Woman Evolve with Sarah Jakes Roberts - Help is On the Way

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Life has a way of bringing us face-to-face with moments we never saw coming. In this special episode, Sarah shares an intimate update on her recent neck injury, the journey of healing, and what God has been teaching her in the middle of uncertainty. he reminds us that gratitude and grief can coexist, pain doesn't have to silence our praise, and even in seasons we would rather not walk through, God has not abandoned us. If you've been carrying disappointment, navigating unexpected challenges, or wondering where God is in the middle of it all, this conversation is for you. Help is on the way. And sometimes, the reminder you need is that God is still writing your story. Scripture Reference: John 14:25-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Only in theaters June 19th. How can working at your local Tims take you further? Sure, you can level up your teamwork skills. You also get a chance to receive a Tim Hortons Scholarship Award. Ready for what's next? Apply today at careers.timhorans.ca. What's up? This is Sarah Jakes Roberts and you are listening to the Woman Evolve podcast. I hope that you all enjoyed last week's episode as much as I did. I had such a blast talking to Breesha. and if you haven't heard it, it is worth going back to listen to. It's an incredible way to end mental health awareness with some joy and laughter. I wanted to share an update with you all.

Some of you may know, may not know. I have been nursing a neck injury that started off with broken bones and herniated disc. And I shared an update, but also just what I've been learning about God in this season with our family at the Potter's House, Dallas. And I wanted to share it with you too. So, yeah, let's listen to. And if you have been going through a season where you feel like life is lifing, God is good, but life is hard. I believe that this is going to meet you right where you are because that is certainly what I have

been feeling, especially with this most recent update. And so, yeah, I want to share with you what God's been showing me about this time and what he's been asking me to remember. And I pray that it helps you too. Can you give God 10 seconds if I'm so glad you're not done with me, praise? Potter's house can you do a little bit better than that if you know that you know that you know that you know that for some reason i was ready to give up on myself but god came out in the middle of my midnight hour and said hang on and hold on you know that's a little personal for me because about four weeks ago when i thought i was just having a normal day a weapon that was formed against me me. I didn't even know that the weapon was foreign, but God stepped right in and said, no, no, no, I'm not done with her yet. You see, we don't know how many times God has stepped in. We don't know

how many times we were driving the car and there was angels and camped about the car. And the enemy had an assignment on that day. But God said, uh-uh, I'm not done with them yet. We don't know how many times the doctor's report should have said something different but all of a sudden the blood work turned in your favor because god said no no no i'm not done with that one yet should have been locked up and in my grave but god said hold on i'm not sometimes when we're in we begin to believe that maybe he's finished with us that maybe our best days are behind us and because As I haven't been here in a few weeks, I'm just going to ask that you turn to the person beside you and just give them a reminder that he's not done with them yet because you don't

know what they're going through. If you really love them, you might give them a hug or something because the enemy tries to isolate you in the middle of your storm and make you believe that you're in it all on your own. We don't know what's facing them when they walk out of this room, but right now we know that they sit right next to you. And if they sit next to you, they sit next to a testimony. They sit next to somebody who shouldn't be in this room, somebody who shouldn't have the praise

that they have. But God, but God came through. Yeah. Love on them real good. That may be the best song or sermon they hear today is what they get from you. Sometimes we come to church and we think it's about what's going to happen on the platform. God says the real church is who you sit next to. If the pastor didn't preach a word at all, if the worship leader didn't sing the song,

your life is enough message in itself to set everybody in this room free. If we just take a minute and talk about what God has done for you. Well, so I love you too. Oh, goodness. Well, this is going to be part testimony service. Part message. I am going to just share with you what God's been speaking to me in this season. And if it's okay, I want to be honest and transparent about some of the highs and lows,

some of the things that are still in process. What I assure you is this, is sometimes we wait to tell our story when we are all the way in the victory of it. And yet I know that I'm still in process, I'm still recovering a bit. And I didn't want to wait until I was all the way on the other side before I came back to tell my family that it's okay to be in the process and still trusting God in the midst of it. So if I had to put a title under these thoughts, it would be help us on the way. and I am in John chapter 14 versus 25 through 26. Jesus is talking to the disciples. He's preparing them for a time when he will no longer be walking with them the way that he is.

