Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "Presence In The Pain" | Asbury UMC, Maitland | June 9, 2024

Transcript

"Presence In The Pain" | Asbury UMC, Maitland | June 9, 2024 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

1:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, church.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: I am grateful to be here with you, but before we begin this message, holy cow, your choir?
2:14
SPEAKER_00: A total aside that I wasn't planning to tell you, but I'll just tell you right now, I studied um music in undergrad and uh was a vocal performance major, and so that's what I did, and uh and still do when I get the chance.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: But I also have an opportunity this week, I'm actually going to the Warren Willis camp this week to uh lead a group of 65 youth in a youth choir um week that they're gonna they're doing, they have, I don't know, there's like three rehearsals a day, and we have chapel at night, and it's an amazing time together, but I'm telling you, that's not normal in church.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
2:48
SPEAKER_00: So I just want you to know that that's not normal in church, and every time you can say thank you to your musicians, please do.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: That's that's incredible.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, I I am I I am grateful to be here with you this morning.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh my name is Bryant, and I serve as the pastor and director at the Wesley Foundation at FSU and TCC.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I also want to say thank you to Pastor Will and Chris, who I didn't, I invited myself.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: They didn't invite me.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Here's how it worked.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: I was trying to find places to come share uh over the course of the whole summer because I'm a Wesley director.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And so uh school's out, and so I wanted to try to get around to churches and I hadn't been here yet.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And so I called Chris, who I've known for 20 years.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: I have stories, y'all.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: I have stories.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: I won't share them.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, it depends on how Matt he makes it.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: I might okay.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: So uh, but so I I wanted to share, and and I said, Chris, let me come preach.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, sure.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: And then a couple weeks later, he said, okay, so we're gonna be in the middle of a sermon series on faith and doubt.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Awesome, that's what I do with college students.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I'm in.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, Well, uh, the week that you're here is gonna be on the topic of evil and suffering in the world.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Cool, guest preacher week, huh?
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh that is what we call in the clergy world.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: That is clergy hazing.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Can we be clear about that?
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's what that is.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: That's what that is.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna we're gonna talk through this, and I'm gonna present a message this morning that I'm calling presence in the pain.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Do me a favor, just look at somebody next to you and say, God is with me.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Look at the other person that you just neglected and say, Amen and amen.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: God is with me.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And I want to frame where we're going under this passage from David's Psalm in the 34th chapter.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Hear now the reading of God's word.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: I prayed to the Lord and he answered me.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: He freed me from all my fears.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: No shadow of shame will darken their faces.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: He saved me from all of my troubles.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: For the angel of the Lord is a guard.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: He surrounds and defends all who fear him.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: He rescues them from their troubles.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray over the preaching of God's word.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, your word is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: May it speak to us and may it speak through us for the establishment of your kingdom on this earth.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: May the words of my mouth, the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O God, and in your sight alone.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: You are our rock, O God.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: You are our Redeemer.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: We love you because you first loved us.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Evil.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Suffering.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Two ground rules.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: We are not gonna solve this today.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: If you aren't aware, people have been struggling with the existence of evil and suffering in the world since the fall after creation.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: That would be basically the beginning of time.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, so we're not gonna solve it today in the next 20 minutes, okay?
6:23
SPEAKER_00: So let's just all agree to that at the beginning.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: The other thing I want you to be aware of, not only are we not gonna solve it today, but that suffering is personal.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Everybody experiences suffering in a little bit different way.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: We've all been through it, but we've all experienced it in different ways.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: It can be very easy to compare our suffering versus another person's.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Very easy and also very destructive.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: So we're not gonna do that.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Can we just agree to that ground rule?
6:54
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna, we're when we have this conversation later over lunch or wherever, we're not gonna judge anyone else's suffering.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And I would just encourage you, let that go on past lunch.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, don't judge anyone where they are in their suffering.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, we've all been through suffering, we've all been through harm, we've all been through violence, we've all experienced pain.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And the question that we all ask, all of us, is why?
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Right?
