Their Forever - Difference Maker Part 5

Hey, good morning real Life Church.

It's awesome seeing you in the house today.

I just want to invite you to stand to your feet.

We're going to sing some great songs today.

And this first one is about all those things that we can use to

declare how good our God is. It's called 1000 names.

I just invite you to sing with the band in this morning.

You give a life an eternal spark.

I call you Heather. You can mend any broken heart.

I call you faithful Father. You finish everything you start.

My soul was made to respond. I'll respond.

I know you. By 1000 days, you deserve every

single one. You've given me a million away

to be amazed at what you've done.

And dying lost in one girl at all.

You do. I know you buy 1000.

Yeah. And I'll sing them back to you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You deserve the highest present.

Come on, would say your love is boundless.

Be gone. What I could dream.

Your grace is patient because you've never given up on me.

And I call you bondage breaker because you're handing out the

prison keys. My soul with me.

Be free to be free. I know you buy 1000 days.

You deserve every single one. You've given me a million ways

to be amazed at what you've done, and I am lost in wonder at

all you do. I know you buy 1000 days now.

Sing em back to you. Sing em all back, Sing em all

back. Sing em all back.

Sing em all back. Sing em all back.

Sing em all back. Sing em all back.

Sing em all back to our Rock of Ages.

You're the great I am. You are king forever, the

beginning, Ambien, and you our Lord and servant.

You're the Son of Man, you're the light of Judah, you're the

risen Lamb, You're the second Adam here to read us all.

Why y'all ways glory now Feel the flesh and bone.

You are rushing harder. You will make a way.

You are death defeater. You are rising from the grave.

You are full of mercy. You are rich in life.

Why? Jesus, Messiah, go.

On true God. Come on church, I know you by

1000 days that you deserve every single one.

You've given me a million. Ways.

To be your days and to what you've done.

I know you by 1000 days. Thinking what you've.

Done and died yet lost in wander at all you do.

I know you back 1000 days. And I'll sing em back to you.

Sing em all back. Sing em all back.

Sing em all back. Sing em all back.

Sing em all back. Sing em all back.

Sing em all back. Come on, get some praise this

morning. Amen.

And what an honor to get to worship together.

I just am so excited about what God is doing here this morning.

I'm so excited to see you. How all of us are moving

together. Give a special time to come

together and worship. So let's lift Him up.

Let's praise his name today. When the lights went out and

death had claimed it's victory, the King of Love had given up

his life, the darkest day in his history.

They're on the cross they made for sinners.

For every curse is blood atoned, one final breath in.

It is finished, but not the end. We could have known for thee to

ensure in the Vale world, and what sacrificed was made.

As the heavens rolled rolled. All hail King Jesus, all hailed,

born of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus, All hail

the Sagar of the world, the Sagar of the world.

There was a moment when the sky lit up, the flash of light was

breaking through, when the pain was lost across eternity.

The King, The line was on the moon, the air in a dark corner

where our Lord rose in one miraculous man, and where,

forever child we're just all. Healed.

Jesus, oh hail the Lord of heaven and the oh hail Jesus,

say we Jesus, oh hail the Lord of heaven, oh hail Jesus.

Come out. Come out before the king in

bread every time. All hail.

The Lord of heaven and earth, All hail King Jesus.

All hail the Savior of the world All hail King Jesus All hail the

Lord of heaven and earth. All hail in Jesus.

All hail the Savior of the. Man, just that moment, just to

just to sit and praise and worship and give, give God back

to honor these dude, man, I don't know, as you guys have

walked in here today and that wind was blowing through your

hair, right, man, I'm not ready for winter.

But as you sit in that moment and just to know the blessing

that God has for you in your life and to give back that

praise, then there's a holy moment.

It's just a, it's just an awesome opportunity.

So let's just give some praise back to God.

Can you guys just lift it up, Tell God how much you guys love

him, man? Awesome, awesome, awesome man.

What a what a awesome blessing just to choose to gather with

you guys today. Thank you guys so much for

gathering with us to worship God this morning.

We're not done yet. We're this is the beginning.

We've got a lot of awesome stuff for you guys today.

So I want you guys to know we have a lot of awesome people

that are new with this online and in person.

Can we show them some love? Just give it up.

Yeah, man. Love that you guys chose to

worship with us today as well. Hey, take this opportunity.

Find somebody new around you. And you guys got about 30

seconds to greet somebody. All right, you guys could go

ahead and be seated. Hey, so here in real life, we'd

love to take opportunities to give honor back to those who

have honor due to them. So this Tuesday we're going to

be celebrating this country veteran's day.

So we want to take this opportunity just to love on

those that have chosen to to serve our country in the armed

forces. So if you're a veteran, would

you guys please stand up? I know there's several over here

around. Hey, can we give it up for those

guys? Thank you guys so much for your

service and for for what you guys have done.

Alright, you guys go ahead, be seated.