He says many things to them. If you read through 14 and 15, there's many things there and the word is rich. You should read all of it. but for the sake of our time together and before we take communion there's something in particular here that i want to highlight in verse 24 jesus tells the disciples these things i have spoken to you while being present with you but the helper the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that i said to you you. Lord, we need a reminder in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of trials and tribulations.

Sometimes we can become so distracted that we can't remember all the things that you spoke, all the promises that you have said. And so we asked that you would send the helper in this room, that he would meet each and every last one of us in a deep and personal way. that we would be reminded of the things that only you know we need to hear. And so, Lord, we open up our hearts, we open up our mind, our ears, and we say, speak, Lord. We're listening. Have your way in this place, great God, that you are. Flow through me as only you can do.

And heal me in the process of serving your people. in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Say something nice to somebody as you sit down. So some of you may be watching online or our visitors may not have as much backstory as some of you who have been here over the last few weeks. So I'm going to share a little bit of my testimony. I was playing on the trampoline a few weeks ago, and I had a fall when I came down on the trampoline. When I came down on the trampoline, I fractured bones in my neck, and I had herniated disc that were compressing against my spinal cord. And what's interesting about the whole situation is that I felt some pain in the moment when it happened, but for the most part, I felt okay. And so when my daughter said she was going to call my husband, I said, it's really not that serious. I just need a minute.

So my husband comes outside and he's, you know, I don't know if you all have people who think they are physicians. You know, before Gray's Anatomy was ER and George Clooney really made the people believe that they had medical degrees. And so he's on the phone. He's assessing things. Look at me. Walk straight, all of these things. And, you know, they said, I'm going to take you to the emergency room. And I'm like, if y'all could just get me a ginger rail and a pillow, I promise you, I'm going to be just. just fine. Turns out they didn't listen to me. They called the ambulance and I'm glad that they didn't because where I fractured the bone and herniated the disc, if it had been one inch higher, it literally would have ended my life and one inch lower it would have paralyzed me. All while we were getting the reports and in the hospital room, I couldn't help but to be grateful that God had

placed people in my life. who would take care of me in ways that I wouldn't take care of myself. And I could just feel the love of God flowing from all different directions. And I was grateful, and I'm still so, so grateful. But I have to be honest, once I got the neck brace and they sent me home, as much as I was grateful, I was also grieving a little bit. And I think that's the hard part about going through things where you know God, saved you, God spared you, God showed up for you.

But sometimes, and maybe it's just me and I don't mind just telling my story, I don't want to dilute my gratitude with grief. But there's this reality sometimes that I'm grateful, but I'm also hurting a little bit. Like, I'm grateful that I'm alive and I'm grateful that that wasn't the end of my story or that it didn't change my story, but I'm also grieving a little bit that my baby had to witness it. I'm grieving, that my life has had to shift. I'm grieving that at a time when I should be taking care of my parents, they're taking care of me. I don't know if I'm the only one who's had to navigate gratitude and grief. And sometimes in our desire to show up as good, grateful Christians, we master the

art of giving God our praise. And we master the art of giving God our adoration and our worship. But there are moments where we don't want to come off as ungrateful, so we nurse our pain for ourselves. I wish I could say that real good. It's like, God, I don't want you to think I'm not grateful for the things that you've given me, for the things that you have done. And so I give you my gratitude, but I try to navigate this pain by myself. I try to navigate this disappointment by myself because I don't want God to think that I'm not grateful. But the reality is there are some moments that I'm navigating gratitude and grief.

And so I'm in this moment where I'm navigating the gratitude and the grief of what took place. And I'm trying to thank God for my breakthrough and thank God for my healing while also believing God that there's yet more breakthrough to come. And after that's about four weeks, I went to the doctor for my checkup and he says, well, I got some good news for you. He said, the fracture in your neck has completely healed. He says it looks like it never happened at all. Sometimes it heals in a way where you can tell it was broken. He said, but not this bone. This bone is healed in a way where you can't even tell it happened at all.