7:23
SPEAKER_00: That's the question that we all ask.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that we are in pain?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that we experience evil in the world?
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Why?
7:33
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you that throughout time, and particularly within Christianity, there are lots of approaches to that question.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
7:41
SPEAKER_00: There are, it's sometimes easy for us to say, well, the Christian responses or the Jewish responses, the Islamic responses, whatever, the atheistic response.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Let me encourage you that even within Christianity, if you are familiar, there are lots of responses to this question of why.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: We happen to be in the Wesleyan tradition.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And so we follow under the kind of the doctrine of principles that John Wesley laid out at the beginning of this movement that is now our church.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: And so let me just talk to you a little bit about what John Wesley would say regarding this.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: And he begins with an important premise.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: His premise from the beginning to the answer of why is that we have free will.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: We begin with the idea of free will.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know what free will is, that just means that we have the opportunity to choose.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: And the reason he does that is because that then we are able to love God freely.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Because to be able to love God fully, it must be free.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: To love God fully, it must be a choice we make.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Because otherwise, it's just forced.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Let me just show you some of this language.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: This is from the NRSV, 1 Corinthians 13, which is called the love chapter.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And it is uh one of the most famous passages in all of Scripture.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it at every wedding you've been to.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 13.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: It does not insist on its own way.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Love is not forced.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase of the same passage.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Love never gives up.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Love cares more for others than for self.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: I work with 18-year-olds.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head or ego.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Eighteen-year-olds.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't force itself on others.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Love is free.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we have free will.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Because we have the ability then to choose to love God fully and freely.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: But we should be honest about free will.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It can go both ways, can't it?
10:11
SPEAKER_00: And we've experienced the opposite of that a lot throughout the history of time.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Because the same free will that gave us the opportunity to love God is the same free will that enslaved human beings.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: And still does today.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: The free will that gave us the opportunity to love God fully is the same free will that gave us the massive amount of violence we have in this country and across the world today.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Because the ability to choose gives you the ability to choose.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: So then Wesley comes with a new next perspective.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: We have free will, but that also means that because we have chosen the other way, we are broken.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: We are broken.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Wesley would call this uh what we would now call total depravity, meaning that human beings cannot earn their way back to God because we are so depraved, we are so broken in the midst of that.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: It's the only thing in him Calvinism would ever agree on.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: But Wesley believed that we are all broken because we are in desperate need of God.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you've ever heard the term provenient grace within a Methodist context, that's the grace that goes before that even gives us the ability to see that we were broken in the first place.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: So we are broken, and we didn't even know that except that God gave us grace to see it.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So we choose the broken ways, and then God opens our eyes to it.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: We are broken, and it's free will that got us here.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: We should just acknowledge that.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Why does evil exist in the world?
11:56
SPEAKER_00: We put it here.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: It didn't come from God.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: We put it here.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to take a slight tangent for a second, because I work with 18 to 22-year-olds who are in the you know absolute prime of their life.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: That's how they would describe it.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: I describe it as chaos.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'll tell you this.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: I have learned this, I've been in uh college ministry about 10 years.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, when I was in high school, I went to a Billy Graham crusade.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: You know who Billy Graham is, famous preacher who would have these crusades, and I went because this really cool band was playing, and so, you know, because I was a kid, and and Billy Graham is giving what he calls the gospel presentation.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: This is what is referred to kind of in evangelical worlds, and and he so he gives this presentation, and and what does he do?
12:47
SPEAKER_00: He harps on sin a lot, right?
12:49
SPEAKER_00: He just points at sin and sin and sin.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: He talks about your brokenness, then he talks about Jesus, which is why I came there in the band, and then he comes back to our brokenness and our sin over and over again.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Why?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of his message, he's gonna invite a whole bunch of people to come forward, and I mean thousands of people, to come forward to an altar, to give their life to Christ, to recommit their life to Christ, all of which is great, but that's the way that we were taught the gospel, that we we we needed to understand that we were broken and in desperate need of Jesus.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: All of that is true.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something about this generation today.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: They don't need any convincing that they are broken.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Why?
