DEC 8 2019 | Grace on the Galilee S1E5 | The Miracle of Mirroring

Sea Change Church · Grace on the Galilee · "The Miracle of Mirroring" Pastor Harry Wilson · December 8, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hi, I'm Kalina. I'm Harry's wife, and I help out with the middle school group, and I'm going to read scripture for you today. We have two passages, John 1, 35 through 39, and John 11, 32 through 44. So John 1, 35 through 39. The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look, the Lamb of God. When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asks, what do you want?

They said, Rabbi, which means teacher. Where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. John 11, 32 through 44. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him?

They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how they loved him. But some of them said, could he who not have opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.

Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.

Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. The word of the Lord. Awesome. Thanks, Kalina. Yeah, she's been really doing such a really just amazing job with our middle school kids. She helps out every Sunday and Tuesday. And she's been leading worship every single Tuesday night for them. And it's totally changed the entire culture of the group. And those kids sing loud now. And it's just so, so cool to see. And she's been just an awesome support for me.

So it's just really cool having my wife up here reading scripture. Is that good, babe? Did I butter you up enough? Should I talk about your bangs? She's got great bangs. She cuts them herself with these little scissors. She gets really close to her eyes. It's kind of scary. But she does a really good job. So my name's Harry. I'm the student ministries pastor on staff. And yeah, taking over for Adam while he's gone. I'll try not to get too comfortable up here.

And we're in the midst of a sermon series titled Grace on the Galilee. And we're looking at the miracles of Jesus, specifically before Jesus goes into Jerusalem for the final time on Palm Sunday. And this story, the story of Lazarus, takes place actually only just two miles away from Jerusalem. So he's not right on the Galilee. But we kind of witness just a powerful story of healing. And so let's jump into this first scripture, though.

And I put these two scriptures together, the John 1 scripture, because I think that these stories together really do kind of a really cool job of outlining what it looks like to be on a faith journey with God. All those faith journeys look different, but there's some commonalities and some things that happen amongst our faith journeys that tend to happen. And I think these stories kind of outline it in a really unique way.

And so that's why I've included that scripture. So let's jump into John chapter 1, 35 through 39. It says, So the first thing in this story that I think is really notable is, as Jesus is walking and the two disciples, soon-to-be disciples, are following him close behind, kind of stalking him almost, and he turns around and asks a natural question of, What do you want? What is it that you want? Why are you following me?

And this is a, it sounds almost confrontational. I think the NIV has a prettier way of saying it. He asks, What are you seeking? In the NIV. So what do you want? What are you seeking? And it's a good place for us to pause and reflect here. Because Jesus is asking an inward orientating question, which means, I put this in your notes, and it's the first spot on this kind of, I have a spot that says resurrection journey.

And that's just kind of like a little roadmap of some things that tend to happen when we follow Jesus. And so inward orientation is asking those questions. Asking the questions of, What is it that I want in this life? What are my desires? What's kind of, what's my purpose? And it's looking inside ourselves for those questions. And Jesus asks them, What is it you want? And this is an important question to ask, I think, whether we've been following Jesus for a really long time, you know, for 20 years, or whether like these disciples, we're kind of brand new to this faith journey.

We're brand new to following Jesus. Because the thing about it is people come to church for different reasons, right? Some of us come to church to appease a family member or a friend. Some come for the community. Some are working on that relationship with God. Some come for the donuts after the service. But we all come here for different reasons. And it's important as a group, regardless of how long we've been doing this, to stop and to pause and to say, Well, what do I want?

What's my intention in following Jesus? What are my desires for following Jesus? Adam and I, we talk really regularly and talk about different things we're both going through in life and existential ideas. And he posed this question to me recently and asked me, Well, Harry, why are you following Jesus? Why are you following Jesus? And it was so positive for me to get to reflect on the why. That was so positive. I had to sit back and reflect on, Okay, that's a great question.

Because we can, like Chris saying, just get to this point where we're going through the motions. And to stop and to pause and to say, Well, why? Why am I following Jesus? And for me, to reflect on that was really beneficial. And there's all sorts of answers to that for me. And I think the simplest answer that I'll share is that following Jesus in my life has simply been better than not following Jesus. Right? I've experienced not following Jesus and putting him on the back burner and kind of doing life my own way.

