Cultivating Joy | June 1, 2025

Man that was very short lived.

Let's try it again nice and loud, Austin.

'cause we're all excited.

Wide awake here in Nap Town.

Just kidding, just kidding.

You guys look really tired.

Like you stayed up really late

last night watching the Pacers

make it to the NBA finals.

It's pretty exciting stuff for a city

of, you know, 25 years in the waiting.

I mean, I'm hoping that they're

chasing crowns, not just, uh, trophies.

Right.

Jesse?

Something like that.

It's good stuff.

Hey, I don't know if you're like

me, but I've been really excited

watching the Pacers, uh, over

the course of this little run.

And I was really touched, I was

really touched by the display

of sportsmanship and heart.

Like Halliburton was like choking, and

Jaylen Brunson was praying for him.

I mean, that's the kind of

stuff you don't see a lot in

the NBA, you know what I mean?

Like that hit deep.

That hit deep.

And I don't know if you

were paying attention last

night, but in the post game.

They had, uh, you know, all

this stuff going on in the

Indiana, you know, what is it?

Game Bridge, is that what

we call ourselves now?

Game.

And, uh, if you look right here in

the back, I'm not a hundred percent

sure, but I'm pretty sure that that's

Joe Murray holding up a three 16 from

John that he was there last night.

So shout, was that your dad, Josh?

Yep.

Oh, well you could've, at

least, you could've at least

faked it for a second, man.

Uh, hey, uh, I'm gonna try to keep

you awake this morning 'cause I know

a lot of you stayed up extra long.

You prayed a lot yesterday.

I totally feel that.

Uh, even if you're not a basketball fan

or a sports fan, when your city makes

it to the championship, there's sort

of a little vibe and I, and I get that.

So go, I'm sorry.

Go legend.

Go.

Go.

What?

Oh, Patty, go back to Oklahoma, Patty.

Okay.

So,

uh, hey, listen, listen, so we

love everybody at this church, just

not for the next week and a half.

And then after that,

Patty, you're back in.

Jeff.

Jeff, good job not saying anything.

So we all like someone different.

We're all Patty.

Patty, you're on your own.

The whole church is against you.

Just enjoy it.

Just, just enjoy it.

But you know what, Patty?

You wouldn't have it any other way.

So that's good stuff.

Good stuff.

Alright, well, hey, I'm not gonna

preach about the Pacers this morning.

In fact, I'm tired of the

emotional rollercoaster.

I'm gonna take a break and enjoy

the next few days, not caring

what the Pacers are doing.

But I do wanna share a thought with

you this morning about a passage

of scripture and maybe it does sort

of tie to what they've been doing.

I guess I hadn't really thought

about this, but I wanna share with

you a little segment I'm working on

called Scriptures that make you go.

Are you ready, Austin?

Wait, wait.

Let's try it one more time.

Scriptures that make you go, nuh ya.

Nuh ya ya.

Scriptures that make you go Nuh right.

Nuh nuh, right.

I don't know why I'm feeling that way.

I just feel like saying, nuh.

'cause it's really good grammar.

Am I right Jamie?

Why won't you make eye

contact this morning?

That's disappointing.

Okay.

Scriptures that make you go, nah.

And there's one scripture in

particular I want to take you to.

That I think is a classic

iconic Uhuh scripture.

It's in James chapter one, and we're gonna

spend a little time there this morning.

So if you wanna flip over to

James chapter one, we're gonna

look at verses two through four.

We unpack this a little bit in some

men's group stuff and some conversation.

Uh, but I think it bears a little bit

of a tracking together and thinking

about as we walk out what it looks

like to be a faithful follower

of Jesus in the midst of a world.

It's quite honestly, kind

of a challenge, right?

This is a scripture that I think

is a nu-uh, kind of scripture.

It goes like this.

Considerate, pure joy,

considerate, pure joy.

My brothers, my sisters, each and

every one of you considerate pure joy

whenever you face trials of many kinds.

