God Redeems Our Pain

Well, today is Mother's Day, and I know that Mother's Day and Father's Day and other holidays have a way of bringing people from a lot of places with mixed emotions on a Sunday morning. We. We want to celebrate our moms, but we also want to acknowledge that there are people in this room who, for Mother's Day, Mother's Day, for them, is a source of pain and frustration. And one of the things I feel like we see in our world today is that we have to move to one of the extremes. So if we don't want to offend people who are hurting today, we shouldn't celebrate.

Or if we want to celebrate, we shouldn't talk about the hurt. And the reality of the human experience is that in this room, there are people that are feeling both of those things. Some a person may be feeling both of those right now. There's some joy and celebration about mom, but there's also some heartache, maybe about someone who's no longer here. And so we just want to think about moms for a moment.

I think the scriptures give us some guidance when it comes to moments like these. I think of Romans, chapter 12, verse 15, that tells us that we should rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And I think the direction that gives us is that this morning we should rejoice alongside those who are celebrating moms today. We should celebrate moms who have modeled for us strength and compassion and character in keeping with Christ likeness. We should celebrate moms who have modeled for us, in part or in whole, the fruit of the spirit.

We should celebrate and remember moms that are no longer here, whose memory we hold tightly to. But we should celebrate and rejoice while also recognizing that there are some in our room, and maybe even you, who today is incredibly difficult. Like you dread this day because you think about someone who's not here anymore, or you think about unfulfilled dreams. Maybe you think about your journey with fertility treatments and how you've yet to see the fruit of those things. Or maybe a day like Mother's Day reminds you of infant loss or a child who's no longer here.

And for you, we want to walk alongside of you. We want to weep with those who weep. And so today, for Mother's Day, can we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep? If you find yourself in the camp of those who. For whom Mother's Day is incredibly painful, my hope is that as we journey through the morning together, that you will leave here encouraged that God will honor your courage in coming today and even joining us online as we navigate this Mother's Day together, We're continuing our series, Beauty from Ashes.

It's a series where we're hoping to show you through scripture how our God is a God who rescues and restores and redeems that somehow the pain, the ashes in our life don't get the final say.

When you think about ashes, what exactly are ashes? Ashes are remnants. They're reminders of what once was but are no more. Maybe that's the fire pit on your back patio or the woods near your home. Lying in that pit are ashes that are reminders of logs and sticks and other things that you chose to throw in the fire to see how fast they'd burn.

When you think about the forest fires out west or in Florida or brush fires in the desert Southwest, the ashes are reminders of what was homes, cars, businesses, places that held memories. I'm sure in a room this size that there are those in this room who've experienced a fire of their personal property. And those ashes are reminders of what once was but are no more. Even when we think about those delicate urns that find their place on our mantles or on the bookshelves in our home or beside our beds, they hold the ashes of people we have loved and maybe even pets, memories of what once was but are no more. Ashes always signify an end to something.

And as such, ashes often remind us of pain. And in this series we're trying to explore, can God bring beauty from ashes? Our task this morning is to see how God redeems our pain, how one of the ways he brings beauty from ashes is that he redeems the pain in our life. But before we even can kind of dive into that, we have to at least acknowledge that. I know that for some of you in the room, this is one of your first times at Greenwood Christian Church and the same for some of you online.

And so you've not maybe been on this journey with us. So the question at the top of your mind, as we mentioned, ashes and pain is just the first question of, like, why, like, why is there even pain here? If our God is such a good God, why would he allow the existence of pain and the existence of suffering? And I want to honor that question, but I also want you to understand, like, I'm not going to be able to answer that question this morning. I don't avoid it because I don't care about it, but because in order to Talk about redeeming pain.

We need to kind of jump there. But in case that's a question you're asking, I want you to know that your question matters. And I want to point you to a couple places where we've already answered that question because it's an important one. If you would keep two dates in mind. One is March 9 and one is April 27.

Those dates are important because those are dates when our senior minister addressed the subject of the existence of pain and suffering in this world. On March 9, we launched a series called Pull Up a Chair. It was a series aimed at answering those really tough questions that we ask as people. And the very first question that Matt addressed in that series was, how could a good God and a loving God allow for the existence of pain and suffering? And so if you go to our YouTube channel, Greenwood Christian, and you pull up March 9 message, you can hear about the question that you're asking.

