Guys know what a rogue wave is? So a rogue wave is something that was the stuff of legend for centuries. Even Christopher Columbus, there are records of him and others encountering these things. But scientists in the last few decades have verified these things happen. There are these monster waves that come out of nowhere. They take the energy off the front wave and the wave behind them, and they become twice as high as any other wave. They just come out of nowhere, and then they go away. Now, science doesn't really understand how it works. They can't predict when and where they will happen. But when they happen, you don't want to be there, because when they hit-- One description was it was like a hole in the ocean and a wall of water 12 stories high. So you don't know where they are. You don't know when they're coming. You barely see it before it hits. So be careful out there. Now we're about to jump back into this series that we've been in. If you're joining us, first of all, welcome to Fenton and Mid Rivers and Grants Trail. Those of you who are joining us around the country and literally around the world, when we say that there are folks who are joining us around the world, I feel compelled to say for those of you, it's been a while, but those of you who are joining us across the prison system in the US through the Pando app, we're glad that you're joining us too. All of us together now are in this series of John, where we're looking at some of the last words that he gives his disciples. He's preparing them for what's about to happen. This is the night that he will be betrayed. And so Jesus is trying to wrap things up. And you'll see next week, we're going to be in a very famous prayer. But you'll see today he wraps things up with really some famous words that I think all of us could probably-- We could do this. We could fill this out together. In this world, you will have... Trouble. Trouble. Anybody know where they could find some trouble? There's trouble in the headlines. There's trouble in this broken world. Sometimes it's the trouble of a storm on the horizon, and you can kind of see it coming. Sometimes it's trouble we bring on ourselves. Sometimes it's trouble that somebody plops in our lap. And sometimes it's a rogue wave that comes out of nowhere. The question is, how do we make it? How do we react when the trouble hits? Jesus doesn't say it's if, it's when. So how do we do that? Now, if it's close to home, if it feels like a gut punch, if it's a profound loss, if it's a career that's crashing, a diagnosis that comes out of nowhere, if it's a betrayal that just leaves you speechless, if it's a broken relationship, if it's a childhood wound that just won't heal, if you're dealing with something like that, you don't quite know what to do with the trouble. And there comes a moment where you're not really sure what to do with the God that you think should be doing something about this. Why did you let this happen? Why won't you make this go away? Now, I want you to know, every time we talk about trouble like this, the why questions come up, and I think they're important. I really do. Today's text is going to lead us in a different direction. We're going to be talking more about the how questions. How do we make it through? But I think the why questions are important. We've dealt with those before in depth. We can point you to resources, to books. Our pastors will talk with you about this. We think that there are some answers, but I want to tell you that the Christian answer, any answer of integrity has to admit this. The Christian answer doesn't connect all the dots. The Bible doesn't give us all the answers. I'm not sure we could handle all the answers. But there is a framework that we can use. There's a framework that's better than any other that's out there. And I believe as we look at this, it will help us even today. So let me just say this before we jump into the Gospel of John. God created this universe and created this world so that we could live in it and enjoy it and enjoy Him and receive His love. This is always going to come back to love. Do you understand how much God loves you? But He also has done this so that we can respond to Him with love, not because He needs it, but because this loving relationship is the gift He has created for us. Now, here's the thing. We can't love just because it's been written into our code, right? We've talked about this. If you're programmed to love, that's not love, and I would suggest that's not human. You're a robot at that point. So the package deal seems to be, in a big sort of way to look at this, to have the freedom to love God means that we need to have the freedom to not love God. And early on in our story, we rebelled. We rejected His love, and we didn't return that love. And this is what the Bible says unleashed the pain and the suffering that touches each of us. Doesn't matter who you are, sinners, saints, skeptics, scoffers, spiritual seekers, all of us live in a world where