When Life Leaves You in Ashes

Transcript

Week 1 of the series Rising From the Ashes. Transcribed from the service recording and lightly edited for readability.

Welcome: Rising From the Ashes, Week 1

Good morning! Y'all doing all right? Y'all sure? Okay, just checking. It's November. Two months left in the year. I hope everything is going the way you wanted it to go, because 2026 is almost over. It's almost over.

Here we go. Let's do the declaration statement, and then we're going to jump in this morning.

Declaration Statement

All right, read it with me:

I am a Christ chaser. I am here to be transformed. I am here to hear the voice of God. God, clear my mind and open my heart to receive Your word. Jesus, do not let me leave the same way I came. I am ready to be changed. Amen.

Isaiah 61:1–3

This morning's scripture comes from Isaiah chapter 61, and we're going to read verses 1, 2 and 3:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.

A New Series: Rising From the Ashes

This month we're going to be looking at a series called Rising From the Ashes: how God rebuilds, restores and resurrects what life has tried to destroy. This week we're looking at when life leaves you in ashes.

Pain Is Real

As I was thinking about this series and putting it all together, what God laid on my heart was that we have pain we deal with on a regular basis.

So often when we come into the body of Christ, we're painted a picture that everything is going to be okay, everything is going to be all right. And then we see people going through pain and suffering, and a lot of times our first inclination is, "What did they do to cause this? What happened that made this happen?" We're always trying to rationalize it instead of just sitting with the fact that pain does exist.

The Reality of the Ashes: Life Can Break You

So the first thing we're going to look at is the reality of the ashes, and that is: life can break you.

In Isaiah 61, we're looking at what's going on in the life of the Israelites. Isaiah addresses a lot of things in the life of Israel and Judah. They crossed over and made it to the Promised Land, but now they've hit a snag. Because of some of their own actions, they find themselves taken away into captivity in Babylon.

But even in captivity, God still gives them grace. He allows Nehemiah to go back and start rebuilding the wall, and some people start going back. But just because they've gone back doesn't deal with the fact that they've lost something. When they go back to Jerusalem, it doesn't look like it used to look. Why? Because when Babylon came in, they burned it down. So they're building up the wall, but in the middle of building it, they're still looking at a desolate place. And Isaiah is trying to help them here.

Jesus Reads Isaiah 61

The cool thing is that we see these same verses again in Luke 4. Jesus walks into the synagogue, picks up the scroll and reads these exact verses to the people. Then in Luke 4:21 He says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus identified Himself as the Spirit-anointed one who brings the good news, freedom and restoration described in Isaiah. So what does that have to do with us today?

Before Beauty, God Acknowledges the Ashes

We have to realize something. Before God promised joy, He acknowledged the mourning. Before God promised beauty, He acknowledged the ashes. Before He promised praise, He acknowledged the heaviness.

Sometimes we have to stop and acknowledge some things before we can get somewhere. But you know how it is. We want to say the good thing, the right thing. Somebody experiences a death in the family, and we want to say, "Keep the faith. Stay strong. Keep praising God." But sometimes we forget that having faith does not mean not having pain.

So let's look at three realities about the ashes of life.

Ashes Are Evidence That Something Was Lost

The first one: ashes are evidence that something was lost.

It reminds me of Job. The Bible calls Job a righteous man, but in one day it's like all hell broke loose in his life. His livestock was taken, his children died. He lost everything in a matter of time, and then we find Job sitting in the ashes.

Even his wife said, "Just curse God and die." Like, you don't have to keep going through this, there's a way out. Why? Because sometimes we just want to escape the pain. But Job sat in the ashes, and while he was sitting in the ashes, he did not lose faith that God was God.

So here's the thing, especially if you're a new believer in Christ, I really need you to understand this: you can do everything right and still have bad things happen.

Ashes Can Affect More Than Your Circumstances

Another thing about these ashes: ashes can affect more than your circumstances.

Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Sometimes the most significant damage in our lives is not what happens around us. You can lose your job and find another one. You can lose some money and earn it back. You can lose a house and buy another one. But sometimes the emotional damage lasts longer than the circumstance.

Psalm 42 says:

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

The psalmist is wrestling with spiritual and emotional distress. He asks, "Why is my soul downcast and disturbed within me?" He keeps calling himself to hope in God, but hoping in God still doesn't mean he isn't having an internal battle.