It's just better when I'm following Jesus. And that's like the simple explanation. And so for us to stop and to pause and to ask ourselves, Well, what is it that we want? And then I've included an exercise called surface desires versus source desires. That's kind of at the top of your notes. And I'll explain a little bit about that. A surface desire. This is for us to just continue to extrapolate on the idea of what is it that you want.

And so you guys can do this with someone close to you, someone you trust. And to outline, Well, what are my desires? My surface desires? My source desires? A surface desire is basically something that underneath it, there's a deeper root to that desire. So an example might be money. Right? We might say, Well, I'd like some money. Right? I want money. Who wants money? Like everyone in church is like, Are we supposed to raise our hands?

I don't know. I don't know. Is that allowed? Yeah. And so money could be a good surface desire. But often underneath that desire, that is a source desire. And for money, it could be all sorts of things. An example could be like security. Well, I want to feel secure. I want to feel safe. I want to feel protected. Another example could be like recognition or fame. I want to be recognized. I want to have some fame to me.

And a source desire underneath that could be, I want to be known. I want to be loved. I want to be seen. And so you can kind of start to write these out with somebody. And then when you identify a source desire, what's really, really helpful is to then ask more questions about that desire. Say, Well, okay, what makes you feel known? What makes you feel loved? What makes you feel seen? And when was the time you felt unknown or unloved or unseen?

And this is just, this is really good dialogue to kind of ask ourselves these inward orienting questions. And then in the story, it's a, after Jesus asks them, what the, what do they want? The disciples respond and, and ask him where he's staying, which is kind of funny because they basically ignore his question, which is a good foreshadowing of a lot of their relationship with Jesus. Often they would kind of ignore things he said.

We're never guilty of that, of course, but the disciples are. And, and so he asked, they asked him, well, where are you staying? And Jesus says, come and see. He offers them an invitation. He says, come and see. And I think this happens a lot in our lives. When we are asking those big questions, the questions of purpose and meeting and desire and what we want out of this life, a lot of times, what, and actually what's always happening in our heart, is Jesus is continually and consistently saying throughout our lives, hey, come and see.

You're asking these big questions. You're asking questions about what you want in this life. You're asking questions about what's good. And I want to invite you to come and see. Come and see what my kingdom looks like. Come and see what resurrection life looks like. Come and see what abundance really looks like. What it's, what it's like to be known and loved by a good father. Come and see. It's this consistent divine invitation that meets our inward orientation.

He says, come and see. And for those of us who have taken Jesus up on that invitation, often what happens for us is come and see becomes come and stay. We realize if you're like me, you realize, wow, it is way better walking with Jesus. Doesn't mean it's easy. Doesn't mean I don't have struggles and new challenges that I didn't expect. But it's just better. So come and see can become come and stay. And that happens for these disciples here.

They decide to stay. And that group grows. And there's more friendships. And they build these intimate relationships. And that'll take us to John chapter 11. Let's go ahead and read verses 32 through 36. Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. This is, after they've built these, in this story, you know, this group of friends have now built these really close and intimate relationships. By the time that we're in John chapter 11. And Jesus walks into a situation where there's tragedy. Where Mary and Martha's brothers died. Lazarus has died.

And Jesus wasn't there. He wasn't there for that. And he walks into this tragic situation. And it gives the, it kind of sparks the opportunity for the disciples to now reciprocate Jesus' invitation to come and see. And tragedy does that for us in our lives often. For us now to say to Jesus, okay God, we've come and seen you. We've seen that you're good. We've seen that you've done some crazy miracles. We love you. But now, where faith reaches a point of, almost climax kind of, is where we then say to Jesus, come and see.

Now you come and see my heart. You come and see my life. You come and see the brokenness and the pain. And that's what the disciples do in this situation. They say to Jesus, as he steps into brokenness, they say, hey, come and see. You want to see where he's buried? You want to see the pain and the hurt? And what we've had to go through and endure in this moment? Because you weren't there. Come and see. They invite him.

They reciprocate. And that's that next spot in your map that I've included. And what's really amazing to me, is the way that Jesus responds in this moment. Because one, we have to remember, like, he's Jesus, right? He knows the end of the story. He knows fully well, he's going to heal Lazarus. We actually know this because earlier in the book, Jesus says to his disciples, to his friends, we got to go, because I got to go wake up Lassie.

