Right.

If you're going to go through the fire, you might as well dance.

You might as realize and recognize that Christ is with you.

And that is what gives us our greatest solace.

That the issue and the problems that you're going through are designed by God to draw you closer to Him so that your roots do not grow deeper in this planet.

They don't grow down, but they grow up.

That we become homesick for a home that we've never been to.

Right.

Piper, he said, our sorrows are not random, they are divine appointments.

And uh C.S.

Lewis has a lot to say about this.

Maybe uh Oscar's gonna get into it.

But Oscar, uh C.

S.

Lewis wrote a whole book about grieving and disappointment, a grief observed.

If you grab a hold of one of those, one of the first editions of that book, C.

S.

Lewis's name is not written on that book.

He used a pseudonym.

He did not want anybody to know that he was suffering as much as he was suffering, that he had this inner turmoil, so much so that he was going through it, that he actually had his constituents that were coming up to him and saying, You need to read that book.

That book is what you're going through.

Oh wow.

Until finally he came clean.

And it was all birth from he married a woman named Joy Davidman, and he married her out of convenience, if you would.

It wouldn't be love is defined today, but he found out that love is a verb, it's an action, it's a movement forward.

So as he was married to Joy Davidman, he found himself loving this woman kind of unconditionally and sacrificially, placing not his hope in her entirely, but he realized that he did uh for for for a good purpose and a good point until his hope and his love had turned around and he put his affection upon Christ.

Because that is the only place where you can find healing for your broken heart in Christ alone.

Tiptoeing, frolicking, running around joyfully at SeaWorld.

You guys been to SeaWorld?

It's been a minute.

I don't know.

34 years ago.

Sushi?

Sushi is.

I was in sushi with you guys.

It's kind of like SeaWorld.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine somebody capturing one of the SeaWorld animals and just turning it?

Sorry, guys.

Uh Mark, uh, you wanna uh actually are we still recording, Tony?

We're still recording.

No, we're gonna keep going.

Thank you.

So Matt left his microphone over there.

Yeah.

Yeah, so you all saw it live, friends.

Mark Spence.

They didn't see anything because the camera's on you the whole time.

That was glorious.

Uh anyway, yeah.

Do they have a sushi restaurant at SeaWorld?

I don't know.

That would be really funny.

Fresh.

Is it a whale sushi?

And then barbecued penguin.

Imagine that.

I remember going to SeaWorld as a kid.

Is he barbecued penguins?

What's wrong with that?

They are so cute.

You eat chickens.

Yeah, well, chickens are different, they're dumb.

Um and I don't kill them, but a penguin is so cute.

We're about to make my point.

You know what else is you know what else is cute?

Why don't we have a talk?

Little tuxedos waddling along, they're so cute.

Nuns, not tuxedos.

Okay.

Now here's the thing.

Um and that's my whole point is the cuteness thing you just said.

Okay, so you're a kid, you're at SeaWorld, you're watching the shamu show.

Remember the shamus show?

Yeah.

I think they got rid of poor shamu.

Here's the one.

Okay.

You watch poor shammu.

Side of the cross, Oscar.

So yeah, so you you're you're a kid, you're watching Shamu, you're watching these guys ride standing on top of Shamu, and they're petting him, they're petting his tongue.

Kill a whale.

Petting his tongue, right?

And then as a kid, somehow, I don't know, it just happens that you get stranded on a on a deserted island as a kid, right?

And then you see you see shamu swim up to near the shore.

What are you gonna do as a kid?

You're gonna run, oh shamu, hug it.

This is a killer whale, man.

Are they really killers?

Oh, yes, really?

Have you ever seen those things toss seals up in the air?

And but that's the thing I was thinking about.

They look adorable.

Yeah, you know, they look cute and like smiley, like penguins.

Penguins will probably peck you to death.

You point at me when you mention penguins.

You know what else looks adorable that almost ate your arm is a Tasmanian devil.

Oh that's true.

Remember that.

And even koalas, they will scratch you to pieces.

When Adam fell, so did the creation.

Well, that was so funny, Oscar.

You mentioned that Australia because that lady was just so mellow and chill, but all of a sudden she's like, nah!

I'm like, what, man?

Like, I wasn't even, I didn't put my arm like really in.

I was kind of like pointing pretty close.

I was just pointing at the thing.

You went near a Tasmanian devil.

It was in an eclipse.

Come on, you mable that thing up in Alaska.

The moosey?

Yeah, might I say moosey?

I did not say here moosey moosey.

It might as well have.

There was like a glass wall that was probably chest high on easy.

And so he was supposed to stand in front of the glass wall and talk about the Tasmanian devil.

And then he stuck his hand over the glass wall and started pointing at it.

And that's when the lady was like, Wait!

He doesn't like his fingers.

Well, is that that was when you got the blood in your eye from that rat guy?

Kuka Berra?

Exactly.

I wish I'd come with you guys.

What an adventure.

But yeah, I was thinking about that.

I was thinking about pandas, you know, a kid sees a panda and a zoo show and adorable.

That thing will devour you.

Even the lion looks wonderful.

With its mouth closed.

Yeah.

My dream is to see Ray wrestle with a sloth.

I bet you a sloth.

You guys see the claws on the sloth?

I bet you that could do something.

Are they ferocious?

Because they look ferocious if only they could move.

That's the problem.

There's just there's no momentum.

It takes three minutes to swipe you.

Have you ever had a dream that you were fighting?

In in my dream, whenever I'm fighting somebody, I'm like underwater where I'm punching slow motion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, it's like you feel restrained, but you're trying and trying to scream too, and nothing's coming out.

Oh yeah.

What are the what is it?

I think you dream of fears.

You think that's what it is?

Yeah, I I dream that I'm stuck on an island with you.

Oh boy.

And everything's in slow motion and I can't move.

That would ruin our relationship forever.

Amen.

Um, I was just gonna say something to you.

Really, really good.

Getting better?

Man.

It was good.

It's gone.

History.

Praise the Lord.

Um, yeah, was it was a with a sloth?

Please let that keep happening that easy constantly.