And that's when I really got my praise on again. Because God, how are you going to heal me in such a way that it doesn't even look like? Some people say I don't look like what I've been through. No, for real, the x-ray will tell you, I don't. look like what I've been through. He healed me in such a way that there's no evidence. That's somebody's word right there. I just want you to know that you serve a God who can heal you. I'm not just talking about bones. I'm talking about broken hearts. I'm not just talking about broken hearts. I'm talking about past and minds and healings that he can heal you in such a way that it looks

like it never happened at all. So I got my gratitude again. He goes, but the herniated disc have actually gotten worse. Gratitude and grief. That it's actually closer on your spinal cord than it was when you first had the accident. And this is where most people would go silent because you don't want to say anything that would dishonor God or make it seem like he left me hanging. See, because right now in this moment, I got a healed bone like it never happened, and I got herniated discs worse than they were before. And this is the tension of what it means to really walk with the Lord.

Is that sometimes he does things that only he can do. And then sometimes he walks you through things that only he can walk you through. Oh, I know because we always want the instant deliverance, but nobody, see, if we talk, more about the moments where the deliverance didn't come instantly, that I had to walk some things out, that it didn't come perfectly, that it wasn't wrapped in a bow, then maybe we would have more people who felt like there are other people who understand what they're going through as opposed to feeling like, am I the only one who he didn't just turn things around rapidly? See, if we had real testimony service in this room, there would be some people who told you

in one area of my life, he healed me as if it never happened. And in the other area of my life I had to walk some things out. I had to live through some things that I really didn't want to go through. And in living through the things that I didn't want to go through, I learned what the psalmist meant when he said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. You don't get that kind of faith. Unless you have the Lord walk you through some things you rather not go through. A miracle in process. So the doctor says to me, he says you don't have to wear the neck brace anymore, but we are going to have to plan a surgery. And with this surgery, we're going to have to remove some disc and put a plate in and screws and we've got to readjust your spine. So in a week or so, I'm going to have this surgery.

But I didn't want to wait until I was okay fully to tell you I'm okay. to tell you I'm okay right now. That may not mean much to anybody, but I just want you to know that I already know what's on the other side of it. And I didn't wanna send a video and I didn't wanna put something on social media. I wanted you to know that the same God

that healed the fractured bone is gonna be in the operating room when he goes in and heals this spine. You see, the week before this happened, I was jumping across this stage and I was talking about the different ways that God healed the blind men. And for one, Jesus touched his eyes.

And for the other, he told him that he put spit and then put clay in his eyes. But they all got healed, even though they got healed differently. And I want you to know that just because God may have not answered you and the way you thought you needed him to answer you, it did not mean that he did not hear you. Because my God is still supplying all of my needs. And if God is in one thing, he's in all of it.

And that's what I've been telling myself all along the way. God, if you're in any of it, you're in all of it. And because I see you undeniably in some of it, I have to trust you with the parts that feel uncertain. And the thing is this, the more that I've been talking to people, the more that I have learned over and over again, that I'm not the only one who's living through something they would rather not go through. And sometimes we come in here and we act like everything's okay, but because I'm right in the middle of reaching for okay,

I wanted to talk today to some people who are living through some things they'd rather not go through. I got a friend whose father is on life support on a breathing machine. He's been on it for weeks. And on one hand, she's grateful he's still here. But on the other hand, she's grieving. that as life has changed. I got other friends who are facing autoimmune diseases and they're taking care of children at a season of their life that they thought they would be finished taking care of children and they're grateful that they have the capacity but also they're grieving the reality that their life has shifted.

And so I started asking God, what is it about us that we shy away from you in these moments where we feel pain, where we feel disappointment, where we feel discouragement? And God was showing me that in those moments where we feel pain, that we have to understand one thing for sure is that pain does not just go away just because we ignore it. That's why as much as I was grateful, I knew there was something else happening inside of me. I'm like, I'm not just grateful. There's something hurting inside of me. I am grateful. I am grateful. I know because you know how when you're real happy and there's nothing down in there, you can feel the joy real good. I said, there's something down in there.