pain and trouble finds us, and even the occasional rogue wave comes crashing in. The Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans chapter eight describes this world as a groaning planet. All creation groans, he tells us. You see, this isn't the perfect world that God designed and created for us. This is a broken remnant of that world. And Jesus right here tells us the truth. Thank God He tells us the truth. He says, "Y'all are not imagining the trouble. It will come." But thank God there was even more to that passage. "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world." You see, when you look at the whole of scripture, what you will see is that God is saying over and over and over, "This is not the way it's supposed to be. I'm going to take this. I'm going to take this to a place of restoration. I'm going to take this to a place of healing. I'm going to take this to a place of new creation. I will not let this stand forever. And that means I'm going to have to get involved with creation ultimately in a very personal way." And now we're to the story of Jesus, because Jesus is saying right here, "Fellas, I'm about to do something that's going to change everything." Now we're going to look at chapter 16 of John, and I think we'll find some ways that we can navigate this together. But first, I'd like for us to pray. Let me just tell you how this is going to work. I'd like to lay some things out. We'll stay in the passage. But then I'm going to ask you even now to start praying for the last 10, I don't know, 12, 15 minutes of the service. I believe that's probably why the Lord drew many of you here today. I believe there'll be a moment where it's like, "Man, this is too heavy for me. I don't think I can handle this. I don't want to handle this. I'm too angry. I'm too hurt." But I think the Lord is leading us someplace. So I'm even now just going to ask that you begin to pray with me, if you would. Father, we come before you now. We have sung hymns that proclaim your hope. We have sung of your joy. Lord, we have declared that we will follow you. But now, Lord, we're also admitting that for some of us, it's hard. These days right now, it's hard. I pray that as we open your word, that we will hear your wisdom, your truth, and the voice of your Son. Holy Spirit, come, move in all of these places. Speak to us now. In Jesus' name, amen. John chapter 16. We will start with verse 16. Okay, so this is Jesus. And by the way, just to kind of put it in context, we haven't really talked about this. A little bit of a debate here. Are they still in the upper room? Are they not in the upper room? You get to the end of chapter 14, and there's a little line right at the end where Jesus essentially says, "Okay, come on, let's get up. Let's go." And so some people think, "Well, no, I think they lingered and they were still in the upper room." We don't really know. The sort of straightforward conservative way of reading this is, no, they probably got up then and they left. So in my mind, they might be on their way from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane now The only reason I mention that is because it helps me imagine this next part. "A little while and you will see me no longer." This is Jesus. "And again, a little while and you will see me." So some of his disciples said to one another, "What is this that he says to us? 'A little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you'll see me.' And, 'Because I'm going to the Father.'" This is so realistic. But just imagine, this is not them probably sitting around a table. What if it was them kind of making their way through the streets of Jerusalem, and Jesus is saying these things, and the guys are just going, "What's he talking about? He lost me again." John, just so honest here, says, "We didn't have a clue." We just didn't have a clue. I was there, we didn't have a clue. Now, what I want to do is to look back through history, look back through scripture, and I'll tell you exactly what was happening. They figure it out eventually, but any time in these chapters where you see him saying, "I'm going to leave you, I'm going to be with my Father. In a little while, I'll depart from you," it's all shorthand for what's about to happen. The death, burial, resurrection, and then the ascension of Jesus into heaven. So this is what is about to happen. So if we were going to sort of try to just imagine what this is, I would say when you look at so in a little while, and then after a little while. So what's he talking about? Well, in a little while is the cross. After a little while is the resurrection. You see what I just did there, didn't you? That's the empty tomb. Boom. What Jesus is saying here is, "In a little while, it's going to seem like I'm gone because I am gone. But a little while after that, whew, I'm back. I want you guys to know I'm back." Like he says a little bit later in this passage, he says, "You're going to weep, but other people are going to rejoice. You're