So he says nothing.

All right, France.

You know what I'd really love?

I'd love a set that has a huge cone of silence.

Wouldn't that be good?

It just comes down on the four of us.

No one can hear what we're saying, and then it comes up again.

So funny.

Yeah, smart was really clever.

Yeah.

All right, France.

Time for a cool classy comment.

Dear Ray, Emile, Mark, and Oscar, I want to write to you guys to say thank you and to let you know what a blessing you all have been in my husband's life, as well as mine and our kids.

My husband started listening to you guys over a year ago after he had read Easy's book, Fight Like a Man, and he has never been the same.

Leading up to him reading the book, we were going through a very difficult season of marriage, unsure if we would make it through.

My husband was struggling with lust, a whole past life of lies, and without an example of what a godly man, leader, and father looked like.

He was struggling in his faith and didn't have any other godly men surrounding him.

I was pregnant with our second child and said, Enough is enough.

I cried out to God, asking him to change my husband's heart and to send him men that knew him, men that could show him that example.

It was going to be Father's Day soon, and I started to pray while looking for a book on Amazon for my husband.

And what came across on the top of the page was Easy's book.

I noticed and scrolled past while continuing to pray for God to show me which book to buy for him.

Something that would speak to him, something that would change his heart.

I scrolled to the next page and there it was again.

Stop.

And there it was again.

I thought this is funny.

There's that book again.

I scrolled down and saw a book that said Ray Comfort.

I thought to myself, I've heard that name before.

At that point, I thought, third time, this must not be a coincidence.

Okay, Lord, I'll buy the book.

My husband is a peace officer and was working in South LA at the time, and his heart has had become very hardened because of what he was seeing and being surrounded with on a daily basis.

My husband was not a book reader, but I'll tell you what, he read that book.

Someone reads his book and he cries.

And then he wanted more of whatever he felt when he read it.

Then he saw that you guys had a podcast and he began to listen every day, along with Charlie Kirk's podcast.

Then he bought a one-year Bible and began to read that every day.

Today you would not know he is the same person as he was a year ago.

Wow.

Because he's not.

Do you want me to carry on with this?

God truly changed him from the inside out, and he used you men to be that example I had been crying out to the Lord for.

Thank you for letting the Lord use you.

Keep up the good work.

My husband now tells people all the time at work about the Lord and has begun leading our family.

Oh, let's go.

Okay, I've got an announcement.

Here's an announcement to make.

If you send us an email that makes easy cry, you get a free evidence Bible.

I like it.

Oh, here they come.

Here they come.

You're gonna get people putting stuff into Jat GPT to make easy cry letters.

It's just the next one just me.

I read his book.

I read this book twice.

The worst part is I've read this already and I cried when I read it, and I'm crying again.

You think it would lose its effect, you know?

He's in they're in the LA area.

I'd love for them to come by the industry for a tour.

We'd love to connect.

So we'll come in uniform.

Yeah.

Oh, thank you guys.

Thank you.

I mean, you know, again, there are days we get discouraged, we deal with the stuff or people, but that this is what like it makes us realize that uh we're doing what the Lord is.

Great testimony.

And it wasn't just the fact that they read your book, but it it was done right.

And that one thing led to the next thing, the next thing, to the next thing, right?

Yeah.

It's enough to compliment someone, but to go up to someone and say, This is how it affected my life, and this is what's what I'm doing differently because of it.

Well, and great testimony.

And the fulfillment of our heart's desire.

What did it end with?

He's telling people about the Lord.

Right.

You know, so good.

So thank you guys so much.

All right.

Um we need to employ a Kleenex lady.

Kleenex factory.

And now erratically revolutionary resources.

Oh boy, schizophrenic.

No, no.

That was quite a 180.

This guess is right to you.

Jesus amplified.

The deeper meaning of the words of Jesus.

You know, let me let me just say this.

This morning I I called Ray because I wanted him.

I wanted him to bring in one of his books.

He tells me the names of his books.

He tells me I'll bring them.

And then he mutters under his breath, Oh, he's gonna ask me what the books are about.

Who says that?

What author says that?

He's gonna he was he was anxious.

I was gonna ask him what they're about.

Ray, what's it about?

Jesus Amplified.

It's about the words of Jesus.

He didn't even amplified.

Knowing that, he didn't even prep himself.

He asked chat for it earlier.

Um, it's the words of Jesus Amplified using the Amplified Bible, and you have to read it loudly.

Yeah, and it's got pictures.

It's really just Jesus wept thrown into Chat GPT saying expand this as if a woman wrote it.

Yeah, amplified Bible said Jesus wept lots.

What is the amplified Bible?

It goes back to the original Greek words and it amplifies it.

I've looked, I've read it for years.

I'm still on chapter one of Genesis.

Yeah.

Like John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son than whoever believes in him, and that word believes in the Amplified, it says clings to, relies upon, and trusts in.

Amplifies it.

That's good.

So anyway, it's a good book.

You want to keep the amplified Bible away from your pastor if you think he preaches too long.

That's a good point.

So yeah, um, it's a good book, good cover.

It's a good looking book.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is nice.

Lots of man, Ray, you've got to be a good thing.

I like how Ray's name's not on it.

Finally.

Yeah, it's interesting.

You know have I told the story about that?

How the story rang.

Yeah, when they this publisher first started publishing our books, the first one they sent us the cover, and we said, My name's not on the cover.

You always have the author's name on the cover, so people know who they're reading.

So we wrote to them and says, How come the name's not on the cover?

And they said, We don't do names on covers, and we've sold over a million devotionals.

And I said, Oh, okay.

Oh, no name on the cover.

Yeah, well, they've sold, I think, they're probably close to over half a million of just your devotionals as this publisher.

So amazing.

Who is the publisher?

Bless you.

Uh Broad Street.

Wow.

Yeah.

All right.

Oh, don't forget the Living Waters.

Mug, mug, mug.

What are you doing, Oscar?

You didn't have to do the Friends thing.

Friends, the evidence study, Bible, I would have got Revival, Living Waters TV.

Remember, you could see us on Living Waters TV, friends.

