HOPE IN THE HURT

CALL TO WORSHIP SCRIPTURE: PSALM 100:1-2.

CHILDREN’S TIME SCRIPTURE: MATTHEW 17:1-9 - BRING UP A TRANSFORMER AND TALK ABOUT HOW COOL THEY WERE AS A KID AND TALK ABOUT HOW JESUS TRANSFORMED NOT INTO A CAR OR ROBOT, BUT INTO SOMETHING SO MUCH MORE!

It has been a great day to be in the house of the Lord together. To worship Him in community is such a wonderful thing to do. For awhile now, there have been somethings that the Lord has laid on my heart to share about. There’s a song that has come out in the past year called “Flowers” by Samantha by Samantha Ebert. Many of you have heard the song. It is a beautifully powerful song about going through pain. The song opens as follows:

Well, blue skies and hillsides feel so far away And I wrote in my notebook that I've seen better days Than the ones as of late I can't bear the weight

The rain won't stop pouring out my windowpane And I haven't left my bedroom in 76 days I wish something would change 'Cause I'm losing faith

So I brought it up in a desperate prayer Lord, why are you keeping me here? Then He said to me, "Child, I'm planting seeds I'm a good God and I have a good plan So trust that I'm holding a watering can And someday you'll see that flowers grow in the valley

She was interviewed about the meaning behind the song, and this is what she said:

In August of 2023, I got very sick. For months I couldn’t get of out bed nor attend my last year of University and I lost my ability to drive. Those days were long and difficult but gave me time to grow in my relationship with God and I rely on music to help me get through each day. Through encouraging words from family members about the valley, and the beautiful “get well” flowers on my night side table; the song started flowing out of me and God just placed this song in my head and my heart. The melody and the words just came and I wrote the song start to finish in 2 hours. I’m not through my health journey yet but I’m hopeful that healing is around the corner and I will see the flowers from the mountaintop view again! But in the meantime, I’m trusting Him because He is always good.

Sometimes our pain and our hurt, whether it is a physical issue, or an emotional or mental issue, can cause us to feel like there is no hope for us. And we may even question God about it. And instead of giving it to Him, we try to deal with it ourselves. For some of us, we may just try to figure it out on our own. For some, we may try to ignore it and think that it will go away. However, none of those seem to work.

Today is the day for you to give it to the Lord. Only the Lord can heal us of our deep pain. Only the Lord can mend our hurt. This morning, we are going to spend time discussing how we can trust the Lord in times of our hurt and pain.

WE CAN TRUST IN TIMES OF HURT BECAUSE:

GOD’S NEARNESS IN TIMES OF NEED

GOD BINDS OUR BROKENNESS

GOD’S GENTLE REST

Let’s pray.

1. GOD’S NEARNESS IN TIMES OF NEED

Psalm 34:18 CSB

18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.

Show of hands, how many of you remember Alco in Conway? It was located in Conway over in the shopping center where Kroger is now. When I was a kid, we would come down here to visit my grandma. One day we went shopping and happen to go into Alco. I was a little kid and we went down a toy aisle and I was checking out the toys. I didn’t realize that my family had left the aisle and went to a different section. After awhile, I looked up and saw that it was just me in the aisle. I looked and looked for my family, and I couldn’t find them. I felt lost. I though that my parents were gone and I was going to show up on a milk carton (have fun with this - like talk about how my picture would have been a hand drawn picture of me because by the time I was born, they didn’t take pictures of me.) Unbeknownst to me, my parents also went looking for me, and had the manager lock the door. We found each other, my parents were upset and crying, I was crying. And yes, I did get in trouble later. Yet what sticks out to me is feeling the nearness of my mom when she hugged me. I remember feeling scared, but what sticks out is going to my mom and her hugging me. I was a little kid, no older than seven. Yet I still remember my mom and her hugging me.

For many of you, you feel lost in your pain. You feel distant from everyone. Something happened to you that has hurt you deep down inside. Maybe it is something that you’ve been dealing with a long time. You may not be a kid lost in a store, but you feel lost and crushed.

The truth is, you are not alone. God is with you right now. God is not distant but stands with you in your heartache, and in your pain. God desires not to leave you hopeless but to bring you hope in the midst of despair. That’s why James writes in James 4:8

James 4:8 CSB

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

God’s desire for us is in those moments that we are hurt from pain, whether it is something physical or whether it is emotional pain, is that we turn to Him. Not to our own devices for comfort. Not to others. But to Him. God is not distant, He is near.

One of the many things that I find amazing about God is that God in and of Himself is complete. He has no need of anything. So everything that He does is out of an abundance of who He is. Yet, He chooses to enter into our suffering through Jesus His Son. God knows what it is like to experience pain and suffering because He experienced it Himself. The book of Isaiah says it this way:

Isaiah 53:3–4 CSB

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

God knows what it is like to experience hurt and pain because He went through it Himself. He understands what it is like to hurt deeply. He knows what it is like to feel alone. That’s why Scripture calls us to draw near to Him, because He is near and He understands.

However, although we can go to Him with our pain and hurt because He is near, that isn’t the only reason. As our second point reminds us, we can go to Him with our pain because not only is He near, but He can bind our brokenness.

2. GOD BINDS OUR BROKENESS

Psalm 147:1–3 CSB

1 Hallelujah! How good it is to sing to our God, for praise is pleasant and lovely. 2 The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem; he gathers Israel’s exiled people. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

The Psalmist here writes about how good it is to sing to our God. And in times of good, it can be easy to sing praises to God. When everything goes right, it can be easy to worship praise God. When the kids behave, you get that raise, you get recognized for doing something that you’ve worked hard on, when your husband doesn’t have to be retold to do something or when your wife doesn’t give you a “honey do” list - those are all times that seem to be easy to stop and praise God.

