Hey, come on church. Let's pray together. Lord would come before you. God, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for just some incredible stories of, of life change, of baptisms across all of venture Church, God, we, for, for kids, for, for fiances, for for parents, husbands, wives who are, who are giving their life to you, who are modeling what it looks like to submit to you.

God, we thank you for their story, for their testimony. God, we thank you that, that we get to be a part of that journey. Lord, we never want to take that for granted. We thank you that God, you hear our cries. Do you hear our worship?

And that you're in this place. And so, Lord, we pray that you'll open our hearts for, for those of us that walked into this place with, with hard hearts or or broken hearts. God, we just pray that, that today will be a day where we find we find grace and hope in you like never before. So we pray that you'll guide us today, God, that you'll move and that you'll be glorified. And then through it all, all things we ask in your name.

Amen and amen. Well, hey, welcome. Look, uh, here's what I wanna do, okay? We're just gonna jump headfirst into our passage for today, alright, Matthew, chapter five, verse four, just one verse. We're gonna look at really kinda all, all morning.

We're gonna look at several others, but this is gonna be the verse that we continually circle around today, okay? Matthew, chapter five, verse four. Jesus teaches, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, another very real way we could translate this verse, or at least the first sentence of this verse is, happy are the sad welcome to church, right? Where everything makes sense and nothing's depressing.

We're glad you're here today. If you brought a guest, man, you picked a great day. Fantastic, right? You don't have to apologize yet, because here's the deal, man. Uh, this is one of those passages, and I'll, I'll be honest with you here, this is one of those passages where there's just, there's not a lot of preachers who are jumping up and down saying, oh yeah, gimme that one.

Right? Lemme preach on that one. But the more I've studied this verse, man, the more I have just been overwhelmed with God's goodness. So I am excited about it today, lemme tell you kind of where we've been and why we're here today, okay? Uh, we, we started last week.

We started a series through the Beatitudes. Now understand when we say the beatitudes, okay, we're really not talking about your attitudes all that much, right? And, and I point that out because, man, that's how I grew up. Just, just quite honestly, like, I grew up hearing that word beatitudes. And, uh, the, the picture in my mind was just kinda like, you know how your mama will tell you sometimes?

Like, well, you better get your attitude right, like that, that's just kind of what I processed, right? Like Jesus was telling us, Hey, look, here's some attitudes you need to get right, but that, that's really not the picture at all. That word beatitude comes from the Latin word for blessing or blessed or happy, right? And, and because the reason we, we use that, right? The reason we would talk about the beatitudes when we say that we're talking about, um, nine phrases right here at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew.

This is what Matthew says, really, that, that Jesus begins his teachings with nine statements that all start with this word right here. Blessed. Y'all know we could do that. Yeah, I'm a little excited today. It's going to be fun.

Um, now listen, um, nine statements right here at the beginning of the teachings of Jesus, where he says, blessed are those nine calls of blessing. And I gotta tell you, like there's a part of me that, that man just kind of loves that idea because man in my flesh, lemme be clear like this, this is a fleshly thing in my flesh. Like, man, I want God to walk up in church kinda like Oprah. You know, like you get a car and you get a condo and you get a healing like blessing, a blessing, a blessing. Here's all the different ways to be blessed.

But as we read through these, it becomes really clear that what, at least what I think about when I hear that word blessed, right? And when we would say, man, I'm, I'm just blessed and highly favored. Like there's not at all what, what Jesus is pointing at here. Now, um, Craig did a really good job unpacking this word last week, and so we won't spend a whole lot of time here, but I do think it's, it's worth, uh, kind of refreshing and reminding that when we talk about blessed here, uh, we're not talking about happy, at least not happy in the way that you and I tend to think about. I gotta tell you, while I'm really excited about this, I'm also really nervous to write in front of a bunch of people.

'Cause your boy can't spell worth anything, right? Like my, my wife steal proofreads my social media posts. It's kind of like that deal. Um, but, but when we talk about blessing, we're, we're not really talking about happy. Now, happy is a, a fair translation of the word, but the, the, the problem becomes really in how you and I tend to apply and think about happiness, right?

Because when we talk about happiness, we tend to talk about circumstances, right? We attach our happiness to our circumstances. We will say things like, Hey, I will be happy if, and then you fill in the blank, right? Like, I will be happy if I get the raise. I will be happy if I get the job.