All the Living Waters.

That was bad.

And don't forget Podcast, YouTube channel with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Subscribe and hit that bell and like all that other good stuff.

Ray, you're looking with amusement.

Oh, I'm just the same way I'd look at some weird animal in a zoo.

Calling your son around.

I'm always fascinated by your voices and your faces.

Yeah.

Didn't you do 67 faces on a train when we were going through Europe one after the other?

I counted the faces that you do.

And you were taking were you taking pictures?

No, I may have taken a few.

I just couldn't keep up with your faces.

And I was worried the wind would change.

It's that gift.

It's the Jim Carrey gift.

Oh, the wind change.

You still have that book, Ray?

It's somewhere.

You need to bring it on.

We need to show.

Yeah, it's just incredible.

Yeah.

All right, friends.

How to heal from a broken heart?

Where do broken hearts go?

You know what?

That was actually a good song.

Did we find our way home?

That was a good song.

That's gonna be with me for a week now.

So for everyone not born in 1950, what song are you referring to?

It's that song.

Who's it?

The 80s?

Where do broken hearts go?

Can they find their way back home?

You guys, you guys definitely remember that song.

Sounds terrible.

Whitney Houston.

You don't remember it, Oscar?

Oh, that is definitely not Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston.

She had a nice voice.

She had a beautiful voice.

That's why I didn't read it.

Was it Mark Whitney?

It was Whitney.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yeah, so guys, man, brokenheartedness, right?

Um, we live in a fallen world and it is a reality.

And I think, you know, like the word talks about, that the heart could sorrow, right?

Even in laughter, um, even in cheer and joy, that that appears to be that on the outside someone could be uh deeply brokenhearted.

I don't know if you remember that that Chick-fil-A commercial uh from from a number of years ago where you have people coming up to to the front to order food and there's music playing, and there's just texts the beef.

No, where's that beef?

But there's text coming up that's saying she just lost her husband two days ago.

This is a Chick-fil-A commercial?

Yeah, yeah.

Then someone else, you know, they walk up to their table to give them their food, and it says uh they just found out they're diagnosed with cancer, and it just like one after the other, and it says, you never know what someone's going through.

Huh.

And uh just put everyone in the cry.

I am a mess.

Oh, I balled my eyes out.

But but I loved it because it's so true, man.

You know, to me, that's been a check on my heart.

Oscar, I remember you shared that story one time about getting frustrated at chick at uh Starbucks or not Starbucks.

The second it left my lips, I knew you were gonna get it.

Are you sure it wasn't Starbucks?

I thought it was anyway.

Um, but you know, you just talked about how the Lord just you know just minister your heart and that.

But but yeah, we don't know what people are going through, you know, and I that's where I get convicted, where I would get frustrated with someone, or but man, just to stop and think, man, they could just be absolutely devastated by something, or even if it's not like maybe an event like that, just the lostness, you know, that that people who don't know the Lord experience daily.

Well, it's should be a mentality on the part of the Christian to think that person's going through something terrible.

Yeah.

Because you can't ask them, they won't tell you.

Excuse me.

I know you're strange.

Tell them what you're going through.

Tell me what's going on in your life.

Yeah.

But but it is a reality, and we are in a broken world.

And I mean, all of us have experienced a broken heart to to some degree.

And you know, whatever it is, I mean, it's whether it's loss, betrayal, rejection, uh, death, disappointment, uh, it's a reality.

Red canales?

Roke canals.

Yeah.

Um, but but you know, I I want us today to be in that place where we can look and say, man, where where can we as believers highlight uh certain things in our hearts, you know, to help us to understand that we need to be there for the brokenhearted?

And how do we how do we help fellow believers navigate that world?

You know, that's uh that's huge.

So let let's let's jump into it and uh yeah.

So you haven't heard of the BG song How to Heal a Broken Heart?

No.

It's one of the most famous songs.

Really?

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Can you sing it?

I could probably sing it, but the tide wouldn't come in at the beach if I didn't.

Oh, the best line.

Now I use it after I get up, after I speak at a church, I just use it a couple times recently when the team is playing.

Um, I say, yeah, you know, when people ask me to sing, they usually ask me to sing tenor, ten or eleven miles away.

Did you just make that up?

No, I read it somewhere.

Actually, I heard it as a kid.

Did you really?

Oh, it's very old.

Yes.

Yeah.

Did people still laugh?

Do they what?

Laugh.

Yeah.

Good.

Yeah.

So yeah, um brokenheartedness, Mark.

You've dealt with it.

This is actually an intervention session to counsel Mark.

When when it's gonna come to all of us, first of all, right?

A broken heart.

And when when you're when you're brokenhearted, you don't need a cliche, you need Christ.

Right?

And then, but that's all the world has, or just little maxim-like sayings, just puns, cliches, uh, just keep a stiff upper lip, right?

When you come to the end of your rope, just tie a knot and hold on, right?

It's there's no meaning behind what the world would give you.

So we have to always rely upon scripture because our hope is found in Christ, our hope is Christ.

Uh Christ is revealed inside of his word.

And when we come across verses like this, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and he saves the crushed in spirit.

Or come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest, or casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you, or he'll wipe away every tear from your eye.

Those are not cliches.

This is something of great substance that you can hold on to.

Where am I gonna go, Lord?

But you alone hold the words to eternal life.

It's like I go back to Egypt, and what do I find there?

I find hopelessness.

So what Christ does, he comes along and he offers hope for the hopeless, help for the helpless, because he offers himself right.

If you're gonna go through the fire, you might as well dance, you might as realize and recognize that that Christ is with you.

And that is what gives us our greatest solace.

That the issue and the problems that you're going through are designed by God to draw you closer to him so that your roots do not grow deeper in this planet, they don't grow down, but they grow up, that we become homesick for a home that we've never been to.

Right?

Piper, he said, our sorrows are not random, they are divine appointments.

And uh C.

S.

Lewis has a lot to say about this.

Uh maybe maybe uh Oscar's gonna get into it.

But Oscar, uh C.

S.

Lewis wrote a whole book about grieving and disappointment, a grief observed.

