What do you do when bad things happen? What do you do when you feel broken with almost 20 years in ministry experience? What I've realized is that two things can simultaneously be true. Number one is that our world is beautiful and number two, our world is broken. You know, being a pastor is, is kind of a weird gig just being transparent with you for just a moment. I say that because like at the end of the day, I'm just the average person honestly for those that know me. No, I'm pretty much like a giant child. Um And I laugh at silly things and, and, and you go through that. And so uh there's the human side of it that is uh you know, I have my own battles with worry and, and selfishness and sin and am I measuring up? Am I, am I leading appropriately? And uh and there's at the same time, there's this weight of the calling and uh you know, I heard early on in my ministry days that God really doesn't call the qualified but rather qualifies the called. And, and so I've, I've realized that to be true that that I, I have my own issues just as a human being. But then I have this high calling from God. And, and so with that, then I've gotten a front row seat to, for the last almost 20 years of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And so I've got to attend or officiate weddings, celebration of life, uh child dedications, life transformations expressed through baptism. I've, I've seen uh families reconciled and, and, and relationships restored. I've seen miracles and healings and answers to prayer. And so I've seen the highest of highs like, wow, God is so good and, and, and life is so beautiful. But then at the same time being a pastor gets you a front row seat to the lowest of lows and the brokeness of life. And then at memorials and funerals, uh you know, been there when a teen or young adult overdoses to drugs or um someone leaves their family and betrays or somebody that you've invested years of your life into walks away from the faith. And I've seen the firsthand effects of betrayal and relationships in life and Brokenness there. And so it's weird to see this over the decades. And so what I want to do today is that as believers in God, that we actually have a tool to help us process the Brokenness of life and that, that tool is called lament. Now, what exactly is lament? I mean, it sounds like something you'd pick up from the grocery store, hardware store, you know, uh you know, grab, grab the milk, grab some bread. Uh Oh, don't forget the lament. You know, uh It sounds like what actually is lament. Uh Well, the definition of lament is really the big idea for today. And it's this, that lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. It's a prayer in pain that leads to trust. I like what author Mark V Rope says. He says to cry is human. To lament is Christian. To cry, is human. To lament is Christian. I don't think it's a coincidence that when babies are born, the very first thing they do is cry, right? And some of us grow up and we still cry. Some of us like Luka don, it just cry after any foul call. Um for those that watch the NBA finals. But, but we we go through life and it is human to cry. It is human to complain. It's human to struggle with the issues of life. But to lament is Christian because Lamenting is different. That same author uh Later in his book actually goes on to say these words. He says lament is different. The practice of lament, the kind that is biblical, honest and redemptive is not natural for us because every lament is a prayer, a statement of faith lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart, wrestling with their paradox of pain. And the promise of God's goodness. I love that last sentence. It's an honest cry of a hurting heart, wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God's goodness. What lament does is that lament stands the gap between pain and promise. Like you read scripture and you can read that God is so good, but then you look out or maybe even look within and you can say at times, but my life is not good right now. And so what do we do with that? You see, lament is ok with messiness. Lament is OK with slowness and few answers. The Met is willing to sit in the heaviness hurt. It's easy in church world to be going through the toughness of life, the stress, the anxiety, the worry and then walk through the doors of a church and someone asks you, how are you doing great? But the inside of your heart and mind is a tangled mess. It's like for those that still have wired headphones, you ever pulled headphones out of like a backpack or a purse or a bag, right? And it's just knotted up. You know, the younger generation will not understand the struggle that we've had with uh like I couldn't even purposely tie knots of headphones that some of the knots I've seen, right? Are you with me on? OK. Anyway, sometimes our head and our hearts can feel like that. But yet we have this desire to, to portray an image to and maybe it's not even bad. Maybe it's not like you're trying to portray an image, you just can't go there. Have you been there before? Like someone asked how you're doing? And you're like, I don't think you have an hour or two hours to hear how I'm really doing. And so I'm like, good, how are you? OK. See you. Right. But what do we do with that? But as Christians, we actually have the tool of lament, which deals with four very big categories that we all experience in the life. And those categories are sin, sorrow, sadness, and suffering that we can walk through life. We can sing praises of the goodness of God that we trust in God. But we have to understand that goodness still exists is still true even in the middle of our Brokenness. So whether we're struggling with sin, whether we're battling with sorrow and that, that we're, we're experiencing grief and sadness or maybe we're just suffering, you know, cancer is a very real