April 27th. That's the second date I gave you. And that's the start of this series, Beauty from Ashes, where, again, Matt did an incredible job of helping us understand, like, the sources of pain in our lives, like, where they come from. So I'd encourage you once again to go to our YouTube channel, Greenwood Christian, and pull up the message from April 27th. That question matters, and I don't want to just blitz past it, but we do have to move beyond it to be able to look at how God redeems our pain, how God brings beauty from ashes, from actually redeeming the pain in our lives.

Now, there are a number of places that we could go to in Scripture to see how God redeems pain. A few that I thought of were we could go to the book of Esther. Esther is a story in our Old Testament that shares the story of a young girl who essentially was trafficked into the Persian king's palace and exploited. And yet God redeems that experience to accomplish incredible things.

Thought of Ruth. Ruth's a story in our Old Testament again, where this woman who was married, lost her husband at a very young age and she was taken into a foreign land, people she didn't know. And yet God redeems that experience to bring about good things. We could look at the story of Jesus where God redeems his pain and accomplishes something great from the ashes that he experienced. But where we're going to go this morning is to the book of Genesis.

We're going to kind of linger and hang out with a man named Joseph. Joseph's life gives us an Opportunity to look at not just ashes and pain, but how God redeems those things. So if you have your Bibles, your Bible app, find Genesis chapter 50 in your. In just a few moments, we're going to be reading verse 20, just not quite yet, but I'll give you time to find that. Genesis is the story of the origins of humankind, God's relationship with humankind, the mission and the purpose that God is striving to accomplish in our world.

It's a really important set of words from God. He gives them to Moses because he knows how important it is for his people, Israel, to understand how things started and what his purpose and and mission is for them, in them and through them. As we get to the end of the book of Genesis, what we see is the life of this man named Joseph. In fact, the final 14 chapters of Genesis are primarily focused on how God worked in and used Joseph. And as we near the end of Genesis, Genesis chapter 50, the whole book concludes, along with Joseph's life, with some powerful words from Joseph that help us understand how our God is a God who makes beauty from ashes, how our God is a God who redeems the pain in our lives.

If you have your Bibles again, if not, the verses will be on the screen. See Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20. Joseph speaks to his brothers and he says these words, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Joseph looks at his brothers and he says, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. This is Joseph's response to his brothers.

Why is Joseph talking to his brothers and saying, you know what, guys? You intended to cause me incredible pain. Well, in this moment in Joseph's life, a couple of things have just happened. His father and his brother's father, Jacob, has just died. They're experiencing incredible grief and sadness and sorrow.

Joseph, at this point in his life, has found himself in a position of prominence in the Egyptian empire.

Joseph has the power to harm his brothers if he sees fit. And after all, they have harmed him. The brothers, having experienced the death of their father, now believe that the buffer between them and their brother's wrath is gone. So they craft a careful lie and say, hey, this is how we'll keep Joseph from hurting us. We'll just tell them, you know, what our dad's dying wishes were.

And before they even can get it all out, Joseph says, listen, guys, I know, I know that you intended to harm me.

That word intended there is really important. It's a weighty word. It's a word that carries with it this picture of plotting and planning. What we should imagine is that Joseph's brothers carefully schemed, plotted and planned to cause enormous pain to their brother Joseph. He says, you intended to harm me.

You intended to wreck my life and wreck my world. How exactly did they do that? Well, to find that out, we need to go backward in this story a little bit. Genesis 37 is where we first kind of begin to unpack the dynamics and the relationship between Jacob, between Joseph. Sorry.

And his brothers, the sons of Jacob. We Learned in Genesis 37 early on that Joseph is a favored son of Jacob. We know this because of the famous account where Jacob gives his son Joseph an amazing Technicolor dream coat. If you believe the musical. He gives him a coat of many colors.

He gives him this ornamental coat that signifies Joseph. You're my favorite. And all of Joseph's brothers know that Joseph is Dad's favorite. And if you find yourself in a family with dynamics where there are favorites, you know just how difficult those family dynamics can be. And by the way, if you're sitting in here wondering, am I my mom and dad's favorite?

You're probably not. Because the favorites always know.