I'll be happy if I can afford the new car, if I can get the condo, or I'll be happy if whatever, if my scans come back clear, I'll be happy if I can get married. I'll be happy if I, I can finally get pregnant. And we attach happiness to our circumstances. Now, the problem with that kind of line of thinking is that it necessitates that the opposite statement is equally true, right? That if this doesn't happen, then I can't be happy if I don't get the job, if my scans aren't clear, if, if those girls at school keep talking about me behind my back, if I can't get pregnant or if I don't get married, if, if my marriage isn't saved, then I won't be, or I I can't be happy.

And in that way, our, our happiness and, and, and us by extension, like we become slaves to our circumstances, right? Like, like our, our circumstances, things that are, that are largely outside of our control. And, and oftentimes like revolve around people that we really don't like all that much. They, they, they command and they dictate and they determine our happiness, our experience of life. And so it's really important that we understand that is not at all the picture that Jesus is painting when he talks about blessing, right?

We could say happy, sure, as long as we understand that Jesus is not talking about happiness that's tied to our circumstances. That's where blessing is what Craig talked about last week. There's, there's a way to understand this that is kind of like flourishing, right? Like a, a full and complete life like Jesus identifying man, this is what a, a fool, a flourishing, a, a good life looks like. And that's where we've kinda landed as a team, as we talk through this idea over the next several weeks, that, that when we talk about the beatitudes, when we talk about these blessing statements from Jesus, what we're talking about is what the good life really looks like.

Jesus is saying, Hey, that, that's a picture of a good, a fool, a complete life. Now here's what we gotta be really careful, okay? Because how we approach then, uh, what is being said, like what, what is our perspective as we approach this really matters in terms of how we begin to understand and apply it. Let, lemme give you a visual that I think will probably help what I'm trying to say here, okay? Um, there, there's an art form, form that I want you to see.

It's, um, called perceptual art, or sometimes perspective art, or sometimes even anamorphic art. Well, and, and the, the way this art works is you take a picture and you break it down into all its little details, right? And you line these details out in such a way that your perspective matters. And so when you begin to look at it from different angles, you may get a really jumbled picture as you kinda move around it and look at it from different degrees. You see all these details and ways that, man, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It looks like just a whole bunch of chaos. But the, the whole point is, man, if you can get around it at the right angle, if you can look from the right angle and see it from the right point of view, you get a beautiful picture. And the beatitudes are, are very similar in this, in that if we look at it from the wrong angle, it becomes really chaotic and really uncertain. I mean, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But if we can get the right perspective, we can stand in the right places.

We look at these blessings from Jesus, then we get this beautiful picture. And so here's what I need you to know, okay? Right out the gate, and this is gonna be shocking to some of us, but the beatitudes aren't about you. As a matter of fact, most of the teachings of Jesus, they're really not about you first. And as a matter, listen, if we approach Scripture that way, if we approach all of Scripture as if this is a book primarily about me, we're gonna miss it.

We're gonna miss what's happening here. And so in the same way, if we approach the beatitudes, these blessings from Jesus as, okay, this is my blessing, this is how I get a blessing, we're totally gonna miss it. We could say it this way. The ble, the beatitudes, these blessings from Jesus, they are about God's work and our participation in it. Lemme say it again.

This is about God's work, first and foremost is about what God is doing, what God has done, what God always will do, and then how we participate in what God is doing, how we participate in God's work. The problem for many of us is we tend to get these two things backwards, don't we? And we want Scripture, and we want the message of Jesus. And we all, we want the whole point of life to be about our work and God's participation in it. Hey, God, here's what I'm doing.

Hey, God, here's my plans. God, here's what I hope happens. Can you come bless it? Hey, God, don't forget, this is what I got going. Hey, don't forget about X, Y, Z God, I need you to come bless me.

I need you to come bless my decision. I need you to come bless my journey. Right? And it becomes about my work and how God is going to, or how I expect God to participate in my work. But that's not the point, right?

I, I love that Matthew starts the teachings of Jesus right here. Because what's happening is he's kind of framing all of the teachings of Jesus, right? That we need to understand all of the teachings of Jesus in that He's gonna take expectations and he's gonna flip 'em upside down. And how you and I tend to approach things, Jesus is gonna say, no, no, no, you got it backwards. There's something different I'm doing here.