And so I started searching my heart, and I'm like, Lord, show me what's happening. And the Lord was showing me the areas where I feel pain. And I was so grateful that I've grown in such a way spiritually that I had the insight to ask the Lord to search my heart because I can remember moments where I felt pain in my heart. And I would try to numb the pain instead of address it. See, if we was having a real conversation with people who didn't really mind telling the truth, they would tell you about half the mistakes they made in their life was trying to get this pain up off of me.

See, you judge the choices I made, but if you would have seen what I was running from before I made those choices, you would understand that I made those choices from a place of pain, that I made those love decisions from a place of pain, that I got in that addiction because I was in a place of pain, I was confused. I didn't know what was happening on the inside of me because pain must be acknowledged. It will not just go away. It'll turn into overachievement. It'll turn into perfectionism.

It takes a certain kind of person to say, you know what, Lord, I'm in pain and I only want your presence. Before I pick up the phone, before I go to the things that I used to go to, Lord, help me to bring this pain into your presence. The prophet Elijah didn't just run from Jezebel. He ran into the presence of God. And when he ran into the presence of God, he didn't get into the presence of God and act like everything was okay. in 1 Kings 19 Elijah got into the presence of God and he said Lord take my life I'm so tired of going through the same things over and over again see we only want to talk about the victory but I want to talk about the moments where you got to live through something that you really don't want to have to go through and you're like Lord would you deliver me but God says I have prayed for you that when this test is over that your faith would not fail you some things God doesn't deliver you from because he's going to mature you in the midst of them. And if I deliver you, I'll deliver you prematurely.

And you won't be able to step into who I've called you to be. So I've kept you in the fire. But there's another man in the fire. You're not in this fire by yourself. You're not in this process by yourself. So I start inviting God into my pain. And I start asking God to show me what I need in this moment. And he told Elijah, he says, you know what?

Here's something to even lay down. See, because when you begin to know him as more than just deliver, you realize that I don't have to have it all together when I come into his presence. We got dressed up and we came in the church, but some of us know that about a bonnet praise. Some of us know about a du rag praise. Some of us know about a morning breath praise where I didn't have anything together. And some people tell you, the Lord came and got me. I was drunk one day.

He ruined my whole high. And all of a sudden the presence of the Lord said, no, you know you know better. than this. You know that you've been running from me for far too long because the Lord will interrupt you in the middle of pursuing your own path, of pursuing your own pain relief, and remind you that he shall have no other God before him and that that pain is on an assignment to get you to surrender. And when we are used to achieving and performing and having to be the strong friend all of the time, we bring it into our relationship with God we don't let our walls down we don't admit when we're hurting we don't admit when we're in pain because we got to be strong for

everybody else we can't admit that we're grieving but if you can't break down in the presence of God oh you got to find a way to bring that pain into the presence of God I look at Elijah and that moment in between the showdown with Bell and Jezebel and in between where he ends up finding his successor in Elisha, there's this moment of wanting to give up in between. There's this moment in between the pain where he has an encounter with God. And once he has that encounter with God, the Lord begins to minister to him in that moment of pain. And there's a shift that takes place when he brings his pain into the presence of God.

When he brings his pain into the presence of God, the Lord meets him where he is. but then he begins to lead him to where he's going to need to be in order for the next phase of his ministry to unfold. Something similar happens when Jesus is on the cross. He's in pain on the cross. And he looks up to God and he says, my God, my God, we hear him calling Father all throughout the New Testament. But there's this moment on the cross where he's in excruciating pain

and he could just turn his head away from God. in the middle of that pain. But he turns to him instead. And we know there's a little bit of distance because he says, my God and not my father in the way that we've heard him say. And he still turns toward God and he says, why has thou forsaken me?