If you grab a hold of one of those, one of the first editions of that book, C.

S.

Lewis's name is not written on that book.

He used a pseudonym.

He did not want anybody to know that he was suffering as much as he was suffering, that he had this inner turmoil, so much so that he was going through it, that he actually had his constituents that were coming up to him and saying, You need to read that book.

That book is what you're going through.

Oh wow.

Until finally he came clean.

And it was all birth from he married a woman named Joy Davidman, and he married her out of convenience, if you would.

It wouldn't be love is defined today, but he found out that love is a verb, it's an action, it's a movement forward.

So as he was married to Joy Davidman, he found himself loving this woman kind of unconditionally and sacrificially, placing not his hope in her entirely, but he realized that he did uh for for for a good purpose and a good point until his hope and his love had turned around and he put his affection upon Christ.

Because that is the only place where you can find healing for your broken heart in Christ alone.

How does the world do it?

I'm often just confused.

Yeah, because we're all gonna experience a broken heart, but as a non-Christian, where do you go?

The bottle?

Where do you go?

Drugs?

The next person?

Coffee.

Coffee?

Go on, yeah.

No, Mark, that's ah, so true.

And the answer to your questions is yes, that that is where people go, you know, because they don't have the hope of Christ and other places too that they'll go as well.

But yeah, I'm glad you brought up C.S.

Lewis.

You guys might remember the movie Shadowlands.

That's where you know that story was really painted in such a vivid way.

But yeah, and she had cancer and and she ended up dying of cancer and just that whole journey.

Yeah, but I remember Mark uh another quote from Piper.

You mentioned Piper earlier.

This is a really powerful quote from Piper.

He said, Occasionally weep deeply over the life you hoped would be.

Grieve the losses, then wash your face, trust God, and embrace the life you have.

See, that's hope.

That's what we're talking about right now.

How does the world deal with this?

No, that's the second podcast is hope.

Yeah, you can go into what are you trying to so good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, it's it's it's true, you know, that that that's that that's something that we need to hear because um maybe I'm getting too far ahead, but but I I would say that we need to guard against the dangers that can result from a broken heart.

And one of the greatest dangers is bitterness that is birthed out of self-pity.

Because there's a difference between grieving, mourning, hurting, and then I think drifting into the realm of self-pity, which then gives birth to bitterness and leads to all kinds of destructive things.

So there comes a point in our brokenheartedness where we do have to wash our face and keep moving forward, holding the Lord's hands and recognizing that He He's at work even in that brokenness, and there's something that He wants to do, not just in us, but through us.

You know, you hear about parents talking about I gotta be strong for my kids.

Husbands talking about I have to be strong for my my wife, you know.

And I think especially for us as men, that's something that is a part of our nature, right?

But I think we have to extrapolate that, and all of us need to recognize it.

We're not just husbands, we're not just wives, we're not just parents, uh, but we're we're also we're we're friends, we're citizens, we're um parts of teams, we're ambassadors for Christ.

And so there is a way for us to move forward in the midst of the pain while mourning, while grieving.

And I'm glad Piper highlighted that, but also like heading toward healing for the sake of God's glory and for others.

So uh you mentioned C.S.

Lewis and I I just to piggyback on on what you just said, Easy, you're absolutely right.

It's like how do we how do we move because uh a broken heart can lead us to self-preservation, self-pity.

Um often people close up.

What what happens is, you know, like I heard someone explain recently that they realized that gazelles, when they are hungry and thirsty, that their bodies will shrink their hearts and livers that'll bring them to near death to starve and to wait for water to to come and rain, right?

And you think of uh you think of that versus the deer.

When a deer is hungry, it pants for water, it seeks water.

In that same way, we have to be careful because our when when we have a broken heart, we can be like that gazelle where it shrink shrinks down and where we self-preserve instead of turning to Christ and looking for living water.

And C.

S.

Lewis has a quote on that.

Love this.

He says to love at all is to be vulnerable.

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.

Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in the casket, safe, dark, emotionless, airless, it will change.

It will not be broken, but it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

And so what he's what he's pointing at, right, is that that's that's our gravitation towards self-preservation.

And I think one of the one of the things that does that is I think deep down we can't fathom a God who cares about our broken hearts.

But he is, he is a God who cares.

Psalm 56, 8 says that he he keeps our tears in bottles.

And you think back, you have to understand context back then, bottles were not cheap, but diamond doesn't.

You can go, you know, you can buy a bottle for a penny, maybe, I don't know, 50 cents now because of inflation.

But you can buy bottles, bottles are everywhere.

Uh bottles back then were only used to store the most valuable items.

You think about, you know, Mary's perfume.

And and so Psalm 58 says that he keeps your tears in a bottle, that that your pain and suffering, it means something to him.

Where you think of the reality that God himself weeps, Luke 19 and John 11.

Um, he he doesn't like Jesus doesn't go, well, whatever, God's got it.

Well, I know I'm the sovereign creator of the universe, I know how the story ends.

Yeah, he knows how the story ends, and yet he weeps.

And yet he weeps.

And uh I love uh Makatu Fujimura and his book Faith, The Art, Art and Faith.

He talks about the reality that because of the way you know water molecules work is that they never leave us.

They're always around.

And he realizes that the tears of Jesus are still with us to this day.

The molecules that fell from his eyes when he wept are still here, present with us somewhere.

Um and then he goes on to talk about how you're talking about the hydrological cycle.

Probably.

Ray found a good place to throw in something sophisticated.

No, it's the water has never increased.

It's always the same amount of water that's on the earth.

It evaporates, goes to the sky, falls down in rain.

We drink it, have tears, it evaporates, goes up to the sky, comes in.

It's the same amount of water all the time, not an extra drop since God created it in the beginning.

His work was crazy.

When you think about that, that's exactly what I was saying.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

And so, anyways, just to summarize, um the Lord is like you mentioned, Mark, the Lord is with you.

He draws nears to you, he cares about your suffering.

And soon we'll I think you know, I'd I'd want to turn it over to you guys, but I'd love to talk about what we can do in suffering and and truly what is the hope that we have in suffering?