going to be at a place where your whole world has fallen apart and you're not sure you're going to make it. You're going to be disillusioned, disappointed, angry, hurt, afraid, all of those things. Meanwhile, our enemies, the political leaders, the religious leaders who arranged for my death, they're going to be celebrating. Guys, you're going to think this is the end of everything, but take heart because joy is coming." Why? Verse 22, "I will see you again, and you will rejoice." What's he talking about? He's talking about the resurrection here. You see, there comes a moment when these fellows see the resurrected Jesus and something just drops into place, and they're like, "He really is God. The cross really does take care of everything." Jesus has broken the stranglehold of evil and death on the story, and nothing can take that joy away from us. Nothing. No matter what they face, no matter what threat, no matter-- They are with him. Now, in the middle of this, Jesus drops a parable in place. Now, the parable is real simple. He talks about a woman who is about to give birth, and so what he says here is, he says, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain." Now, we all know that. We all know-- Okay, maybe we don't all know that. But it appeared to me to be painful, I'll just say. The couple of times that I was up close to it. But what Jesus is saying, and I'm telling you up front that this is above my pay grade, but there is an anguish, there is a pain, and what Jesus says is, "Then there is a joy." Why? Because her child is born to her. So what is he saying here? He's saying there is anguish. "Fellows, you're going to feel like this is the end of everything, but there is a joy that eventually overtakes it, and you're going to say, 'This is worth it because I'm worth it.'" And I think it's really important for us to just stop for a second and talk about this and check me on this. If you disagree, come tell me later. I'm just giving you my own personal observations. But I think if there's a sorrow that is so deep, so profound, a trouble, a pain, a wound, I'm not sure that it ever fully, fully ever leaves us in this life. Well, Greg, that's not a very positive thing to say. I'm just trying to tell you the truth. I know in my own life, there are certain things I cannot fully delete from my memory. Anyone else? Yes, sir. So then what is going on here? You see, I think over time, by the grace of God, by the healing presence of God, those wounds, they don't go away. We don't look away from them and go, "Yeah, I even forgot that that ever happened." No. Somehow, some way, over time, God begins to heal. God begins to pour meaning into this. God even sometimes allows us to help other people who are now going through that struggle. But watch this. If we keep our eyes on Him, something happens in all of this where there is healing, where there is-- Like our prayers are different. You all, if you've ever been around somebody who has been through a storm, they pray differently. Yes. Their friendships are different. Yes. I'm just going to tell you, if you have ever walked with someone through a storm like that, you're probably friends for life. Yes, Jesus. Your understanding of who God is, it just runs deeper. And you begin to, and maybe this is one of the keys, you begin to know that you know that you know that you are the beloved. Yes. Man, you're wrestling with everything else, but it's like, "God, you did this for me. You're making sure that this is not the end of the story. You're making sure that there's more to this. You're giving me that hope. You've been faithful." Yes. This happens over time. But I've seen it happen. There's a song that we sing around here. We sing different versions of it, like the old-timey hymn is "It Is Well With My Soul." Many of you will know that hymn, right? And it's brutally honest lyrics and defiantly hopeful at the same time. "When sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." And then we sing the chorus, "It is well. It is well with my soul." Well, that was written by a fellow named Spafford, Horatio Spafford. 1873, he sends his family across the ocean to England. He's coming over on the next ship. The ship with his family in it collides with another ship, and it goes down in minutes. He loses all four of his daughters, and his wife barely survives. Years later, he writes the lyrics to this song, and I need you to know, this is not a denial of pain. It is a defiant declaration of trust in God in the middle of the pain. Yes. You see, that's where the peace, that's where the, eventually, even the joy, that's where the hope comes from. It's that, "God, you're going to be enough for me in this moment because I am that love, because you have done this for me." Start there. For some of you, start there. You have a misstep, you have a mistake, you have something in your life that you didn't do it the right way, and you think that's the end of you. You think it's the end of your life, and I'm