He invites the Lord into this moment of his pain into this moment of his grief. And we don't know exactly what happens, but somewhere between my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? We see him return back to Father, language. When we invite the presence into our pain, it lowers the volume on the pain. Oh, I wish I could say it real good the way the Lord gave it to me. I'll tell you this, my pain and my grief was loud until I turned it into the presence of God. It's not that the pain went away. It's just that God's faithfulness

took the microphone and said, pain, I know you're talking loud right now. Grief, I know you're talking loud right now, but I've got another story that I want to tell in the midst of the pain. And that story that I want to tell in the midst of the pain is about God's faithfulness. It's about God's ability to be with you. Even in those moments where you feel alone, it is about God's ability to give you new mercies day in and day out, and that is what happens. Pain is the birthplace of hope if we let it. Oh, I'm about to help you.

I'm about to help you because I'm about to help myself. and I want to let you know what God showed me about going through painful seasons. Pain has a way of becoming the loudest thing in the room until the presence of God steps in. Because when the presence of God steps in, we can no longer just be blinded by the pain that is in front of us. Because the presence of God expands our vision. And when the presence of God expands our vision, it reminds us of who God has been, not just in this moment, but in all of the moments before this moment, I feel my help coming. The Lord begins to remind us that this isn't the first time you've been in pain.

This isn't the first time that you felt like you didn't know where your help was coming. But God came through for you in those previous moments. Now, why would he get you in this moment and make you believe that he was going to leave you? See, the presence of God zooms out of the picture and it remind you that I still got all power in hand and just because I didn't use the power the way you wanted me to doesn't mean that my power's not going to show up in an unexpected place you better turn to your neighbor and say surprise I know you wanted the power in one place but God says I've assigned power for you in an unexpected place I hear God saying you can grieve the places where I didn't show up or you can open your

eyes to the reality that I didn't give up and because I didn't give up you can't walk this thing out by yourself. I hear God saying you better start looking for me in unexpected places. You better start looking for me in places you would have never guessed I would be. I know you wanted me to keep her. I know you wanted me to save her, but let me show you what I can do when it's just me and you. I know you wanted a different outcome, but God says I've got plans for you, plans to give you a hope and a future plans to prosper you and not harm you who am i says god and as i am that i am i am your ending and your beginning i see the end before you even stepped into it i declared it could i cause all things to work together even the things you don't want to go through so put on your big boy draws and put on your big girl drawl and trust that he that began. I'm not even worried about it,

because I know who my God is. I'm not even worried about it, because you give me about six to 12 weeks, and I'm gonna be back up here, waging war with everything that dare to wage. Well, you give me a minute, because I know who my God is, and it ain't no devil in hell

gonna shake me out of my position. After all that you pinned through, You got a right to give God some praise. Not when it's over, but when you write in the middle. Brunus, you're going to give people who don't have the victory yet. Ten seconds to praise God now. Like the victory's already in the room. Because I'm going to believe the report of the Lord.

And that's for me and my house. Yeah. something happens when we don't allow pain to paralyze our praise when we don't allow pain to shake us out of our position something happens that scares the enemy something happens and when we exercise our authority This is I will not be defined by what I'm going through when I know who has my identity and future in his hands. I was reading in limitations and I love it because these poems of lament are all about moments where we're wondering where God is in the midst of pain. You should read it as five chapters. Read it and it'll debunk everything you ever thought about not being able to be real and raw and honest about God when you feel forsaken and abandoned.

But something unique happens in Lamentations 3. In the middle of the prophet Jeremiah talking about where God is and where God isn't in the misdemeanor. of his pain. And you got to read it because he gets real, raw, and honest. He starts talking about forgetting his prosperity. He starts talking about feeling like his soul has been afflicted and living in that affliction. He says, my soul still remembers and it sinks within me. Then all of a sudden something happens in his mind when he brings his pain into the presence of God, all in the middle of him talking about everything that went wrong. See, because when we bring our pain, our soul into the presence of God when it's going through a painful season, you got to remember that the Lord

remembers the original condition of your soul. That's why David said he restores my soul. Because when my soul starts to take on the shape of my pain, I got to go back to the one who remembers what it looked like before pain never hit it. All of a sudden he goes, this I recall to my mind. I'm in the middle of sinking. My soul is sinking. And I'm in pain and I feel like I've been abandoned and forsaken. This is real what I'm going through. But all of a sudden in the presence of the Lord, I recall something to my mind and hope is born. What is it that you recall, Jeremiah, that brings hope back into your mind? He remembers that it's through the Lord's mercies that I haven't been consumed in a season where consumption is taking place.

