Sunday 29th August - Ps Matt - "God of empathy"

this is where i tell you that i have zero gags i have no no material organized today uh and look i don't know what he's talking about uh academy award pat marx is a real person and uh because there is no way i would get into a cage with birds um good grief well it's good to be with you uh today church obviously uh not in person online and and every time we come it sort of uh stings a little bit but hey at least we've got this and and we're still the church no matter where it is that we are and and uh we need to hold on to that truth in this time but um i've been thinking a little bit in this time around the concept of having two seemingly conflicting emotions at the same time have you ever wanted to laugh and cry at the same time in equal measure like you don't know whether this is funny or tragic you don't know whether this is rolling on the floor laughing or whether this is balling your eyes out crying and i've had a few of these uh moments in my life i remember something that i'm sure i will take with me to my deathbed i remember a time when i was in grade 11. grade 11 biology and and i think i've shared this message many sorry this story many times in different youth messages because it's the ultimate youth ministry story and i remember that we were in our science class biology i think it was no i didn't do biology must be in chemistry and uh me and my friend didn't enjoy it would be fair to say the content that the teacher was delivering and so we were sort of sitting there a bit distracted and a bit bored at our sort of lab bench and and my mate thought it would be funny and i blame him i'm throwing him under the bus he thought it would be funny to light the gas tap on fire you know where the bunsen burner plugs in he turned the gas on and he sparked the the match or the light or whatever it was and this big jetta flame shot out and he got away with it right so i thought well i can do this too this will be funny and i did it and no no sooner as did i strike that match or like i remember my teacher snapping their head around like they were just waiting for it to be me and i got pinged and i got busted and then i got met with those words those two words that every student in high school loves to hear please leave am i waiting for the punishment no she's serious she's just asked me to leave i packed up my stuff and left and i just hung outside the classroom i didn't know what else to do and then the classroom next door almost said exactly the same moment in time a different one of my mates got kicked out of his science class and we had this beautiful moment where we looked at each other like what's going on here it was meant to be let's go do something fun and then his teacher said look you are not to leave this spot just stand out in the hall and look i'm not a teacher and hats off to all teachers i don't think i could do it but it just seems to be the strangest punishment of all time me a student not wanting to be in class does the wrong thing and his punishment gets the very thing i wanted in the first place which was to not be in that class and i remember we had a teacher walk past and say what are you two doing we got kicked out of class and it was like yeah carry on fair enough and so we're sitting there in the hallway and the middle of class looking shut up what's going on my friend pulls out of his bag of soccer ball let's just have a kick around so we started knocking this ball backwards and forwards just passing the time and as two young men will do we got a little bit competitive we got a little bit excited and and the distance between us got further and further and the kicks got harder and harder to the point where we were at opposite ends of the hall and i remember the ball rolling to my feet i thought i'm going to fix this up i'm going to i'm going to send one on the full and i'm gonna hit my mate on the chest and it's gonna be brilliant so so i pushed it out cleared my feet and i struck this ball and i i'm telling you you just know when you connect with the football with a with it with a uh you know that foot hits that ball i just knew that i'd struck this so sweetly and i've looked up ready to bathe in the glory that would ensue the classroom a couple of doors down opens up and at the same time i've kicked this ball this poor poor little year 7 girl takes a step out of the classroom i still remember to this day the sound the ball made when it connected with the side of her face and i remember clear as day to this day her feet literally lifting up into the air as she got beyond horizontal and hit the ground i looked at this poor innocent year seven girl here's me disheveled i didn't care about the uniform anymore it was beyond like what are you gonna do suspend us for uniform we'll be on that but there was this innocent naive little year seven girl with the the dress that went well below the knees the socks pulled up she had a tie and her top button done all the way up she was looking you know what what what the school would have wanted to put on their advertising posters this is what this girl was and there she was in this crumpled mess on the floor with a bright red face and i looked at her and i felt so bad but my goodness was it funny and i remember being so conflicted i'm such a terrible person i want to cry for this little girl who i've just completely knocked to the floor but my goodness was it funny have you ever wanted to laugh and cry at exactly the same time i remember our first ever youth camp caitlyn and i uh at our at our last church where we met uh pastor adrian narelle we'd been on teams before and this was sort of the first time we were youth pastors in our own right and we we went to this camp and we were kicking again i just shouldn't be allowed any sporting equipment right but we're kicking a football with some boys and this campsite was sort of had this big hill and and i've i've on purpose kicked the ball down the hill to make a kid run after it because i thought that would be funny what i didn't know was this as this kid goes hurtling down the hill we're on a farm what i did not know was that there was a wire fence that encapsulated where we were and as