Hey, come on, church. Let's, uh, let's pray together. Well, we come before you, God, thanking you, um, for that truth, God, that you don't give us pieces or parts. God, you give us all of you. But on the cross, all of you was offered.

You gave your life, you gave your body, you gave your son so that we could have complete forgiveness, so that we could have full grace and full mercy, we thank you. We gotta pray that You'll open. Our heart shall open our minds to your word, to your truth today, in the, the dark, in the desolate places, in our lives, in our stories, that your light will shine maybe, maybe for the first time, maybe for the first time in a long time. God, we pray that we'll, we will experience your hope like never before. All things we ask in your name.

Amen. Amen. When I was, um, young, like 5, 6, 7, uh, young, uh, I can remember this. Amen. I remember this day, uh, so vividly, my family was, was leaving.

We were on our way out the door. We were going together. We were going to a football game. Um, we, we were out the door, right? And I had one of those moments that, that all kids have that's like, look, I, I can't go.

I can't go until I go get this thing right. I gotta take this with me. Uh, and for me, it was a football gonna football game. I had to take a football with me. It made sense.

Um, and so I had that moment right where we were all at the door, uh, we were getting ready to leave. I had to run back inside and, and get my football so we could go to this game. Well, we were, we were leaving, right? We were already out the door. So all the lights were out in the house.

I go running inside and I forgot I got my football and I was running back out. Um, and I forgot that, uh, I had left a mess in the living room, right? Just big pile of toys. Forgot to clean it up. Parents, I'm setting you up for a great illustration later with your children.

Um, I was running back outta the house and I left this whole mess, uh, in the living room. And I tripped. Lights were out, forgot it was there, tripped. And I went forehead first into the corner of a doorframe boom. Now, in case you got a weak stomach, I'll save you some of the details, okay?

Just a whole lot of tears, a lot of yelling, a lot of crying, a lot of blood, a lot of stitches. Later. I have this like Dollar Tree version, Harry Potter looking scar on my forehead. We all got scars, right? That's one of many.

Uh, we, we all got scars and all of our scars tell stories, right? You've got scars. And with those scars come stories, stories of, of just ignorance as a kid, right? We're not smart. That's children.

It's just how it works. Maybe it's stories of like pain, of, of heartache, of fear, of worry, of, of cancer, of surgery, of, of wrecks, whatever those scars remind you of. Those moments of those times. Maybe it's, maybe it's scars that, that reminds you of life, right? Childbirth things that, that tell stories.

We all have these stories, stories of, of hurt and stories of healing. But not all of our scars, you know, this, not all of our scars are physical. Not all of our scars are seen on the outside. Um, six, seven years ago, I'm about at math right now. Years ago, back around 2016, Brooke and I, um, walked through, uh, easily the, the darkest, um, most difficult, most depressing season that, that we had ever been in.

Uh, we had been for several years. We, we had been living in Nashville and had just a tremendous life. Man. Things were great for us in Nashville, had had a great home and a growing neighborhood, had great friends, had had good jobs. We were making good money, had an incredible ministry, man.

Just like we, in a lot of ways, in my mind, we were like in our young twenties, and we had made it right. We, we had made it in life already. Everything was up and to the right. And, and God put on, and I, and I believe this man, I know this to be true to this day. Uh, there came a point in that where God just put, uh, an an undeniable burden on me that said, Hey, look, if my life, if my life is given over to the church, and I believe it is, my life is given over to the local church and the community in which the church is meant to reach.

Um, I knew that my life and my story had not been given over to the people of Nashville. No matter how much we loved our life there, my life and our story had been given over to the people of South Mississippi. And so we, we followed God's prompting and God's calling. All of that mean. We, we, we laid it all down.

We, we left it behind, and we moved back to South Mississippi. We moved to Laurel really with, with no direction, no jobs, not a whole lot of clarity, just kind of following that calling and that prompting from God. Uh, and in a lot of ways, man, I'll be honest with you. Like we, we moved and I, I expected to be blessed because of our obedience in it. And what followed the next like year, year and a half, um, was a sense of, of abandonment, was a sense of distance.