See, see, they told me, this is why I won't let the devil scare me, because they told me for the level of compression that my spinal cord is under, that I should not be able to lift my hands, that I shouldn't be able to lift my legs. That's why they over there watching like the police, because they told me you can't afford to have any missteps. But I know that it's not just that I am a freak of nature. I know that it is the Lord's mercies that told that disc, I'm going to let you get close, but you cannot have her. It is through the Lord's mercies that I'm not consumed. In a season where I should be consumed, I want to talk to some people who shouldn't even be in their right mind, but the Lord's mercy

blocks it that you had a pre-in grandmother. Maybe you didn't even know your grandmother, but there was a pre-in teacher somewhere, a pastor who took care of you? That I could live in a season of consumption where it seems like everything around me is being consumed. And it's not that I don't feel the pain of it, I do.

But it hasn't consumed me in the way that it should. Jeremiah says it's through the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion fails not. He didn't say this when he was on the other side. He's still sitting in devastation. He's still sitting in destruction. His soul was sinking, but the Lord sent him a reminder. This is who I am. My mercies are new every morning.

And Jeremiah starts singing a different song. He starts talking about great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. The Lord is my portion says my soul. Oh, see, you got to remember that just a few verses up, his soul was sinking. But he brought that sinking soul into the presence of God. And when he brought that sinking soul into the presence of God,

A light flicked on in his mind. And all of a sudden he was in the presence and he remembered who his God was. And he remembered how his God showed up in the past. And when he remembered that, it changed what his soul was saying. Then his soul begins to say, the Lord is my portion. Therefore, I hope in him. In the middle of this pain, in the middle of this devastation, I recognize that the Lord is my portion

so I can have hope in the middle of despair. When you get to a point where you allow your pain to be the birthing place of hope, your faith then has a job. In the moments where it has become increasingly clear that you are going to have to live through something you would rather not go through. I want you to begin to start.

start praying to God to give me a hope in the middle of the pain. Romans 15 calls them the God of hope. God give me a hope in the middle of this pain. Give me hope, give me hope, give me hope. Give me hope. Because if I have a hope, I've got something to put faith on. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for. But if I let pain rob me of hope, it also takes away my faith.

So in the moments where the pain won't go away, I asked the hope to invade the pain. See, in the civil rights movement, it was the pain of segregation. It was the pain of injustice that birthed a hope for a new tomorrow. See, pain is meant to help you move to a place of help because it creates a yearning and a longing and a desire for something different. when I'm talking to people sometimes and they're asking me when are things going to shift and when am I finally going to maybe leave this toxic relationship?

I say when you get enough pain that you start having a vision for who you could be outside of this relationship, you'll start moving your feet in the direction of freedom because sometimes you just need a vision of what's possible on the other side of the pain so that you can begin to apply faith in that direction. God give me a hope. God give me hope and the Lord's been

giving me a hope in this season about what's possible on the other side of this. Jeremiah says I recall this to my mind. There is something to be said about us recognizing the role that our mind plays in moments where we are experiencing pain. And that is why I wanted to talk about this moment where Jesus tells the disciples that I've taught you many things. And I've said a lot in our time together. But he knows that they're going to forget it because they're going to face persecution. And they're going to face betrayal. And they're going to face abandonment.

And Jesus says, in preparation of the pain that you're going to go to, through. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit because in the middle of you going through that pain, there's going to be moments where you may forget all of these things that I have spoken. But the help or the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he's going to teach you all the things that didn't make sense. And he's going to help you to remember all the things that I said to you. Last week was Pentecost Sunday. And a lot of times when we think about the Holy Spirit,

because we're so productive and we're such doers that we think about the power of the Holy Spirit to help us perform. And when you're a high performer or an overachiever, power is seductive to you because you want to be able to perform on a high level. But they receive power from the Holy Spirit. but that's not the only thing that the Holy Spirit can provide.