he was running he slipped so as he slipped down he slipped at the exact same time that the fence was at about neck height and i watched this boy as he slipped down as he was going forward and then and the fence clip him on the neck and he back flipped around the fence flat on his back this is my first ever youth camp as a youth party i was the person in charge and i've allowed this mayhem to ensure and i remember running down the hill laughing hysterically because it was so funny and getting to this poor boy who's flat out not moving i thought do we have to call an ambulance i've done it i've killed a kid i've managed to like what on earth is going on here and i wanted to laugh and cry in equal measure at the exact same time have you ever had two conflicting emotions exist at the same time a little while ago caitlyn and i wanted to to go on a date night and and uh bri fraser one of our wonderful youth leaders offered to babysit the kids for us and we're like look we'll sort dinner out for the kids we'll you know we did like a pasta sauce we had in the freezer we're like we'll get that out we'll defrost that and and you just come and we'll have the kids all fed but kaitlin and i were running a little bit late so when breeze arrived we were still in the in the middle of uh getting ready and the kids hadn't fed and breezed up look don't worry about it i'll get the pasta sauce out of the out of the microwave i'll sort this out because you know she's a kind thoughtful person she's like you guys just look after yourselves right cool as i walked into the kitchen ready to go breeze i've seen bree go to the microwave to pull out the pasta sauce but she hasn't realized how hot said pasta sauce was and i've seen her pull it out and literally realize how hot it was throw this pot of pasta sauce into the air and it was like this projectile spray of a pasada sauce all over our kitchen all over the roof all over the floor to this day we still find little specks of pasta sauce that we didn't realize and our strawberry fall to the floor in a crumpled heap and it was a comical scene so she started laughing and then in amongst the laughing then came the tears and in equal measure did she want to laugh and cry there's seemingly two conflicting emotions existing at the same time i feel like in this time that we're in the crazy couple years that we've had i've felt like that many many times i've got two conflicting emotions within me and i'm not sure which one is what today excuse me august the 29th we're supposed to be coming home from youth camp right this time we're supposed to have some kids up here sharing testimonies about how the goodness of god has impacted their lives sharing about how they encountered their jesus sharing about how they had a time of fellowship in community and how god had turned their life around that was supposed to be today so in honor i'm wearing my my cyg hoodie i've got my my youth pastor beanie on and i'm i'm dressing for the occasion but today we're supposed to be up here before you celebrating and sharing the goodness of god in the lives of our young people and it didn't happen and i have to be honest church i found this really really tough the last two three weeks now we've we've all gone through different uh things in lockdown and we've all suffered an element of loss or disappointment over this period of time but but this camp really really hit me see this camp was uh something that i'd been praying about and believing for well before i i came back into being involved in youth ministry when pastor joel uh felt the lord move him on and i i'd been praying for and i've been burdened by it and i've been excited for i didn't know why i felt god stirring me about youth camp in 2021 well before it was even my thing to be stirred about we were excited caleb and i had god speaking to us about it we had vision for it we had the vision statement born again because we believe that's what god was going to do in the lives of our young people and in our youth ministries in many different ways there was an excitement there was an energy there was a belief that god was going to do something so great our youth team were pumped up and excited oh we had registrations coming in we had plans we had things set up for the for the stage we had the campsite booked it was this amazing facility we were all ready to go and all of a sudden it didn't happen and it left me feeling a little bit conflicted it left me feeling a little bit like i'm torn one of two ways the conflict was this i know that god spoke to me about this camp i know that i heard the voice of god for this camp i have vision for it i have faith for it i have excitement for it god has given me pictures of young people tears in their eyes encountering god for the first time as i encountered god for the first time as a 14 year old boy i remember to this day the day that the lord changed my life and it happened as a teenager such was the picture that i had for these young people pages of ideas things that we were ready to enact and i know that it was god breathed in god given and it didn't happen so i'm left with the question did i did i not hear from god did i actually get that wrong did i make this up was this just my nice thought and i just got and i'm left in this position of torment almost of saying i'm feeling conflicted i know that god's in this and i know god spoke but i'm hurting and i'm disappointed and i'm feeling like there's a there's a fracture within my spirit about this how can these two seemingly glaringly separate emotions and feelings and thoughts exist at the same time and i've begun to go on this process caitlyn i and our youth team have been going on this process of grieving our camp we have suffered a loss there have been times in my life where we've gone through uh obviously times of hardship as everyone has and through time of self-reflection over the past few weeks and time of of just dwelling on on all that's happening within the last couple of weeks i've come to realize this about myself i have been someone who used to think that as a as a man of god as a as a person who wants to live my life living for christ when hardship comes my way when difficulty comes my way