That that is really just, it's hard for me to put into words. Um, there's a story in the Gospel. It's in, uh, Matthew, Matthew chapter 14, where Matthew tells us that, uh, the, the, the disciples had just experienced this incredible miracle at the hands of Jesus. Jesus had just done, uh, he had fed 5,000 people, and the disciples got to be a part of this miracle. It was an incredible story, incredible moment.

The disciples were just on cloud nine, and they, they just, they were living it up. And, and then Jesus told them, Hey, look, I need you to get in the boat, and I need you to go to the other side of the sea because I've got work for you over there. I've got a story for you. I've got something for you to experience on the other shore. And so the disciples did it.

They, they did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They got in the boat, they pushed off, and they began to go across the sea. And, and Matthew tells us that all through the night, they battled a storm. It says that the wind and the waves was against them. They thought that, that it was gonna take their boat down.

In the fourth watch of the night is what Matthew says. That's that kind of early morning hours at like three to 6:00 AM they had battled it all night. And when they thought that it was gonna finally take 'em down, Matthew reminds us that Jesus never got in the boat with him. That he sent on a work, and he pushed him off into the sea, and he never got in the boat with him. And that's how I felt.

I, I felt like God had had kind of pushed us off into the water knowing that we were gonna experience a storm in life. And, and he never got in the boat with us. He felt distant. I felt abandoned. My, my whole sense of of identity was gone, was stripped away.

My self-worth was, was gone. I had, like, I, I brought one thing to the table, like my value in life. The whole reason I was here. I, I had one piece. It was my career.

It was what I did for a living. I was a pastor. That was the only value I brought to this story. And God took that from me. He took my identity and he took my value.

This is my perspective, my value from me, my self-Worth was gone. I watched my wife descend into easily the darkest place she's ever been. And husbands, I think you'll get this. Like I wore that, like she was there because of the decisions I made. And man, if she was following someone else, if someone else was making the decisions, like she wouldn't have been in that place.

I wore that heavy. And in all of it, God was nowhere to be found. He never bothered to get in the boat with us. He was distant. He was silent.

And I had no idea what to do. And before you, you hit me with one of those God's never silent, and you're just not listening close enough. Psalms would say different. Okay? Much of Scripture would say different.

And that's what we're gonna look at. The a a lot of, um, modern writers would talk about the season, would talk about this idea and this feeling, as they would call it, the wall, uh, John Mark Cole or Pete Zaro, some of those guys, maybe you've read some of their work. They, they, they talk about a wall that we all face in life, that we all experience in life, that we have to work through, that we have to get past, that we have to conquer and overcome in order to experience what God has for us in the next season or in the next room, or on the next shore, whatever that might be. The, uh, a lot of ancient writers starting with a man, Saint John of the cross in the 15th century, they talk about the dark night of the soul. Maybe you've heard that phrase.

It's been used by a lot of writers, a lot of theologians, the dark night of the soul to talk about these seasons where God is distant, where maybe not externally, maybe you don't see it on us, on our face or how we act, but internally, man, all that we are our soul, our heart, our mind is, is lost, is is wandering. We have no idea what to do, where to go. And there seems to be no direction, no heading, no word coming from God. The biblical narrative would, would use examples like being lost at sea or, or being in the storm, or walking through the valley or wandering in the wilderness to describe these seasons and describe this feeling in the sense where God is completely distant. As a matter of fact, there's an entire book in the Old Testament dedicated to this story.

It's the Book of Job. So we're gonna look at to Job chapter 23. If you wanna start looking there, if you don't know, job's story, job was, um, man, Scripture tells us that Job was a faithful man. That he honored God, that he, that he gave his life to him, that he, that he obeyed God. And because of that, because because Job was a, a, a faithful man, because he was obedience God, he was incredibly blessed.