And so with this perspective, okay, understanding that what we're talking about here is God's work and our participation in it. Let's go back to our verse, Matthew, chapter five, verse four. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. So if we approach this right, as if this is primarily about us, we take the blessing and we attach it to the mourning. That's probably how most of us read this first thing, right?

The closest thing we put the blessing to is the mourning. And we'll say something like, and we'll begin to think something like, okay, I want a blessing who don't want a blessing, right? That's a fair thing. Let like this, I'm, I'm not saying anything bad about that. I'm fair.

It's good, it's great to want a blessing. We all want a blessing, man. We all want God to bless us. Who wouldn't want that? But if we, if we approach this as if, as if this is primarily about me first, then I look at this and I say, okay, I want a blessing, but the only way to be blessed is to mourn.

So I guess I gotta be broken hearted in some way to get that blessing. Well, what's gonna break my heart? And we go down all sorts of crazy rabbit trails, right? Oh, man, I guess one thing that would break my heart is if I break up with my girlfriend, maybe I need to go do that. So God will bless me now, something you probably would be better off.

But that's a different, that's a different lesson for another. The point is, is not about, is not about, Hey, what makes you mourn? Go do that thing, right? When we understand that this is primarily about God's work first and how we participate in it, then it's easier to see that the blessing is attached to the comfort. The reason it is a blessing is because there's comfort involved.

Now, I don't, I don't normally do this, but, uh, lemme do it right here because I think this, I think this helps some. And because man, these jokers around here gave me permission to walk up here with a cup of coffee and a board to write on. So we gonna lean in. Um, the word comfort is made up of two Greek words. Para, it's not the right annunciation, but I don't wanna be too extra.

So just roll with me. Uh, para, which means with, right, or, and kaleo, which means to call or to come alongside, right? And so when you, when you put these words together, para and kaleo, and you get this, this word for comfort, what you get right is the definition of comfort. Meaning to be with or to come alongside. Blessed are those who mourn, but I'm gonna be right there with them.

Like, I love, I love this picture of comfort from Jesus because when we talk about the comfort that he's, he's offering here, right? It's not, it's not that awkward comfort that you and I tend to do. You know what I'm saying? Like, listen, man, I have sat in, I, I, I don't know, lost count of hospital rooms, man, I have lost count of the number of families I've sat with who are hurting and in the middle of heartache who are mourning. And like, it never, it never gets easier.

It never, it, it never gets less awkward. We all like, I mean, you get in those moments and like, we all feel like Ricky Bobby, right? I don't know what to do with my hands. You know? And we, we, you know, we, we, we do the awkward hug and the three pats on the back because three's, okay?

And we, all we know to really do is like, man, if you, I don't know if you prayed about it, maybe try that, you know, the comfort, right? The comfort that Jesus is offering here. It's, it's not that, it's not that awkward empty platitude that we feel like we've got to offer to people, is presence. It's presence. Jesus says, Jesus says, let me be with you.

I want you to be with me in the middle of this hurt, in the middle of this heartache. I can say it this way. God doesn't promise us life without pain. What he does promise us is his presence within the pain. And this is really important for us to understand, man, because so many of us have bought into the lie that that bad things shouldn't happen to good people, right?

We, we bought into the lie, and it's a lie. That pain means there's some kind of problem. And we have placed God, we have told God, you're the one responsible for policing this reality. And it's all a lie, right? The the promise of Scripture, nowhere in Scripture, you're gonna find this promise that, that man, if you follow him, then you're gonna get a pain-free life.

That it's gonna be easier. You're gonna avoid all of the, all of the valleys and all of the hurts and all of the heartaches. As a matter of fact, it's the exact opposite. God says, look, if you follow me, hey, we're walking into war. There's gonna be some hurt, there's gonna be some pain, there's gonna be some sorrow, and there's gonna be some sadness along the way.

But what Jesus says in this is, Hey, in it, come and just sit with me. And the hurt and the heartache, when those scans aren't clear, mean in those moments where you're, you're, you're battling with infertility. Jesus says, pull up a chair and me and you right here, let's just kind of sit together. Let's, let's just, let's just be present together. I wanna be with you right here in this moment.