Hey, you guys, if you guys sat down, you guys sat on something

awesome. It's called a commitment or

commitment card there. I'm getting I'm getting ahead of

it early Sean connection card. There we go on that connection

card. This is an all skate moments for

everybody in the house. Hey, if you call real life home,

we really look forward to when you guys fill these out and let

us know what's going on in your life, man.

Maybe God showed up in an awesome miraculous way.

Maybe he you've been praying for something for for days, weeks,

years and God showed up, man. We would love to hear about that

man. Maybe something tragic happened

this week. Maybe you got something burning

your heart. And you need you.

Need prayer? We would love for you to fill

that out. We'd love to get connected with

you. We'd love to pray over these

week in and week out. So if you call real life home,

this is for you. If you guys are new with this, I

want you to I'm going to make this promise to you.

I'm not going to ask anything else from you today except this

one thing. We would just love for you to

introduce yourself to us. And if you fill out that top

part of the card and let us know who you are and give us some of

that information, we're not going to do anything crazy.

We're not going to show up at your door, but we would love to

have a way to send you out some information about real life this

week. And if you if you do that, we'll

let you guys know in a little bit what you guys can do with

the cards a little bit later in this gathering.

And we do everything we we do here, including the connection

cards, because we believe we're a church on a mission, right?

And that mission is to see people far from God, discover

the real life and their purpose in Jesus.

And all that simply means is this is that you can't walk

through your daily life and not get kicked in the teeth

sometimes. And, and there's so many of us

that we didn't grow up in church, right?

We don't have the story of knowing God.

And So what the world gives us is a lie.

What the world excels us is something that will not bring

truth, will not bring hope, will not bring peace.

But there's only one person that can.

And our joy and our, our mission is to connect people God to back

to, to back to God and Jesus, the one that brings that hope.

And week in and week out, we get to see people's lives

transformed. And that's why we exist.

And so again, we're so thankful that you're here with us today

and you're in the middle of a, of a great season.

If you don't anything about real life.

We've been around for about 8 years.

And so for the last eight years, it's been an honor to be a part

of this crew, this gathering, and just to see how God uses a

group of people that are sold out for Jesus and to bring hope

and transformation not only in this community, but really

across the world. But in this season, God's calls

to something big, God's calls to something new.

And so today you guys are in the middle of a message series

called Difference Maker. For the last several weeks,

Pastor Sean has done a great job of encouraging us and leading us

to this next season. This next season, we're going to

we're going to push further and farther than we ever have before

and we're going to believe God for big things.

And we're in the middle of a building initiative.

But it's not about a building. It's about building a movement.

And we're here for a people's souls.

We're here for their eternity. So today we're going to lean

into what it looks like just to look past the obstacles, look

past the things that we say can't happen, and believe in God

for the impossible. So once you guys take this

opportunity, put your hands together as Pastor Sean comes up

for Difference Maker. Nice.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning, dude.

I got some big wins. If you didn't know, I was

wearing a sling for the last six weeks.

So today it's my first day of freedom, so I'm not supposed to

carry anything, but I might move some things.

But anyway, it's been a blessing to take this thing off, say at

least our church has been growing in a lot of ways.

One is spiritually, we have a lot of people come to Christ

this year, which is absolutely amazing.

We've had people being discipled, all sorts of amazing

growth behind the scenes, but also been growing numerically.

And last week was amazing. I think it was our biggest

normal Sunday of the year, 275 people.

Amen guys, just doing great stuff and the judging by

everybody here today, today will probably be our largest Sunday

so far this year outside of the big day.

So thank you guys for being here.

Can you welcome our guests one more time today?

Let them know we love them. Thank you guys for being here.

Our prayer is that you'd experience Jesus today.

You just feel something in your heart.

You'd know something different. You know the truth today and

maybe today's your first time back to church in a long time.

And we're that church that's like the prodigal father that's

looking down the road and just waiting for God to bring people

home. And we're excited you guys here.

So welcome home. We love you.

Hope you leave with a friends and you feel the presence of God

here this morning. Last week we had a welcome party

just to celebrate. We had 26 people in the room.

A lot of people just trying to get connected, find their

people, find their, find their place.

And guess what, we have a lot of them.

They're committing to our church.

That won't be a part of this. You'll see some new faces

serving out front. So give it up for that.

Thank you guys. You came out last week to the

welcome party. Fantastic.

It's just, it's so cool to see God just moving people's lives.

And today is really just about the stories how God has moved

and changed people's lives. This difference maker initiative

is we're trying to find our first permanent space, raising

funds to find a first permanent space.

And most people are like, oh man, I came the wrong week.

I'm going to tell you came the right week.

It is going to be good. And today is going to be nothing

about just everything about stories.

You know, a lot of times we get fixated on stuff when we hear

about a building or initiative, we get fixated on the wrong

things. I got a lot of questions.

And the questions are, hey, where we're going to put the

building? Do you have a location picked

out? We get fixated on an architect

or a plan or the financing or who's going to construct it.

I love it. We have a lot of blue collar

guys in our church, Amen. And they're like, are we going

to self perform this? Hey, can you be out there and

build this? And you know, we can.

