Steven Curtis Chapman

"It was the day the world went wrong
I screamed till my voice was gone
And watched through the tears
As everything came crashing down

Slowly panic turns to pain
As we awake to what remains
And sift through the ashes
That are left behind

But buried deep beneath all our broken dreams
We have this hope

Out of the ashes
Beauty will rise
And we will dance among the ruins
We will see it with our own eyes
Out of these ashes
Beauty will rise
For we know joy is coming
In the morning

In the morning
Beauty will rise

So take another breath for now
And let the tears come washing down
And if you can't believe
I will believe for you"

Steven Curtis Chapman @ Saddleback Lake Forest

• Lost his daughter in 2008
• "It was the day the world went wrong." - lyics*** "beauty will rise" "If you can't believe, I will believe for you."
  • Lyrics are different when you hear then read back to you instead of singing them *tears up*
  • Shanghai earthquake of 2008
    • City devastated and landscape completely leveled
    • Know that God will bring beauty out of this. It will rise again.
    • Must dance in faith, knowing that God will take care of you, which seems crazy given what was going on.
    • That's why you need a small group - because they will believe for you when you don't.
      • "A despairing man needs the devotion of his friends, even when he forsakes the Almighty."
  • God is good even when life seems as far from it was possible.
    • Sings song: *You are with us. Hallelujah, you are good.*
• Explanations don't remove the pain.
  • Even if you know the reason, it doesn't make the pain any less.
  • Stop looking for an answer and start looking for a savior.
  • NEVER make a decision based on an emotion, because emotions will change.
  • There's a huge difference between hopeful sorrow and hopeless sorrow.
• Feb 29th - Maria (not even 5 years old yet) asks, "Does God have a big house?"
  • He responded, "Yes."
  • "Does he have a big yard? Where you can play."
  • Realized she was learning the song "Big, big house."
  • His daughter said, "Well, I wanna go see God in his big house."
  • "We can do that. Do you want to talk about it? We can do that, talk about how you can do that with Jesus. You can go see his house."
  • He had no idea what that would mean just a few months later when she actually went to be with Jesus.
• Maria could only write a few things. She could only write her name, "I love Dad," and "I love Mom."
  • She left a note saying "SEE"
    • It was a message to him from God letting him know not to see with you eyes, but to see by faith.
• "This is not how it should be. This is not how it could be. But this is how it is. Our God is in control."
  • Rick sat there with his wife, Kay, for 122 days after their son had died. They were look at each other on the couch and recite some of these lyrics from Steven.
• The test of what you believe is what you do when you are standing by the graveside.
  • The difference between people who believe in Christ and those who don't is remarkable.
  • If you could see what God sees, you'd be God. But you're not.
    • Any judgment that I make is from a LIMITED perspective. Learn to trust in God.
  • You don't have a map that shows you your entire life.
    • Why? Because it would scare the heck out of you. You don't have the grace to handle it until you get there.
    • You only get a scroll to see it as it unravels.
• Thought he could come in and fix everything around him and his life.
  • …until he met his wife and married her - Mary Beth Chapman
  • He became frustrated that he couldn't fix everything around him.
    • He couldn't "fix" her, their marriage, himself, the poverty he saw while traveling together, etc etc.
  • It's in the most broken and unfixable places that he found God working in the strongest ways.
    • Life is NOT perfect. We CANNOT fix everything. This is NOT heaven.
    • Do not expect this to be heaven.
      • Some of the stuff in your life will never be fixed until you get to heaven.
    • You need to say, "We will do the best we can with what we have for Jesus today."
  • Song: *Spring is coming.*

• Trust God even when you don't understand.
  • He doesn't have to fulfill all of his promises to you right now. He doesn't have to do it within 60, 70, 80 years. He has all of eternity to do it.
  • Lyrics: *When you don't know how you'll make it out alive, Jesus will meet you there."
    • Nobody else is gonna meet you there, so you better get to know Jesus.