telling you it's not. If the cross is for real, if Jesus is for real, if his grace can be trusted, then this is not the end of you. But I'll go you further. It's not the end of the people around you. Let's offer grace to each other. Let's let it soak into our thoughts, and our words, and our actions, and our motives. But it comes down to this: Do you know how much you are loved? You get to the third verse of this hymn. Let's just put it up there because I just want you to see this. The first line is hard to understand. "My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought." Wait a minute. What's he saying there? The bliss. Now, bliss is another way to say joy. So he's talking about joy. But he kind of takes a detour. He says, "My sin," and then he's like, "Oh, man, is this a good thought." "My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul." That's straight out of the book of Colossians. What he is saying here is that I know that I know that I know, Jesus, you did this for me. And when that settles in, that joy, that relief in the midst of whatever you're going through cannot be taken away from you It means that this is not the end of you. It is not the end of your existence. It is not the end of your life. Now, I want to just say one more thing about joy here. There is a transcendent, eternal joy that pushes against the dread. It is the joy of the Lord, not ours. I'm not asking you to conjure something up. What did we sing? The first song, straight out of Nehemiah. We're singing biblical songs. "The joy of the Lord is my strength." Yes. Do you guys think of God as being joyful? Yeah. Or do you think of him as being a heavy-handed taskmaster? God is the most joyful being in the universe. Proverbs 8 says that he delights over creation. The prophet Zephaniah says that he delights over his children with singing. Have you ever, ever let that settle in? God loves you so much that it's like he's singing over his kids falling asleep. So the joy of the Lord is what sustains us. And when I say that, we begin to let it into the deep and hurt places, that he loves us that much. It's not a denial of pain. It's running to our Father in the pain. And then I would say this, for those of you who are going through something right now. When there's a moment of laughter that just shows up, when somebody smiles or sighs or giggles because a story was told, a reminiscing kind of a moment, or maybe it's just something funny that happened in front of you, do not feel guilty about that. You're not denying the pain. You're not disrespecting the loss. I think sometimes just even in brief ways, in those moments, it's just a flicker of hope. It's just a breath of life. It's just a little bitty reminder that the joy of the Lord is breaking through. Let God help you breathe in those moments because this is going to take time. I need to say this out loud. For those disciples, it was heartache and then joy, and there wasn't that big of a gap, right? Crucifixion, resurrection. Let's just say this out loud. First of all, after all that they face and all that they will face and so many of them being martyred, God bless them. Whatever God can do to fill their hearts. I'm not saying we have it easier or harder than them, I'm just saying in this particular instance, let's say out loud that our little while is going to be longer because we live in an in-between time. And some of you are like, "How do I make it in the in-between time? Because I don't think I'm going to see Jesus face to face tomorrow." Well, I think one of the things we do is we admit this is when we-- We've got to do this every now and then, right? It's one of those, "Oh, yeah, I'm not God" moments. Because it gets us to something. I'll tell you what that something is, but first, just do your neighbor a favor right now. It'll be so therapeutic for them. It'll be so good for them. Would you just look at them and with all the love you can muster, say, "Listen, with all due respect, you are not God." Go ahead and just tell them that. With great gusto, tell them. Tell them. Not only are you not God, you don't have all the answers. You don't know everything. Your opinion isn't right about everything. Go ahead, let it all out. All right. Wait. Okay. Here. Now go back to the same person and say, "For the record, I'm not God." You're not turning and talking to each other. Come on. That first one's easier, isn't it? Ooh, that's fun. It's the second one that gets us to surrender. It's the second one that gets us to this place of, "I don't have all the answers. I don't see it all. Oh, God, I need you." And that leads us to prayer. Jesus says in this passage, "You guys are not going to have me to ask these questions of, so go to the Father." Now, for a Jewish mindset of these disciples, they would never call the God of Israel Father. But Jesus is saying, "No, go to the Father." And he kind of underscores it and says, "You do know the Father loves you, right? Oh, man, does he love you. So go to the Father and