Nuh right?

Nuh nuh.

Well, maybe we're missing something.

Consider it pure joy.

My brothers and sisters.

Uh, maybe it doesn't apply to all of us.

Maybe it's just a gender spec.

No, that's not it.

Brothers and sisters, we got 'em covered.

It's just two genders.

Just FYI, uh, brothers and

sisters consider it pure joy.

This phrase pure joy is interesting.

Um, I don't know if you know what

this means, but in the Greek,

this word poss for pure means all.

That's why some scriptures use, consider

it all joy or consider it pure, right?

Pure.

A hundred percent joy.

So like this scripture says, consider all

aspects, everything, a hundred percent.

All of it.

Joy, joy, brothers, sisters, all of us.

Whenever, right, whenever, anytime.

Every time.

All the time.

You, me, us, each of us individually,

not them, us face trials.

Consider it all joy.

Uhuh, right?

Uhuh, but unfortunately.

You know what I'm saying?

This is a Uhhuh verse 'cause God

is calling us to be people who face

trial and difficulty and challenge and

adversity, not with just disgruntled,

sort of dutiful, diligent, whatever

grimy attitude you can conjure up, but

with pure all a hundred percent joy.

Joy.

This word joy is interesting.

It, uh, it's not happiness.

Just in case you're wondering,

you might be thinking to

yourself, considerate happiness.

When you face trials, see, happiness

is this sort of light and fluffy

emotional thing, like sadness, the bumps

around and gets, it's like a balloon

that gets batted up in the ground

or pull up the air or pulled down to

the ground by the circumstances and

situations of our life, and sometimes

we're happy and sometimes we're sad and

we're kind of everywhere in between.

And this scripture does not

say, consider it all happiness.

When you face trials, you know, the

early Christians were getting eaten

by lions in the Coliseum in Rome, and

their stories about them being put to

death before thousands of people, and

they had smiles on their faces and they

sang songs of praise and worship to God.

Now, I don't know what the, the numbers

are, but I don't know anybody who's

been eaten by a lion and felt happiness.

I don't think that's a thing, right.

Pain.

Yes.

But see, joy is not about emotion.

Joy's deeper.

The word in the Greek is carra.

And it, it has this cool image.

I like this phrase 'cause

I don't like this phrase.

Uh, calm delight.

Calm delight.

We had a dog named Cara.

We called her Joy.

She was not a calm delight and we gave

her wave, but that's a different story.

Um.

Cara, calm, delight.

See, here's the thing about joy.

Joy has a really great twin and

their friends, and they can't

do life without each other.

It's this word hope, because see, God's

people have this incredible gift of hope,

this incredible reality of hope that we

get to live in that affects our ability.

To be anchored deep in joy.

In fact, when you look at hope,

the biblical definition of this

word is joyful and confident.

Expectation, joyful, calm, delight.

No matter our circumstances, no

matter what we're facing, we can have

joy, maybe not happiness, maybe even

in the midst of pain and sadness.

But we can have joy because of a confident

expectation about reality, right?

That this world is in our home.

That these circumstances don't define

us, that these lightened, momentary

troubles are achieving for us at glory

that far outweighs them all right?

So we don't worry about the stuff that's

temporary, that's un or that's seen.

We look at the stuff that man is eternal

and we keep our eyes fixed on that.

And so we have this ridiculous ability.

To find joy even in the hard things.

There's a cool scripture over

here in Hebrews chapter six, verse

19 says, we have this hope as an

anchor for the soul firm and secure.

See, happiness is an anchor

deep in our soul, and happiness

has nothing to do with joy.

God is not the God of happiness,

but he is the God of joy.

That joy that he makes available

to us, we get to drill down

deep and anchor deep into that.

And I'll tell you, the trick about joy is

it's not your joy that you're living in.

It's the joy of the Lord

that is your strength.

It's his joy.

And when we're connected to that

joy, that reservoir doesn't run

out given the circumstances, the

situations, the stuff we face.