You probably didn't call him Lassie, Lazarus. I like the name Lassie. I'd call him Lassie. But he says, we got to go. We got to go wake up Lazarus. Jesus already knew, he was already aware, that he was going to heal Lazarus. Yet, and if this was me, by the way, if I was walking into a situation, where I was, the only one with the solution, and there's mourning, and there's hurt, and there's pain, and I was going to walk in, and solve it, I would be stepping into this moment, triumphantly.

I would be walking in, excited into this moment, because I know what's going to happen. They don't know. I'm like, oh, I got the ending. Let's go. I'd be walking in like, Mary, Martha, girl, don't cry anymore. Don't you cry? I'm here. I got the answer. Let's go. Let's reveal what's behind stone number one. It's Lazzy. He's here, right? He's alive. I would be walking in, excited. And that's not what Jesus does. It's really fascinating what he does.

Instead, he decides to enter in, to the pain, and the hurt, of the moment. he decides to stop, and to slow down, and to see his friends hurting, and in pain, and to actually pause, and feel that. He engages in this act, of empathy. That's why I put in your notes, that empathy is a choice. Jesus, in this moment, chooses, empathy. He chooses to feel, what others are feeling, to hurt with them. It says that he's deeply moved.

It says that multiple times, and it says that we see him, a picture of Jesus weeping. He chooses that. And it's a great reminder, in our life, because we can sometimes, have this picture, that God is just distant. Right? That he doesn't really know, what we're going through. Like he's good, he loves us and stuff, but like, he doesn't really know, the hurt, and the pain, and all the stuff we feel. And that's, this story shows us, that's not true.

We have an empathetic God, who I believe mourns, when we mourn, and hurts for our hurt. And then it's a great example, of also, of how we're supposed to engage, relationally, with one another. We're supposed to stop. We're supposed to slow down. We're supposed to engage, empathetically. And, and empathy itself, has some healing qualities to it. I think empathy, is kind of miraculous. And it's, it's also called mirroring, which is basically, you're, you're taking on the pain, and the hurt, of the person in front of you.

And you're, and you're mirroring that back to them. And you're actually, tangibly feeling that. And it's got healing qualities, to it. Psychologists talk a lot about empathy. And, what they've discovered, there's research, behind this as well, is that, empathy, when you take a person, an individual, who's experienced, suffering, and pain, and maybe abuse, and, and hasn't had good relationships, in their life. If you provide them, consistently, an empathetic experience, in therapy, psychologists, actually witness people, get better, and heal.

Not just about all the different, there's all sorts of other, like, psychological techniques. But empathy, is actually one of the, greatest psychological techniques, available. As they just feel, what the person's feeling. And that provides, what psychologists call, a corrective experience. It helps the person, actually heal. And this is a gift, that we are all given. Right? All of us, have the ability, to give empathy.

We all have that, miraculous healing ability, to stop, and to slow down, and to give, somebody some empathy. But too often, we're way more anxious, to either move away, from pain, or to like, try to fix pain, or to give advice, to the pain. And that's why, I put in your notes, that empathy is greater, than advice. Advice isn't usually, what we need. And we don't usually need, someone to just show up, and fix. Jesus could have, showed up in this moment, and snapped his fingers, and fixed it.

But he didn't. And this is also, a good note for us, men, there's a stereotype, that men are fixers. And, and, and that's, might not be true for all men, but it's true for me. If my wife comes, and she has some, something she's dealing with, and there's some, some hurt, and some pain, and, and something going on, I love to try to get under the hood, of her problems, like, and try to strategize her pain, and figure out, like, okay, there's a way we can, we can make this better, right?

And usually, what my wife needs, is for me to stop, to slow down, and to mirror back to her, that maybe I don't know, what she's going through, but I can feel, the hurt, and the pain. And I can say, wow, that's really hard, I'm just so sorry, you're going through that. And I can sit with her in that. That's usually what you need, right? Yeah, okay, cool. I'm figuring it out, guys. Two and a half years of marriage, so we're doing, we're doing okay.

So, empathy, and, and, and relationship, is restorative. This is where healing takes place. So, the question for us is, how empathetic do we tend to be? When people we know, and care about are hurting, do we tend to move towards them, or away from them? There's a couple other things, I'll say about empathy, before we move on. One is that it, there's been other studies done, done on it, and it shows that if you feel, empathetic towards somebody, you're more likely to act, act altruistically towards them.