ask anything you want in my name." Now, let's clear this up real quickly. That is not a formula. I've heard this distorted before where it's like, "Oh, I get to ask whatever I want in Jesus' name, and then he has to do it." That is not what this is. Okay? It's not. I said this at our young adult summit last weekend. God is not your own personal Aladdin. He is not a big blue genie in the sky. God will answer your prayers. God longs to answer your prayers. But what we see here is that Jesus says earlier that if my words abide in you, if my way abides in you, then it's going to shape your motives and everything else. I'm just telling you, at this point, you're going to have a back and forth with God where you keep learning how to trust him and his way is best for you. It is not a blank check. Now, I said this last night and I looked over at a teenager that was just like, "Huh?" So let me just say, dude, does everybody know what a check is? Because I don't remember the last time I wrote one, but this is not one of those. But it is an invitation for you to come to him and to learn the way of Jesus and to keep pouring your heart out. And I will just say this, if you are in the storm right now, those prayers are going to be messier than you probably have ever prayed before. And you're in good company. If you go to the scripture, you will see people like Jeremiah, David. One of my personal favorites, we were just talking about him again this morning, Asaph. He's a worship leader in David's time. He wrote Psalm 73. If you look at Psalm 73, it is a ride. He starts off and he's a mess. He's saying, "Man, there's trouble that shows up every morning, new trouble. The bad guys are winning, the good guys aren't." And then he says this, "When I think about this, when I try to understand all this, it troubles me deeply." You ever been there? Yeah. And so he's going back and forth, back and forth with God. At one point, he admits, "In my back and forth with God, I was a brute beast." Now, I'm not telling you if you have doubts that you're a brute beast. I'm just telling you, I can relate to Asaph, where some of my prayers, they were never blasphemous, they were never disrespectful, but y'all, they were raw, and sometimes they are still raw. And the God of the universe says, "Come on." Asaph says, "And I held your hand." Like I'm flailing about like a little kid, "And I held your hand, and you led me, and you guided me with your wise counsel." And then the next verse says, "Who do I have in heaven but you? God, who do I have but you?" You see, I want you to understand as you go through this back and forth with the God of the universe, he loves you. He will weep with you. His joy never goes away, but he is not minimizing what you are going through. And he longs to absorb the pain. He longs to get close. He longs to be close enough even when you're not easy to hold. That's who our God is in these moments. Jesus said, "I'm telling you these things so that you can have peace." These things, I want you to let these things get into your head. There's a discipline to hope where you remind yourself of these things. You read these things. You worship and put these words on your lips. You hear these things from others. But these things, they get into the deep and the broken places. Why? So that you can have peace. Peace. But the peace always connects to him. In my younger days, there was an iconic father that many of us knew who had three iconic sons. One of them was a scholar and then a noted pastor, and two of them at different times were D1 quarterbacks that led championship teams. He's an iconic father. But when he faced his storm, when the rogue wave hit him in the form of cancer, what do you say to these boys? What do you say to these men? And you've heard versions of this phrase before, but he said, "Fellas, sometimes you don't know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you got." You ever been there? You see, there is a hope in Jesus because he says, "This is not the end. I'm with you now, but I'll take you through." But there are still people who are saying, "Why doesn't he do something now?" Well, part of that answer is I don't know. I don't know your particular situation, but the rest of the answer is he already has done something. There's no other religion out there where you see God dealing with suffering by taking it on himself, but that's what Jesus does. He satisfies God's justice. He deals with it on the cross. He breaks the stranglehold of death on the story. Death will be defeated. Now, I know this is kind of freaky for some of you that are early on your journey, but I just want you to hear it's the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that gives us hope. He is the one who says this is not the end. So we hope in the truth that this is not the end, but here's the rest of it. We also hope in this life that we can live with him right now. See, we hope that life could be life and not a hollow existence. We hope that the joys