A lot of us come in and worship and praise, and we're going through something. You serve faithfully in your ministry, but you're still going through something. Privately you're dealing with disappointment. You've been betrayed. You're lonely, you're grieving. There's fear, there's anxiety, because stuff still happens in life.

And sometimes God has to heal what the fire did inside of us before He fixes what's outside. Before we can embrace what's going on around us, sometimes God really wants to deal with what's going on inside of us.

Ashes Are a Season, Not Your Identity

And the last reality about the ashes: the ashes are a season, not your identity.

Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians. He says we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. His confidence is rooted in God, which means: I can go through this thing, but it's not who I am.

How often do we identify ourselves with what we've gone through? You've been divorced, and now you say, "I'm just this divorced person. I can't make relationships work." Maybe you've had a business failure, and all you see yourself as is a failure. Students, you might be struggling in school and think, "I'm not that smart." But you're just struggling. You're just going through some things.

A lot of times we identify with that. We identify with our addictions. We identify with the broken part of ourselves. But this is only a season. It is not who you are.

That's what we talked about last month: identity, part of your core. We have to know who we are, because we're going to go through some things, but the things you're going through are not who you are. You are a child of God. You're a kid of the King, and He still has you, no matter what you may be sitting in.

Going Through It, Not Becoming It

You may be sitting in ashes, but you are not ashes. Look at your neighbor and tell them, "I'm going through it, but I'm not becoming it."

The fire may have changed your circumstances. The fire may have changed your relationships. The fire may even have changed your plans. But the fire does not have the authority to change who you are.

God Comes Close in Your Pain

So now that we understand the reality of the ashes, we need to understand something even more powerful: God does not require you to escape your pain before He begins ministering to you. He comes close in your pain.

In Isaiah 61:1 He says, "He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." The beauty of Isaiah 61 is that God does not merely announce restoration from a distance. He sends the Anointed One to minister to us.

God Sees the Pain Others Cannot See

Because God comes close to us, that means God sees the pain others cannot see.

Remember when God sent Moses to free the Israelites? He said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering."

God knows what you're going through. He knows exactly where you are. He sees you. And because He saw, He sent somebody to provide help. He sent Jesus to help us.

Jesus sees even what you're hiding. He sees the tears you cry in the midnight hour. He sees what you're battling with. He sees you, and as He sees you, He's going to provide for you. You don't have to make your pain visible to people for God to know. God knows right where you are.

God Draws Near Instead of Pulling Away

And God draws near instead of pulling away. The Bible says the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. Not distant, not indifferent, not unavailable. He's near.

Hebrews 4:15 teaches that Jesus is a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. One of the reasons God sent Jesus to earth was so He could truly understand our humanness: feel the pain, feel the struggle, understand temptation, understand every human emotion we feel. So when the enemy comes to accuse you, Jesus says, "Nah, I got this. I got this."

Jesus Understands Your Pain

Jesus understands your pain.

That's probably one of the hardest spiritual truths to understand, right? Because we know He's God. We know He's all powerful. And yet He knows pain.

When He hung and bled and died on the cross, that was real pain. He felt that. When He was tempted by Satan over and over, He learned what it's like to be tempted. He knows what it's like to lose a friend, because when He went to Lazarus, the Bible says, "Jesus wept." Why? Because He understands pain. He understands what you're going through, and He's there to draw near to you in the middle of it.

God Begins Healing Before Everything Is Restored

God begins healing before everything is restored.

It reminds me of the story of the prodigal son. He went off and wilded out, and on his way back, he's hoping he can just be a servant in his father's house. But the Bible says that while he was still a long way off, the father saw him and ran to him.

God sees you, and He is running to you. He wants to restore everything you've lost. He wants to begin to heal you, and He's going to heal you in a way you can't even imagine.

You Don't Have to Get It Right First

But some of us aren't getting this. We're like the prodigal son: "No, I'm not worthy of this. I've got to fix this before I can go back to church. I've got to get this right before I get back into fellowship, back into ministry, back into service."

But God said, "No, I'm coming to you. I'm not waiting for you to get right. I know you ain't right, so I'm coming to you."

When's the last time you got well before you went to the doctor? I know some of us try to get our sugar right before we take that test. "I'm going to start eating right, because I know I've got to take that test." But the test can tell you just started a few weeks ago.

God is saying, "You don't have to get it all together before you come to Me. You don't have to figure out the solution to your problem before you come to Me. Actually, the only way you're going to find the solution to your problem is to come to Me."