We're trying not to, Amen. All right, but we get fixed in

all these peripherals. But the question I don't get

asked very often as a pastor is what we should be fixated on is

the people that we're going to impact.

Like, what difference is it going to make in the lives of

people? It's really easy to think about

a building and think that's the church, but the church is the

people, Amen. And today is going to be the

whole day. I'm dedicating to story after

story after story after story of the difference that real life's

made in people because the focus is people, Amen.

And my prayer day is that maybe today is where God writes your

story. Like maybe today is the day that

you say yes to Jesus or yes to his call or surrender or start

something fresh in life for God. And so today we're going to

start out, we got a lot of stories today.

We start out with child dedication.

You're going to hear a lot of stories that we have 15 kids

being dedicated today, Amen? Just keep doing what you're

doing. We've got nine families all

across both gatherings. It's going to be awesome.

And so we're going to share what this is about.

So if you're not familiar with child dedication, really it's

setting your children apart to follow the Lord.

And you see this in the Bible with Hannah and Samuel and she's

praying for a son and God gives her a son and she dedicates them

back to the Lord for his purposes.

And Sam does amazing things and God, he fears God and lives a

God fearing life. One of my favorite stories in

the Bible is a story of Moses. And when he he's getting close

to his death, he knows. End his coming.

He writes his last book in the Bible, which is Deuteronomy.

He writes in the last 30 days of his life.

And in writing that book he was so moved by the culture.

The culture was pretty wicked and walking away from God and

children and everybody were just doing their own thing or

forgetting about the Lord. And so he wrote a song, it's

called the Song of Moses. And so I like to sing it today.

I'm just kidding. If you know me, I can't.

I sing like I'm in prison. You're right.

I'm behind 4 bars and can't find the key.

So that's why I sit in the front row.

It's not, it's not Father's Day yet, but he writes this song

because he wants the parents to teach it to their children so

they obey the Lord. And so I'm going to share with

you a verse of Scripture and it's found in Deuteronomy 32.

It says when Moses finished reciting all the words to

Israel, the words of the song, this whole song is all chapter

32. It says he said to them, take to

heart all the words I've solemnly declared to you this

day so that you may command your children to what?

Obey carefully all the words of this law, all the word of God.

And look what he says. They're not just out of the

words for you. They are your what?

They are your life. And so when these families come

up that they're making commitment that they're going to

dedicate themselves as parents to the word of God, so they can

give that word of God to their children.

They're dedicating themselves so the children would know the

difference between right and wrong from from wicked and

truth, right. And as parents, we get the

privilege of teaching our kids that that sin is bad, that sin

that's ugly, that that's, that's hurtful to God.

That breaks God's heart. And as a parent, you got to

commit to send your kids apart. Like there's some things when

they watch a Disney movie, you got to say, hey, some that's not

from God, Amen. There's some things in this

culture look nothing like Jesus. And that breaks Jesus heart.

That's hurtful to his heart that that breaks our connection with

God and we get to cheer our kids on and teach them the scripture.

I love teaching my kids Bible stories.

I'll ask him who, like we talked about in the beginning of the

series, who was the guy that praised and he led the armies

and they defeat everybody who was that?

And like Jehoshaphat, well, he's four years old, right?

And he knows these stories. And so I always giving them a

fun story. So at night time, you can tell

them a Bible story. Amen.

You give those action Bibles and you can say, hey, let's talk

about Daniel and the lion's den and the kids get lit up, right?

And that's where you're committing to is to teach them

the things of Christ and to really hate the things that the

world is putting out there. And we can fixate it out on

politics or our jobs or all the world's issues.

But when you're home, you have a sacred place set apart to God to

raise your family. That's where we commit to, Amen.

And so as a church, it's not just the families, but our

church as well, because it takes more than just it takes a

community to help people because these seasons are hard, Amen.

You know how it is all our parents, you know who I'm

talking about, right? As as a church family, we can do

it right? We can help them, support them

and meet needs and care for them and pray for them.

And so as you read the names today, I want you to be praying

for them. Everyone has unique story, but

ultimately want their kids to know Jesus, follow God to keep

the enemy away. And the Bible says there are

children like arrows shot into the culture that make a

difference to the cause of Christ.

They're glory bearers in the name of Jesus, Amen.

And that's what we can play a part of.

So it's a very significant moment.

So how's it going to come up? So you're going to read, I don't

know how many names in the first, but nine.

They're nine kids, Amen. So give it up real quick for

everything dedicated today. All right, first up, we have the

bird family. You guys can make your way up to

the stage. We can give them some

encouragement as they come up. Let's give them a hand.

So this is Nathan and Morgan Byrd and they are dedicating

August James Sanders Byrd. He was born December 6th, 2024.

Nathan and Morgan are dedicating August to the Lord as they

commit to raising him in a home centered on faith and love.

They're grateful for God's goodness and want August to grow

up knowing the truth of who God is.

They chose his name simply because they both loved it.