and the laughter and the blessings can be experienced, first in fleeting moments, then maybe in lingering moments, but then maybe in a way that is so rich and full that we never deny the pain, we never deny the storm that we went through, but somehow, some way, the joy of the Lord begins to overtake this as we wait for him to finish the story. I can't even explain how this fully happens. I can just tell you I've seen it happen, and my guess is you have, too. So what I want you to do is to just turn to some people around you real quickly. Have you ever seen somebody walk through something like this with God? You ever seen somebody walk through a season of trouble with God? And maybe you even get to a place where you go, "This is what I learned from it." Go ahead, talk to each other real quickly and we'll get back together. Okay. All right. A few of you might remember this, but we're going way back now. The only other time I've used that rogue wave as an illustration was when I asked my friend Derek Glanville to come up and talk about the storm that he and Penny were going through with their son, Sean. And that was many, many years ago. But what you need to know is all these years later, I asked Derek and Penny's daughter, Kirsten, to come and talk about what it's like on the other side of this storm. And so what I want to do is just kind of set the stage so that you know Sean was an active, athletic, smart, giving, helpful, fun boy who was well on his way to manhood. If you stood in front of Sean at church, you might have heard him worshiping loudly. If you saw him on a hockey rink, you would have known him as a fierce competitor and an awfully good hockey player. If you had seen him at home, like Robin and I had with Derek and Penny and the family, you would have just noticed a good kid. But in May of 2007, a rogue wave hit this family. Now, Kirsten, I want us to get to that. But first of all, thank you. Thank you for doing this- Mm-hmm ... all weekend long. I will just say what we've been saying at each service because this is her intent. Let's not get to a place where at the end we want to encourage with clapping. If you want to come and talk to her afterwards and encourage her, do that. Those of you online and at other sites, if you want to encourage her, just send it to pastors@thecrossing, and we'll make sure those notes get to her. There'll be a moment at the end, and you'll see it. You'll sense it in just a few minutes. But Kirsten, before we get to some of these things about Sean, give us just a little bit of your backstory. Yes. So I started attending The Crossing in 2000, 2001. I was in the fifth grade, and I was invited to the Holder's home by their daughter, Alex, to spend the night on Saturday and go to church the next morning. And so that became a pattern as our friendship grew. I would spend the night on Saturday, hop in Robin's Volvo, Starbucks in hand, getting to hear Robin practice what she was going to worship here at The Crossing. Actually, not here, at the YMCA. We were at the YMCA, yeah. And so my family then starts coming to The Crossing- Right ... through the relationship of our family, and I began going to Youth Crossing. We talked a couple of weeks ago about this cornerstone, and there it was a foundation of faith in Jesus that was being laid in those years- Yeah ... through coming to church and going to Youth Crossing and to sitting in the backseat of your car, asking your wife and your daughters a lot of hard questions. So God's beginning to develop this foundation. There comes a moment where the faith is yours. Yeah. You're baptized here. It was out back. Yes. You're in the youth group. All of these things are happening. But somewhere along the way, this rogue wave hits. And so at this point, you're 16. Yes. Sean is 12. Nicholas is nine. Yes. And let me just see if I can get us through this quickly. Sean was on his way to school in a carpool, and that car lost control on one of the roads, the windy roads out here, and it slipped off of the road. He's buckled in the backseat. Everyone else is fine and walks away from this, but this thing hits a tree. The car hits a tree, and Sean suffers a devastating open head injury. Now, when I say a devastating open head injury, I just want to, without saying too much, there are first responders who still attend this church that will tell me that's a memory they can't delete. Mm-hmm. So let's just catch people up a little bit on that morning. It was a beautiful spring morning. Tell me what happened. Yeah. So my mom received a phone call. She had just dropped Sean off at carpool, and she received a phone call that Sean was going to need stitches and what hospital would she like him to go to, and would you meet us at the scene of the accident? She said, "Of course." So she proceeds to the scene of the accident. I'm at home. My assumption is Sean is going to need stitches. I'm going to take Nick to school. I'll head to school myself, maybe be a little late. No problem. My mom arrives at the accident scene, and she is not able to see Sean. They don't let her come close to him. And she calls me then and says, "He's alive, but don't go to school. He's alive, but don't go to school." And she hung up the phone. So just to put things in perspective a little bit more, the experts told your mom and dad that his injuries were equivalent to somebody falling out of a 17-story building. So this young man, his body's wrecked. 