Scripture tells us that that job had a big family. His kids were all close to him. He had a big business, wealth, health, all of that, right? He had everything you would want in the story. And the enemy believed, Satan believed that the only reason Job worshiped God was because he was blessed.

And that if he could take the blessing from God, the worship would go with it. And so Satan took it all, took his family, took his kids, took his wealth, took his health. Job, was left with nothing But darkness, the dark night of the Soul. And through it all, 37 chapters of Job's, story, 37 out of 42, I think chapters of Job's story, God was completely silent towards him. Job sat and wondering where was God in the midst of all of this?

Listen, listen to these words. Here's what Job says. Job Chapter 23, um, verses eight and nine. Here's what he says. Behold, I go forward.

I look ahead of me, but he talking about God, but he is not there. God is not there and backward, I look behind me, but I, I don't perceive him there either. On the left hand, when he is working, I do not behold him. He turns to the right, but I do not see him there either. And so Job is saying, look, everywhere I look everywhere I could ev all that I experience in front of me, behind me, to my left, to my right, everything.

God's not there. He's not in the boat with me. I'm suffering. I'm hurting. I'm anxious.

I'm depressed. I'm, and God's nowhere to be found There. There's a word in, um, scriptures used several times throughout Scripture that I think captures this heart really, really well. Um, Daniel, Jesus, even Paul, talk about a desolation that occurs. Here's a definition for desolation, a person thing or event that defiles a holy place and thus causes it to be abandoned, a abandonment.

Now, listen, we're not, we're we're not talking about the way in which the Cowboys just seem to abandon the playoffs every single year, right? I'm a Cowboys fan. It's okay. I can say this. We're talking about that.

This is a heavy thing To feel abandoned. Now to be clear, Daniel and Jesus were talking about, they were referencing a, a, um, a desolation that occurs to the temple, the, the physical building, the dwelling place. How they viewed the, this building in which God's presence resided, where they would go and worship. They would go give, um, sacrifices to the presence of God in the temple, in the building. But we know in the New Testament, right, that the temple, that God's presence doesn't reside in a building any longer.

It resides in us that we are the temple of the Living God. And we walk through these seasons and we experience these times in which we feel completely abandoned by him. Here's how one pastor described him. Man, I think this is really good. Talking about his experience in the dark night in the desolation.

He says, it's a, a deep loss of heart, a feeling of wanting to be done, done with community, done with life, done with God, done with relationships, not suicidal, not clinical depression. I think it's important we distinguish that it is an overwhelming discouragement and hopelessness with nowhere to turn. God feels, and I, and I really want to emphasize feels, 'cause I don't believe we're abandoned, but, but it doesn't make our feeling any less real to us. God feels absent, and I don't even know if I want to hear from him anymore. Can I just ask you real quick?

Just, just be honest. You ever been there? You ever felt distant? God is distant, a deep loss. Go ahead, raise your hand.

It's okay. Because there are people around you that are there and feel crazy and feel broken. And they need to know they're not alone in this. See those hands. That's why this conversation is so important.

So why we need to talk. Look, I know it's heavy. I know it's a difficult thing, but it's why we need to talk about it, because this is a real experience. It's a reality, right? When you read Scripture, go, go look at Scripture.

I mean, you'll see, it's not trying to sell you any, any fault Bill of goods that says, yeah, life is great when you follow Jesus. No, life is hard. It's difficult. Some of the most difficult battles we face are in pursuit of Jesus. Some of the most terrifying storms we face in life are following the commands of Jesus.

And, and these, this, this, the, the anxiety, the depression, the, the loss, the trauma, the pain, the hurt, the heartache, all of those things that are a part of a human existence in a fallen and broken world of sin. All of these things can push us, can throw us into a season desolation of, of darkness, of, of absence, of distance. And if we're gonna listen, if, if we're gonna experience this, and we are, if we're gonna find healing in it, then one, we gotta be able to name it, right? We gotta understand that, that in this, in this season, in this feeling like, I'm not broken. I'm not crazy.