The maker of heaven and earth, right? The sustainer of all of life, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords is present enough with you to say, me and you right here, I wanna sit with you in the morning very simply, a very simple way we could say that is God meets us there. God meets us in the morning, but I don't want you to miss this, okay? This is really important. This is probably the biggest thing I can tell you today.

God meets us in the morning with hope. With hope. Hi. His presence isn't passive right? Hi.

His presence actually necessitates the presence of hope. God says, when I meet you, Jesus says, when I meet you there in the morning, I'm bringing hope with me, me, and you're gonna sit, and we're gonna be together, knee to knee, face to face, not just in sorrow, yes, in sorrow, but also in hope. I'm bringing hope with me to the table. Now, there's, uh, there, there's two types of mourning that I think are in view here. And, uh, I I just, I wanna walk out both of these with you because I, as we looked through the life of Jesus, Craig told you this last week as we walked through this series together, and these different beatitudes we're gonna continually point to the life of Jesus, right?

And how Jesus modeled these and how Jesus exemplified these. I think there's two types of mourning that Jesus both exemplified and he comforted. And the first one is what we might call sorrow from temporary sadness. And I'll be honest with you, I really struggled with this word temporary here, but I, I'll tell you why I landed there in just a minute, okay? Um, there, there's a story in John chapter 11 about Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus.

Maybe you're familiar with that story, right? Three siblings, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus, the brother, he gets really sick. And so Mary and Martha, we're not gonna read the whole story for the sake of time, but Mary and Martha send word, did Jesus say, Hey, look, our brother's sick. Will you come help him?

We know you can heal and come do something. And so it says that Scripture tells us that, that when Jesus got that message, he actually lingered for a little while. He paused for a little while because he knew there was a miracle coming that they didn't know about. And so eventually Jesus does go to Mary and Martha and he does go to Lazarus, but by the time he gets there, Lazarus has been dead for four days. And it's in the middle of that story when he gets there and he engages with these sisters that we get probably the most memorized verse in all of Scripture, maybe more than John three 16, definitely the easiest to memorize John 1135, Jesus wept.

There's only two times in all of Scripture where we see this phrase only two times in all of the gospels where we're told that Jesus cried, that Jesus shed a tear. It's not in the garden of Gethsemane as he looks towards the cross and the pain that's gonna be endured there. It's not when Judas betrays him. It's not when his boy Peter runs away from him. It's not even on the cross as he's beaten and he's mocked and he's ridiculed, but here in the context of this story, he's not crying over Lazarus.

He's not crying over his friend who has died. He's crying with Mary. He sees his friend and hurt and heartache, and he, and he sits in there like comfort, right? He's with, he sits in that hurt and that heartache with her, and he weeps with her Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, as he looks towards the coming Messiah, who is Jesus. He says that he will be a man of many sorrows, that he will be a companion to our grief.

Jesus is sitting with, with Mary weeping in this moment. And now, depending on your story, depending on what you brought in here, and I know that the men, there's a lot of heavy stories here. If you know the end of this particular story, then you begin to feel, you probably begin to feel a little bit of tension right here, and that's okay to acknowledge, right? Your heart begins to raise a few objections because the end of this story, Jesus goes to the tomb and he raises Lazarus to life. It's a beautiful moment, incredible moment where he shows the power that the heavenly Father has.

And he, he calls Lazarus out of the tomb and he raises him to life, and he heals him. And you hear that story and you think, man, that's awesome. Some incredible comfort. I'm glad he showed up, but he didn't do that in my story. When you talk about comfort, that's great.

I want that kind of comfort because the reality is he didn't raise my child. He didn't, he didn't call my husband, my father out of the grave. I'm, I'm glad he healed and restored Lazarus, man, some great comfort in there. I get that, but, but my cancer is still killing me. And here's the word.

I keep circling back around for you and I, I've, I've wrestled with this tension for weeks now, and, and the word I keep coming back to you, and, and listen, I say this with, with all love and all sincerity, right? That's someone who has, who is continually praying daily for miraculous healing for my child. The word I keep coming back to is, yet, yet God hasn't yet. And here's, here's the reason I say that because John 11 isn't the end of the story. When Jesus raises Lazarus from the tomb, it is not the end of the story because there comes another day where Lazarus breeze, his final breath, he's laid in a tomb, the stone is rolled in front, and Jesus doesn't show up four days later, right?