1% chance of survival. Airlifted to the hospital. By the grace of God. By the grace of God. You and Nick. Yeah. So you make it to the hospital. Yeah. So Robin comes and picks up my younger brother, Nick, and I, and drives us to St. Louis Children's Hospital. My dad is on a business trip in Phoenix, and the first prayer that we have is for my dad to get home He's escorted from Phoenix all the way back to St. Louis, and arrives in time for us to say goodbye. And that's really one of the miracles. We were there praying, "God, please keep Sean alive long enough for his dad to say goodbye," right? And I was in the room, and I remember when you came rushing in from Phoenix, and I was like, "Okay, that's an answered prayer." Yeah. But there were how many times that they told you, "Say your goodbyes," over these course of these next months? Yeah. So that summer, we were told as a family to say goodbye five times. So there are ups and downs, ups and downs with all of this. Sean is in ICU for seven months. He's in Children's for an additional five months after that, in a coma still. He's transferred to Ranken Jordan. He spends six months there. Eighteen months after the accident, he's released. He comes home. He needs 24-hour nursing care. Half of his body is paralyzed. There's so many things that he's going to have to learn and go through rehab on. But in the middle of all of this, you, let's talk about you now. You were thrust into an adult world, and you're still a teenager. Yes. I'm navigating the pressures of adolescence, dance, cheerleading, school, and I'm being thrust into adult world of grocery shopping, taking my brother Nick to and from his different sporting events, getting myself where I need to be, and a long list of other just responsibilities. I'm a firstborn girl, so I already felt the need to be in charge and responsible, but then the responsibility just kind of doubled on itself. And in the middle of all of that now, the struggle. The anger and the doubt and the lies then start bubbling up to the surface, and the rebellion. And the biggest question that was kind of pushing all of that rebellion is, "God, I chose you, and you told me you loved me, and if you love me, how could you let this happen to me?" Mm-hmm. Go to the why, and now we're moving to the how. Mm-hmm. So we're in Psalm 73, and at the beginning, Asaph says, "I almost lost my footing." It's just a disorienting time, and you're being honest with God. But then you go away to college. Yes. And that's a chance for you to turn the corner a little bit. Yes. We had an incredible community here, wonderful support systems here, but wonderful. And then I go to college, and nobody knows. Right. I'm alone, and it's a time for me and God to spend what I call heart surgery time together. I go to a church. I go to small group. I have a couple that pours into me. They connect me with a Christian counselor, and I begin falling in love with the word of God, reading scripture- Mm-hmm ... understanding the character of God and the love that he has for me, that that love remained. So all of this is now happening. Your faith is deepening. You come back from college. Mm-hmm. You meet the love of your life. You've got your own family. Things are beginning to happen. Sean is making miraculous progress, frankly, but still, a handful of words, hand signals. I remember him worshiping back here, and I could hear him in his wheelchair back here trying to worship with us. I knew that. But he gets sick. The family gathers around, and seven and a half years after that profoundly horrible accident, Sean goes to be with Jesus. Yes. And we had this funeral here in this room, and it was one of those funerals that I will never forget. And we were saying, we sang "It Is Well With My Soul" there. What do you say to us now, Kirsten, here for people as you're navigating through this, what would you say to us? My biggest desire is for the one that is in, your story doesn't look like mine. Your suffering might not look like mine. But the brokenhearted, I was brokenhearted, and the Lord taught me in his intimacy, in the time that we spent together, in the wrestling, and in the moments of just rawness and surrender with the Lord- Mm-hmm ... he was able to teach me the hidden and deep truths of God. And what I mean by that is the intimacy I experienced knowing Jesus was better than any of the answered prayers. I got to a point of going, "God, I trust you more." I was like a brute beast wailing, and I grabbed the hand of God. Mm-hmm. And at the end of Psalm 73, he says, "But