Meaning, you're more likely to act, in a helping manner towards them. And even, you're more likely to act, in a self-sacrificial way towards them, when you feel empathetic towards somebody. So, it's a really important emotion, for us to pause, and lean into. But, but also, we are more likely, to feel empathy, for people who we perceive, are similar, to us. Which isn't great, right? Which means empathy, takes some work.

Because what we need to be doing, is feeling empathetic, for all people. But sometimes, we struggle to feel empathy, for people we perceive, is different. And that's why empathy, isn't something we just stumble upon. It's something that, like I said earlier, is an active choice. Where we choose to stop, and slow down, and feel empathy. That's why there can be, sometimes I think, such divisive lines, across differences.

Political parties, religious parties, whatever it is, there can be such a, divisive lines, because we struggle, to feel empathy, for those who are different than us. But that's the way, God engages with us. God engages with each one of us, in an empathetic, loving relationship. And it's how we're called, to engage with one another. Last thing I'll say about it, is it's really hard, to engage in empathy, when you are, really, really busy.

When you plan, no time for rest. And when you're going, and you're, and you're unrested, and you're stressed, and you have no margin, in your life. You already know the story, I'm going to tell, don't you? Oh, you got the big smile, I'm afraid. So, there, there's a time for me, because I am a, I'm a full-time student, I actually graduate, I'm 25, and I'm graduating college, in less than two weeks. We did it guys, yeah, thank you.

So, I'm so excited. But, as a result of both being in college, and working here, close to full-time, I, I get really, really busy, and really, really stressed, and often don't have enough margin, or room, in my life, and, I've noticed, that in my life, when I don't have that, I lose my empathy. My empathy for people, just drops. I get much more confrontational, and much more frustrated, and I'll share an example, that will result, in you praying for me, and, that is that, Kalina and I, after a Sunday, on the Lord's Day, and you know, Christians, Christians tend to, like, we love to tell stories, that, like, when we did something, that wasn't great, if we were doing bad things, but, like, like, if they were before, we were saved, so we can say, like, but that was before, I knew the Lord.