A rare moment of total agreement.

August is full of joy and determination.

Strong willed, yet full of laughter.

Their pray for him is that he grows into a man who knows God

personally and finds success and purpose in everything he does.

Let's give it up again for August.

All right, next we have the Wolf family.

They're going to make their way to the stage.

Let's give them a hand. There we go.

All right, they're dedicating their four kiddos this morning.

Their parents are Kayla and Elijah Wolf.

First we're going to talk about Corbin James Wolf, born March

3rd, 2018. Kayla and Elijah are dedicating

Corbin as a celebration of God's restoration and their family.

His story is marked by resilience, love in the steady

hand of God, bringing peace to their family after hardship.

His middle name, James, honors his uncle.

Corbin is kind hearted, gentle and known for his sweet spirit

that draws people in. His parents pray that he will

grow in boldness and confidence, speaking truth with love and

wisdom all of his life. Then we have Caitlin Jane Wolf,

born March 3rd, 2018 set of twins there.

Caitlin's life is a testimony of God's healing and grace.

Her parents are dedicating her today as an act of gratitude and

commitment to provide a home filled with faith, peace, and

belonging. Her name was chosen for its

balance of gentleness and strength, qualities that already

shine through her. Caitlin has a contagious joy in

a heart that loves deeply. Kayla and Elijah pray that

she'll always know her worth, speak truth with courage, and

keep her compassionate heart. Then we have Amber Renee Wolf,

born October 1st, 2019. Amber came into her family's

life is a bright light in a rebuilding season for them.

Kayla and Elijah are dedicating her to God with thankful hearts

for the joy, honesty, and fire that she brings to their home.

Her name reflects her spirit, blending fire, grace, and

renewal. Amber is expressive, creative,

and full of warmth. Her parents pray that she'll

always keep her spark, using her gifts to show the love of Jesus

to everyone that she meets. Lastly, we've got Flynn Walker

Wolf, born August 19th, 2021. Flynn's life is a reminder that

God's timing is always perfect. He arrived early and

unexpectedly, but brought balance, laughter, and peace to

the family. His name was chosen to represent

adventure and belonging. Flynn is bold, curious, and full

of joy. The calm after the storm.

Kayla and Elijah pray that he always carries his gentle

spirit, independence and joy wherever God leads him.

Let's give it up for those Wolf kiddos.

Next we have Collins May Adams. Here they are.

Let's give them a hand as they make their way up here.

Collins parents are Tyler and Kylie Adams and Collins was born

August 14th, 2024. She's joined by Big Brother

Carter is going to come up on stage with them, too.

Tyler and Kylie are dedicating Collins to the Lord as part of

their commitment to raise their children to know God's love and

walk in His ways. Their heart is to build a home

where faith is lived out daily and where God's goodness is

evident. They chose her first name from a

friend's suggestion, and her middle name honors her late

grandmother. Collins is loving, smart and

strong willed, a mix of sweetness and strength.

Her parents pray that she will always seek God's love, stay

courageous and let her bright personality make a difference in

the world. Let's give it up for Collins

again. Next we have the Hieronymus

family. They're going to make their way

up to the stage. There we go.

All right, 1st we have Aaliyah. Our parents are Carrie and

Matthew Ironimus. Her birthday is August 28th,

2018. Carrie and Matthew are

dedicating Aaliyah to the Lord as part of their desire to bring

love and faith into their home. They want to raise their

daughter in an environment where God's presence is felt and His

love is lived out every day. Affectionately known as Weah,

Aaliyah has a huge heart and a natural compassion for others.

She's full of life, tender hearted, and loves animals

deeply. Her parents prayer is that she

will grow confident in who she is, follow the path God lays

before her, and find success and joy in every area of life.

All right, next we have Malachi McKay.

Let's give a hand for Malachi. All right, Malachi's parents are

Courtney Cornell and Justin McKay.

Malachi was born April 25th of 2025.

Courtney and Justin are dedicating Malachi as an

expression of their faith and gratitude for God's goodness.

Having grown closer to the Lord over the years, they want

nothing more than for their children to build their own

relationship with Him. Malachi's name means Messenger

of God, a reminder of the hope that he'll one day share God's

love and goodness with the world.

He's known as the calm in their storm, peaceful, content, and

the perfect completion to their family.

Their prayers that Malachi will hold God close, look to Him for

guidance in every season, and always walk in the confidence of

his unfailing love. Let's give it up for Malachi and

all the kids that got dedicated this morning.

That's it, We've got a full stage.

Nice. This is why we have to get a

bigger stage. Oh man, I'm sorry for you guys.

The Bible says if you start your child the way you should go when

they're old, they won't depart from it.

And that is a principle, but it's a godly principle.

So I encourage you guys to spend time with your children.

Keep them in church, keep them in community, be praying for

them. Teach him the Bible.

That's the number one thing to do.

Teach him to love Jesus. Teach him to hate sin and love

God. And there's a lot of stories.

Just give him all the famous stories.