That's why people can face brutal things.

My, uh, great uncle Mene Harris,

right over there in in Iowa that

you've heard about before, who is

who, who passed away from Parkinson's

disease, and he was an amazing preacher

and teacher and a president of a

Bible college and all these things.

He talked about receiving Parkinson's,

that God had entrusted him to carry

that, and he lived out joy, even

in the midst of a death sentence.

Because of his perspective

on eternity and on reality.

And when we don't have joy in our life,

it's usually because we're looking at the

circumstances and the situations and we're

deriving our hope and our joy from that.

Or we haven't developed any strength

to navigate hardships and difficulties.

And we're gonna unpack that a

little bit with this scripture.

We're supposed to have joy

whenever we face trials.

'cause we know that the testing of our

faith is doing something significant.

What is it doing?

It's producing perseverance in us.

This word perseverance or whatever that

is, uh, endurance patience is tied to

this really fun old word called constancy.

Constancy, which sounds like

something from Anne of Green Gables

or some hideous show I had to watch

as a kid with my sister constancy.

But what does it mean?

I mean, you can look at it

looks like constant, right?

And that's exactly what it is.

That no matter the situation, the

circumstances, no matter what's

happening, we don't shrink back.

We don't quit.

We don't cave.

There is a constancy.

To how we live.

And what's crazy is we serve the

eternal God who never changes.

He is constant, and that's

part of his character.

And as we become more and more

like him and we walk more and more

relationship with him, that part of that

character begins to take shape in us.

But it's never produced without

hardship and difficulty and challenge.

It's at work, right?

Perseverance.

Let it finish its work so that

you may be complete and lacking.

Nothing.

It's not a fun passage.

It's a Uhuh, huh?

I don't wanna embrace that.

Well, the good news is.

God reiterated it again for us,

really in Romans chapter five.

So in case you didn't like that one,

lemme take you to a different one.

Chapter five of Romans verses three

through four is gonna follow a very

similar trajectory and help us see and

unpack this just a little bit more.

It says this, we also

rejoice in our sufferings.

Uhuh, right?

What is this wretched theme we

got going on Now, A, I want to

know why I have to preach this.

I'm hoping it's not for me.

You know what I mean?

Like I just try to discern

what the Lord wants me to say.

So I'm really hoping some of you are

dealing with hard things and that's why

I gotta say this and not that Jamie's

gonna break some news to me right after

church that I gotta deal with, right?

Uh, 'cause it's no fun to

deal with hard stuff, right?

It is hard to rejoice.

You know what rejoice means?

It's you joice once and then

you do it a second time.

That's rejoicing, right?

You joice and then you joice twice.

That's all I could say, right?

I don't know what that means.

Joyce isn't a word, right?

But think of it as joy.

Joy, right?

It's not just Joyce.

Joy.

Joy.

You got twice the amount

of joy you gotta do.

It's really not what

it means in the Greek.

Check this out.

This is super cool.

In this coxon, my word, do you know

what it means to rejoice in our

sufferings in the original language,

this is what the scripture said.

We boast, we boast.

Our sufferings.

It means to boast right to brag.

I got to suffer for Jesus right now.

I don't know what that looks like.

Eh, you didn't do it, whatever that is.

The reality is that the

early church understood that

suffering was not a punishment.

Now, listen, if you choose to do

sinful things and you reap the

consequences of those sinful things,

and you're suffering because of it.

That's a healthy consequence and

sometimes a rebuke or a discipline of

the Lord that you gotta walk through.

That's really not what

we're talking about here.

What we're talking about here is trying

to be faithful and obedient and God

allowing testing and trials and challenges

and difficulty and adversity to come

into our life and how we embrace it.

The early church saw

it as a badge of honor.

They boasted, they were proud, they

bragged about getting to suffer.

They counted, they rejoice.

Scripture says, counted worthy

to suffer for the name of Christ.

And that's actually become a very

popular thing in the American church.

It's kind of on all the letterhead.

