During Warren's message, he and Kay shared three main areas of biblical truth that gave stability during their grief. First, life doesn't make sense, but people can have peace because "God is with us and loves us." Secondly, everything on earth is broken, but "we can have joy because we know God has a greater plan." And third, "we know that life is a battle, but we can have hope because we know there is more to the story."
"For 27 years I prayed every day of my life for God to heal my son's mental illness ... it didn't make sense why this prayer wasn't being answered," said Warren. "When you go through a difficult time, you automatically start to try and find an answer. But explanations never comfort. You don't need explanations; you need the presence of God."
Both Rick and Kay Warren described having something like a premonition on April 5 before receiving confirmation that their 27-year-old son had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound that day.
"The day Matthew passed away I had this terrible sense of foreboding. Without really going into all the circumstances of why, I had a pretty good reason to believe that Matthew had taken his life," said Kay Warren, during her segment of the sermon.
She explained how on that day she deliberately chose to wear a necklace having the same inscription as her book's title, Choose Joy, which was released last year.
"With hands shaking, heart pounding, stomach heaving, not really thinking clearly, but by knowing that by putting it on I was fighting back against the nightmare that I was pretty sure was going to unfold that day," she recounted.
Later, as their worst nightmare became a reality, she raised the necklace to her husband.
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