GOOD GRIEF

Pastor Hope Flask

February 23, 2025

Main Scripture: 2 Samuel 9:1-11

Additional Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 4:17, 2 Samuel 4:4, Psalm 42:1-4, 5, 9, Isaiah 57:15, Philippians 3:10-11, John 14:2-3, Psalm 126:5-6

POINTS:

• You don’t know what you think you know until it’s tested.

• Grief feels like being stuck in the parenthesis of life.

• We look for someone to blame for our grief.

• Grief takes us to Lo-Debar (the land of grief).

• Lo-Debar feels far away from the Kingdom of God.

• Lo-Debar can show us our misaligned hope. - where we’ve placed our hope in an experience, memory, or person instead of Jesus.

• Lo-Debar shows us that God is “my Savior and my God”.

• Lo-Debar shows us our need for mercy and grace.

• You cannot come to Jesus without getting LOW.

• Lo-Debar is not our home.

• God brings us into a glory that is greater than our grief.

• God is always moving us from the parenthesis to the palace.

• Mephibosheth came before the King, stooped as a servant. The King came before Mephibosheth and made him a son.

• Mephibosheth means “shame destroyer”.

• Those who go out weeping to Lo-Debar will return with songs of joy.  And our tears will bring about a harvest if they are planted in the hope of Jesus Christ.