thing. Betrayal is a real thing. Job loss is a real thing, wondering what to do next. Where do I go from here? Is real. And I love that the Psalms really do have a song for every season and then speaks into the reality of our struggle and gives us a way forward. Uh One way to think about this is that Buffaloes actually have this interesting practice where they actually march into the storm where cows, maybe not quite as smart cows, if they're an open field will try to run from the storm. And so you see a storm coming in, so they'll try to slowly walk. But what happens when you slowly walk away from a storm is that you can't outrun the storm. And so then you actually prolong the storm that you're in where it seems counterintuitive. But buffaloes when they see a storm, actually, they actually walk into it and torch it and by walking into the storm, they actually get through the storm faster. And so what I wanna encourage you to do today is that if you're battling on a variety of levels, rather than running from your storm, I wanna encourage you to lean into it and actually march right into it and the process and the prayers of lament is gonna help us do that. Now, what do, what does a prayer of lament do? It really does for us. Four things. It has four purposes here. Number one, it is a form of protesting. Wait, what? Yeah, you can actually honestly and openly protest God. See if your God is not big enough to handle your questions, then I would question if your God is God, right? I, I want a God that can handle my questions. I want a God that when I don't know what's going on, I realize that He still does, right? And so if you've ever been angry God. Why would you allow blank? How could you do this? Where were you when this happened? That is actually an option when it comes to lamenting. It's a form of protesting. Number two, it is a form of processing when you have this mixture, this ball of emotions and you're like, what do I do with? This is a way for you to process what's going on in your life. Number three, lament is a way to voice confusion. If you've ever been in a place where you don't understand why God allowed something to happen. You've been where every single human being has ever been. And what I've realized is that it's valuable to trust that what's confusing to you is not confusing to God that you might not get answers on this side of eternity. But you pray to a God who does have all the answers, right? Can you imagine being in a class and the teacher gives you a test and you go up and ask a question and be like, hey, teach, I don't understand this question and the teacher responds. Who neither do I? Good question. That's a tough one. I have no idea. Like, wait, you wrote the question. I know. And I have no idea what the answer is. Good luck though. Well, maybe some of you had those teachers. I don't know, but I can take comfort and I think you can take comfort as well. Is that whatever is confusing to you. You can rest in the fact that it's not confusing to God and the fourth purpose of lament and this is where we're going to spend most of our time today is that lamenting is a way to voice confession to go directly to God, that you actually don't have to go through someone. You can go directly to the source and directly to God Himself to do this. Ok? So we see these four purposes here and, and so we're gonna spend most of our morning, this process of lamenting is good for all of these categories. But we're gonna focus on the most Brokenness that you deal with the most often. And that is yourself that the biggest struggle you're gonna have in life is going to be with you and you can't outrun you if you've ever tried to outrun you, it doesn't work. OK? Uh I remember when I was uh this is, this is bad but uh I, I once was in school and um and I told our principal that if uh when I was a kid, I told the principal that if you turn your head fast enough, you can actually see your ear and I would always do stuff like this. And they're like, yeah, totally. And I would convince people and then I had a whole group of kids like, yeah, I can see in my ear totally. And so the principal like the leader of our school was like, that's so stupid and then he walked away and I see him go. So I wasn't proud of that moment. Although, ok, actually, I kind of was proud of that moment. But so there's times where we try to convince people of doing things that maybe they can't do, but then we try to convince ourselves. Right? Like, if you've ever tried to convince yourself of something that, you know, is unhealthy. right? Like if you've had a snack or a box of candy or cookies or chips or something and you're eating it and you're like, I should stop and then you tell yourself, well, I'm gonna eat these anyway, might as well get it out of the way and you, and next thing you know the bag's gone or anyway, OK. We've all done this in one way shape or another. What do you do when you've done that? What do you do when you've sinned? What do you do when you come face to face with your own Brokenness? Cause that's the toughest thing you're gonna face cause you can't outrun yourself. Like when you put your head down on your pillow at night, it's still you. And I know this is an issue because people, whether you have faith or not repeatedly try to deaden reality or numb pain in their life, right? And what do they do? They turn to drug, they turn to drink, they turn to scrolling, they turn to binge watching, they turn to excessive shopping, they turn to controlling somebody else because they can't control this situation. Right. We have unhealthy practices that we turn to. But what if there was a better way? What if there's a better way to deal with the deepest stuff that we struggle with in our lives that we know when we've messed up. What do you do with that? We get to take a look at one of the greatest pictures of that found in Psalm 