This is a, this is a real thing that, that the people of God experience, we gotta be able to name it, understand it for what it is, and we gotta find a way forward because I think that's what God offers. I know that's what God offers us. See, again, the, the testimony of God's word, isn't it? It it's not that God offers us a way to avoid the pain and the heartache, but God offers us a way to journey through it well, to find healing in the midst of the hurt and the heartache. So I wanna give you, okay, just next few minutes, I wanna, I wanna give you a few things.

I'll give you a couple of things in Job's story kinda way forward, right? What do we do in the midst of that darkness when God feels distance and we, we don't know where to go, we don't know where to turn, what do we do? How do we step forward? So let's keep reading Job chapter 23, pick back up verse 10. But, but he knows, God knows the way that I take when he has tried me.

I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps, and I have kept his way and I have not turned aside. The Bible talks a lot about the idea of perseverance. It's kinda what job is getting at here, right? I haven't turned aside of I've, I've persevered, I've held steadfast.

I think about the book of James, James, um, chapter one. James says, count it all joy my brothers, when you meet, when not if, 'cause you will, when you meet trials of various kinds for you, you know, you know this to be true. It might be hard to acknowledge it, to accept it in a minute, but you know this to be true. You know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness or perseverance and lets steadfastness have its full effect. So don't give up.

Continue to persevere so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. See, what James is telling us there is that the ability to persevere, that the, the state of perseverance, the trait of perseverance is built not in easy times, right? Perseverance can't be produced in the easy times. Perseverance is produced in the midst of the pain. Perseverance is created in the midst of the difficulty.

It's like any other muscles. It's like any other ability. It cannot be produced. It cannot be strengthened unless there's some sort of tension put on it. That's why James is able to say, count it all joy, rejoice in it, not because you enjoy the pain, not because you enjoy the hurt.

No, who does that? But we rejoice in it because in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the difficulty, something is being produced and worked up and worked out of you, that cannot be produced in any other season. That's why Job is able to say, Hey, when he has tested me, I will come out like gold. I'll be purified and refined in a way that could not be otherwise. Back to my story.

See, it wasn't, my perspective in that season was that it was my, my identity and my worth that was being stripped away. It was, and it was my pride. It was my reliance on self that God was working out of me, that he, he could not pull out of me in any other way, but the fire, But the refinement. So how do we do that, right? How do we persevere then?

Okay, I, I get it. I'm in the difficulty. I wanna persevere 'cause I know there's something good on the other side, but how do I do that? Well, Joe tells us that our ability to persevere is not based on our own willpower. It's not based on our strength.

It's not based on my ability to pull myself up by my bootstraps. I don't even know what that illustration really means. It's not based on me. Job says that our ability to persevere comes only from how firm we stand on his promises. Persevere on his promises is what Job tells us.

Look at verse 10. He says it, but he knows, God knows the way I take Job has just been lamenting, right? That's where we started. I look ahead of me. I look behind me, my left, my right.

I don't see God anywhere. Job's been complaining. He's been lamenting God's distant. God's abandoned me, but He sees me. He knows the way I, I can't see him.

I've lost him in the midst of this. But, but he hasn't lost me. And this is a promise has echoed all throughout Scripture that God is a God who sees, God saw job in his, in his pain, his suffering, and his hurt and his heartache. God saw Elijah in his anxiety and his depression under the broom bush. God saw Hagar and Ishmael in there, isolation and their abandonment and the wilderness.

God saw David in his fear and his doubt in the cave. God sees he sees you even when you can't see him, he sees you. And then you get into the New Testament, right? You get into the New Testament, and then we're told that not only does God see, but that he's near God. The author of Life writes himself into the story through his son and through his spirit.