Why is Jesus providing that hope?

Yeah.

Well, yes.

Just on an inhale.

Very professional.

Ray, you you've experienced brokenheartedness uh at different points in your life.

Yeah, and I was six I was thirteen, a girl taught me to kiss and didn't want to know me the next day.

Seriously?

I was brokenhearted.

Did that really happen here?

I wasn't a Christian.

Yeah, I was at a party and she showed me how to kiss and I thought she loves me, but she didn't.

Next day she didn't want to know me.

And you're still not over it, honey.

No.

Have an older call, I'll be up there first.

Um I I I would like to add something here and uh correct me if I'm wrong, but sometimes we can read all the verses about brokenheartedness and miss the spiritual nature of what scripture is actually saying.

Obviously, God heals the brokenhearted, he sympathizes with our trials that we go through, but blessed are the poor in spirit.

It's not particularly talking about people who lack finance, it's poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who are destitute of righteousness.

Now I understand the spiritual poverty.

They are blessed because they'll come to God for his mercy.

Blessed are those who mourn.

That's not talking about someone who's lost a loved one, particularly, but for those for those who mourn over their own sins.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.

Psalm 34, verse 18.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart.

Finishes the verse.

And save such as have a contrite spirit.

That's a sorrow for sin.

So when you've got a broken heart, it should be you're coming to Jesus to have your sins washed away.

You're brokenhearted, you're mourning about your own sins.

Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden with problems, and I'll give you rest.

Doesn't say that.

Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly of heart, and shall find rest to your souls.

And you see, pilgrim going up the hill of Calvary, and he gets to the top with a burden on his back, that's the weight of his sins, and when he looks to the cross, that's when the sin falls off.

He's no longer laboring and heavy laden.

Pilgrim's progress area.

Yeah.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

That's not necessary those who are destitute of finances.

He's sent me to heal the brokenhearted, those who are sorrowful for their sins, to proclaim liberty to the captives, those who are not in prison, but those who are taken captive by the devil to do his will.

Recovery of sight to the blind.

That's not necessary, those who are physically blind, but those of whom the God of this world is blinded, and has set at liberty those who are oppressed, those who are oppressed by the devil.

So we can look at those scriptures about brokenheartedness and not realize there is a deeper spiritual meaning to them.

Wow, that's that's so important to remember, you know, because I do think that sometimes we're deceived into putting our focus on those that are the down and outs of this world as those who really need the Lord, that are really broken.

And it's not to negate the fact that that could be true of those folks, but I think our problem is that there is an unevelized group of people because there's this deception that they need the Lord, yeah, but not as much as those people.

So we we put our focus on I know where they are.

Beverly Hills.

Let's go door knocking on Beverly Hills with our modern gospel that Jesus will make you happy.

Oh man.

As you walk past the Mercedes's.

Yeah.

What is the plural of Mercedes?

Mercedesite.

Well, hang on, the whole word.

Mercedes.

Always finishing each other's sandwich.

Mercedes-Benzes.

Benzite.

But yeah, but that just that realization that, man, um there are those who are poor and broken in the sense of, yeah, and captives in the sense of sin and rebellion and wickedness, and and they they need Christ.

And we can't forget that.

Aaron Powell The guy that led me to the Lord, I may have mentioned this before, Graham Reed, on the way home from our surfing trip, must have said a half a dozen times, Ray Comfort a Christian.

I don't believe it.

He kept saying the same thing, and it was because he, in his, how can I put it nicely, his ignorance thought that I was super happy and wouldn't be interested in Christianity.

I was so happy with my surf shop, my own home, successful young businessman, I wouldn't be interested in everlasting life.

I mean, how twisted is that?

As soon as I heard the gospel, I embraced it with all my heart because my success meant nothing because of death.

And so by with the mentality of Jesus will make you happy and fill the God-shaped vacuum, that cuts down the field of our evangelistic endeavor.

So we'd never go door knocking at Beverly Hills with that message.

But with a message that everybody needs to repent, whether they're rich or poor, everyone needs a savor, savior, whether they're rich or poor, because we've all sinned.

Michael M.

Lart points out, he's he's speaking specifically to discipleship, but I think that if you take one of these out, it applies to evangelism.

It's what you're saying, which is so he points out that every in discipleship we have to remember that everybody is a sinner, a sufferer, and a saint.

And that we need to treat them in discipleship in that same way.

If we if we over-index on suffering, we forget that they're sinners.

If we over-index on sin, we forget the sanctifying and the justifying pro the justification of Christ, that they are also saints.

And so he he points out in discipling, when you are in those discipleship conversations, when you are preaching, um, you were talking to Christians that are simultaneously sinners, sufferers, and saints.

And I think what you're pointing out is that as three SS.

The the three S's.

What you're pointing out is that as a as we proclaim the gospel, we have to remember that every unbeliever we talk to is simultaneously a sinner and a sufferer.

Good point.

That is good, Oscar.

In fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna use that.

I like the way that was put because when I when I when I talk about uh compassion toward the lost, I preach out of Luke 6, Mark 6, sorry.

Um and I talked to Glad you corrected that.

I was about to.

But the the fact that you know Jesus, Jesus saw those people uh and he was moved with compassion for them.

He saw them as sinners for sure.

He knew they were wicked, rebellious people.

He no man needed to testify to him concerning man, like it says, because he knew what was in man.

He knew all men and knew what was in man, but he did also see them as sufferers in the sense that they are suffering from the folly of their own sinfulness and the the tangled web that gets them into, you know, and that word when it says that we he saw them as weary and scattered, it means torn, flayed, mangled, cast down from exhaustion.

Wow.

And if you're trying to figure life out, you don't know the author of life, you don't know his instruction manual, and you're you're trying to navigate marriage and parenting and pain.

What in the world?

And so we need to be mindful of that as Christians when we look at the brokenhearted of the lost, like because oftentimes we stop at sinner, right?

Right, right, right.

And we gotta go beyond that, man.

And it's like even an animal that might be eating someone, like a wolf who's who's eating someone's sheep or whatever, or chickens or whatever.