I love teaching my kids scripture and they're the ones

who quote it. We go to the youth camp and

they're quoting the scripture and the adults can't even find

it. And so you have a way to change

the world through your kids. So what we're going to do, I

want to just offer a moment of prayer.

If you guys can stand to your feet, I encourage you guys, I'm

just extend your arms. I'm going to leave them through

a prayer. We're going to sing a song off

this called the blessing, which is right out of out of numbers.

It's a it's a blessing from God on the people.

And so if you guys extend your hands, I'm going to pray and

just pray with me. Father God, thank you so much

for each of these children. God, these are your children.

They're gifts from you, God. They're they're inheritance from

the Lord God think you're filling the quivers.

God, thank for blessing these families.

God pray be with them. God protect them.

God use them as arrows in our culture got to be sent out

there'll be glory bearers for you got to pray for just wisdom

for the families got for extra strength in the season.

Pray that they know they're not alone that you're with them in

the hard seasons and the good seasons and the the season of

loss and the season of joy. God, I pray for their children

God to to know you at a young age.

I pray they know Scripture. I I pray they stay faithful to

you. Got to pray hedge protection

around them. Got to pray that the evil 1

would be stay clear of them. God, I pray that your hand will

be on them God, your presence will be on them.

God, I pray you bless them and God use them in a mighty way.

God defame your name and renown across the world.

I pray this in your name above all names, the name of Jesus and

the church said Amen. We're going to worship the song.

You guys just continue to pray for them as we worship the song

and invite our elders up as well to pray over our families on

stage. But just pray as we sing the

song, the blessing. Let's lift this up over them.

1000 generations and your family, and your children and

their children and the children. May His favor be upon you.

And 1000 generations, and your family, and your children, and

your children, their children, may His favor be upon you.

And the 1000 generations of your family, your children and their

children and their children may His favor upon you.

And 1000 generations and your family and your channel and the

children and the children. These presents go before you and

behind you and beside you, all around you and within you.

It's with you. It's with you in the morning, in

the evening and you come coming and you're going and you're way

me and rejoicing. He's for you, He's for you.

He's for you. He's for you.

He's for you. He's for you.

He's for you. He's for you.

Goodnight. Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man,

let's never make me upon you and 1000 generations.

It's your family, it's your children and the children and

the children is back, goes for you and you find you and beside

you, all around you and within you is with you, is with you in

the morning, in the evening. And you call me and you go away

and you're weeping and rejoice. Me is for you.

Father God, we ask one more time.

You bless these families, God, we know that you say it's built

on you, God to a last God. So help us to build our families

on you, God. Help us to pursue you.

Keep our families together in community and church.

The word of God open on our tables at our bedsides and God

just humble us. God that we'd obey you and

follow you. God, we give the glory for what

you're going to do. We praise in Jesus name.

The church said, Amen. Give up one more time for our

families. We love you guys.

Thank you guys. This might be a new record of

how many people on the stage. Come on, somebody you guys can

be seated. Today is really all about

stories and that everyone of these families is a story.

What Jesus is doing, Amen. It takes it takes some courage.

I'm a first generation Christian.

And so when we dedicate our kids, that is something so

special. And my kids know more scripture

than I knew when I was 20 years old in Bible college.

And it's just because of Jesus, Amen.

And it's not where you start, it's where you finish.

So thank you guys that are dedicating your kids.

It is a very special moment. But today we're going to

continue the stories. And really what you're going to

see today is simple things that God uses that are not ordinarily

done. So there should be ordinary for

Jesus followers, but they're not ordinarily done.

And so as we watch this story, I want you to see this, the

simplicity of how the gospel changes lives and how it's so

unordinary, but we can do it. And so today I want you to lean

in and check out this story. My name is Logan and this is my

story. I described my walk with God

before the age of 20 kind of as Monopoly money.

You know, it looks like the real thing.

It feels like the real thing, but it's really, it was

bankrupt. It was very much status quo and

I was very much going through the motions.

I knew what it was like to look like a Christian because I grew

up in the church, but I didn't really know what it was like to

actually be a Christian and what that actually meant to have a

personal relationship with God. I was apathetic and I was just

spiritually bankrupt. Why did I not log on to my faith

until age 20? Is it's because I was playing a

low stakes game. I had no reason to log on.

I didn't get into my word. I didn't get into the Bible.

I didn't surround myself with Christ like people.

I wasn't. I was running in a race.

I was playing JVI, wasn't around people that were playing

varsity. So when Sean asked me to start

serving, it forced me into position where I was around

people like Christian Smith and I was around people like Sean

and Diane. And it pretty quickly became

apparent to me that I couldn't fake my way through it.

It was either I was a Christian or I wasn't.

Felt like a. Hypocrite for people to pour

into me. You know, I saw Christian really

pouring himself into my Christian walk and Sean pouring

himself into my Christian walk. That season of feeling like a

hypocrite meant everything because I had the decision to

make. Either I was a Christian or I

wasn't a Christian. So I decided I wanted to be a

Christian and that and that meant I could not be a

hypocrite. I couldn't play at church

anymore and I had to actually engage.