And we're told, Jesus tells us, I, I'm near the broken hearted. God says, near the broken hearted, he says, I'm never gonna leave you. I'm never gonna forsake you. I'm not gonna leave you as an orphan, because you're not just a, a slaver, a servant. You're a child of the one true king.

These are the promises that he's given us. The, the, the promise of the, the, the entirety of the narrative of God, God's story among men and women, is that even when we can't see him, even when it feels like he's not in the boat with us, we can persevere and we can hold on because we serve a savior who can walk on water. That's the whole point of the story that I referenced. Matthew 14, they thought they were alone in the storm. But in the early morning hours, Jesus walks On the water.

You are never out of reach from God's grace. And so hang on, Persevere. Don't give up, keep going. Verse 12 says, I've not departed from his command, from the commandments of his lips. I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

But he is unchangeable and who can turn him back? What he desires that he does for he will complete. Here's another promise that's echoed all throughout Scripture, for he will complete what he appoints for me. And many such things are in his mind. Here's what I find really interesting about these verses.

When, when Job says that he has treasured the words of God's lips, he's treasured the words that God has spoken. We don't know when God actually spoke to Job. And we know most scholars believe that job is actually the oldest written text in Scripture. But either way, we, we know with, with certainty that, that there was no Bible, there was no written text like you and I have to go back and lean on the promises of God. Job didn't have that.

We know from the story itself. For 37 chapters in the midst of the pain and the heartache, God was silent. God didn't say anything to Job. And so when Job says, I'm treasuring the words that have come from God's lips, he can only be looking back. He can only be looking back to a time before the desolation, before the darkness, before the abandonment and the separation.

He is cherishing in the midst of the darkness. He is cherishing what God said in the light. So here's your principle. Remember his faithfulness, that's what Job is doing in this moment. He's remembering God's faithfulness for the believer, for the child of God.

The memory, your memory, much more so than your reality or your circumstances, your memory is what gives you the power, the sustaining power to persevere. This is why God over and over and over again tells his people. Remember, remember what I've done, tell the generations when, when, um, when the Israelites were going into the promised Land, they had wandered in the desert for 40 years, 40 years of, of that separation, 40 years of that distance, God was leading, finally leading the Israelites and Joshua into the Promised Land. And they, they crossed the Jordan into the land that God had promised them. God told Joshua, get 12 rocks from the dry ground that I just provided and put 'em in a pile.

And you use it as a memorial. Every time you see that pile of rocks, you remember the victory you just experienced because there's more battles coming and you didn't remember what happened here. You see, when we look back, when we look back in our story and, and we see, we see the mountains that have been picked up and tossed into the sea. When we look back in God's story and we see the, the dry ground, the dry path that has been provided for his people, when we see the walls that have collapsed in a shout of praise, when we remember the victories, when we, when we, when we remember the, the stone that has been rolled away from. So when we remember all that God has done, then in the midst of the, the darkness and the separation and the distance when we're, when we're sitting in the hospital room and our loved ones laying in the bed when we're walking through divorce and we have no idea what life on the other side of this could possibly look like, we're jobless and we're struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills.

We've got another bad report from the doctor. In the midst of the darkness, the obstacles seem incredibly overwhelming. And they are. And that's kind of the point. They are overwhelming.

I don't wanna minimize that at all. I simply want us to be able to, even if for a moment, take our eyes off of the obstacles in front of us and place 'em on the victories behind us. Because if we can remember the victories that have already been won, then our soul can be reminded and sustained in the reality that if he did it, then he can do it again. Which is exactly what God tells Job when he does speak for 37 chapters, God is completely silent towards Job. And then in the blink of an eye, all of a sudden the pages turn, chapter 38 begins, and God speaks.

And when God speaks, he reminds job of who he is. Hey, job, don't forget, I laid the foundations of this world. Hey, don't forget I put the sun and the moon and the stars in their place. Don't forget, I told the waters where to stand. And if I could handle that, I can handle this.