That thing is that thing is stuck in a trap, you know.

I can see the farmer hesitating for a moment, just looking at it, it it and it's pain and it's writing.

Yeah, it it's it's guilty, but you still have that compassion, you know, on it.

So before you kill it.

I mean my chicken, pay you said chickens, nobody kills my chicken.

Uh, when you were talking, it reminded me of something, not what you said, but it reminded me of what happened uh Huntington Beach last Saturday.

This lady came on and she believed in um reincarnation, very strong.

She was back uh nine times, she was heading for eleven, trying to improve herself each time.

She knew nine.

Yeah, she had been back nine times, which I thought was incredible.

Anyway, we got to the the law and the conscience, and then I challenged her and said, When are you gonna get right with God?

She said, I thought I did get right with God last October when Mormons baptized me and it left me empty, she said.

And she was just mad.

And then she says, I don't know what's going on.

She says, I'm just in darkness, I'm searching, I'm searching.

And it was just so refreshing and so wonderful.

She says, real sweet lady, real typical Californian, you know, new ager.

Yeah, but so embrace the gospel.

It was beautiful.

Oh, that's great.

Uh I love this quote here.

If we knew what God knows, we would ask exactly for what he gives.

If we knew what God knows.

I've heard you reference that before, Mark.

Like if we if we understood what God understands, we'd look and say, Man, it's perfect.

What you've allowed is perfect amid what?

An imperfect world to fulfill what?

Your perfect purposes.

You know, we're so fortunate, it's an understatement, to have scripture that shows us that in practice.

Daniel in the lion's den.

We get to read the next page.

You say, Well, that was God's will.

The um at the Red Sea, no way of escape.

Pharaoh coming, that was gonna get slaughtered.

God opens the Red Sea.

It's just so wonderful to have scripture to show us the principles of God so we can see that even though we're in the darkness, we know there's light.

Yeah, God's Piper said, God is doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.

Oh, wow.

If I'm lucky, oh man, but that is so true.

And um, and you know, I love I love hearing from people who have suffered.

Like Oscar, when you read that quote from C.S.

Lewis, my mind went to, man, I can embrace that more readily, even though I should embrace it, whether or not this is true, but but I embrace it more readily because I know he has suffered.

You know, it's like when I read a quote like this from Elizabeth Elliott, of one thing I am perfectly sure, God's story never ends with ashes.

Yeah.

And I could see Elizabeth Elliott quoting that to someone, and their response is, Shut up, Liz.

You have no idea what I've been through.

And and they don't know what Elizabeth Elliott's been through.

She had to, she had to learn of her husband being slaughtered by people that he went to to love and serve, and then she goes back to them, the same people that murdered her husband to reach them and wins a tribe to Christ.

Baptizes the murderer of her husband.

Yeah.

Do you know?

I read her memoir.

Um, do you know that he had a gun?

Uh Jim Elliott.

That's right.

He they had He shot into the air.

Yeah, because they didn't want to shoot their the people who were attacking them.

They refused to shoot the men that were chasing after.

I think they wrote that ahead of time that they determined, or it was in his journal or something, that they would not say where they shoot them.

I just can't imagine myself saying, I've got a gun, but if they're gonna attack me with spears, I'll be firing it in the air.

But right, but you couldn't help it because the gun you have is a starter gun.

You've just let the cat out of the bag.

Oh no, no.

It's a water pistol.

Oh man.

I do have a gun at home, and it's a starter pistol, that's all it is.

And it's if someone's gonna smash a door down, I can truly say without lying, I've got a gun.

And they'll back off.

I would say that would hurt though.

I would not want to get hit.

Does it have like a flare or is it just a blank?

I have never I've never fired it.

Somewhere.

I'll find it when someone's smashing a door.

He doesn't know it's one of the ones where a flag comes out and just says bang.

Yeah, so so guys, let let's explore that you know further.

I think the best place to start is mark Christ as the source of our healing and our brokenheartedness.

Like to do most what we feel like doing least, and that's running to him.

We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, was tempted in all points of his way yet without sin.

He calls us boldly to the throne of grace, even the the temptation of bitterness.

Yeah, exactly, right?

Um our suffering is designed to uh um not necessarily uh define us, but uh maybe shape us, to uh prepare us, to be that uh uh that foundational work that God utilizes in order to extract from us what is necessary to walk in that work which He's prepared beforehand.

As a Christian, we never need to worry that that we will be punished for anything.

Uh we can be corrected, uh there's conviction, obviously that comes to the believer.

There's chastisement, which you really want to have, but Christ received the punishment so that we can receive the correct way to walk, correctness, to be uh chastised, to walk that straight and narrow path, right?

That is also necessary.

Uh Spurgeon said the Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.

Henry Ward, uh tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.

When you're on your back, you're you're forced to look up.

When you have nothing, you're forced to be thankful for the little that comes your way.

And that is what suffering is going to do.

God is not gonna waste a tear.

He's not gonna waste a moment, he's not gonna waste a sorrow, he's not going to allow this to happen.

So when when bitterness is gonna attempt to come our way, um, when a broken heart comes our way because we place our hope in something other than Christ, he's there to remind us and to continually knock and say, look, there's a better way.

None of this needs to be wasted.

So come to me in faith, open up his word and to realize that he truly cares for everything.

We've said on the the podcast before in Mark chapter four, verses five and six, where we have the story of the apostles trying to cross the sea, these seasoned fishermen beginning to get freaked out because the weather is tumultuous.

Peter pipes up and he wakes up Jesus.

Peter pipe, Peter Pipe.

He couldn't resist it.

I knew it.

And he says, Don't you care that we are perishing?

Right?

I mean, how many times have we said that, if not verbally out loud, but we've said it inside of our hearts and our minds.

But God is a very present help to those who are in need.

And we fast forward over to 1 Peter 5 7, where it says, Cast all your cares on him because he cares.

So Peter went from a place of don't you care to I've walked with him for three years now.

And I've come to realize that it doesn't matter what you're going through, you can cast it on him.

Why?

Because he truly cares.