51. So David, David wrote a good percentage of the Psalms uh almost half. And there's this story found in second Samuel chapter 11 and 12 that David completely messes up and blows up his life. And so we talk about sin. He's going to the nth degree. And so through this example, we actually get this raw, emotional appeal and understanding of what to do when you feel broken because David feels completely broken. And here's what he did for those unfamiliar with the story. So David was a shepherd boy defeats Goliath takes down a giant, becomes this great warrior runs for his life. Last week, we shared that he wrote a praise song while in a cave on the run for his life. Well, fast forward, he becomes king. He's this great leader, like he's one of the most feared leaders in the entire world. He is the king. But in a time when he's supposed to be in battle in a time where he's supposed to be leading the troops out front. He is lazy and apathetic and he's where he's not supposed to be. That's, first of all, by the way, is where a lot of sin happens is when you put yourself in positions that you're not supposed to be. Right. That's where we open the door for Satan to come in. So David's supposed to be out in the battlefield. He's not, he's chilling back there in his castle if you will. And then he sees bathsheba beautiful woman bathing. It's, it's not his own, it's not his wife and, and a look turns to lust and he's the king, the king gets whatever he wants. And so, hey, who is this woman? And his servant? Noah was like, oh, this isn't gonna be good but I can't, I can't deny the king. He said, hey, isn't that Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, like your best fighter, like the person who saved your life before Uriah, like somebody off limits don't go there, David. But David wants what David wants. He's the king calls for, they're together best she gets pregnant. Ok? Oh, now do I? What do I do? So now he tries to cover it up and, and what's so commonly happens is that we sin and then we try to cover up and then when we cover up, it gets worse and worse and worse, right? And so then he covers up and so he, he summoned Zariah to come home and be like, hey, you've been fighting hard, go spend time with your wife. But he's like, I can't do that. I got brothers on the front lines and so if they're struggling, I'm gonna be in solidarity with them. And so he doesn't go home, he sleeps outside. It's like, oh, that didn't work so well, I'm gonna invite him in. So invites him to dinner. Actually gets your, I drunk. I mean, this is worse than like any reality show or drama you would see on TV today. But actually happened gets him drunk. He's like right now, go home, even in his drunken stupor still has more character than what David has. Doesn't go home. Like man, this is not working. So he actually orders for him back in battle to go to the front lines. And when he goes to the front lines in the heat of the battle for everybody else to pull back. So he actually has Zariah killed, so Uriah is killed. Bathsheba is mourning and then after the time of morning actually brings her into the house, marries her and you're gonna have a kid. And so like, this is not good. So about a year later, there's a prophet named Nathan. Now imagine having this role, the most powerful person in the world and you're gonna confront him, that's a tough job. Ok? But he goes, and he tells this story, he says, and David along with being king and the warrior, he was also kind of the judge in, in these things and could rule on certain settings. He's like, hey, I wanna get your advice on something. There's this rich man who had lots of livestock, but he wanted to kill a lamb. And so instead of using his owns, he went to this poor man who only had one animal and this animal was the only one he had. And the animal was so close in those days when you were close and you only had one animal, sometimes the animal would live in the house with you, right? And so this animal did it and he would and took it and killed the animal. And David was so enraged that this person would take something that belonged to someone else for his own use. He said this person needs to be put to death. This person like needs to be like judged to the harshest degree. And Nathan looked him right in the ultimate preaching mic drop moment goes, you are the man. And so in this rawness of being confronted with his sin, being found out in the ultimate picture of shame and guilt. This is where we have Psalm 51. So in this raw emotion from the bottom of the bottom we find here in Psalm 51. Let's jump into it here, verse one, have mercy on me. Oh God. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from sin. And so verse one and two, he jumps right into this plea for God's mercy to blot to cover up if you've been writing and, and you've missed, you made a mistake like to cover up to remove it. But then it goes deeper and it says to cleanse me to wash me from the inside like like what dirt is to the body. Sin is to the soul. And so this is come in and he realizes he is messed up. Verse three for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. He says against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. He acknowledges that his sin wasn't just against the person but was against the very God who made him right? So he humbles himself and then he continues in honesty verse five, he says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in my sin, did my mother conceive me? He's like, look, I've been messed up from the beginning. I am a sinner. I am broken. When was the last time we had like a leader in public society who just comes forth and says, you know what I messed up. No, we, we politicize everything. We, we justify everything we rationalize sin, we minimalize sin. We compare our sin to the sins of others. All right. Well, I didn't do this. I wasn't as