when disappointment and hurt and grief come my way i need to be a person of faith which means this i need to brush it off i need to put it aside i need to focus on the positives i need to speak the the faith language that god is moving and god is good and in god's timing all will happen and his will be done and and i had in my mind that if i wasn't speaking this language and if i wasn't outpouring this positivity all of the time then i was lacking faith i was someone who wasn't believing that god was good that god was in control that god was all these things that if i actually allowed myself to grieve and be disappointed that was lucky in faith if i allowed myself to be hurt if i allowed myself to sit in the moment of do you know what this is actually really really sucky my disappointment is really really hurting me that if i did that that wasn't godly so here i am finding myself going i know that god spoke to me i know that i heard his voice i saw him and i knew that he spoke but it hurts because it hasn't happened and i'm left holding the bag of disappointment of of frustration of anger and i've got these two seemingly separate things faith in the lord and hurt and pain and grief and anguish existing within me in equal measure at the exact same time and i've been conflicted by this because that doesn't add up that's not what faith is i thought that that's not what being a man of god is i thought that's not that's not speaking faith language and believing that god is in control and so i've gone on this journey over the last few weeks of saying god i know that there's something in this i need you to speak to me i need you to move i need you to to talk to me in through this as we've gone on this as i've gone on this journey this this this process with the lord i've come across this incredible passage of scripture which i've read before but i've read again in a new light i'm reading from hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 to 16 it says this therefore since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven jesus the son of god let us hold firmly to the faith we profess there it is we're holding on to the faith of god that we have for we do not have a high priest who is are you ready we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses i'm going to pause there that is an incredible sentence that is an incredible statement to think that jesus christ the son of god himself is able to empathize with us in our weakness that's not sympathize that's not feel sorry for that's not pity that's to see what it is we're traveling through see what it is we're going through and sit with us in it and understand jesus is able to empathize with my weakness with your weakness with our hurts with our pains with our anguish for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet he did not sin let us then approach god's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need how do we know that jesus is able to empathize with us how do we where do we see the the the fact that jesus was human and can understand and put these things on with with us as we go through them obviously we see jesus it refers to it here in hebrews 4 jesus is tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights and and fought the battle of flesh we see that but i want to read now from matthew 26 towards the end of jesus ministry and towards the end of jesus life here on earth as a man this picture this this this story that we see jesus oh this is a man who understands grief this is a man who understands hurt this is a man who understands anguish and pain and sorrow so i can see the high priest who is able to empathize with me in my weakness matthew 26 verses 36 to 39 says this then jesus went with his disciples to a place called gethsemane and he said to them sit here while i go over there and pray he took peter and the two sons of zebedee along with him and he began to be sorrowful and troubled then he said to them my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death stay here and keep watch with me going a little further he fell with his face to the ground and prayed my father if it is possible may this cup be taken from me yet not as i will but as you will here is a picture of jesus the man who knows his fate who knows what awaits him who knows the pain that he is about to endure and he says i am sorrowful even to death he is his anguished he is hurting there is a sorrow deep within him isaiah the book of isaiah when prophesying about jesus refers to him as the man of sorrow jesus is not some distant being that can't put himself in our shoes oh i can't really relate to jesus the the son of god he who is without sin he who was blameless he who who paid the price for all i am so inferior to that that there's no link that we have there's no way that i could possibly pour my heart out to god because he's not going to get it right here i see a picture of a man who understands the hurts and the pains that we go through we think our circumstances now are tough and they are but you want to talk about tough circumstances walking knowingly into the one of the most painful deaths mankind has ever come up with for something that you didn't do talk about pain sorrow anguish and grief so hebrews 4 verse 15 for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize he is able to empathize with us my friends he's been there he's been in the hurt he's been in the pain he's been in the anguish and when i've seen this and all of a sudden apply that back to what i'm going through what it is that we all are going through it's like oh god gets it jesus understands jesus isn't looking at me with sympathetic notions he's looking at me with empathetic love it's not this idea of sympathy well at least you don't i've never heard an empathetic statement start with at least or at least you've got your health at least you don't have it as bad as some at least you're still able to work at least you're not in afghanistan right now all true statements but all lacking in empathy i've never heard an empathetic statement start with at least so jesus isn't sitting there saying come on move on get over it at least this at least that where's your faith man of god where's your