So the biblical promise is that he cares for us so we can go to him and we can throw anything onto his lap, onto his plate.

It's it's it's not a big deal to God in the sense that he can handle it, but it's a big deal to him because it's a big deal to you.

Mark, you highlighted something that again reminded me of what we're prone to do as people, and that is time and time and time again to lean on our feelings.

I was recently counseling a brother where I was texting with him, and I just kept having to remind him everything you just said to me is based on what you're feeling, what people are saying to you.

It's not based on the reality of what God's word says.

If there's anything we need to discipline ourselves in as God's people, is to have a mind that always defaults to the word.

I'm feeling this, I'm sensing this, they're saying this to me.

These are my circumstances.

What does the word say?

What does the word say?

You know, it's so essential.

And and I want to tie that in with this because you know you mentioned what you know the hope that Jesus gives and what he what what the disciples were going through, but you think of John 16, 33.

These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

And and so, I mean, you you you can't separate them because you if you if you miss the first part, you just you read like, okay, you will have tribulation, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

That's great, Lord.

You're the Lord of all creation, you've overcome the world.

But don't forget the first part.

These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.

And then he says, I've overcome the world.

He's our redeemer, he's our savior, he's our God, he's the one who's at work in us, both to willing to do for his good pleasure.

He's overcome the world.

We're gonna overcome the world with him.

Amen.

You know.

Good word.

Um, I think it's important to remember, too, that God, God is doing something with the pain.

So I want to talk to the sufferer for a second.

You know, I'm thinking about someone who's just lost a loved one, um, someone that's gone through a breakup, that's just found out they have cancer, that had affections for another person that were not returned to them.

There's moments in in real life where a saint is suffering, not necessarily for sin, but just experiencing the broken broken fallenness of this world and God is doing something with your pain.

There's this ancient story.

This is again credit to Makoto Fujimori for putting this out.

Uh, there's this ancient story in, I think it's in Japan, in which this king has this vase that he absolutely adores, and um, an accident happens and it breaks.

And for like 30, 40 years, he just keeps the broken vessel there on display because he can't bring himself to getting rid of it.

And one day an artist comes in, he sees the broken vessel, and he says, I can I can make it good.

And what he does, you would think like he would put it all back together and hide the cracks.

But this artist is known that he actually took gold particles and highlighted the cracks inside the vessel.

And this is the beginning of Kinsuji art now to this day.

Kinsuji art is something that like they add gold to highlight the brokenness of the vessel and it makes it better, more valuable, more beautiful.

Um, and you think of like you you mentioned, where does your hope lie?

You think of doubting Thomas that Jesus in his fully redeemed and glorified body still had wounds from nails.

You see, his glorified body didn't hide or ignore the pain that he went through, but the scars of the pain of suffering on behalf of our sin are still with his glorified body and are even a part of his glorified body.

And so, in that sense, your pain and suffering that you experience on this fallen planet in some way, shape, or form, in some mystery is a part of your glorified story that God is doing in and through you.

Amen.

You know, I I heard this just said the other day, and I've never thought about it that way, but someone was talking about the fact that Jesus will still, you know, still has his wounds into eternity.

And but they the way they put it was, and those wounds are more glorious because it's a glorified body.

You have never thought of it that way.

Like, wow, those wounds that represented violence and hatred and wickedness and the rebellion of man are now more glorious.

And you think of what they represent, our redemption.

Right?

You were gonna say something.

Yeah, it was.

Um suffering clearly can make us more like Jesus in the sense that it can produce an empathy within us if we're letter.

Suffering can we can either let it make make us better or let it produce empathy.

Uh, this is a little trivial, but I know that when I uh because I burn my hand on a toaster, when someone says I burned my hand on a toaster, I feel their pain.

Instantly, I know what they're talking about.

Someone stubs their toe.

I mean, stub your toe, man, that can hurt.

Seriously, I go into an Indian dance, if that's right to say that, uh an American Indian dance around the whole room yelling if I stub my toe.

Or kidney stones mention that.

I've got instant empathy for anyone who says I've got kidney stones or panic attacks.

And that reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The father did you love He is so interested in this quote.

Uh, God's Word is good and so someone writes someone writes a review about Easy's book, He Cries.

You read God's Word, and he yawns.

And he yawns.

Yeah.

Job's comforters.

So let's start again.

Job's what?

Comforters.

Oh, comforting.

Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're looking for the yawn.

You should produce the yawn Bible.

Anyway, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

You just like it because it has comfort down it.

Of course.

That's what's happening here.

Of course.

All I say is a little highlight there.

But yeah, when you can comfort other people if you've been through what they're going through.

Yeah.

And and you it it gives you an empathy for them.

And you know what it does is when you find somebody who's going through something that you've gone through, that we're move from sympathy to empathy, because now you know, right?

It's saying, your brokenness is welcome here.

Right?

Because I know what you've been through.

I I want to let you know there's there's no issue here right now.

You can put your guard down.

You know, um Romans 5, 3 through 5, suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character.

Uh James 1, count it all joy.

Why?

Because you know the testing of your faith, it produces steadfastness.

Right?

So all of these things that we're going through, they are not designed for yourself and to live inside of a vacuum.

Everything you go through, nothing is wasted.

You have gone through that so that you can be a comfort to other people, and so that you can realize that Christ is a comforter to you.

So don't run from it, but embrace it and embrace what God has for you in the midst of this.

Yeah.

And it all makes sense one day if it doesn't make sense today.

Count it all joy.

Um, do you think sometimes the joy is mechanical?

I mean, what if you say, I I'm I'm stuck in a line, I'm gonna get eaten alive.

I can't see a way past this, I'm gonna rejoice because God says do not because I feel like it.

This doesn't feel joyful.

I'm not counting it all joy.

I'm in a fiery trial.

So out of obedience, I rejoice in the Lord.

Though the fig tree doesn't blossom, be no herds in the field, yet will I rejoice in the Lord?

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

It's I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Absolutely.

I think joy is based on knowledge.

Yes.

And and you've talked about it, Raven.

And not circumstance.