13:34
SPEAKER_00: Instagram.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Social media reminds them every time they wake up in the morning and they open their phone.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: We're not even talking about every hour, we're talking about every minute.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: They open their phone and they scroll through and they show them a bunch of photos, videos, pictures about why they're not good enough.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: They hear it all the time.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: What college ministers do, uh, the charge given to us, is that we have to take that brokenness and redirect it to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: But no longer are we having to preach you are broken, broken, broken.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: They get it.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: They just use sometimes other ways to try to fix it, and we try to point them toward the work of Christ.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: So they don't need to they don't need to know that they're broken.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to harp on it.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to the why for a second.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: God gave us free will, so we could choose.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: We chose the opposite way, things didn't go so well.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: Why do bad things happen?
14:43
SPEAKER_00: We do bad things.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: The question may be better framed, not why.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Because I think internally we know that.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: The question might be better framed, what's God doing about it?
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a seminary response to this, there's a gospel response to this.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Two thousand years ago, the Son of God hung on a tree and then was buried and then resurrected.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: And so in that resurrection, the hold that death, brokenness, sin had on us was defeated.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: God won.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: Look at your neighbor and say, God won.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: God won.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: That's what God did about it, is that God took over it.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's this, that's the it's a right answer.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Hear me clearly.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: It's a hundred percent true.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: That is what God did within it to help defeat sin and death.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: That is for sure true.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't believe me, read the rest of Paul's work in the second half of the New Testament because he says that again and again.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: That's what God did about it.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: But let me just tell you some practicality about that.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: When I was at my previous school before Florida State, I sat down with uh uh a student who was in deep despair because her best friend, who was also a student at the college, had died three months earlier.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: And she was, as you would be, in just utter heartbreak.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: I was brand new, I didn't know the previous student.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: I was right at a seminary, which meant I knew all the right answers.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: We love new seminarians.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I was one, Chris is one.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: When you know all the right answers, sometimes it's best you shut your mouth.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: So I sat with her, and she's crying, going through it.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, college college ministers, thank God, don't do a lot of funerals.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Right?
17:05
SPEAKER_00: We do a lot of weddings.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: We don't do a lot of funerals.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but the problem is, is when we do, they are by definition emotionally heavy.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: They are, because by definition, it's a young person, right?
17:18
SPEAKER_00: And so when we do, when we do that sort of stuff, it is hard work.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And I was new at a seminary and I knew all the right answers.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting here with her, and I did that thing that we often do when we're with somebody and we we're trying to comfort them, so we just start saying things when we should have shut our mouth.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And so we just start saying things, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, I I know the right answer here.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection, the resurrection.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: That's what they told us in seminary.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Let me just describe the resurrection, let me give her the hope of the resurrection, let me give her the resurrection.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, you know what?
17:52
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: God wins.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And she had the most human response I think possible.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: She said, I don't care about that.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: This hurts.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: You ever been there?
18:24
SPEAKER_00: I hear what you're saying, Pastor.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: This hurts.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: What was rule two earlier?
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Suffering is personal.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: It's painful.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: It hurts deep within you.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: It feels supernatural.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: That's why we ask why.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: It hurts.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes suffering comes in the loss of a loved one.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes that's the way we experience it.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Suffering comes in a lot of other ways, though.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Suffering comes when that kid is sitting in school and he hasn't eaten two meals prior.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Because a free lunch at school is the only one he's gonna get.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Suffering comes during a global pandemic.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Stop me if you've heard this story.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: When people lose loved ones, they lost jobs, they lost businesses, we were all locked away, so we started to get pretty antsy and very lonely.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Suffering comes in a lot of different forms, but one thing remains true about it.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: It hurts.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: So then maybe the question isn't what has God done about it?
19:48
SPEAKER_00: It's what is God doing about it?