It required for me to execute everything that I knew

intellectually. God really changed my heart on

my first mission trip that I took to Columbia.

And it was interesting because I went on the trip for all the

still the wrong reasons. It was because it was expected

that at some point as a Christian, you just shouldn't go

on a miss trip. It's just one of the right

things to do. But God really got hold of me

during that trip. It was such a transient process.

The biggest difference for me to really find God was the

community of people I was around.

When I found myself more plugged in in real life and serving

consistently, I found myself around people that did genuinely

love God and and not in a superficial way.

I was watching Hugo care for his students and pray over a space

that students were going to attend and know God more

intimately with with tears in his eyes.

And I saw Scott Hudgens that he had just a genuine on fireness

about him where he was. He was preaching the word and he

was, he was relating to other people and preaching to kids

with such genuineness and such true love for God.

And I think seeing that on the mission field in a new context

was really huge for me. I just the relationships chasing

coattails of people in front of me was the biggest thing.

I have this perspective now where I was in a spot, you know,

a few years ago or, you know, even further back than that,

where I, I was the one that needed help.

And there was all these people that were pouring into me and

they had no idea what the repercussions of that was going

to be. They didn't know.

That I would find myself preaching the gospel to the

youth. Everything that I have had the

opportunity to just humbly participate in this fruit to

their account, their faithfulness to God's calling

goes further than they could ever even imagine.

Whether you find yourself serving on a Sunday, whether you

find yourself writing a check, it goes further than you'll ever

know. And for anybody listening, I

just want you to know the power of investing.

You know, when you give time, you give talent, treasure,

influence to the cause of Christ.

God's going to use that and not a linear way, but in an

exponential way. But you couldn't even begin to

fathom all the wonders that he is going to do with your small

sacrifice. It's a joy to give and it's a

joy to give time to the church and to His 'cause you know, when

you, when you look at me, the people that poured into my life

and the people that poured into my walk with God, they could

have never imagined all the ways that he was going to use that.

And now I have the opportunity to feed into other people.

So the people that fed into my life, they're not just feeding

into Logan, they're feeding into everybody that Logan's going to

feed into. And it's like this, this

snowball effect. The person that makes a

difference often makes a difference maker.

That's the power of investing. And I'm inviting you to join me

in leading the next wave of difference makers.

Did you guys pick up on the simplicity?

Do you remember how it started, this breakthrough moment you got

invited to serve? Isn't that crazy?

I'm like, hey, you want to go serve on this?

Sure. I had no idea what God's going

to do. Amen.

And just simply pouring into other people.

It's really fun. We like to say the best fruit

goes into other people's trees. And so as Logan produces and

reproduces the things of God and other people, that goes back to

what we call joy to God's glory. And so when we invest in others

that really life, you're going to find us all about that.

And so thank you, Logan. If you don't know, Logan is our

youth pastor. Now come on somebody.

So give it up for Jesus. He went from going in the back

parking lot and scrolling his phone during the gathering to

sneaking at the end to become the youth pastor.

God can use your life. Amen.

So it's amazing. So yeah, we got another story.

I'm going to Diane, come on up. And she's going to share an

amazing story. I want still need Thunder.

Do you need to stand? OK.

Oh, nobody saw this. Oh, except for your physical

therapist. Who's here?

Is she here? Yeah.

I love you, Mara. Give him shout out tomorrow.

Extra pain this week, Mara. Make him pay for that.

Well, I have the exciting moment I can.

Sorry, I can't think of any word but exciting this morning.

And I'm going to blame Dan Bray because when we were setting up,

he dropped a piece of pipe and drape on my head.

So I was like anything, yes. So.

Anything. I say or do, that doesn't quite

seem right. I'm probably have a concussion.

It's Dan's fault, so just give him a hard time for that.

But. I'll see you in the parking lot,

Dan. That's.

Right, No, but where would Teresa Laplante be without Real

Life Church? I get to share with you guys

today. So this is Teresa and her

husband. So Teresa was a teenager in our

youth group at Real Life when we launched.

She's been here since the very beginning, since before the

beginning. We've known her as part of our

launch season and now she serves every week on the youth team as

a life group leader to middle school girls.

She pours into them, she cares for them, she helps them to know

God, to grow closer to him. And it's just really awesome to

see her doing that. But you can imagine our surprise

last winter when Teresa gave us a call and said, you know what?

I'm stepping down from what God's asked me to do in this

season. I'm taking a step back from

church. I don't think I can do this.

And so naturally that we're like, OK, hold on.

Like what's going on? You know, we called to see

what's really going on beneath the surface.

That first call of like, I can't do this is always a, hey, what's

going on? And I'm really grateful that, as

Teresa puts it, that she's an open book.

And she was she shared with us what she was going through.