Suffer for Jesus.

Come join us on Sunday mornings.

Right?

It's the complete opposite

of the American church.

If it's hard, God's not in it.

If it's hard, it's probably the devil

trying to stop me or God telling

me, no, no, don't, don't push.

Don't press, don't lean,

don't endure, don't persevere.

We see adversarial stuff as enemy

stuff and sometimes God allows things

to be hard to develop something in us.

And instead of embracing it and

instead of saying, Lord, what do

you want to teach me through this?

We just turn and run the other direction.

That's, I mean, there's

a theological term.

It's called weenie Christian,

is what that's called.

Right?

Because the reality is it's

following Jesus's heart.

Jesus said, pick up your

cross and follow me.

In this world, you're gonna have trouble.

But at the first sign of trouble,

the first sign of persecution,

hardship, difficulty, we run the

other way and we sit in the corner

and we cry and we fuss and we talk

about how hard it is to follow Jesus.

And this isn't what I signed up for.

And probably it wasn't because

the preacher who preached to you

said, follow Jesus and you're

gonna get lollipops and play with

puppy dogs and slide down rainbows.

It's gonna be amazing.

But that's not the message

Jesus gave to his people.

He said, you're gonna, the

world's gonna hate you.

You.

That doesn't mean the

world's gonna like you.

It doesn't mean the

world's gonna tolerate you.

It doesn't mean the world's gonna be

cool and and kinda chill with you.

No, it's gonna hate you.

Well, that should be a pretty clear sign

from our savior who told us that, that

we're gonna face adversity and challenge.

So how are we gonna embrace it?

Well, maybe our sharing time.

And I figured that's why you didn't share

a lot this morning 'cause you wanted to

wait for me to kind of stage it better.

Maybe our sharing time.

It needs to simply be Ha Hey

guys, sorry you missed out.

I got to suffer this week.

It was amazing.

God's doing cool things in my life.

Thank you.

Don't pray for me to stop.

I'm, I'm still going.

Right?

We hear all the time from

the persecuted church.

They don't want us to

pray for their release.

They don't want us to pray that

they'll be able to get out and

get back with their family.

They pray.

They ask us to pray that they would

endure and they would stand and they

would be faithful in the midst of

what God's handed to them to do.

Man, we gotta develop some muscle.

And to be honest with you,

that's really what this is about.

Learning to embrace the hard things

and to grow and develop through them.

We rejoice in our sufferings because we

know this word's important that we know.

Listen, God is not just haphazardly,

randomly allowing you to careen through

the craziness of life, wondering

if you'll learn things or wondering

if something will make sense or

wondering what's going on himself.

He knows what he's doing.

He has a plan and a purpose for every

single thing in every single day.

In every single moment that we face.

He's at work.

We don't believe it, and

we don't yield to it.

But he's at work, man.

He's doing it.

And for those of us who understand

that he's doing that, we can know

that what I'm walking through isn't

pointless and it isn't purposeless.

I'm gonna rejoice and I'm gonna have hope.

With joyful and confident expectation

even in the midst of hard things,

because I know that God's at work.

I know that God is

accomplishing a purpose here.

I know he's doing something

right and what is that?

Well, he's helping us walk through

this experience because he's

suffering, produces endurance, he says.

Endurance, that same word that we had

a minute ago for constancy, right?

Perseverance and constancy.

When we walk through hard things, we get

stronger and we're not as likely to fall

down to quit, to throw up our hands.

Because we've developed spiritual muscle

through suffering that produces endurance,

and that word produces is really important

because it denotes a process, right?

There's production.

There's creation.

It's a process that God

is doing in our life.

You don't build muscle by eating

at Dairy Queen every night and

reading Muscle Clips or watching

them on TikTok with a blizzard.

That's not how you do it.

I've been trying that process.

It's not working, you

know what I'm saying?

Like it's not how it works.

There is a process to build muscle

and strength and endurance to compete.