bad as this king. I didn't do here like, like we do. That's what we do with sin. We, we justify it. We minimize it. We, we excuse it, but David doesn't do that. He says I messed up and I am just humbling myself before you. God verse six is behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Are you honest in the secret parts in your heart person? Nobody knows about. Are you willing to confront that? Are you willing to be humble? But then are you willing to be honest with where you are? Verse seven? It says purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Hyssop was this plant? It, it was purple leaves, flowers. It was used for, for, for perfume. It was used for medicine. But it also had these like wispy looking branches and leaves on it. So that priest would actually use hyssop branches and dip it in oil for cleansing, but also dip it in blood when they were doing sacrifices and cleansing. Because in the old Testament system, there was still an animal sacrifice that was given as payment for sin because sin always leads to death. And so there's a seriousness to it. And so when priests would like wave this branch dipped in either oil or blood over its people. It was a symbol of cleansing and, and forgiveness that comes from God. And so now David is going directly to God himself saying, purge me with hyssop that I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be wider than snow. That phrase is also quoted in other prophets like in Isaiah. It's where we get songs. Uh like Jesus paid it all wash me wider than snow comes from this pain. From this humble and honest moment before God verse eight, it says, let me hear joy and gladness that the bones that you have broken rejoice. If you think medically speaking, like if some someone's ever had a broken bone, it had to be reset or put in a cast or to have surgery, all of those things are very painful but you go through the pain so that you can experience healing very like no one that I know goes yay surgery like that's painful, right? I mean, maybe people like the anesthetic, but that's a whole another issue. Um but surgeries happen so that healing can happen. And so David here in his raw emotion is saying God break me, I am broken so that you can put me back together. He's honest here, verse nine, he says, hide your face from my sins, blot out all my iniquities. There is a key verse here, verse 10. Create in me a clean heart. Oh God. Notice he's like saying He's not saying I will be better. He's saying I need to be made new God. You move through me and renew a right spirit with me, clean my heart, cleanse my heart, make me new, make me restored. Verse 11, cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me says, verse 12, ver restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold with me, a willing spirit. And so verses one through seven, he talks about this idea of cleanse me. And then verses eight through 12, he talks about this picture of restoring me. And then verses 13 to 19, he continues on and now says, now use me in my Brokenness in my humility. God, I commit to you. And I'm going to teach others about this grace that you have given to me. Verse 13 says, then I will teach transgressors, your ways and sinners will return to you, deliver me from blood guilt. Oh God, oh God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, my uh open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice nor will I give it. Will I not be uh you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. Says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. What he's saying here is like, don't just like do a series of things like offer these sacrifices or a checklist. So I did this wrong. So I'm gonna do this, this and this and then offer it to God. It's like, no, I don't want that. I want your repentance. I want your honesty. I want your humility. The word contrite means remorseful. Here's a question that we've all wrestled with when somebody has apologized to us, is the person sorry that he or she got caught or is the person sorry for what they did? You know what I'm saying? Have you experienced that difference? Maybe you've been the person and you've had to wrestle with. Am I sorry? Because I got caught or am I sorry? Because I hurt the relationship. There's a big difference there and that's what David is saying. He's saying God is not looking for people to offer fake and phony sacrifices. What he wants to see is a broken contrite and repentant heart says that oh God, you will not despise and then he continues now and expands it to the kingdom here. He says, do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings in whole burnt offerings, then bows will be offered on your altar. What he's saying? Here he goes from personal. He's saying, cleanse me, oh God for I have sinned against you. I am humble. I am honest, I messed up, renew and restore in me. A clean heart. God restore me to wholeness, make me new. And I will shout from the rooftops, not just of my own sin, but of my own salvation that comes through you alone. And that when you are humble, when you are honest, when you confess, when you are renewed and restored God can transform lives in communities. But there is bad news and then there's good news when it comes to how we deal with our sin. See, it's not, it's not just simply I said I messed up. OK? Cool. Now I'm good again and then start and then just stay in that pattern like it's, it's it's happens. We do that but that's really not repentance, right? Is, is really the attitude behind it. Are you like celebrating sin? Are you struggling through it? Are you working through it? Right? Is there a humility there? Is it an honesty there? Because there is very real consequences to sin. And I want you to know that even when we ask God for forgiveness, there is still consequences for sin. You see sin is what separates us from God. And that