faith woman of god oh you've lost your job no you've got to speak faith oh you you're struggling in your mental health because you feel isolated and alone come on get up out of it where's your faith at least you don't have this at least you don't have that they are not empathetic statements that is not a god of empathy and i read that jesus is a god of empathy and when i apply these things i can all of a sudden look and i i've gained comfort from the fact that jesus is not sitting there tapping his watch tapping his foot saying come on come on get through this come on move on come on get over it come on let's go jesus is sitting there with me so i understand i get the hurt i get the pain i get the frustration i get the anguish jesus wants to sit with you in whatever it is you're going through now we we went through hard times before lockdowns we'll go through hard times after lockdowns but it just seems everything is magnified times a thousand right now and jesus gets it the man of sorrows sorrowful to the point of death is not hurrying you up to speed through the process of hurts that you're going through but is sitting there with love and compassion son and daughter i am here with you and i understand so i've got these two conflicting emotions all of a sudden starting to be reconciled i've heard from god and i'm confused about that then i see a jesus who who knows all that it is that i'm going through rather than condemning me rather than pushing me rather than being frustrated with me sitting there with me i'm studying at the moment and one of the subjects i'm doing is on grief and loss funny timing and we're talking about different types of grief and obviously we think grief we think loss of a loved one i've known that grief as as many of us have but you can grieve anything that you've loved you can grieve anything that you can form an attachment to so there's this idea that we are all grieving right now we have all suffered a loss we have all all missed out on something i i know people that have had multiple birthdays in lockdown i've people haven't seen their parents their siblings their whatever for long periods of time people have lost jobs people there has been a loss and a grief that we are subject to because of it and as i'm going through this subject we hearing and one of the like my favorite thing group work we'd break off into the different groups and we had to talk about different types of grief and hearing people talk about grief less about a loved one and more about the circumstances it started to open up certainly my eyes on actually what we're going through is really significant and not only that but it doesn't seem like the end is anywhere near so it's not like we can just look to the light at the end of the tunnel we have no idea where the light is at the end of the tunnel we don't know how long it is we don't know how far it is we don't know what it looks like so we're stuck in this this no man's land where where not only are we grieving and hurting and struggling but it's not even like we can see ourselves moving forward through that and i've been wrestling with this and again reapplying this to the fact what is it that we're going through and is god moving am i lacking faith if i'm hurting how does this all work as i've read more on this idea of grief and of loss and of of this this anguish that we carry when this sort of thing happens there's been a a dramatic change in the way uh the field of psychology look at grief grief is no longer this static journey that you go along from this stage through to that i'm sure you've all heard of the the five stages of grief that that that's not taught anymore that's an older model of grief because it's the this understanding that that that grief and loss is not a journey you go from start to finish and get through and move on grief and loss is a process of redefining who we are as people because loss is felt not just on an emotional level on a psychological and physical level as well and so all of a sudden that there's there's more of a process than previously we've given this credit for so i read all this i put all this together i i apply it to how i'm feeling in this moment in these weeks and and the phone calls i'm having with different people and the conversations i'm having with different people and their feelings have hurt and and loss and and the frustration through all this time and i start to apply all this together and think maybe it's actually okay to give ourselves permission to feel maybe it's actually okay to sit in this and say this is not good that we don't have to be the the stereotypical on fire men and women of faith god is breaking through and god because the reality is we're in a set of circumstances where we're not seeing it and that carries a bit of frustration and a bit of hurt so does that mean i lack faith but then i read and i look at jesus jesus who is able to empathize with you and with me the high priest who goes before his wife so we can approach the throne of god and his grace with confidence hebrews 4 says all of a sudden i'm not feeling so so whacked over the head for hurting all of a sudden i'm not feeling so bashed because i'm actually going through a tough spot right now jesus gets it jesus understands it if grief is a physical psychological emotional response god designed it it's actually something that we are able to go through to get to to come to terms with who it is we are going to be in the future not to move on not to forget not to sever ties as we used to view grief but actually to readapt it this is this is who we are becoming so the reality is if we're in this spot we need to give ourselves permission to be in this spot there is a space in between sometimes when we feel god's speaking and we see the effects of god moving when i when i first started writing this message it was taking a different event and i sort of moved it over here but i was going to share a little bit about king david how he was anointed at between the ages of 10 and 15 anointed to be the next king god spoke this is the one who i chose and then david went on his life following god pursuing god trying to be obedient but then he went on a pretty hard time of it was