I don't wanna reference the poor Pacers,

but man, there's a process to be able to

get to the NBA finals that you have to

work and be committed to and continually

work the process and be faithful to the

process and not bail on the process, and

you can get to a desired destination.

But then when it comes to

spiritual things, we're like,

well, I don't think that applies.

God will just do whatever, and I'll watch.

That's not how he works.

He wants to produce in us

endurance and perseverance.

And the more we do it,

the stronger we become.

The more we do it, the

more resilient we become.

The more we do it, the less crazy it

is that we have to do it the next time.

But don't miss this.

God said that there's gonna

be trouble in this life.

So doesn't it make sense that he needs

to help us build strength and endurance

if we're gonna face hard things, if

we're gonna have to pick up our cross

and follow him, if the world's gonna

hate us, doesn't it make sense that if

he was good, he'd be like, Hey, we need

to build a little spiritual muscle.

We need to help you get a little

stronger so that you don't

just get destroyed, right?

It's hard if you're a parent helping

your kids be strong to face hard things.

But when you're a parent, you begin

to realize that if I protect my child,

if I bubble wrap my kid, and I never

let 'em learn or stretch or grow or

experience even hard things, they

don't develop and they don't grow.

You can protect them to the point

that they don't ever develop.

The resiliency and the perseverance

that we need as followers of Jesus

suffering produces endurance, endurance.

Produces character.

And this word character is really

cool because this word character in

the Greek here, this, uh, the chemos

means proof and it means approved.

This is godly character that gets

developed in us that is proof, but

it's also being a workman or a work

woman approved of God as we endure.

So we walk through hard things.

To grow strong spiritual muscles

to endure and persevere, and

as we persevere and endure, it

begins to build in us character.

That's the evidence and the proof

of what God's doing, and it gives

proof to our own hearts and our

own minds that, Hey, I can do this.

I can stand here faithfully with

the Lord and not just quit and cry

and throw up my hands and run away.

There, there's a man, there's a, there's

a real possibility here that we can move

in progression and process in development

that God's doing in my life, right?

He's making godly character, but

it doesn't happen because you sit

in church or you read something.

It happens because when suffering and

hardship and trials and difficulty

come, you keep pressing and you keep

growing and you don't quit, and you

walk through those things to develop the

kind of spiritual muscles that begin to

form the actual character of your life.

Approved.

And then character scripture

says produces hope.

Hope that's an interesting twist.

This word hope El Peace.

It's the Spanish word for El peace.

I'm just kidding.

It's not that word at all,

but it just sounds like it.

So it kind of cracked me up because

in some ways it sort of makes sense.

I tried.

Right?

I did my best.

I did my best.

Right?

There is no, I probably

said a cuss word in Spanish.

I wanna apologize.

I probably said something wrong.

Alright.

It's not lp.

It's not lp, but this word LP is

joyful, confident, expectation.

Right?

Which is sort of interesting

'cause we started with this and

this becomes the end result.

Interesting.

Well, this word produces

here is interesting because

character produces hope.

It's really not creating hope, right?

It's not creating from nothing.

You could use the word creating,

I guess if you were thinking

it's creating even more.

But this production is really building

upon the hope that is in us from

the beginning in a small way that

develops into something greater, right?

It's why the NLT uses this

strengthening our confident hope.

It's what character does.

It strengthens the hope that we

already possess, but it begins

to get stronger and bigger.

So in some ways, we start with

hope and we end with hope.

Because it's reinforced, but our knowledge

and our understanding and our belief

and our knowing what God is doing, and

that he will do what he says he will

do, gets proved out in the process of

us walking through hard things and being

faithful and not quitting and whining,

and fussing, and crying and running right.

In fact, I want to throw this at you.

Romans 1513 says, now may the

God of hope fill you with all joy

and peace as you trust in him.

This is a cool statement.

May the God of hope not the God who

hopes not the God who gives us hope,

not the God who wants us to hope.

The God of hope, you know what that means.

That's substantive.

His substance is hope.