But we always do this backwards. We want to fix ourselves. But if you could fix yourself, you wouldn't have broken yourself.

God loves you, and He's going to meet you exactly where you are. His grace is what leads to your transformation. Don't wait until your tears stop. Don't wait until the marriage is fully repaired. Don't wait until your finances have recovered. Don't wait until the depression has lifted. You can come to God right now.

God Meets You in the Valley

Because here's the reality: God doesn't just meet people on the mountaintop. God likes to meet people in the valley too.

God sees our ashes, and God comes close to us in our ashes. But He doesn't simply come and sit with us. He comes with a promise that the ashes don't have to be the end of our story.

God Promises Restoration: Beauty for Ashes

Because what does He do? God promises restoration. Beauty is coming. He promises to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

This reveals the transforming power of God. God promises to exchange symbols of mourning for symbols of restoration. Notice the movement in the text: from ashes to beauty, from mourning to joy, from heaviness to praise.

Trees of Righteousness

But God doesn't stop there. He declares that His restored people will become trees of righteousness.

Since we're talking about planting, the only way to get a tree is to have a seed planted. So slow down for a second. If we've got a tree of righteousness, what's the fruit? What's the fruit? Somebody's going to get that when they get home.

It says they are the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. God is planting this tree within us. We didn't develop the tree. We didn't make the tree. God is doing this. Restoration is not simply about feeling better. It's about becoming firmly rooted in God so that our lives bring Him glory.

Beauty Out of What Was Destroyed

God can bring beauty out of what was destroyed.

The phrase "beauty for ashes" is one of the most powerful promises in Isaiah. In the ancient world, ashes symbolized mourning. We still see that on occasion today with Ash Wednesday, when people get an ash cross on their foreheads. And the oil was used in celebration and as a beauty treatment. The crown of beauty was something beautiful placed on the head.

So God wants to replace these symbols of darkness and death with symbols of joy, excitement and celebration. The scripture is getting them mentally prepared so they can see it coming to light. You saw the physical display of mourning; now you'll see the physical display of beauty. And God says, "What you see with your eyes, I'm going to do inside of you."

Because He can do this out of something that was destroyed, which doesn't make sense to us. How can you bring life from death? How can you do this? There's nothing left here. But God is saying, "I can do it. I can do it."

Restored, But Not the Same

Here's the thing. A lot of times I think the problem is that we want God to bring back exactly what we lost. You want the same relationship back, the same job back, the same situation back. God will restore, but it probably won't look the way you left it.

Let's go back to the story of Job. Job lost his children, and the Bible says God blessed him with more children, but He didn't give him back the same children. God can build you a new house, but it isn't going to be the same house as the one that was destroyed.

What I Lost, and What God Gave

When God took my father, and then a few days later took my uncle, that's something I never thought I'd experience. But then about a month later, my grandbaby was born.

He didn't bring back what I lost, but He brought something that still brought me joy. I mean, yes, He could have brought my daddy back, like He raised Lazarus from the grave. That wasn't His choice.

But so often we're looking for things to come back. "I need this relationship to come back. I need this job back." And God says, "No, I have something better in store for you. I'm trying to take you somewhere. Yes, I feel your pain. Yes, I understand your grieving. I know you're suffering. But guess what? I'm going to bring something that is far greater than anything you could ever imagine."

Joy Without Erasing Your Memories

God can restore joy without erasing your memories.

Sometimes we get stuck there. We feel like we can't move on because we're holding on to the memories of the past. But God is saying, "No, you can keep those memories, and you can still have joy."

Sometimes we have to understand that God is doing what only God can do. Psalm 30:5 declares that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. That isn't literal; some of us have been mourning for a lot longer than 24 hours. It may last longer than one sunrise and sunset. But what it's saying is that God is going to replace it with something greater.

Don't Feel Guilty for Your Joy

And when He does, you don't have to feel guilty for experiencing the joy.

You might get this analogy. Some people make it out of the hood and then feel bad about the people they left behind. They start to feel guilty. But God is taking you somewhere because He needs to get you out, so you can help other people get out.

There's a name for it: survivor's remorse. That's a real feeling. Sometimes you survive, and you feel remorse that you're the one who survived. But God needs you to survive, because He has something to get through you.

What did we talk about earlier? The tree of righteousness. You are a tree, which means you're going to bear fruit. God had you survive because He has fruit He needs you to bear.