Yeah, it's based on knowledge, and that knowledge is is what God's word says is true.

So I don't, okay, I don't feel like rejoicing.

Rejoice in the Lord.

Yeah, but why?

Why do I rejoice in the Lord?

Because he's good, because he's faithful, because he is gonna cause all things to work together for good, because he hasn't stopped working in me both to will and to do for his goodness.

And because my name is written in heaven.

Exactly.

All that is based on knowledge, you know, and and we have to what we have to do is force ourselves to connect with that knowledge and then what?

Live like we believe it.

I mean, Ray, you've talked about that the whole thing when you got that check that or they were sending you that check, right?

It produced in you that energy or whatever you say, because you didn't have it yet, but you you believed the word that you heard.

My belief produced a physical energy that I couldn't control.

I was tired that Friday afternoon, and when I knew that check for some and so thousands of dollars was coming, was coming in, I believed, and because I believed, I had joy and peace in believing.

Started leaping around.

He's been trying for years.

You believe the word of a fallible individual, right?

You go on to talk about it.

How much more should we believe the promises of God that that that his promises are more to be desired than gold?

Yay, as the King James Version says.

Much fine gold.

So every one of us as Christians should be just exploding with joy because we believe those exceeding great and precious promises.

Yeah.

I like I like talking about the verse you mentioned, count it all joy like this, which is you you add it up.

Like you think about a profit and loss sheet, you add up your loss, you add up your cost, and then you see your profits.

If your profits outweigh your cost, you're it's great.

It's a joy.

In that same way, count it all joys, like add it up.

Look at your suffering now.

Yep, you're going through suffering, you're you're experiencing the fallenness of the world.

Eternal glory with God in heaven for all eternity.

The prophet and lashi is in your favor.

Yeah, count it all joy.

That's so good.

Yeah, and and then Puffet and Lost Bible by the accountants Bible.

The accountance Bible.

Yeah.

And and you know, we have to remember too.

So I I think we've touched on these maybe not in explicit, concrete, definite defining terms, but yeah, you you've got to run to Christ.

You've got to focus on his word.

I'd say you've got to be a person that cries out to God and and prayer.

I mean, read the Psalms over and over again of those those petitions of God help me.

Uh, you know, how how long will I be in this place, you know, or when will you come to me?

When, you know.

And there's such an honesty about Psalms.

Yeah.

You think of Psalms shouldn't really say that.

Yeah.

But it says that.

It's raw, it's real, you know.

But but I love that that the Psalms are never blasphemous.

Yeah.

They're never they're never questioning God, though they're asking questions of God, you know.

And and I and I think that another important element we cannot forget is the body of Christ and our brokenheartedness.

What are you doing?

You're reading my notes.

Well, it's not for this people that you tell this.

Okay.

Tell us ask me.

I don't know where that came from.

Uh yeah, I I wrote down my it's funny because my wife recently was like, you know that you like you you get she says I wax too much philosophy and theology when I preach, and we need practical applications.

So I've been practicing practical applications.

So help make sense.

Only your wife could say that without a closing plane.

Yeah.

That's true.

Um, let's talk about sorrow.

No, uh, so three G's, go to prayer.

Uh, and I read a quote recently: praying is about, isn't about changing God's mind, but submitting our deepest desires and trusting his stewardship over them.

Isn't that good?

Yeah, go to prayer, go to rest.

You think uh like nowadays, when you ever when when you experience sorrow and grief, when you're uncomfortable, here's what the world has taught us to do: get busy.

Yeah, throw in your AirPods, doom scroll, go on a run.

Not that running is bad, but busy your life up to avoid those feelings of despair, of uncertainty.

And yet, you quoted it earlier: Christ is calling us to come to him to find rest.

In other words, we're running from the very thing we're designed to do, which is to rest in Christ.

And then the third one you already hit it, gospel community.

And I think this is super important because Satan loves to use grief to indulge our desires to isolate.

He wants us to be alone and yet we are called to bear one another's burdens.

You are called in that moment when you're like, I don't want to go to church this Sunday.

I'm I'm grieving, I'm sad, I'm miserable, I don't want anybody to see me like this.

That's exactly where you need to be, to bear one to be known and loved by God is to enjoy being known and loved in gospel community.

Amen.

Look, I I would recommend anyone listening right now who finds themselves in the realm of brokenheartedness and you're struggling with whether or not you should hang out with Christian brothers and sisters, whether or not you should go to that conference, whether or not you should even attend church service, right?

There's something in you that's saying, Well, I know we should we should be in in fellowship at church, but you know, but you're still struggling.

Don't even question it.

Don't even think about it.

Apply the Ray Comfort philosophy when it comes to evangelism.

I didn't even think about it.

Because you know you're gonna talk yourself out of it.

You already know it's right, you already know it it's it's good.

And again, do most what you feel like doing least.

And so that's key.

It's huge, it's it's massive.

You gotta do that.

And uh, and again, we just have to be reminded of the hope that we have.

Revelation 21:4, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

The final thing is eternal mindedness.

That's key.

And what's that banging you hear?

Knocking at the door.

They're doing construction, and I think someone forgot to tell them that we're recording right now.

Calling with instruction ruining a podcast.

Did you?

It sounded like the hammer was getting closer and closer as EZ was talking.

I think they were messing with you.

I know, man.

Anyway, friends, there you have it.

Uh, we we hope that you've been encouraged and that you recognize that, yeah, uh, as scripture tells us that the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and save such as are contrite uh of a contrite spirit.

Psalm 34, 18.

Um, don't forget that he's near to you.

And so call out to him and let him move in you.

There you have it, friends.

Don't forget Ray's book, Jesus amplified the deeper meaning of the words of Jesus.

Get it, right, Ray?

Yes, yes, and uh all that other stuff.

Podcast at LivingWaters.com.

Keep the encouragement flowing along with my tears, friends.

So uh let us know what's going on, how we bless you, and any questions, thoughts, and suggestions.

Don't forget to like, share the podcast, do all that good stuff.

Thank you for joining us, friends.

We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, where we have no idea, neither do our construction workers what we're doing.