This is, this is not that, unfortunately, this was more recent, than I like to admit, and we were, we, it was after a Sunday, and we had a little bit of time, to go to the grocery store, and we decided to ride our bikes, so we started riding our bikes, to the grocery store, and we got to this, this crosswalk, and, as we, you know, got back on our bikes, to go across the crosswalk, I, getting on my bike, lost a little bit of balance, and kind of swerved, near somebody else, who was walking in the crosswalk, and I, you know, as I swerved near to them, I apologized for getting close, and corrected, and biked on, and, when I got about 20 yards away, from the individual, and his girlfriend next to him, he then proceeded to yell at me, you know, watch where you're going next time, in a kind of angered manner, and, like, I'm already 20 yards away from you, dude, like, I apologized, like, I thought, I didn't, I didn't even touch you, anyway, so he decides to yell at me, yell at me, watch where you're going next time, and, if I had been acting, in a, if I had had some margin in my life, and been acting empathetically in my life, I probably would have said, like, you know, he didn't mean it, maybe he's having a hard day, I could interpret for him, you know, maybe he's trying to, kind of tough up, and impress his girlfriend next to him, and I do stupid things, to impress my wife, so I understand, like, I could take, I could role play with him, and be like, you know, it's not a big deal, instead, I chose to turn my bicycle around, and bike back towards the individual, not a good look, Pastor Harry, don't do that, and I bike back towards him, and we just engage in a dialogue, whether, whether or not him and I have a problem, and he decided we didn't have a problem, that was a good decision, and, anyway, so this is, this is a fantastic, pray for me, a fantastic example, of how, of, add some room in your life, add some margin in your life, because we don't know it, we don't always feel it, but if we're not rested, right, we tend to lose empathy, and we don't love each other as well, that's just the truth, right, I had the opportunity, I engaged with an individual, and maybe not the most loving of manners, that's not great, right, we, we have, we have to take care of ourselves, or those things go down, let's read, oh man, let's read verses 38 through 44, this is, in the John chapter 11, then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb, it was a cave, and a stone lay against it, Jesus said, take away the stone, Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time, there will be an odor, for he has been dead for four days, Jesus said to her, did I not tell you, that if you believed, you would see the glory of God, so they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, father, I thank you, that you have heard me, I knew that you always hear me, but I said this, on account of the people, standing around, that they may believe, that you sent me, when he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out, the man who had died, came out, his hands and feet, bound with linen strips, and his face, wrapped with a cloth, and Jesus said to them, unbind him, and let him go, and so, Jesus moves in this story, after he enters into this, really empathetic moment, he then moves to some action, and he says, hey let's roll away that, let's roll away that stone, and Martha, being pragmatic, says, hey, that's maybe not the best idea, he's been decomposing for four days, he's dead, he's gonna smell God, and Jesus, and this is probably not the best idea, and Jesus responds, in a really interesting way, he says, he offers a conditional statement, he says, did I not tell you, that if you believed, you would see the glory of God, if you believed, you would see the glory of God, and really, what I get from this statement is, that the glory of God, is gonna exist, and it's gonna be present, whether we believe it or not, like that's just, it's not up to us, whether the glory of God exists, right, whether we believe it or not, the glory of God is gonna be present, but, if we want a taste of that, if we want to see that, if we want to be a consistent witness, to the miraculous, in our life, if we want to see that, we gotta tune in, relationally, and we do that by faith, we gotta tune in, to God's character, and his nature, and build a relationship, and learn, how he tends to move, and speak to us, and engage in this faith-based relationship, with God, and through that, we will see, the glory of God, in our life, when you walk, in relationship, with Jesus, you experience, the glory of God, you see miracles, but this is why, I think that Jesus, isn't into miracles, for miracles sake, he's not into miracles, we talked about that, a lot in this series, not simply, to impress people, to gather a crowd, he's not into, miracles for the miracles, he's into miracles, for the relationship, that's it, he's into miracles, for relationship, so when we walk, in relationship, with God, I think we eventually, experience miracles, in our life, but it's all about relationship, and relationship, in itself, is inherently, outward orienting, and that's the last little spot, in your notes, that relationship, and that map, relationship, orients us outward, orients us, towards something, greater than ourselves, it orients us outward, towards others, and towards God, and I believe, miracles happen, in this moment, miracles happen, when we look, beyond just ourselves, that's what, that's how miracles are made, when we're looking, beyond just ourselves, and we're trusting in God, through a faith-based relationship, and then in this story, Jesus, tells Lazarus, to come out of the tomb, he says, Lazarus, come, come out, says it in a loud voice, and, I love that, because he actually, gives Lazarus a job, here, Lazarus actually, as someone just recently, dead, now has to, pick his self up, and walk out of the tomb, and leave behind, the things that are dead, and get his friends, to unwrap, the grave clothes, that he was wrapped in, like Lazarus, has a role to play, in the story of healing, and I believe, that we're always, invited, to participate, in the work of healing, in our life, and I do think, that Jesus, often gives, you know, has a, there's miraculous moments, I do still believe, in miracles, and instantaneous healing, I think that things, those things can happen, but for, how I've personally, experienced God, is that, he consistently, and slowly, invites me, to participate, in the work of hope, and healing, in my life, and that often, is a lot slower, than I might like, but he's consistently, inviting me, to participate, in the work of hope, and the work of healing, in my life, he gives me a job, and a role to play, and, I have to be, at least willing, to then, leave behind, the things