If I did it, then I can do it now for 37 chapters. God was silent. Now listen, I I don't know how long your 37 chapters have felt. Maybe you're in the midst of it now, and it's felt like 37 years, it's felt like 37 lifetimes. Here's what I know for the child of God, for the believer, for those that follow in the way of Jesus, your chapter 38 will come and God will speak.

And now listen, I I don't say that from a place of like name it and claim it like, Hey, don't worry. Everything's gonna be a blessing. Now, God does work all things out for good. Yes. But what I mean is that either for the child of God, either the son will rise on your dark night or his son will return and usher in his kingdom.

But either way, for the child of God, darkness always gives way to light because he is faithful to complete the good work that he has begun. And so remember, remember his faithfulness. One more thing. And then you can go get ready for Taylor Swift versus the commercials. Um, verse 15.

Therefore Job says therefore, I'm terrified at his presence. When I consider I'm in dread of him, God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. Listen to this line, yet I am not silenced because of the darkness. I'm not silenced because of the separation.

And there's two things for us here, right? Don't retreat into silence. One of the worst things you can do is retreat into silence. Don't give the enemy the ability to silence your voice. And I think this comes in two places.

Don't retreat into silence in your relationships with other people. Isolation is your greatest vulnerability when you're hurting. You've seen the YouTube videos, discovery Channel, you know how it works, right? There's a pack of gazelle or herd or group, I don't know what they're called, and they're all together and they're drinking water and it's great. But then there's the one wounded one that begins to wander off.

And you know what's coming, right? All of a sudden there's a lion that's prowling, not stalking the group, the wounded one that's wondered off. That's why Scripture tells us that he is like a lion. He's a prowling lion seeking someone to devour. Don't retreat into silence.

Don't give him that power over your voice. Nothing good grows in the dark. And healing is never found when we hide it. So bring it into the light. Your darkness, your, your, your fear, your worry, your separation.

Don't be afraid to talk about it and don't retreat into silence when it comes to your relationship with God. Learn to lament. God is a big God that can handle your ugly prayers. Take 'em to him. Somebody asked the other day, how do I pray when I'm angry?

You pray like you're angry. That's how you pray. Because God can handle your emotions. God can handle your feelings. Hey parents, lemme ask you this question.

Would you rather your child come home and tell you, I'm mad at you. I don't want to go to school. Somebody's been picking on me and it's your fault for making me go. It's not your fault. It probably hurts you to hear that.

Would you rather them tell you that or lock themselves in the bedroom and never say a word? God's a good father. You can lament. You can bring your ugly prayers to him because he loves you. So don't let your pain, silence your prayers and don't let it silence your praise.

'Cause whether we're talking about his promises or talking about his faithfulness, and we have reason to praise him, to worship and to celebrate him 'cause he's a good father, because he's won the victory already. And if he did it, then he can do it again. We have reason to praise him. And so we're about to, to have that opportunity. We're gonna step into a time of response as a church across all of our campuses.

I'm gonna pray for us and then our teams are gonna lead us in a time of worship. And let this be a moment. Listen, if you've been in the wondering, if you're in the middle of your 37 chapters, you're in the middle of the storm and you're wondering when God is gonna show up, well let this be a moment where you do what you haven't done yet. Get on your face before God at the altar and thank Him. Maybe you need to spend some time at the cross releasing whatever it is you've been holding onto.

Let your praise be louder now than in any other chapter of your story. And let the enemy silence your voice. Lemme pray for us, and let me encourage you to move, to respond to worship, Lord, to come before you. God, thanking you again for your promises. God, for your goodness in our story, even in the midst of the storm and the the darkness in the, the separation and the distance and the worry, all of that, that deep loss of heart, God, your good.

Remind our souls of that. God, give us the strength and the ability, the hope to cry out to you in this moment, to praise you with all that we have. And God, let your light shine in the darkest of nights. We love you, Lord. We give you all of the praise, all the things we ask in your name.

Hey, amen.