He's not the God who knows about hope.

He's the God who is Hope He is hope.

And the God of hope wants us to endure

and to stand and to be determined, and

to not quit and to keep pressing on so

that we become more and more like him.

Right?

Not just people who hope, but

that you and I, his people become

people of hope through the process

of finding joy connected to him.

Yes, at the start,

trusting him, holding on.

But man, we don't lose hope.

Because we can't, we can't run outta hope.

He's hope.

And if we're connected to him and we

keep that connection strong and we anchor

deep into that space, no matter what

adversity, what challenge, what hardship,

none of our circumstances matter.

They just don't.

Yes, we get consumed with him

and we get distracted with him.

But the reality is the more and more

we walk through the process of watching

him give us strength and endurance

and shaping and molding our character,

the more that hope becomes who we are.

We know hope.

We know the God of hope, and we become

people of hope, not people who hope.

Who hope God is gonna do something?

Who hope in the Lord?

No.

We are hope of the Lord itself in

us, on display, joyful, confident

expectation every day, every

circumstance, every situation.

Because of who he is, right?

And what he's been doing in us to mold and

shape more and more into his character.

And I don't know what you're facing.

I don't know what you're dealing with.

I don't know the circumstances

specific to your life this week.

Or the weak that's ahead of you.

But I want you to know that there

isn't a single thing you can't face

with joyful expectation, confident

that God is at work, confident that

he has a way through it and confident

that you began a good work and

you was gonna see it to completion

right in the day of Christ Jesus.

If we continue to press on and

press in to what he wants to do.

Don't run from the hard

trials and challenges.

Don't quit.

Don't accept a lesser path that

won't help you grow to become the

person that God wants you to be.

He's gonna help you stand, and he's gonna

help you believe and know who he is, but

it will not happen without adversity and

hardship and difficulty and challenge.

So we gotta be ready to embrace

that knowing that he's at work.

Lord, thank you for

scriptures that we don't like.

Lord, we are people who get

consumed and affected deeply by the

circumstances of every single day.

We take our eyes off of you and

we look at the sea around us,

and like Peter, we begin to sink.

Father, I pray that you would

help us be people who are.

Anchored deep into you, into the

reservoir of hope that's available to

us, and that we would face challenges

and trials and difficulties with pure,

all in joy, knowing that you're at

work, knowing that we can trust you.

And knowing that though he

slay me yet, will I follow?

This world can throw nothing at us,

nothing in the light of eternity.

We are safe in the palm of your hand.

So God give us the courage to walk

through the adversity and the hard

things to embrace them even with joy.

And maybe in the midst of it, help a whole

lot of other people who are walking in

this fallen world realize that there's

some hope that they don't even know

about, that they could have access to.

The way we shine in the midst of it.

Thank you for entrusting us

to walk in this dark world

and shine brightly for you.

I pray that you would help us

to live out what this hope looks

like in all the circumstances

we face, and give us strength to

do that, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, hey, speaking of hope.

I was at, uh, the waters, uh, celebration

party there the other night for Mia.

It was really great and I had a cool talk

with Drake and he came up to me and he was

talking about dropping dimes and assists.

I didn't get all of it, but what I

heard him say was this, I sure hope

I could do announcements on Sunday.

That's what I heard.

So Drake j Jed, you guys are right there.

Why don't all three of you jump up here?

Grab one of those mics over there

and come join us real quick.

We got a lot of stuff going on.

Verla, why don't you sneak

up here real quick, Ryan.

Scott is, is Ryan in

here or is he next door?

Scott?

Yeah.

Why don't you walk up here

real fast with that man.

Hey Andrew, don't go too far 'cause

you're the lunch date, so, alright.

Hey, we got a lot of stuff going on.

We're gonna let these guys do

their boring announcements first.

Okay.

And then we'll get to the cool stuff.

Wait, wait, no pressure was first.

No, no, that's not what I said.

I said the exact opposite

of that just now.