that are dead, right, that's part of my job, and they're my role to play, I have to walk away, from the grave, I have to walk away, from the dead things, I gotta unwrap, and unbind, the things that are, that are hanging on, to me, and, I've had to do this, in my life, I'll give another story, and that was when, I was probably about, like 19 or 20 years old, but, before that, I'll give you some background, I grew up in the church, kind of, like in and out of the church, and, and, kind of following Jesus, and a lot of following Jesus, like on my own, because we didn't, attend church, super consistently, and so, I, eventually, as I got older, and got to the, like my senior year of high school, and a little bit past that, I kind of decided, to put Jesus on like, a full back burner, I was like, you know, I got this, I'm gonna do it my own way, I had other things, I was interested in, at the time, other priorities, at the time, and so I put Jesus, on a back burner, and I started to do life, my own way, and I was always somebody, especially as a, as a, as a little kid, that knew myself as someone, to be kind of full of joy, that's like part of my identity, as a little kid, as I'm a joyful, excited, happy human, and as I started, to walk away from God, I just saw, so much less, of that in me, and I remember driving, up by UTC actually, and, and just being like, where did that kid go, like that kid, just felt totally lost in me, and, and I continued on that road, for a while, and there's a lot of brokenness, and pain, and hurt, and eventually, I got to this point, where I started praying, I said God, I'm, I'm hurt, and I feel trapped, I feel stuck, and broken, and isolated, and bored, and I just need some help, I just need a way, I need a way out of this, I need a fresh start, I need something creative, to just fuel me, and excite me, I need, I just need that, and, it was actually, only about a week later, of praying that prayer, that Pastor Adam, reached out to me, and I didn't attend this church, I, I, I didn't attend church a ton, and, did not go here, but my mother, and my grandmother went here, and so he had kind of heard, that I had been taking some, I took some Bible classes, at Mesa College, as with just the rest, of my education, for my humanities credit, and took the, took the Bible classes, he had heard that I'd done that, and, apparently, he got this sense from God, that I was supposed to be his youth pastor, here at this church, and, so he reached out to me, and I'd never, really known him, and I started grabbing coffee with him, and getting to know him, and, and he told me that he, that God had said to him, that I was going to be the youth pastor, at this church, and I'm like, you are six four and crazy, like there's no way, that's not, what I had planned, in my life, but what I did know, what I did know, is that, this was an open door, I didn't know what laid beyond the door, I didn't know, I didn't, I didn't know what it looked like, to be a youth pastor, I didn't have any training in that, I started as just a junior high pastor, he didn't let me up here right away, this is a slow process, and, and I, I didn't know what it looked like, but I knew, I'm supposed to walk, I'm supposed to go forward, I'm supposed to leave behind, the things that are dead, and I'm supposed to walk out of this grave, because I was burying myself in a grave, I said, you know what, I don't know what's forward, but I know I got to change, and I got to walk forward, and I did, I changed so much in my life, and I completely, I started, just really engaging, in scripture, and prayer, and like kind of drinking through a fire hose, to try to catch up, and, and, and it's totally, I didn't, it changed my life, and I didn't know at the time, that what I was experiencing, was a miracle, and it's been a slow miracle, and a slow process of healing in my life, that I've had to participate in, and it's been amazing, and what is built for me, actually, is a sense of gratitude, and, and it's built my character, it's been positive for me to participate, slowly in a work of healing, versus something instantaneous, so the question for us is, what are the things in our life, that we need to leave behind, what are those dead things in our life, that cling to us, that we just say, you know what, that's not giving me life anymore, maybe it never was, and I need to leave it behind, what are those things, for us, and then the next question is, after you've identified that, because it's one thing to just identify it, but the next question is to, are you willing, are you actually willing, to leave those things behind, are you willing, to leave those things behind, and if you're not willing, are you willing to pray to be willing, and to start to ask the question to God, hey, help me at least, not want that anymore, help me at least, be willing, to leave behind the things, that are breaking and hurting me, and then last thing here, as we start to come for a close, Jesus says, Jesus says to, to the people around Lazarus, Lazarus, he says, unbind him, and let him go, and I think this is a powerful way, and a powerful ending, to this, to this part of this story, because, that's the hope of the Christian faith, right, that's the entire hope, of what it means to follow Jesus, that through, his sacrifice, through our relationship, with him, we might be unbound, we might be set free, from the things, that cause us pain, from the sin, in our own life, from the brokenness, that we participate in, and through, a restorative, empathetic, relationship with Jesus, we might be unbound, and set free, amen, I've included, just a little bit of homework, and the first exercise, we already talked about, the second exercise, is an empathetic exercise, that you can engage with, with someone you trust, and the third exercise, is to pray, and to invite God, into those things, so yeah, we'll pray now, as the worship team, comes forward, God thank you, that you, you love us so much, that though sometimes, you feel far, we feel like you're not there, for our pain, you're not there, for our hurt, you're not there, for our suffering, we can feel that way, but the reality is, it's your heart breaks for us, your heart breaks, when we break, and you hurt, when we hurt, and you're consistently, inviting us, throughout our lives, to come, and see, so today, I pray we would, that we would be, made anew by you, your name, amen, amen, or go, or go, that we would, that we would, and be, that we would, that we would, that we would, and be, that we would, and be, that we would, in the last 2, that we would, and be, in the last 2, in the last 2, in the last 2, in the last 2, in the last 2, that we would, that we would, that we would, in the last 2, in the last 2, in the last 2, in the last 2, in the last 2, South 1, system,