John 11 isn't the end of the story. Revelation is, this is a beautiful thing about God's word, is we get the last chapter, we get the last story. We know how the story ends. Revelation 21, lemme show you these two verses because this is the end of Lazars story. It's the end of your story.

It can be Revelation 21. Verse three says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne, say, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Verse four, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Here's the end of the story.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. This is why I told you I really struggled with that word, temporary, a temporary sadness. This is why I landed here. It's not because, man, when you walk through this kind of grief, you get over it one day. It's not what I'm saying.

The reason I say that is because God offers any eternal hope, right? A picture of eternity where there's no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, that all of those things have passed away. All the things that cause hurt and heartache and brokenness. They're, they're gone. He wipes them clean.

It is an eternal hope that he brings in the middle of the story. But I need you to know this. It is a hope that is offered to his people. Can we go back to verse three real fast? Don't miss this detail.

He will dwell with them and they will be his people. Here's the deal. Mourning is one of those things that unites all people. Mourning, sadness, hurt, heartache. It, it, it bridges every gap, every language, every country, every ethnicity, every socioeconomic standard.

EE everything, right? All people mourn, but only God's people know hope in the middle of the morning. Amen. Only God's people know that there is a hope and a comfort to be experienced in the brokenness, right? And it's for that reason that the more I, the more I study, and the more I meditate here, the, the more I believe that there's really a, a different, a different kind of sorrow, a different kind of mourning that, that Jesus is really pointing at.

Like, yes, this kind of brokenheartedness is certainly in view, is certainly one of the pictures that Jesus is saying, I'm gonna comfort you. I'm gonna be with you right there in the middle of it. But I think that there's another kind of mourning that he's really pointing at here, and it's what we might call a sorrow over sin, a brokenness and a hurt and a heartache over our own sin. Uh, Luke chapter 19, I'll read this one because this one's a little shorter. Luke chapter 19, starting in verse 41.

It says, and when he, when Jesus drew near and he saw the city being Jerusalem, he wept. Remember I told you there's only two times that Jesus Christ, as he sat with Mary and her broken heartedness, and here as he approached Jerusalem, he wept over it. Why? Let's keep going. Verse 42.

And he said, would that you even, you had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side, verse 44, last verse, and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation as Jesus is, is approaching Jerusalem. He's, he's headed towards the cross. This is gonna be the last time he walks into the city before, before he's crucified. And he, he kind of reaches the top of this mountain.

He looks over towards Jerusalem, he looks ahead and he sees the destruction that's coming to the city. And he says, this destruction is coming towards you because you rejected me. You didn't know who I was. You didn't know what I was bringing. You didn't know the hope, And you didn't accept it.

Can I just tell you, man, like one of my greatest fears is that, that that may be said of us, that that, that we miss what Jesus is bringing, that we, we've missed the hope, the comfort, the presence that he's bringing. And like Jerusalem, we're walking towards a destruction that we never see coming. Paul, the Apostle Paul, all throughout the New Testament, he, he shared a very similar sentiment, right? He, he would say several times, man, I, I, I weep, I cry over those who are lost over those who are far from him. I just, I wonder like, man, when's the last time we, we grieved, we mourned over our sin?

When's the last time you grieved over your sin, your sin that separates you from the presence of God? When's the last? And listen, I'm, I'm not talking about like, you know, you just curled up and wept because I know some of that picture, especially for for men, is a little bit off-put. It's not what I just, when's the last time you grieved? When's the last time you mourned your sin?

What separates you from when's the last time you mourned the sin of your city? When's the last time you mour in the sin of your campus, the sin of your office? And what keeps people far from God? When's the last time you sought for God to do something different in and through you in pain and hurt and heartache? Second Corinthians, last verse, second Corinthians, uh, seven.

This is the apostle Paul. He says, as it is, I rejoice, not because you are grieved, but because you are grieved into repenting. Paul wrote a letter to the church at Corinth, and he called 'em out for their sin and caused a bunch of grief. He says, for you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. For sin, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

Whereas worldly grief produces death. Therefore, we are comforted. There's a word again, therefore, we experience the very presence of God. But notice the progression, right? There is a grief.