The Holy Spirit is also called our advocate the comforter because he can teach us and he can guide us and he can advocate on our behalf. He translates our prayer so that what we're saying in our life, the Lord can hear it in the language that it really needs to be heard in our heavenly language. He's a translator for us. But John shows us this, that he'll also help us to remember. And I called this help is on the way for the people who are living through things that they don't want to go through. And it has become clear that this is the path that I'm going to have to take.

And when those walls start closing in on us, as they will because they did on Jesus. And they did on Elijah. And we will have moments where we are so blinded by the pain, so blinded by this disappointment, so blinded that the discouragement that we start to wonder, Lord, have you forsaken me? That what Jesus told the disciples is what I want to tell you, and it's what I'm hanging on to in my own spirit, that there is help on the way,

that the Holy Spirit is going to bring to your remembrance things that only you know the Lord knows you need to hear. that the Holy Spirit is going to whisper things in your heart to settle you in ways that only the Holy Spirit can do, that the helper is going to meet the doctor, the helper is going to talk to the teachers, the helper is going to be at the back, help is on the way, and all you may need in your heart and your mind is a reminder of who God is in the moments where the pain feels unbearable. we're going to take communion this Sunday and communion is powerful

because it is our opportunity to remember what we often forget that we are in covenant with God that the blood of Jesus reconciled our place in the kingdom of heaven and as a result of that reconciliation

the only time we have to face things on our own is when we choose to not invite the Holy Spirit into the difficult moments of our life. Help is on the way. As we prepare our hearts for communion, as we allow to rise to the surface, the areas of our lives where we feel under attack, where we feel maybe abandoned or discouraged,

I want to challenge you to allow this to be a time of remembrance, a time where you allow the presence of God to invade those secret places, maybe those painful, uncertain places. And in the process of inviting the Lord into those spaces, I believe that you are going to literally have communion with him, that you're going to feel the presence of God in ways that maybe you never have or maybe you have forgotten. This is an opportunity for you to be honest about the weight that you have been carrying in this season and the things that maybe you have forgotten about God.

Jeremiah, the same author of Lamentation, says, before I informed you in your mother's room, I knew you. That means that the Lord knew something. about his creation, that sometimes the creation doesn't know themselves. But thanks to God, who sent us the Holy Spirit, things that we forgot, things that the Lord knows, the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance. Our ministers are passing out communion, and this is a sacred moment. moment to remind us that everything that dares to come up against us in this fleshly world

that has already been defeated Jesus says in this world you will have tribulation that's why as much as I wanted to be upset and say Lord why am I going through this God why did you allow these things to happen to me. I am reminded that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, that none of us get a special pass. We're going to go through life, and life sometimes is going to be hard. Sometimes it's going to be downright devastating. But in those moments, God says, I can still take that devastation and build a monument for my glory. And he's building something in us. A faith, a resiliency. A fire, a power.

This is not at all how I anticipated our first year as pastoring, as senior pastors here to go. Not at all. Right after we got installed, I got pneumonia. And I just released Bishop, and I said, hey, Bishop, can you come and preach? That girl got pneumonia. Not even a year later, a fresh battle. One of the things that I meant to say during the ordination that I didn't get a chance to say, so there was just so many thoughts in my heart of mind at that time,

is that a lot of times because of how church has become so produced for the sake of keeping up with YouTube and content, that it can feel like more of a production sometimes than church. But what I know for sure, having grown up in church, is that when you decide to become a member or a part of something, that you're not just saying we're going to sing songs together, you're saying we're going to do life together, that we're going to get sick together and we're going to heal together and we're going to graduate and raise our babies together.

and though I wanted to give you something different this first year, I'm honored that we get to do life together, even when life is unpredictable. And I know you know my story, and where life is throwing hands at me right now. But I know somebody's got their own story, and life is throwing hands at you right now, too. I wanted you to know that you ain't in the ring by yourself.