Alright, so, hey Ryan.

Thanks for, thank you Scott.

That was a placeholder.

So, hey, lemme see that

mic real quick guys.

Uh, these two got added in and they

got missed in the uh, loop thing,

but two really cool things happening.

Ryan, tell us real quick

about this one and where those

flyers are out in the entryway.

So, Leslie Rob, um, if you are a

teacher, you probably have heard

of board teachers comedy tour.

Um, but Leslie Rob is one of

the com comedians and teachers

on that tour, and she's coming

to White Rock, um, August 15th.

And, um, we are offering the

tickets for free for a limited

time if you sign up early.

Um, so you can take this to

any teachers that you know.

Um, and this QR code, they scan

it, they fill out the Google form

and we will get them their tickets.

Um, tickets are $25

after we close that and.

I think we're gonna do it

for about another week.

Offer tickets for free.

We'll see something like that.

Um, so if you know an educator,

a teacher, friend, we really

want to pack this place out.

We can get 250 tickets.

Yes.

And, uh, we wanna bless

the teachers in our area.

Bless as many teachers.

You know, some teachers,

you are a teacher yourself.

That could be a good deal for you.

Yep.

We know where you can get a free ticket.

So these would be in

the inch way out front.

Yep.

On the stool.

On the stool out there.

Yep.

But now you're getting hungry.

I could tell.

So.

Um, after the servers one Sunday, Ryan

came up to me with a great suggestion.

We did this at a pantry out in Greenfield

and I totally forgot about it, so I'm

gonna let Ryan tell you about this.

So this actually came out of a, um,

Facebook post I saw from, um, someone that

I worked with at Noblesville, a parent.

Um, and, um, wait, wait a second.

We got some really good

display guys right here.

They're bored.

So let's, let's get this

opened up here, guys.

You guys spread that around.

Just hold those up really

high so everybody can see.

Keep going, Ryan.

You're doing great.

This is a great sales pitch.

So her daughter is collecting these items.

Um, so it is a cake mix, um, a

disposable pan, candles and frosting.

Um, and you mix that with a

mix, the cake mix with a can of.

Um, some sort of pop, whatever

they choose without the icing,

right, without the icing.

And, um, it bakes just like a regular

cake so there's no eggs required.

Everything is, um, can be stored.

And I'll get that recipe

out and put it in back.

Right.

We'll have the recipe.

So just to clarify, this is gonna

go in our yellow food pantry.

This isn't just for you.

Okay.

I thought we were supposed

to make cakes for Ryan.

I didn't understand.

This is good.

It's a kit so that people who

maybe otherwise can't afford a

birthday cake, a birthday cake,

would have the ability to, to.

Celebrate a birthday with a cake.

Um, and all the items are non-perishable.

So it means that if someone maybe,

um, doesn't have a refrigerator,

they can still do this.

They can still enjoy a birthday cake.

Very nice.

Alright, great addition

to our food pantry fund.

Big round applause for you two guys.

Thanks for helping with all that.

You got that back out there.

Ryan's got those flyers and now

the moment you've all been waiting

for, did you shut my mic off?

Austin, know what you got?

Uh, that's what I thought.

Alright, so the moment you've all

been waiting for the announcements

by the three wise men, go ahead.

Who wants this first one?

Wait, what?

Next door in 30 minutes we have guys.

You're staring at the TV man.

You're not selling anybody.

Oh, I can't tell.

What is it?

All ladies invited?

Sorry.

Andrew Gray.

I don't know.

It's just not in the baby.

Shower.

Shower.

It's a baby shower.

Hey, so for the record,

uh, all ladies are invited.

It's really decked out awesome over there.

30 minutes after we dismiss, uh, all

the ladies are invited to head over

there that want to be a part of that.

It's gonna be really, really sweet.

Cute.

Uh, there's two babies, so it's twice

as much fun as a normal baby shower.

And, uh, a bunch of the guys are gonna

drag Andrew to some really fancy place

like McDonald's or something I heard.