fleeing for his life from saul feared for his life cave to cave to cave i can't think for a moment like oh sorry i can't think that there wasn't a moment where david sat in a cave feeling downcast going did i actually hear god right is god actually in this or not because this doesn't add up to i am the anointed king this doesn't add up to god speaking a promise over my life that's all right to feel so i've left sitting there and i said okay well what then i don't want to be a person who sits and wallows i i don't want to be someone who gets stuck in this i don't want to be someone who's just spends the next period of time feeling flat and downcast and and oh this is a super positive message this is a really positive outlook on the world you're bringing for us in the word this morning i want to live my life knowing that god is in control i want to live my life knowing that that god is breaking through in all areas so what does this leave us but off the top marrying up the tension of the fact that we can have these two conflicting emotions these two conflicting points of view existing at the same time i read this caitlyn shared whenever it was a couple of weeks ago or last week or something like that a woman by the name of lisa turkist and she's a uh like a counselor psych psychologist christian lady who who does has a christian ministry in the field of of psychology and counselling and things and she said this which which really which really drove this point home for me in the presence of heartbreak trying to steal any glimmers of hope from you on this monday morning she was writing a post on monday obviously sorry today's sunday i know exactly what that feels like that's why i want to be sure we remember these truths as we head into this new week we can make peace with the fact that sorrow and celebration can co-exist together in heart quite authentically we don't have to pick one or the other we can simply have both and giving ourselves permission to have both is freeing on every level we can sit with and tend to all that still needs to be healed and at the same time laugh plan for great things ahead and declare that this is a glorious day to have both isn't denial it's declarative it's decisive it's deeming life a gift even if it looks nothing like we thought it would our sorrows tender our heart and allow us to grieve our celebrations tend to our hearts need to get back up and go on let's enjoy the mess out of all that's worthy of celebration while fully allowing sorrow to come to our party as well knowing there's purpose in the pain enjoying the making of a life with jesus father god help us consider where glimpses of joy might be in our lives and keep reminding us that in the midst of anything that feels hard that your plans for us are still good in jesus name amen sorrow hurt grief anguish faith and belief that god has our future in his hands and that he is good can coexist in equal measure at the same time one does not detract for the other my friend we need to guard against the fact that sometimes we can fall into the trap that we are we allow ourselves to tell ourselves that that negative circumstances that things that aren't seemingly going our way is an absence of god moving in our lives we can read scripture after scripture after scripture that that make the contrary point that god can still move in the midst of us not being able to see it and it's all well and good to preach that message on a sunday when we're all here and we're all going well and things are rosy it's another one to preach it from the middle of that going oh here we are in this thing and it's actually a little harder to do than it is to say sometimes but we need to guard against it friend the promises that god gave me the promises that god i'm sure has given you they are the word of god and they shall come to pass and we do need to lean into god's timing we do need to trust that he is control in control we do need to trust that his plan is is ultimate at the same time we're allowed to feel the hurt and the grief and the anguish because if we don't feel that if we don't deal with that if we brush that off i actually think that lacks faith because i think that's not allowing god to be present in every area and every part of our lives that's been disingenuous with god to try and cover up the fact that we're struggling in this and trying to just declare the goodness of god over it i i think god is sitting there going no that's not that's not how i want you to be i understand and i empathize let me sit with you in this and as i do that let's look at a future together let's look at a hope together let's look at the calling of god on our lives together from the middle of the difficult time hebrews chapter 6 verse 19. i sent this in an email to to all the young adults in our church last week and i've had this scripture going through and i've been saying this to myself over and over and over we have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure it enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where our forerunner jesus has entered on our behalf he has become a high priest forever in the order of melchizedek hebrews 6 and hebrews 4 that i read before refers to jesus as the high priest what is the high priest the high priest in the old testament was the person that would make a sacrifice on behalf of the people jesus the ultimate high priest has made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the people he has gone before us he has done it he has paved the way for a reconciliation with god he has given us a new life he has given us a freedom he's given us an ability to to to live a life full of joy and contentment even in the middle of our hurts and our griefs and our anguishes anguishes isn't a word he's gone before us and he's paid the ultimate price so that we can celebrate the victory at the exact same time we feel the hurt talking about youth camp caitlyn myself our youth team our church church pastoral team we had a decision to make we can shrug our shoulders and and rule a red line through it and say well that was that was it move on next year well it didn't happen maybe you know god i don't know maybe god didn't know that this was a thing