separation from God ultimately leads to hell. If you do not believe Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, not just if you're a good person, but if you do not believe that Jesus alone is Lord and Savior, you are rejecting God. And when you reject God, God gives you the desire of your heart is that He allows you to go to the one place where there is no God and that place is hell and it's dark, gnash your teeth, lonely fire. All the things that should scare us. Then the other consequence of sin is that, that's why Jesus came and had to die. The sin of you and me, the sin of the world led to the death of Jesus Christ. That's a very serious consequence. And then there's this other side of it too because we need to understand that not everything bad in our life has happened because we've sinned, right? It's not like there are consequences of sin. Like sometimes I feel like we're just like, oh, I'm being spiritually attacked. No, you're just kind of being a jerk. You know, like some of that is there. But there are other times where we walk through situations where you can do ABC D, right? And then you get there and you're like, OK, if I did ABC and D, I'm gonna get E and you go ABC D nine. Wait, what I wasn't even talking about numbers like how could this come? You know what I'm saying? Like you can do everything in your power and the kid walks away from the family, you can do everything in your power and do everything right? And there's betrayal, you can do everything following after God and you can be generous and you can lose your job, right? You can get cancer you can be hurt. Why? Because our world is in fact broken. So not everything is because of our sin, but we have to at least acknowledge what part do we play in this and in our own Brokenness. And so how do we respond? And so the fact that we live in a broken world means that broken things happen. And so there is a consequence for that. And so when you understand that, like, even like, even though you're like, well, how could there still be evil? God hasn't dealt with his evil? Well, he hasn't. Well, one, he has dealt with evil in the sense that he's dealt with evil in the past. We can read stories in the old Testament. He has dealt with evil because Jesus came and died on the cross. That's the ultimate dealing with evil. But then we read that there's also one day he's coming back and he's gonna deal with evil once and for all and everyone who's rejected God, Satan himself and all the demons are gonna be cast in the lake of fire for all eternity. So it's coming. Ok? So you just gotta realize you just gotta add the word yet to your question, God, why haven't you dealt with evil yet? And understand that? And you gotta leave vengeance and leave justice up to God. But then in the meantime, you have to look at your own life and be like, ok, what have I done? That has led to Brokenness in my life and how can I respond? So there's earthly consequences, for example. So for David, um that child that was born, how do I like it died? That's a pretty serious consequence from that. Um From that point on David had family turmoil and conflict. In fact, he had other sons who were trying to take his life, they had family fighting the rest of his life. Also, his kingdom was never as strong. After that, there was constant fighting and doubting he was publicly humiliated. He had this diminished authority. He had ongoing conflict. Not to mention there is personal shame and guilt that he had to wrestle with the rest of his life. If you've ever blown it and made a huge mistake, you understand that when you throw certain rocks into the pond, the ripple effects sometimes go not just to you, but for generations, right? If it's not your own, maybe you've, you've, you've experienced the ripple effect of somebody else's sin in your life. And so there's very real earthly consequences. We have to know that. But then with that, you can understand this, that there's also good news. See, the good news is that you are not your worst moment. The good news is that God can transform and change your life. You see a lot of times we start here in a position and then something bad happens whether to us or through us or because of us and we think in our minds, man, I can never get back to there. Does that make sense? I was here now, I'm there. I can't get back to where I once was. The toothpaste is out of the tube, right? Like I can't go back like it's not gonna happen. And I'm here to tell you you are correct. It will never go back to the way it was. But God can take you somewhere new and that somewhere new can be filled with restoration, new creation, resilience, perseverance, courage, strength. God can open doors that you never thought were possible and God can work in and through you beyond anything you can ask, think or imagine there are. Sometimes I leave church and I was like, yeah, and then there's sometimes I leave church and I'm ready to punch the devil in the mouth. You know what I'm saying? Like, well, let's go like, like, like come on like go like here's the thing is that when you feel broken, when you feel down, I want you to know that when you're down, you're not done, God's not done. If you're not dead, God's not done. And God could use your situation for good and for glory. How do I know this to be true? Because David and Bathsheba would actually go on to have other Children, one of them being Solomon and there who would become the one who made the temple, the become the wisest person in the world and would be in the lineage of Jesus. So God used the worst, most broken moment of David's life and left it in the lineage of Jesus. God can use your Brokenness. God can use your lowest moments for good. That's why the early start of ministry is all about repentance. John, the Baptist Matthew 31 is in those days, John, the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying repent. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent is to turn from your sin. Jesus Matthew 417. It says from that time, Jesus began to preach, saying repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. So John, the Baptist said it, Jesus said it. Peter, the first sermon ever preached. Acts two verse 38. Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit repent, turn from your sin. This doesn't have to be the end. Be humble. Be honest, God's forgiveness can infiltrate your life and can turn things around James. One verse 1315 says, let no one say when he is tempted for, I'm being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil, but he himself tempts and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted. When he is lured and enticed by his own desires, then desire. When it is conceived, gives birth to sin and sin. When it's fully grown, brings forth death, it's our own sinfulness that leads us into so many bad situations. And Luke 817 says, for there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be made known and come to light that God knows. But here's, here's the good part. First John 17 and eight says, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus. His son cleanses us from all sin. It's that same verbiage there says now, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. Verse 91 of my favorite verses in the Bible, I have five daily declarations that I make every single day to myself. If if you want those five, talk to me after I'll happily share those one of them is that God loves beyond me. And it comes specifically from first John 19 that says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, I love that, that He is just and faithful to cleanse us and make us new. And then it says verse 10, that if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And the word is not in us one more passage for this morning, Romans three. Romans 323 says for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. Now, people have used that verse to show that we're all sinners and it's true. We all have fallen short and exchange God's glory for some selfish desire. But here's the good news of the other side of sin. Verse 24 to 26 is for, we are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus says, whom God put for forward as a propitiation. That's a fancy word for payment by his blood to receive, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. The same picture that David describes here in Psalm 51 says it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that He might be both just and the justif fire of the one who has faith in Jesus. What we learn is that Jesus is judge Jesus is prosecutor, but he is also the defendant for you. He is right. He has all positions because yes, you have sinned against God, but it is God Himself who is just to set you free. That forgiveness is possible that your Brokenness does not have to stay broken that while we live in our mess, we don't have to stay in our mess because God comes into our mess and makes us new. If you ever had little taking care of any little babies, little babies have accidents, right. Make little messes in the diapers, but they don't stay in that. Right. No one was like, oh, a little mess feels kind of good. We're gonna stay here for a while. No, you need somebody to change. You need somebody to make new. You need somebody fresh, right? This is what God does for you and for me in our messiness in our Brokenness, we can come to God and God makes us clean. God makes us whole. God makes us new because lament is a prayer and pain that leads to trust. I'm gonna end with this as the band comes up here and this, the ABC is here of lament. It's just the process to do it. Now we focused in on sin. But I want you to hear me here. That lament is much bigger than that. That if you're struggling with grief, if you're struggling with um anxiety and worry and sorrow and suffering, these same three steps apply. OK? Here it is is that number one is to approach God in humility, approach God in humility. It starts by acknowledging you're not in control. They got us bigger than you, right? If you're struggling with the situation outside of your control, just come before them and say God, I don't get it right. The second thing is you gotta bring your confession to God with honesty. If it's sin, name, it be specific. Don't minimalize it, don't justify it. Don't rationalize it. Be honest with what you did, what you said, what you didn't do if you're struggling with this situation. Be honest with God. I'm mad at you, God, I'm mad at this situation. I'm not sure what happened. Whatever it is. Come to God, approach to God in humility and then bring forth the confession and honesty. And then the third thing here is then to commit to turning from sin and trusting in God's hope, no matter whatever mess you're in, whether it's your own doing or maybe the doing of somebody else that you don't understand whatever difficulty you're facing, you can land in a place of trust. And we know that because God sent his son Jesus who paid the price for your sin and for mine. And with that, there's forgiveness, there's love, there's hope, there's freedom. God wants to take you somewhere new. He'll do that. When we come to him. We bring our laments before Him. To cry is human, but to lament is of God dear Jesus. We uh we love you, we praise you God and humility. We come before you now and we would bring forth our worries, our struggles, our sins. God may we be honest and confess what it is that we've said what we've done, what we've not done what our worries are, what the situations are that is weighing on our shoulders and God, we give these to you, make us new, cleanse our hearts, renew and restore our souls and we place our trust and our praise into your hands today, Jesus, we love you. It's in your son's name. We pray. Amen.