So make sure you catch, get in

on that guys if you want to.

Alright.

Jet, you're up, man.

What do you got?

Uh, tonight.

Ba bam.

Go to youth group guys.

Ooh.

Alright.

Let's go.

I, I might come.

Maybe.

Good sell.

Good sell.

Hey.

And then college age group.

What's going on, man?

Uh, it's not meeting tonight.

Oh, not tonight.

That's a bummer.

But what's good news?

Uh, college cookout next

Saturday, six to nine.

Ooh.

At our house.

So, yeah.

So if you're a graduated senior

or you are a college age person,

come to my house, eat some food.

It'll be great.

Then you got men's group this Wednesday,

it's 7:00 PM right across the street.

Yeah.

Cool.

Some cool people leading

that one I heard this week.

And Jet, since you're on the youth group

theme Youth retreat June 28th to July 2nd.

Make sure you're there.

Hey, tell us about this

Saturday fundraiser too.

Would you?

Oh yeah.

Fundraiser on Saturday.

Scan the QR code.

There's a morning activity.

Josh, all the teens know

about this for sure.

No.

Nope.

Hey guys, there's, there's like a

couple hundred bucks, two 50 bucks,

something like that up in the air

for people to help get some help for

retreat, for a little work project

at the Harshman offices or something.

So catch Josh afterwards Saturday.

It's gonna be great.

This was a great, great, great commercial.

Josiah is apparently the

assistant youth pastor.

He's apparently, let's go.

Yeah.

That's exciting stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, and where he is at, put him to work.

Yep, yep.

Got his degree.

Are you excited about that, Jed?

Ah, sure.

Yeah.

There we go.

Perfect.

All right.

Okay.

And then we got VBS.

And honestly, VBS is so fun.

Like all y'all should come.

It's super fun.

I was thinking about it yesterday.

It was pretty cool.

You were just thinking about it yesterday.

Yeah, I was.

What were you, what were

you thinking about it?

I was thinking about like going to

Culver's and Applebee's afterwards.

Oh.

And like, and like hanging

out with all the kids there.

It, it's pretty fun.

You know, more, more the after party.

I got you.

Okay.

That's cool.

Yeah.

All of it's good.

All of it's good.

All right.

Jet couple of kid things going on, man.

Uh, yeah.

So you could just say a couple kid things.

That's good.

People know about this.

Yeah.

Couple kid things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great.

And Drake, what's up with this man?

Uh, beds.

Fishing retreat.

High school with adults

through, oh, still breathing.

What?

Yeah, I think that's like, if you're

still breathing, you get to go.

That's the deal.

Weekend of August 1st.

That seems like fun.

Cool.

Cool.

Hey, yeah, uh, August 1st.

That's gonna come up.

Quick catch.

Pastor Marty, if you can.

If you want to go, we're gonna

go up to Pine River, Minnesota.

Kinda like, uh, we did a few years back

before COVID World and uh, I think our

max was like 52 guys, so we're gonna try

not to do that, but it'll be August 1st.

If you have a high school student and

you want to go and they want to go

with you, that could be a good combo.

You're invited to be a part of that,

but it'll probably be like a Thursday

night, maybe a Friday day trip,

get back on Monday kind of thing.

A lot of fun if you've

been a part of that.

So cool.

Hey, anybody who was a guest today,

if you wanna apologize for us.

No.

Okay.

Very well.

This is what we do every

time, so this is what we do.

We are not, sorry.

This is what we do.

Hey, if you're a guest, thrilled

you endured and stuck it out.

God is good.

He is doing some cool things.

It's fun to be a part of love.

This crazy church family.

We got lots going on.

And it is my hope that the God of all

hope will fill you with joy and peace

as you trust in Him and walk this

thing out with joy, good things, good

things he has in store and he is good

and we can trust him as we do that.

So love you, white Rock.

Go do something with baby showers

or your friends and share the

good news of the Jesus' love.

We'll see you on the flip side.