There's a mourning. There's a sorrow over sadness that leads to repentance. When we talk about repentance, what we're talk, we're, we're simply talking about a, a changing of ways of turning to say, God, no longer my way, but God, your way. God, I've, I've pursued this course, I've pursued this way. It is led to nothing but death in me.

God, I want life in you. I give you my all that I give you my temporary life or an eternal hope, a grief that produces repentance, that leads to salvation. And that salvation is our comfort. Apart from salvation, apart from an eternal rescue of God, there is no comfort. There is no presence to be experienced because our sin separates us.

And apart from repentance, there's no salvation. When was the last time you grieved over your sin? When was the last time broken hearted? You approached him, said, God, forgive me. I wanna invite you, okay?

All of our campuses, right? Just, just for a moment, here's how we're gonna wrap. I wanna invite you to, to bow your head and, and close your eyes. There's a, um, there, there, there's an old proverb, not like a biblical proverb, but just an old wise saying that says, all sunshine makes the desert. I love that all sunshine makes the desert.

And a lot of times I think we, we feel like we need to approach, we need to approach church. We need to approach this place as if man, everything's great, right? Blessed and highly favored. And we pretend like we got it all together. We pretend like everything's good and golden.

But listen, all sunshine makes a desert. Now, I'm not saying every day should be weeping and broken heartedness, right? Because there, yes, there is joy and there's comfort in the presence of God. But just like Paul said in Second Corinthians, we don't get that without grief and repentance, without salvation in his presence. There's a story in, in Luke chapter seven, okay?

I want you to process yourself in this place. Okay? There's a story in Luke chapter seven of a woman, a prostitute is what it tells us. That approached Jesus as he, he had dinner with all these religious elites. Now, the difference in her and you is that her sin was known.

It was public. You've made, maybe you've done a really good job at hiding yours. She approaches Jesus and she weeps at his feet being broken hearted. Tears are flowing from her face. So much so that that, that she is able to clean his feet with her tears.

She's Mourning, grieving her sin and her sorrow. And at the end of that story, Jesus Looks at this prostitute in the middle of all these really good church people. And he says, your faith has saved you. There is not a single story in Scripture of a prostitute, of a murderer, of a liar, of a thief, of an adulterer, not a single story of one who approaches Jesus grieving, mourning their sin, that he rejects every single one of them. He pulls up a chair and says, sit with me.

Your fate has saved you. I wanna be with you. So I wanna give you just a moment, okay? I asked you, when's the last time you grieved your sin? Well, maybe, maybe.

Here's a moment for you, okay? And across all of our campuses, if you sit in this space and, and man, there is a sin that has weighed heavy on you, something that has separated you from the presence of God, and you just want to say, and somebody pray that God will forgive me, God will. And can you just raise your hand? Just raise your hand in admitting saying that, God, God, I want more of you and praise God. Praise God.

Alright, one more. I'm gonna make this a little bit more real. If today is your first day of repentance, if today is your day that you say, just like in second Corinthians, man, there has been a grief, but that grief is leading to repentance. God, no longer my way, but your way, God, I want to give you my life. I don't wanna follow you so that I know your presence and it's your first step towards him.

You'll know more about what it looks like to follow him and salvation and know life in him. Will you raise your hand? Nobody's looking around. It's me and you. Praise God.

Praise God. I'm gonna pray for you. Okay? Man. Today is the day that you step into life, that you step into eternal life, that you step into comfort and hope in the presence of your creator.

I'm gonna pray for us and our team's gonna lead us. And, and worship, be your chance to respond. And look man, you get to lift your hands and, and freedom maybe for the very first time. And then our teams are gonna come and they're gonna let you know what it looks like to, to kind of take a step with us. 'Cause we want to come alongside you in this journey.

Okay? Lemme pray. Lord, we thank you, God, we thank you for your salvation, the free gift of hope, God, one, that we could never earn, God. One that we could never deserve. Hope.

God, in your goodness, you offer it to us. I pray that you'll break hearts. God, I pray that you'll soften hearts. And God, I pray that you'll restore hearts in your comfort and in your presence, Lord, we give you all of the glory, all of the praise, and all of the celebration, all things we ask in your name. Amen.