is painstakingly working you through. He is there.
He is there.
He is present and he is providing. He sees you today. He has not lost track of you.
You have not discouraged him to where he does not want to be around you.
He sees you today. He sees you today. He sees you today.
You have not discouraged him to where he does not want to be around you.
That death did not catch him by surprise.
In the midst of your grief, he is present and aware.
That divorce that you wish you could change, you wish you could tell a different story.
I just need you to hear he is not done with you. He's in the pain with you today.
That depression, the dark thoughts, not wanting to wake up.
He's with you.
He's with you in the pain. That's what she whispers to Elijah. Verse 13, when Elijah heard it,
he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then the voice said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?
He replied, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your
covenant, torn down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only
one left. And now they're trying to kill me too. I love, I love that it's not a different answer.
Remember walking through the wall, walking through the pain takes time.
I love that all of a sudden it's not just everything's better. Elijah still has the same
struggle he had before the whisper. The difference is he knows that God is in the whisper.
The God is in the pain and look what God does to him. He goes, verse 15, then the Lord said to him,
go back the way you came. Go back the way you came. I love that it's not a new way. I love that God's
not like, okay, now that we got that covered, Elijah, we're going to go and forge a new track.
No, no, no, no. He goes, go back, go back, go back. He's saying, enter the very thing.
That's causing your pain. Walk through the pain. Why? Because the wall requires, if you are ever
going to move into an intimate relationship with God, it requires that there is a death of self and
a death of ego. And what is the wall doing through your pain? God is using it to draw you closer
to him. And he is going to have you walk through face to face with that pain.
He's not going to eliminate it. He's not going to give you a quick path he could,
but he's going to do what's best for you to what? To know him more intimately.
It's interesting when you read the Bible, you come across all different characters who have hit walls.
John the Baptist, like think about John the Baptist, he's a man of the word. He's a man of the
word. He's the front runner for Jesus himself. Some of the greatest statements were made by John
the Baptist. Jesus goes, there's none greater that have lived to this point.
John the Baptist says, hey, I must decrease, Jesus must increase.
John had the privilege of baptizing Jesus. Yet what happens to John? He meets a wall. What does
that wall look like? He ends up in prison. And what is being said of him? He's going to lose his
head. And in the midst of meeting the wall and the pain and the unknown and the uncertainty and
all the questions that come, what does he do? He sends word to Jesus through his disciples. Hey,
are you the one? He expresses his doubt. Are you the one?
Are you the one that we expected? But walls are not uncommon to the people of God.
Even Paul that we've talked about for weeks and throughout this collection
in 2 Corinthians chapter one, verse eight, it says, we do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the providence of the Lord.
We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we disparate of life
itself. Sounds pretty much like a wall, doesn't it? A moment of crisis, a moment of pain, something
that came in that was unexpected that the God is shifting something within you to see him differently.
Indeed, verse nine, indeed, we felt we had received a sentence of death
but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
What does he say? He goes, we entered into the wall. We're in the midst of the pain.
And what is God doing through the pain? He took it to where we no longer relied on me,
but I learned how to rely on him in a whole new way. He's talking about the death of self.
He's talking about the death of self. He's talking about the death of self.
He's talking about the death of self where I stopped thinking that I have everything together
and I realized I have nothing together, which is why I need God in the most miraculous way. Why?
Because my will has to surrender to his will. But look at what helped.
Verse 10, he has delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us again on him.
We have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by what? Your prayers.
As you help us by your prayers, then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor
granted us in answer to the prayers of many. Wait, the apostle Paul,
when he is face to face with the pain of his wall, goes, what helped was your prayers.
It was the answer of many prayers.
It was the family praying for the family.
In the midst of the pain, in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of the wall,
in the midst of I can't go on, what helped was the prayers of people.
Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to take a risk. What does that risk look like?
It looks like we talk about prayer often. We use prayer, talk about the belief of prayer.
We're actually going to practice prayer today. Here's what I mean.
We're going to have people down here because often what happens
after service is that we're going to have people come in and say, hey, I'm going to pray for you.
And what happens after service, there are people down here and we give an invitation.
Hey, if you need prayer today, there are people down here. You know, out of thousands of people,
how many people take that up? A handful. So we're going to practice the power of prayer
here today in here. We're going to let prayer meeting break out.
And if you're scared by that, that's okay. Just stick with me.
Here's what I mean. There'll be people that come that are here to pray with you.
Why? Because in the midst of your pain, in the midst of a wall, in the midst of what you are
carrying, in the midst of you not knowing if I can carry on, you not knowing can I take another
brick. And one of the things that's really easy is please don't minimize your pain. So often what
we start to do in Christian circles, we start to go, well, my pain is nothing compared to that
pain. No, no, don't do that. Pain is pain. Pain is pain. And God is working in the midst of your pain.
God is working inside of your pain because he wants to bring you face to face with him today.
He wants you to feel his presence today. He wants you to feel his provision today.
He wants you to know that in the midst of the tension, in the midst of the pain, he is here.
And the way he wants to do that today is by another human looking at you and going, I am
going to pray for you. And so we're going to let a prayer meet to break out.
Remember we started this thing with taking a risk.
You know where it's really hard to take a risk? The further you advance in your growth and maturity
because somewhere along the way, our human nature convinces us that we should be better than this.
We should be stronger than this. Don't let them see that you don't have it all together.
But you know who I cry with? My family. You know who sees my pain? My family.
What are we? We're family. Where should it be safe for you to not be okay? It should be safe in this
space with your family where someone can go before the living God and and intercede with you.