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Let me point you to uh this passage of Psalm 34 again.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: I just want to read it real quick.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: I prayed to the Lord and he answered me.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: He freed me from all my fears.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: No shadow of shame will darken their faces.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: In my desperation I prayed and the Lord listened.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: He saved me from all my troubles.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: For the angel of the Lord is a guard.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: He surrounds and defends all who fear him.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: He rescues them from their troubles.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put this in the first person for a second.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: If you're brokenhearted, the Lord is close to you.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: If your spirit is crushed, God is going to rescue you.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Say that to yourself.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: If my spirit is crushed, God is gonna rescue me.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: If my heart is broken, God is close to me.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we just need to sit in that.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: When I was in seminary, I served at a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, big church.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the best things that pastors get the opportunity to do is share in the sacrament of holy baptism.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: And so I wasn't a pastor at the time, but I got to assist because I was the intern.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And so we, and it was a large church, we baptized a lot of kids in over the course of that summer, but uh one of them in particular, he was nine months old or so, and so we brought him forward and you do the thing, and then they went to uh outside, you know, and they took pictures and all that sort of stuff, and then and then they went to uh lunch and they kind of enjoyed the day, but they noticed something when they were looking at the photos that he had some spots on his leg that just seemed abnormal.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: So the next day they took him to the doctor, and doctors started ordering some blood tests and try to figure out what it was.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Many of us have been through scares like that.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And this nine-month-old had leukemia baptized the day before.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: And so for the rest of the summer, nearly every day, I and other pastors from the con the church spent the time at the hospital with the family as they were trying to figure out you know all of the processes of trying to heal that.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And I felt myself, because I was in my final year of seminary with all the right answers, wanting to do the same thing I wanted to do later.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Say something.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: But it was the senior pastor who happened to be with me that day, and he can't, I think he could feel I was, you know, coming out of my chair, but hope in the resurrection, right?
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Um and he just put his hand Over me, and I just kind of sat back.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: And then we just sat there with the family.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: We listened to their fears, we listened to their suffering.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we provided a little encouragement.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we prayed.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: We were there.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: That's an incarnational witness.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: That's an incarnational witness.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Because God is close to the brokenhearted.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Because God is with us.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: When our spirits are crushed, God will rescue us.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: God is close to the brokenhearted.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes presence is enough.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes presence can be enough.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: There are lots of people in your life who are suffering right now.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: You probably can think of a few of them off the top of your head, but you may or may not.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Let me encourage you, the world is suffering.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: It needs the presence of God.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: It needs the presence of God.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: How is it that God works?
24:09
SPEAKER_00: God works within the church.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: It works with you and me.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: God works within us.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: It's an incarnational witness.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Where God says, I'm with you.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Does it through people who stand up in front with robes and stuff.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Also does it through you.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: There's somebody in your life.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: There's someone in your life that is going through it right now.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: You may be aware of it.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: It may be you.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me encourage you to give you a challenge.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to give my college students a challenge.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know who that is, pray to God that God will reveal that person to you.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: I guarantee you it'll go pretty quick.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Be with that person this week.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Be with them.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, you may not be able to physically be with them.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Give them a phone call.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: Man, you ever had a phone call that kind of changed your life?
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Think about the times when you needed somebody and somebody gave you that glass of water or brought you that meal or just came and sat with you.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend whose house was robbed.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: She said the most important thing that happened after that is that her mom came and stayed with her.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Just being with her.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: If you find yourself wanting to say something, to try to give some encouragement, like God needed another angel or something like that, let me encourage you, just be quiet.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Just be quiet.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Just be with them.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Be with them.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: It's in that way God will use you as hands and feet to somebody who desperately needs your presence, God's presence.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Why?
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Because God is close to the broken heart.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Holy God, you have promised to be close to us, to hold us in our suffering to be with us.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: You have promised to rescue us when our spirits are crushed.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: God, we know that you are faithful.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: You are faithful to the end of time.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: You have promised that and shown us to that in your scriptures.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: We just plead with you now, God, be present with us here.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Let us feel your spirit here, oh God.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Let us know the work that you are doing within us, God, particularly when we are going through it.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: When we are suffering and in pain, oh God, be with us and help us to be that to the world.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: To our friends, our family, maybe even somebody we might just meet today.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be the presence in their pain.
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SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your holy name.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Amen.