Jacob doesn't have a lot of emotional intelligence. He gives his son this jacket that declares his brothers every time they see it. Hey, guys, you're less than. I'm better than. Joseph doesn't have a whole lot of emotional intelligence because Joseph's gifted with the interpretation of dreams.

He has a couple dreams, and he decides to share those dreams with his brothers. And the interpretation of those dreams is that when one day that all of them will bow down and worship him. Imagine how that went over.

And the father's favoritism and Joseph's ignorance of what he tells his brothers, they just fuel the fires of frustration and resentment and anger and bitterness as we move towards the end of Genesis chapter 37 that results in Joseph's brothers choosing to sell him off into slavery. His brothers quite literally sold him out.

Joseph was familiar with the ashes of betrayal, but that was just the catalyst for even more pain in Joseph's life. If you look into Genesis chapter 39, the slave traders bring Joseph to Egypt. Well, in Egypt, he gets sold to a man named Potiphar. And yeah, Genesis 39 tells us that Joseph kind of rose in prominence and power in Potiphar's house. He was faithful.

He continued to honor and pursue God with his life. And with his actions. And so Potiphar entrusted him with more and more. And yet, even as that was all happening, Potiphar's wife is filled with lust for Joseph. In fact, in Genesis 39, verse 6, it tells us that Joseph was well built and handsome.

And so Potiphar's wife begins trying to find a way to have some sort of illicit affair with her husband's servant, Joseph. He chooses not to engage, and he chooses to say no again and again and again. And then she crafts an even more intricate plan. She has all the servants leave, and then, in an empty house with only Joseph there, she tries to entice him, and yet Joseph once again refuses. When she is rejected that final time, she chooses to lie.

And she tells her husband that that servant that you have tried to rape me. And so Joseph is falsely accused, his reputation is ruined, and he's sent to prison. If you're tracking the pain that Joseph has experienced, when Joseph says to his brothers In Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20, you intended to harm me. Like that pain started with his betrayal. He knows the ashes of betrayal.

But Joseph also knows the ashes of false accusation. The pain of false accusation, the pain of a ruined reputation. And yet that doesn't stop. It doesn't stop there. If you move on into chapter 40, Joseph in prison continues to pursue God.

And God honors that. He's given more responsibility. He meets a couple of the men that once found favor with the king, the cupbearer and the baker. He has conversations with them, and inevitably they have dreams. And he interprets those dreams for them.

And they're so excited about Joseph's ability to interpret dreams that the cupbearer in particular says, listen, I'll tell Pharaoh about you. I'll remember you when I get called back into his presence. And what happens is that the cupbearer gets called back into his presence, his life is saved, he gains a position of prominence, and yet, once things are better for him, he forgets Joseph.

And so again, when Joseph says In Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20, you intended to harm me, he's thinking not only of the ashes of betrayal and false accusation, the ashes of a ruined reputation, but it's the ashes of being forgotten, being overlooked, being passed over. And by the way, the forgetfulness of the cupbearer results in two more years of imprisonment for Joseph. Now, things eventually turn around. That's how Joseph ends up in this position of prominence, talking to his brothers in Genesis 50. But it took 13 years from the time that Joseph was betrayed by his brothers.

To when he is brought into a position of prominence in pharaoh's palace. That's 13 years of pain. That's 13 years of suffering. That's 13 years of likely wondering, God, what are you going to do with this?

And even as I look around the room this morning, I see the faces of people. Some of you familiar, many of you not.

But all of us who have experienced our own pain and suffering. Have we not all of us, every life in this room is familiar. Maybe you're familiar with the ashes of betrayal, like Joseph. Maybe one time someone that you loved turned their back on you and sold you out.

Some of us in the room are far too familiar with the ashes of false accusation and a ruined reputation.

Listen, if you're in the room, if you're watching online, and you hold a position of leadership in any organization, someone's going to make a false accusation about you at some point. Someone's gonna share a false story, someone's gonna write a false narrative. Someone's gonna tell to other people, they're gonna gossip about it, and it's gonna affect how other people see you. And if we're honest, that's painful and it hurts.

Some of us know that the ashes of being forgotten and overlooked passed over. In fact, some of you, maybe even this week, thought that that new job at the office, that open position, was yours. And you saw it go to somebody else.

There are likely even women in this room who feel like somehow God has overlooked them because you desperately want a child and you've not yet been able to have one.