And intercessory pray for you with the heavenly father
that you would be strengthened, that you would be reminded of who he is in his power.
And so please don't let your ego stop what the Holy Spirit is doing in you
because you need to know the Holy Spirit sees you today.
And he sees your pain today and he sees what you're walking through today. And he wants you to know
you are loved. He wants you to feel somebody else in the midst of the pain in the presence with you.
So here's what we're going to do. If you're here to pray with people, would you go ahead and come on up?
And then if you are here and you go, I need somebody to pray today. I'm carrying an awful lot.
The pain is real. I'm going to count to three and that's your turn. Get on up and come on down
and pray with somebody. We're going to pause to pray. So one, you're seeing no God sees you today.
He wants to work within your pain. Two, he loves you so much that he's provided. Three, if that's you,
come on down. We'd love to pray with you. Come on down. Come on down.
If you're an elder or on a leadership team, would you come pray with somebody that
needs somebody to pray over them, please?
If you're still seated,
would you right where you are? Paul says the prayers of many is what healed right where you
are. Would you begin to ask the Holy Spirit, who is the one who healed you? Would you ask the Holy
Spirit, who is the one who healed you? Would you ask the Holy Spirit, who is the one who healed you?
Right where you are, would you begin to ask the Holy Spirit, who do I need to pray for?
Who do I need to pray for? And would you pray from where you are seated today for whoever the Holy Spirit leads to?
Thank you.
So,
to encourage those of you online right now,
one of the ways that we would love to pray over you is
whether within the chat or whether through the app,
but just let us know what your prayer request is. We would love to pray over you. You're not alone.
You're not alone today.
Church, would you do me a favor? Would you stand where you are?
We're not done yet. And here's one of the beautiful things about the family and about worship.
As we get to worship in the midst of pain, in the midst of darkness, in the midst of struggle,
I heard a quote this week that said, in the daytime, worship is like a ray of sunlight into the darkness.
But at nighttime, when I'm in the darkness and it surrounds me,
worship is a weapon in the darkness. And I don't know about you, but today, just to lift our voice
as one to declare and use worship as a weapon for those that are facing a wall, to give encouragement,
to continue to keep going. Maybe it's an encouragement for you,
but that we have this gift of being able to worship you.
But that we have this gift of being able to worship and use it for one another and for ourselves
in the moments of pain, in the moments of struggle, when we face the wall. Would you worship with us this morning?
He knows what living is. He's acquainted with our grief. A man of sorrow, a son of suffering.
Oh, blood and tears, how can it be? There's a God who weeps. There's a God who bleeds.
And oh, praise the one who would reach for me. Hallelujah to the son of suffering.
Some imagine you are distant and removed, but you chased us down in merciful pursuit.
Thank you, Jesus. To the sinner you were graced and the broken you embraced. In the end, the proof is in your wounds.
Is in the end the proof? Is it in your wounds? Oh, blood and tears, how can it be? There's a God who weeps.
There's a God who bleeds. And oh, praise the one who would reach for me. Hallelujah to the son of suffering.
Oh, blood and tears, how can it be? There's a God who weeps. There's a God who bleeds.
And oh, praise the one who would reach for me. Hallelujah to the son of suffering.
So you should have received elements on your way in this morning.
And what our hope in our heart is, is this. That you remind yourself of the presence
and the provision of God today in your life. Meaning you may not have gone, hey, I'm at my wall and I'm here.
Meaning you may have sat and gone, I'm still, I'm in pain today. I'm not ready for that, but I'm in pain.
And you just need to be reminded and have a chance to have a conversation with God Almighty.
You see Jesus in the garden where he comes face to face with the will of the Father.
And he's so perplexed that it says, I'm in pain today.
He comes face to face with the will of the Father. And he's so perplexed that it says he's sweating drops of blood.
He's in so much pain that he's sweating blood. And the end of it is not my will, but yours.
And so as you sit with the elements today, you can take them on your own pace.
Meaning you can take them straight away. Nothing wrong with that.
You can reflect for a little bit and take them. You may go, John, I'm not ready.
And I need to take this home to remind me of the provision and presence of God today. You can do that.
But we're going to just create space to reflect and remind ourselves that in Jesus, we have everything we need.
That he is present and he is providing and he is patient.
And so the next moments of yours to reflect, have a conversation with God, and then we'll continue to worship.
So
your cause is my freedom. Your stripes are my healing.
Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God in heaven.
Your blood is still speaking. Your love is still reaching.
Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God forever.
Your cross is my freedom. Your stripes are my healing.
Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God in heaven. Your blood is still speaking.
Your love is still reaching. Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God forever.
Your cross is my freedom. Your stripes are my healing. Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God in heaven.
Your blood is still speaking. Your love is still reaching.
Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God forever.
Glory to God forever. All your glory is forever, God.
Glory to God forever. Forever more. Forever more.
Glory to God forever. Glory to God forever.
Jesus, I'm just reminded of that verse.
It's pain in the night, but joy is in the morning.
And Lord, we just thank you that those who wait on you will run and not grow weary.
They will soar on wings like eagles. Lord, it is your will through wherever we're at to know you better.
So Lord, would you just help us to hear your voice today? Lord, that is the bread, that is the water that we need.
Lord, to hear your voice, to know you as a friend.
So would you just tune our ears to you, Lord, and we thank you that it is not by our power that we go on, but it is by your Holy Spirit.
So would you help us to call on you as we go on with the rest of our day?
Lord, we love you. We worship you. We praise you.
In the name of Jesus, amen.