Yet, this passage here is not because of something good that has happened. While many of the Psalms are written by David, this one is not. In verse 2, the Psalmist wrote that the Lord “gathers Israel’s exiled people.” This Psalm was not written during a good time when everything was all well and good. This was written after the people were sent into exile and were finally able to return. And what they were returning to was not homes and places that had been kept up and cared for. They were returning to ruin.

Yet despite the circumstances that were surrounding them, the Psalmist writes a song of praise noting that the Lord, “heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.”

Do you know why the Psalmist writes that in the midst of this challenging time? Daniel J. Estes in the New American Commentary said this:

147:3 The “wounds” that the Lord bandages could refer to what Israel’s captors inflicted on them; but it could also speak of the wounds of the Lord’s judgment on the sinful nation, as in Isa 30:26, which refers to the wounds the Lord has inflicted on his people. As in Isa 61:1, the Lord heals brokenhearted and wounded people because “the LORD is near to the brokenhearted p 614 and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps 34:18[19]). Whatever the hurt, and whoever the one who caused it, the Lord is the healer.

The Psalmist writes that even though things may be rough and challenging and that the people may be hurting, God is the one who can heal. That’s why God is worthy to be praised even in seasons of hurt. The Psalmist writing here about God bringing healing reveals a God who is near and cares for us. The Psalmist here shares God’s tenderness and attentiveness to us. God is not a God that looks at us and feels sorry for us, and that’s it. He doesn’t just look at us and says “I’m sorry.” He doesn’t leave us in our pain and sorrow, but actively responds to it. He meets us in it. He heals are broken hearts, and he bandages our wounds.

We see God’s desire to heal through the coming promised Messiah in Isaiah 53:5

Isaiah 53:5 CSB

5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.

Here we see God’s full commitment to bringing the healing that we all need through the sacrifice of Christ. Through Christ’s sacrificial love we can be healed of the deep seeded pain that is sin. For some of you here today, you have been trying to do things your own way, in your own power. You feel this painful void in your life, and so you try to fill it with substances, busyness, acceptance, popularity, money, work. Yet nothing seems to work. The hole of pain just feels endless. And you are left feeling hopeless.

For you today, if that is you who I just described, there is only one way that that pit can be healed - that is through Jesus Christ. That pitt, that pain you are feeling is the sin in your life. Scripture teaches that it is sin that causes us to fall short, and its result is death. The ONLY WAY to heal it is through trusting in Jesus Christ.

For those of you who are followers of Christ, you are dealing with some deep pain and deep hurt. You’ve turned to everyone, but the one who can heal your brokenheartedness. Who can bandage your wounds. For whatever the reason, the mindset is it isn’t that big a deal. Yet it is causing hurt and heartache. We can trust in God to heal us. If He is able to save us from the pain and despair of sin, He can heal us of our pain.

We can go to God with our pain and hurt because not only is He near us in our pain, not only can He heal us of our pain and hurt, but we can find His grace’s gentle rest.

3. Grace's Gentle Rest

Turn to Matthew 11:28-30. I love this passage. All too often we think that we can handle our pain. That we can handle our hurt. It is ingrained in many of us that our pain and hurt is our own. So we carry it around us and it weighs us down. Yet we think that we can handle it on our own. So we try and try. And the more we try, the more tired we feel. The heavier it becomes.

Today we have been reminded about how God is near us in our pain. I am so glad that God is near me in this season. There’s been a lot of good things happen, but there’s been so much pain. For many of you, you’ve experience so much pain in your life. He is here.

We have been reminded that He not only is near, but that He desires to heal. What a wonderful hope! To be healed by the one who loves us deeply and unconditionally! Who not only can heal us, but wants to heal. That leads me to our response in this. If we want to experience healing and real peace, this is what Jesus has called us to do:

Matthew 11:28–30 CSB

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This passage reminds us of Jesus’s not only Jesus’ willingness to care for us, but His gentleness for us. We were never designed to handle life on our own, and that especially means our hurt and pain. For many of you, you’ve tried to do things your whole life on your own, and it hasn’t worked out. And so for you, you carry a burden that you were never created to carry. Here Jesus is telling you today to give your life to Him. And when you do, He says that you will find rest.

For those of you here this morning who have been dealing with a hurt that is deep, and the pain has become unbearable. Jesus is saying the same to you. Jesus’ love for you is deep and wide. He wants to bring healing to you. He wants to help you. He desires to bring healing and rest to you. It is time to release your hurt and pain into His care. When you do that, you will experience the peace and relief only He provides.

At the end of Flowers, we see the singer move from struggling with her pain to trusting in God with her pain in that one day she’ll see that God was working through it all along. Not that the pain and struggle was good — but rather that God brought good from it. This is what she sings:

When I'm on the mountain and looking down below I'll see a valley of flowers that needed time to grow And I'll thank you for the rain The hurt and days of pain

And I'll bring it up in a grateful prayer Thank you, Jesus, for keeping me there You know just what I need, and you've planted seeds 'Cause you're a good God with a real good plan And you hold my world in a watering can So I can have peace 'cause flowers grow in the valley

Even in our greatest struggles, we can find hope and healing through Jesus, who understands our pain and invites us to find rest in Him.

Go down for the invitation.