for me, it is good to be near God." Amen. And it is better to be near God than even to have the prayers and the deep desires of my heart answered here, now. I know that that promise, the promise of resurrection, is still coming, but I've seen the redemption here and now, and I wait patiently for the day- Amen ... of full healing and resurrection, not only for my brother, but for myself. Yeah. So I would say when a rogue wave hits, what I'm hearing you say is that we do trust that he will have the last word. I do. Your mom and I cling to this. We'll see Sean again, whole, restored, healed. I'll see my dad- ... walking without a limp. We'll see these things. Yes. But in the meantime, we trust this God who is with us and never leaves us. Mm-hmm. Would you, in just a minute, I'm going to ask you to pray for us. But I want to just say this to you all. Jesus says, "Take heart, I have overcome the world." Okay? Take heart. It's a great phrase, but in the Greek, it means, like some of your old translations will say, "Be of good cheer." I don't think that works. Take heart, it means have courage. It actually means daring in its root. So there's one writer who says, "Think of it this way. Jesus is saying, 'I dare you to believe. I dare you to believe me. I dare you to believe that I'm that good. I dare you to believe that I have done this for you. I dare you to believe that you have been bought with a price. I dare you to believe that I will have the last word.' Why? 'Keep your eyes on me.' Why? 'Take heart.' Why? 'Because I have conquered the world.'" Now, I know there are complicated stories in these rooms. I know that. I know that some of you are going to need some layered answers, and you're going to need us to listen a lot before we say anything. Let's do all of that. But the way I'm sensing the Spirit leading us now is, in just a moment, each of the rooms is going to have a song sung over them, and I will predict that there is a place in that song where you will go, "Ah, I can sing that from a deep place." Each of our stories is different, but I can sing that from a deep place. Yes. And you might be able to sing it over some people next to you that can't quite believe it yet. So that's what we'll do. That's how we'll end things. But first, Kirsten so graciously asked, could I pray for those who are going through a storm right now, for those for whom a rogue wave has hit? So Kirsten, would you pray for us? Father God, thank you for your loving kindness that through every season, your love has remained. Thank you, Jesus, for suffering for me, for suffering on the cross for me. Mm. Lord, and I pray, Jesus, that you would find the one, that you leave the 99 to go after the one now that is suffering, that is brokenhearted- Yes ... that is in their own rogue wave. God, Jesus, you know the name of that wave. You settle the storm in one word, and I ask that you would just come in close, that you would soften the heart of the one that wants to run from you in rebellion, and out of anger, out of frustration, out of wanting to control, God, and that you would soften them. Holy Spirit, I pray and I ask that you would just allow them to be raw and tender and vulnerable with you. Yes, Lord. Just as I have been, and I have said in the previous services, if it's been true for me, may it be true for them, God. Amen. May it be true for them. Please. May they know, Holy Spirit, that you are their comforter, that you are their advocate, that you are their good counselor that loves them, that this is not the end of the story, that you'd want to be near them, that you long to be intimate, and you already know everything about them, and you are willing and able to counsel them through, so that they may face you and know you and love you all the days of their life, God. I just pray for the one now. Yes, Lord. Holy Spirit, do what only you can do. Amen. And may it be well with our souls. Thank you. In the name of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Grander earth has quaked before, moved by the sound of His voice. And seas that are shaken and stirred, can be calmed and broken for my regard. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. Through it all, through it all, it is well. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. And it is well with me. For it be for me to not believe, even when my eyes can't see. And this mountain that's in front of me, will be thrown into the midst of the sea. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. Through it all, through it all, it is well. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. And it is well, it is well. So let go my soul and trust in Him. The waves and wind still know His name. So let go my soul and trust in Him. The waves and wind still know His name. The waves and wind still know His name. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. Through it all, through it all, it is well. Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You. And it is well with me. With me.