And sometimes there's something powerful about knowing that somebody else is going through something too and finding a way to hang on to God in the midst of it as well. Sometimes the help that we get that's on the way comes from the people who we get to be in the ring with. And if I can be selfish, I am so grateful that I get to be in the ring with the members of the Potter's House of Dallas. not just here but literally all over the world saying hey we're going to do this thing called life together you have your communion cups would you stand with us first corinthians chapter 11 beginning at the 23rd verse the apostle paul writes for i receive from the lord that which also which i also delivered to you At the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do as often as you drink it again in remembrance of me

for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim, literally preach, you preach, proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. As we prepare to commune on the night that the Lord was betrayed, it was already rough. It was already going to have to go through the unthinkable. and to add on to that in a moment of great weakness betrayal

and yet it didn't stop him the night in which he was betrayed he took the bread he broke it he says take eat this is my body which is broken for you

Isaiah 53 says the chastisement that brought up shalom or wholeness was in his brokenness. So he was broken that we might be whole. Take eat. This is my body. I want you to think about what Jesus broke in his body that is trying to break you. He broke what breaks us. Even death itself, he broke. And I want you to think about what needs to be broken. Oppression.

Sickness. Hurt. Suffering. And as you take the wafer between your fingers, the wafer being his body, let's come into agreement with the reality,

the eternal reality that he was broken for a wholeness. Once you get in your mind, that thing that needs to break, addiction. Whatever it is, I want you to break it between your fingers. Let's take up his body that we might be whole. In like manner, we take up the cup, which is his blood, which still works, which still speaks, better promises. And let us be renewed in our mind and in our heart that we are in covenant with God. And let us consecrate. create ourselves afresh. What the Bible says in Psalm 2514, the secret of the Lord,

as with those who fear him, who revere him, for he will show them his covenant. Let us take of his blood. Lord, we receive afresh. We recall to mind. We proclaim. We proclaim. your death on the cross, recognizing that you who had no sin became ours, became our limitations, became our weakness, became our struggle, became our suffering, became everything that keeps us from being whole, nailed it to the cross, and put it to death. We recall to mind that we have freedom in you, that we have victory in you, that we have wholeness and peace and shalom in you. And God, we recall to mind, amen, that we have been grafted into an everlasting covenant with you, being sealed by your blood. We belong to you and you belong to us.

you will never fail us nor forsake us you will be with us always even until the end of the age and father while you're moving in our minds bodies and spirits in this moment if there be any sick among us in the name of jesus move about in the way of healing if there be any brokenness that is showing up in our lives and situations. In the name of Jesus, by your stripes, we've been made whole. We receive wholeness right now. And so, God, we come into alignment with the reality of what you procured for us on the day you shed your blood. And we thank you, God. And since you were raised from the dead, our place, our position, is in you. Seated in heavenly places. in Christ Jesus.

Seal this work afresh. Establish us in this new season. We thank you for our pastor. And we thank you, God, that you will work a miraculous healing, that you've already worked. A miraculous healing from the crown of her head to the soul of her feet.

Restored, renewed, stronger, wiser, wavy, and that you would do the same for each of us. We love you. Please repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your love. I feel it. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the words that you spoke to me today.

I receive them. Heavenly Father, I thank you for Jesus. Thank you for making. him who had no sin all of mine all of my failure all of my weakness all of my shortcomings you placed in his body nailed it to the cross and put it to death and just as he was raised up on the third day free and victorious because I'm in him I'm raised up to I take my rightful place in heavenly places in Christ Jesus far above principalities and powers I've been raised now Holy Spirit the

down payment of my inheritance. I receive you afresh. Renew my mind, renew my heart, restore my soul. Fill me to the overflow that I might walk in my authority, in my purpose, and in my assignment. Lord, I love you. Because you first love me. In Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. Hallelujah. Please pass the remains of the communion to the left or down the aisle to the left.

We love you very much. We're excited about Wednesday night. Be in prayer. We'll be having the surgery in just a few short days here. We need your intercession. We love you. And we're grateful. Can we give it up for that incredible word?

and sacrifice to deliver that word from our incredible pastor. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious toward you. May he lift up his countenance over you and grant you. Shalom. Shalom in Jesus' name. We love you. God bless you.