Restored So Your Life Reveals His Glory

I'm about to get to my close. We're going to get through this. God restores you so your life can reveal His glory.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. God moves from ashes to trees, from destruction to stability, from mourning to fruitfulness. People who were once devastated are now pictured as firmly established plantings of the Lord. The imagery emphasizes stability, endurance and strength. The phrase "the planting of the Lord" makes clear that God is the source of this renewed life, and the purpose is stated plainly: that He may be glorified.

Go back to a few weeks ago: identity. Who am I? I am a child of God. And since I am a child of God, I was created for His purpose, and the purpose He created me for is to glorify Him.

So sometimes God has to burn some stuff down so that He can be glorified. But the cool thing is that God can let it burn down because He also knows He can restore it.

God doesn't restore you merely so you can enjoy a better life. He restores you so your life can point others toward Him.

From Ashes to a Tree of Righteousness

So let's look at the progression of Isaiah 61:

• You started with ashes, but God promised beauty.
• You started with mourning, but God promised joy.
• You started with heaviness, but God promised praise.

And then God says you're going to become a tree of righteousness. That means you're not just going to survive. You're going to become stronger. You're going to develop deeper roots. You're going to produce fruit. You're going to encourage people who are suffering. And when people ask how you made it through the fire, you can tell them: it wasn't my strength. It wasn't my intelligence. It wasn't my resources. It was the grace of God.

Roots Grow Deeper in the Wind

I heard something about the palm tree that I never knew. When a strong wind hits a palm tree, it bends. But what I didn't realize is that while it's bending over, taking that strong wind, the roots are digging deeper into the ground to gain more strength. And they only dig deeper when the winds are blowing. Only when there's some opposition do the roots go deeper.

We pray for a lot of stuff. We ask for a lot of stuff. But sometimes God has to put some pressure on us so we can go deeper. Sometimes He has to burn some stuff down so He can build what He wants.

Even though He knows you're in pain, even though He knows you're struggling, even though He knows you're sitting in ashes, He's saying, "I can do something with that. I can do something with that."

I Know What I Can Build

Just imagine: you come home and your house is engulfed in flames. Everything burns to the ground. You're sitting there crying, remembering everything, looking at the devastation in front of you. And then a builder walks up and starts talking about what he can build on this lot.

He goes around and inspects the foundation, checking everything out. "Oh yeah, I can build on this. I can put this up. Two stories? No, now we're going three, maybe three and a half stories." And he starts laying out this beautiful plan, and you look at him like, "I just lost my house."

And he says, "Yes, I know what you've lost. But I know what I can build."

That's what Jesus is saying to us: "I know what you've lost. I know where you are right now. But I know what I can build. I know what I can put in this place. I can take you places you've never imagined. I can have you experience things you've never experienced. You've got to trust Me. I know you're hurting, and I can heal that hurt. I can heal that pain. But not only am I going to heal you, I'm going to build something better on it."

And that's what God wants to do for us today. Just know that when life leaves you in the ashes, God can rebuild better than anyone ever can. Amen.

Weekly Challenge

The wrap for this week.

Reflect: What ashes am I sitting in? Take time this week to identify the areas of your life where you are still carrying pain, disappointment, grief or regret. Ask yourself: Have I allowed this experience to define my identity? Am I hiding my pain instead of acknowledging it? What would it look like to trust God in this area of my life?

Act: Take one intentional step toward restoration. Choose one practical action this week that demonstrates your willingness to move forward with God. It may mean having a difficult conversation, seeking professional counseling or spiritual guidance, reconnecting with a trusted friend, returning to a spiritual discipline you've neglected, forgiving someone who hurt you, or simply admitting that you need help.

Pray:

Heavenly Father, You know the places in my life that have been damaged by pain, disappointment and loss. You see the ashes that others cannot see. Help me stop defining myself by what I've experienced and begin trusting You for who You are. Heal the places in my heart that are still wounded. Give me courage to take the steps necessary for restoration. Teach me to trust Your timing, Your wisdom and Your purpose. And as You restore me, use my life to bring hope and encouragement to others.

Prayer

Father God, I thank You today for this word.

Lord, we all deal with frustrations and disappointments. As a body of believers, I pray that we not only acknowledge those things, but that we can show others grace in the midst of their pain. Father God, let us come alongside them and let them know it's okay to not be okay.

Father God, as we acknowledge the truth, we continue to press forward, knowing that You can bring beauty for ashes and joy for mourning. Father God, we just love You and praise You for what You're doing and what You're going to do. In the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior, we ask all these things. Amen.