We know the ashes of being forgotten and passed over and overlooked. And if we're honest, doesn't it go beyond that? We know the ashes of grief. Joseph certainly had to have known the ashes of grief. Can you just imagine, put yourself in his shoes.

You get sold out by your brothers, and suddenly your life changes. And you're being transported in this dusty caravan across the desert to a place that you. You don't even know where it's going to be. I can only imagine in those moments, he imagined that he would never see his father again.

He'd never embrace his brother, Benjamin, the only other child from his mother, Rachel. Jacob had several wives, and the sons were born from several wives. And chances are, Joseph wondered if he'd ever see his close brother again.

I don't know what ashes and pain you've experienced. I just know this. We've all experienced.

And what happens when the pain comes in our life? Do we believe that our God can redeem that pain? That he can make beauty from ashes. And here's the power of Joseph's story is that it doesn't end with those opening words. Yes, verse 20 begins, you intended to harm me.

But Joseph's words continue. He says, you intended to harm me. But God.

But God intended for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. But did you catch those two words after the opening statement? You intended to harm me. Then what? Say it louder.

But God, the story wasn't over. Yeah, his brother schemed. His brothers plotted his brother's plan. His brothers wanted him to suffer and experience pain, but God was working. That word intended is not only used to describe his brother's actions, it's used to describe God's actions.

While they were plotting and planning, someone greater was plotting and planning. The maker of heaven Earth was plotting and planning. And that word accomplished is significant there. That word accomplished means to work and to labor. And this is the picture of what Joseph says is that while his brothers were plotting and planning and scheming to cause him pain, that God was plotting and planning and scheming and working to make something beautiful from the ashes of his life.

That means that when Joseph was being betrayed, when his brothers threw him in the pit and sold him into slavery, that God was working.

It means that when Potiphar's wife lusted and she lied and it resulted in false accusations, a ruined reputation and imprisonment, that guess what? God was working.

It means that when he was forgotten in prison and left to languish there for another two years, that God was working.

And God was working in a way that he was able to do something that no one ever could have imagined.

If you were to fast forward to the book of Exodus and you would reach. No, sorry. It's in Genesis still when Pharaoh says to give Joseph's family the land of Goshen, Joseph gives his brother special instructions. And he says, when Pharaoh asks you if you are shepherds, just tell him you take care of livestock. Because basically, Hebrew shepherds are deplorable to Pharaoh.

And so how was it that a Hebrew shepherd, Joseph ended up in a position of prominence in Egypt, but God?

Because God was working in ways that no one could have imagined.

And it's not only that God was working in Joseph's life. The truth that Joseph proclaims in Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20 is a truth that's proclaimed about a God who is changeless. Hebrews 13 reminds us that our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that means that our God is a God that not only works in Joseph's life, in Esther's life, in Ruth's life, in David's life, in Jesus life, but our God is a God who continues to work in your life. He's a God who redeems pain.

He brings beauty from ashes, as the group sang earlier. He makes beautiful things out of the dust.

And I know that there are some of you in this room, some of you watching, who desperately want to believe that God can make beautiful things out of your ashes.

But you wonder if that's just a story for somebody else or it can be your story. And so I just want to show you a couple things we learned from this account that will help you hold on to the truth that God redeems our pain.

We see in this passage that Joseph's able to hold hold on to a belief and a faith in God's sovereignty, in God's providence. God's sovereignty speaks to the reality that God is ultimately in control of all things, that he is an absolute power and remains an absolute power. When someone is sovereign, they have absolute control.

It's something that's taught in Scripture that our God is sovereign. But we even see it in this passage like we see that God is at work specifically in Genesis chapter 39, when Joseph finds himself in Potiphar's house as a slave. Verse 2. It tells us that the Lord was with Joseph after he's thrown in prison, falsely accused. Verse 21 and verse 23 of Genesis 39 tell us once again that the Lord was with Joseph, the Lord was with Joseph, that God is still present, that God is still on the throne, that God is still in control.

And so we see Joseph clinging to the sovereignty of God. And here's the thing about God's sovereignty. It's something that we have to look out to, we have to look forward to. Because in the moment when the pain is crushing, we don't feel it, we don't think we're experiencing it. So we have to look ahead to what we know to be true of God.

God, I believe that you're good. I believe that you're still on the throne. So we look out in hope and anticipation, with expectation.