And it is really that what she boiled it down to is that in

that season, she had really poured a lot of time and energy

into a group of friends and people that she was close with

at work, poured so much time in. And really things that she

shared later were things that were pulling her away from God,

relationships that weren't helping her grow closer to God,

inviting her to do things that then later she didn't feel good

about. She felt shame with the things

that she's doing with those friends.

And she was just really, it was their influence.

And all of the time that she had poured into those relationships,

she thought those things were going to help her to feel good.

She thought, you know, if I go out and spend all my time and

pour into these people, if I go out partying with these people,

if I put all my eggs in this basket, life is going to be

good. But at the end of the day, she's

like, it's just surface deep, right?

And so she poured herself, her heart and her soul into this

group of people to just be so there relationally.

And then all of a sudden, they had a huge falling out.

And so not just were her nights and her weekends lonely, but

that's her group from work too. So every day she's faced with

this reminder of me. And like these relationships

that are broken, I feel so alone.

I have so much shame. I can't make it through this

season. Her days were that constant

reminder of the pain she was feeling, the loneliness.

And she's just like, I don't know what to do.

But I don't feel like I can serve these girls right?

When my heart's in this place. I don't feel like I can do what

God's called me to do in the season.

So I'm going to take a step back.

And so Teresa called us to say she was stepping away from all

that, stepping away from serving, stepping away from

those girls. And who knows, you know, down

the road if she would have walked away from church, walked

away. It's just it's hard to know what

happened. But can I tell you that when

you're alone, when you're ashamed, when you're broken,

when you're lonely, Our, our fight or flight, our feelings

inside of us, they, we want to protect.

We want to back away. We want to say no.

Nobody can know that. Nobody can see inside of that

shame. I have this inner desire to

protect myself from what might happen if somebody knows the

real me, right? But God says the opposite.

He says, you know what? In that time when you're so

vulnerable and you're so broken and you can't stand on your own,

what you need to do is you need to lean in and you need to say,

I need to find some people who can help me carry this burden.

I need to borrow the faith of some other people to walk

through this season so that God can restore me back to where

he's called me to be. And so we encourage Teresa to

stay serving in youth. That kind of honesty goes a long

way when you're sitting face to face with teenagers to say, I've

been there when your friend group falls apart.

I've been there when I've been tempted to do things that God

isn't honored by. And that kind of honesty and

vulnerability can make a huge difference in the life of young

people. So just speak.

Yeah, we've all screwed up. I have.

I mean, like in the last 10 minutes.

So we all have that sin, don't feel like, oh, I'm not good

enough to serve God. We don't become good enough to

serve God. He makes us whole in him.

And so we said, hey, keep serving.

But here's something I think might make a big difference in

this season for your life because what you need is a few

people who can carry you. And so we invited Teresa to join

our disciple making group called The Way where we have a group of

women that meets every week. And we're just trying to learn

to follow Jesus Better Together. And of course, I think at the

time, Teresa probably thought she was signing up for like a

Bible study or just like to do some homework in Jesus.

But what she got instead was a community of women who would

pour into her, who would be there every week or if she had

to miss go, hey, where are you? How are you?

Is everything OK? And you all of a sudden start

building a group of women who most of which are further down

the road from her a little bit, who are trying to put Christ

first in their life. And they're trying to put Christ

first in their marriage. And they're trying to put Christ

first as their parenting and in their work.

And in all those cases, and kind of like Logan's video shared,

when you start putting yourself around those people and you say,

I've got 10 other women that are trying to put Christ 1st and

they don't always get it right and we screw it up, but we're

trying to walk together and do this thing.

All of a sudden you have a place where you can be known.

And all of a sudden you say, man, I want my life and every

part of my life to be focused on trying to put Christ first too.

And so it's been a really beautiful thing to see.

Maybe Teresa's forever changed by a small group of difference

makers who just committed to show up, who just committed to

care, who just committed to send a small text and everyday

difference makers. Nobody went above and beyond and

part of the Red Sea or did these crazy things with just a small

group of people committing to be there for you, to walk with you

in a season. And it's so special to think

about how when we all share our own stories of vulnerability and

lean in and give that moment of community just to try to

practice the ways of Jesus together that God shows up.

And so where would Teresa be right now if she wouldn't have

jumped into that community last January?

I don't know where would she be without being a part of real

life church. I don't know that either.

But I'm really grateful today that because of a group of real

life, everyday difference makers that we don't ever have to know

because she's here with us, she's serving, she's following

God, she's getting ready to have a little one herself.

And it's just a really special season to see how God continues

to use her. It's it's amazing to see how God

uses simple acts right? Like somebody saw her and she's

hurting. It says, how can I help?

And you take a risk, right? Like, Hey, do you want to come

like be a part of this, like see what God can do and just those

relationships to build other people.

You dream and you think in the conversations you have and to

get people at the at the table in the right places.

This power of life groups, the power to South making the power

of people the power just showing up on a Sunday and hanging for

10 minutes and meeting people can change your life.

And I loved your ending. Like, I wouldn't have to worry.

Like, we know where God's got her.

And it's amazing to see. So, Teresa, we love you.