that coronavirus was the thing the lock down was the thing maybe maybe matt and caitlin miss heard who knows well we're just going to move on that's a choice we have but we have jesus this hope that is an anchor for our soul we have this this jesus who we know is speaking and wants to move and wants to look forward and wants to so that's not the choice we wanted to make i know that god has spoken about what he's going to do in the lives of our young people and church let me tell you now in the middle of this latest lockdown do we need it we are being inundated with stories of young people who are really hurting who are really feeling it and i know we're all hurting i know we're all feeling i've just been caitlyn i've been inundated with story after story of a young person who are feeling without hope who are feeling like they can't go on who are feeling like this has just got the best of them if there was ever a time that we need our young people to hear a message that jesus is the hope that we can anchor to it's now so we're making plans we know it might be foolish we know it might not happen we know that we can't trust what restrictions are going to look like on any given day but i will not and our team will not and our church will not use that as an excuse for an activity we've rebooked camp at the soonest possible date december 10 to december 12. now i can give you more reasons than you can give me why a december camp isn't a good idea i can give you more reasons and you can give me while it conflicts with christmas and what i care i i can i get it but god has spoken and we're in this time of hurt and this time of struggle and we need reconciling these two seemingly contradicting feelings so we're going to declare in faith in our heart in our pain but in our faith that no we are going to believe that god does have a future for our youth ministry that god does have hope he wants to give our youth ministry that that what god spoke over our young people he will see past so we've rebooked it in december 10 to december 12. we are going to go with the same fervency with the same vigor with the same excitement with the same tenacity with the same earnest nature before god saying god we need you to move our young people need you to move our church needs you to move god we know that you've spoken upon us we know that you've spoken upon connect christian church and we will grab a hold of that and we will not let go yes we might be feeling it now yes we might be really hurting now but we will not let go of the promise that you've given us allow ourselves to go through the process but not let go of the anchor that is the hope that comes in jesus christ the high priest that has gone before us the one who's paid the ultimate sacrifice for you and for i we will push through what we have to push through as hard as it is because god has spoken to us so we will sit in the seeming conflict of sorrow and belief and faith that god is moving and we will reconcile them this message i've spoken about from a very personal slant obviously but the reality is this is a message for our life again this period of time has just exacerbated everything that we're going through right now but the reality is is that we are always going to go through hurts we are always going to go through pains lockdowns or no and when those times come we need to actually sit and say you know what jesus empathizes with me and what it is that i'm going through he understands he gets it he gets it but at the same time i know that he's spoken i will not let go we're going to listen to a song um that i've had on my heart this week it's called take heart and this song so beautifully speaks to this i think because the the the tone of it the mode of it is the fact that you know what let's actually acknowledge the fact this is really tough but at the same time take heart because we know that god has overcome we can have these two seemingly conflicting notions and combine them into harmony so let's listen to this song together and then we're going to pray we're going to go about our week knowing that god is in control [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] so take heart [Music] hold on [Music] is [Music] failed [Music] [Music] you take a reason [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] the christmas i know it's true [Music] all the world and its troubles [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] go god we thank you that you are a god of empathy you regard that you are a god of love of care of compassion lord all that we're going through all it is that we're feeling all of the the different circumstances we're all going through lord you have been there you know and you understand and you're sitting with us in it god we thank you that you can just sit with us there's no pressure there's no expectation to overcome and to move on and to and to just be okay with everything lord that you want to sit with us and how it is that we're feeling god every person that needs that right now i pray you do just that thing in our lounge rooms and our bedrooms wherever it is we are would you just sit with us would you just be with us would you just tend to our hurting hearts but god at the same time in equal measure we cling to the hope that we have in you a hope for a future and a call and a purpose you've put before us the plans that you have put before us the breakthrough you have put before us oh you are a god who has overcome our great high priest lord i pray for our church family all across the place that you just minister to them this morning and in this coming week we thank you for your goodness and your faithfulness we pray in your name amen well god bless you church thanks for joining us this morning and i will see you online for father's day next week have a great week as always please reach out give us a call email us if you need anything we want to be there for you as much as we possibly can in this time so we love your church and we'll see you soon bye [Music] you

Channel: Connect Christian Church

Views: 282

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: HZ6rQhVskw4

Length: 44min 12sec (2652 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021