But God's sovereignty is also paired with his providence. And the providence of God speaks to how God is always at work in everything. No matter how hard, no matter how difficult, no matter how good, no matter how amazing that. That God is working. But the thing about God's providence, it's not just.

It's not seen by looking ahead. Like his sovereignty, it's seen by looking back, we see God's providence in the rear view mirror. It's why the pain that you experienced in sixth grade or when you were 23, the heartache when you were 40, that somehow years later you can see that God was at work. Even in that pain, Joseph clings to the sovereignty and the providence of God. How you and I can believe that he redeems pain still, that he brings beauty from ashes, is that we would cling to the sovereignty and the providence of God.

There's a passage in Isaiah that helps me remember the sovereignty and providence of God. It's in Isaiah, chapter 55. It's a verse that I have gone back to time and time again, usually in the most difficult seasons of my life when things don't seem to make sense. And let's just be honest, aren't there a lot of moments like that in life? But here is what God speaks through the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. When I struggle to understand what God is up to, when I struggle to understand if God can bring any beauty from my pain, these words help me lift my eyes to the heavens where my help comes from. That God's working in ways that I can't understand.

His. His thoughts are different than mine. And while they're different than mine, he's working ways. I don't understand that God is so much better. One more thing I want you to see here is that one of the ways that Joseph clings to the sovereignty and providence of God and he's able to do that, is that he just faithfully keeps pursuing God even when life is hard, even when the pain comes.

One of the ways we see it anecdotally is as we look at his life, how he treats people. Joseph is faithful. He's faithful in Potiphar's house, He's faithful in prison. He's merciful and he's gracious and is kind to his brothers even when he confronts them after all that they caused him those 13 years of pain.

We also get a window into his pursuit of God in Genesis 39. In Genesis 39, I think it's verse nine, when he's speaking to Potiphar's wife as she tries to entice him. He basically says, there's nothing in my whole master's house that he has withheld from Me, except you. He says, how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against. He doesn't say Potiphar, he doesn't say my master.

He says, how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? It shows us that Joseph's continuing to pursue God in the midst of the pain. And as he pursues God, he's able to cling to his sovereignty and in time become aware of his providence. That's reflected in Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20. You intended to harm me, but God intended for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving many lives.

Our God is a God who redeems pain, but we have to continue to pursue him, to see, to cling to his sovereignty and his providence. But this isn't just something that's stored away in the pages of Scripture. It still happens in our lives. I want to share with you the story of dear friends of ours. May of 2023.

We were wrapping up a purchase of a car at a dealership in Carmel. My phone began to ring and I ignored it because I'm a good person and not really, I just like to ignore phone calls. But I had it in do not disturb. And so it rang through and then it rang through again and that was a pretty good clue that somebody needed something. And the third time it rang, I answered it and I walked outside and on the other phone I could just hear the quivering voice, the heaving sobs, and I knew that this was a really difficult phone call.

One of my closest friends was on the other end and he began to share with me how they had just rushed his four month old daughter to the hospital. He'd been feeding her and she stopped breathing. He had to administer infant cpr. And then the rescue team came and took her away. Over the coming days, through multiple conversations, through text, through voice, we learned of her moving from hospital to Children's hospital to a special NICU area.

And within about 36 hours, his daughter died.

So we spent the next several weeks trying to walk alongside them. It may sound weird, but I had the privilege of helping officiate her funeral. But as we walked alongside them, they will tell you it was the darkest season of their lives. To compound the darkness, he was working for a large church in Southern California. And when they just saw the grief that was wrecking their family, the church decided they were doing him a favor and they terminated him with a small severance package so he could care for his family.

You can imagine the heartbreak in those days. They just wondered and they voiced several times, can, can God do anything with this Fast forward to May of 2024 and I want to read you the words from his blog post on the anniversary of his daughter's death. He says, I know what I'm about to write may seem out of left field for those who aren't people who follow Jesus, but here it is. I've watched God transform me into a person of great happiness. Even in suffering, I have a deep joy and a deep peace that's nothing like I've ever experienced before.

Through therapy, God's intervention, and the love of good followers of Jesus, I can look back on this past year and actually smile. It's with tears in my eyes that I write this because it's a piece I never imagined having. But it's here and I believe it's a gift straight from Jesus. As he holds our sweet daughter in his arms, I feel him loving me as I love him back and I feel as if we're both happy. Writing those words still leaves me puzzled, but that's how God's gifts work.

We don't have to know how they work, we just accept them and thank him and that's enough.

What a change from one year prior. And it speaks to a God who redeems our pain and brings beauty from ashes. But that's not the end of the story. I want you to fast forward to right now, May of 2025.

Our friends not only are holding a five month old daughter each day who God has in his grace allowed them to have, but he's preaching as a lead pastor in a church in Michigan again.

But even more still, this last week a family in their church experienced the death of a child. And guess who God uses and is using and used to walk alongside of them. Our friends. And it just speaks to how God redeems pain and how God makes beauty from ashes. There's a verse in Scripture when I think about Joseph's story, my friend's story, and really all of our stories.

It's Romans, Chapter eight. It pulls together everything we've talked about today. It's a great echo to Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. In fact, many places I have the two of them starred and linked in my Bibles. But here's what Paul writes In Romans chapter 8, verse 28 that we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

You can hear the sovereignty of God in those verses that God works in all things. Nothing's beyond his reach. You can hear the providence of God in Those verses that he's working for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. And you can hear the pursuit of God's best in those verses that we love him, we're called according to his purposes. It's my hope and my prayer that you'll see that our God still makes beauty from ashes.

And one of the ways he does that is that he redeems our pain. He redeems your pain. He redeems my pain. I want to show you a painting. It's by a Chinese artist.

It's called the Allure of Matter.

This painted in 2007, and the artist painted it using volcanic ash, ash that were a reminder of violently destructive hot lava that had destroyed villages and towns, ruined families.

And yet he takes the ash and he uses it for his pigment and he creates a masterpiece. And to me, this painting is just a reminder that we have an even greater artist, our God, who made us and crafted us and created us. And he's able to take the ash and the pain of our lives and make something beautiful.

If you want God to help bring beauty from your ashes this Mother's Day, here's a few hints I would give you on how to maybe make yourself more aware of that. One is that when you are in seasons of tremendous pain, force yourself to come back to his word. I'm going to tell you based upon my own experience, the experience of people I love, that when we're experiencing life's greatest tragedies, there are times when this is the last book we want to open up. But if we will drive ourselves there and just ask God, will you just show me something? Maybe even open up the Psalms.

You will find poem after poem, wisdom after wisdom that helps point us to a God who is greater than our trouble. If you can't bring yourself to do that, or even if you can maybe alongside of it, like find some worship music, whatever it is that stirs your heart. Maybe it's a favorite band that's current, or maybe it's something from the 90s, or maybe it's a hymn from the late 1800s. Allow God to use those words to lift your eyes to him. Where your help comes from.

If you need help seeing how God providentially is working, I'd encourage you to invite some other people into your circle. Talk to someone in your life group. Talk to another follower of Jesus. Talk to someone who knows you and knows your story. Ask them to help you see how God has been working even in the painful things of your life.

To help you get to where you are today, to accomplish his good purposes.

We want to help you find your next step in your spiritual journey. If you don't yet know of this God who brings beauty from ashes, we want to help you. If you're at home, the best thing you can do is text the word next to the number you see on the screen. And if you're here in the room and you want something a little more anonymous and not quite so personal right away, you can do the same. But I also want to invite you that there's going to be a group of people at the front of the room after my closing prayer who would love to listen to you, would love to pray with you, would love to help you find that next step in your spiritual journey, to experience the beauty that God brings from ashes.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I thank you for the moms in this room, the legacy that's being left. I thank you for the moms that have gone before us, whose legacy we now live in.

God, I thank you for the moms who have not been able to birth children but have chosen adoption. God, I thank you for the moms who have neither adopted nor birthed children. But, God, they have come alongside young men and young women and just kind of taken them in and poured into them.

God, I thank you that the worth of a woman is not found in her womb.

And God, I thank you that you're a God who rewrites stories, that you're a God who brings beauty from ashes, that you are a God who redeems our pain, that you are a God who is ready and open and willing to take us where we are and help us come to a place we never thought possible. And, God, I pray that you would do it again and again here in this room today and in the years to come. God, thank you. It's in your name we pray and trust the name of Jesus. Amen.

May you go.