I know where she's at. She's in a room somewhere.

Just had her baby shower last night.

Come on. Somebody on the stage probably

in like 6 months. Right?

Love you, Teresa. All right, next story.

This thing got scrolled. Tim.

Where's Tim? Where's my man Tim.

Tim Tim is actually coming up here and he is going to share an

amazing story. If you don't know Tim, Tim is a

product of relationship in our church and if and to be honest,

Tim would say this too like least likely person that God

would use if you know his story, but he had an opportunity to do

something very specialist last week and so I'm glad I can look

up to you Tim. Love you buddy.

What's up guys? I'm Tim.

So a couple weeks ago I pick up my grandson and we go to hang

out and he when I pick him up and I asked him I said well

what? What do you want to go?

Well grandpa want to go to this park.

Well they live in Greenwood. I live in Creighton.

That's 45 minutes one way. The park he wanted to go to was

another 15 minutes away. And I buddy man there's so many

more parks we can go to. No grandpa is the one I want to

go to. So Long story short, we go to

this park even though I really didn't want to and we're there

and we're hanging out and he's playing, you know, being a kid

and I'm 51, so I got to play with a 7 year old and be a 7

year old again. But anyway, I'm watching these

two younger kids hang out with my grandson and they're they're

just having a blast. And I'm looking around for mom

and dad. I see a dad and these children

are three and five, and I'm not a big person to go and just jump

in front of somebody and say, hey, you know, I'm Tim, you

know, nice to meet you. But I did something kept pushing

me, pushing me, pushing me. Hey, go check this guy out.

You know, I went and introduced myself.

His name is Brian. Hope you're listening, buddy.

I asked him. I said, you know, how you doing?

You doing all right? Nah, Nah, Brian, Brian wasn't

doing all right. But we clicked because just let

me know a little bit of his story.

Young guy, three and five year old kids is going through the

divorce and it hit him like a ton of bricks.

And I can relate because I went through this almost five years

ago and I, I gave up on life and I'm, I'm glad I'm still here.

But my words to him was, you know, don't do life for your

children, Don't do life because of your past.

You have to do a life for you in order for your children to see

you heal and grow. I said, you know, my journey

started here right at 4 1/2 years ago because somebody

invited me here. And we, we talked for quite a

while while we watch the kids play and hang out.

And I invited him here. I didn't have a card with me,

but I told him where we were located and he text me this

morning. He said I wasn't going to make

that. He wasn't going to make it.

But he said he's watching online.

And I'm really proud and glad that we, we met, we exchanged

numbers. And as soon as I left, you know,

he, he text me immediately. He said, you know, I, I really

needed that. I needed somebody that knew what

I was going through. Somebody could give me that

hope, that inspiration, that life isn't over just because you

go through a divorce. You know, there's more things to

do in life and there's more people to lead and grand.

I'm not the greatest influence for a leader type person.

I got tattoos, I got scars, but you know, if it weren't for that

guy up there, I wouldn't be standing here right now.

So, you know, opportunities push you in the right spot.

So like I say, you know, I didn't want to go to that park,

but something told us, Hey, there's somebody there waiting

for you. And I'm, I'm glad that we went.

So that's all I have, Brian. I'm glad you're there, buddy.

Fantastic, Tim. Thanks for your faithful man.

Reminds me of Philip and the Ethiopian unique.

You know, he's just called like you're going to end up the park

man. God has a way.

And Tim, Tim is so special because his heart has been

broken so many times. I always think of too much as

given much as required. And when you're given a lot of

grace, like when your story is completely opposite of God, like

there's a certain type of grace, you understand that most people

won't. You don't, you don't tread on

it. And so thank you for sharing

with Brian. Brian, we love you.

Hope you show up to here, but more than that, hope you walk

with God. And so stay on them, Tim, we're

praying for that. So give it up for Tim.

Give it for what God's doing. Very cool.

We're going to go on to our next story.

Something about Holly up to share.

Looks like she needs to stand. So I'm going to break some more

rules. So no, you're good.

Yes, well, I get to share the story of Abby and John van der

Hoofen. And for them and their family,

church had always been a part of their life.

Until it wasn't. They'd experienced some hurt.

They'd experienced some seasons of really great fellowship,

really good friendships at the church they were at.

The kind where you feel known, where you feel loved, where you

feel seen. But it was hard for them when

those chapters had to close when they moved back from Colorado

back here to Missouri, Abby said it felt like a really big step

for them coming back to the place where she grew up.

She felt like carried a lot of hope.

But also there's some hesitation there.

They wanted to be part of their community again, to have that

connection. But after being uprooted, it's

hard to know sometimes where to plant yourself, where to get

connected, where church to go to, to feel like you belong

again. She said every time they visited

real Life church with Abby's brother and his family, they

just felt something different. They felt encouraged, they felt

welcomed. And then there was Delaney, who

is their niece. If you know Delaney here, he's.

She said she just would not stop inviting us back to real life

church. They're kind of bouncing between

a couple. And every week Delaney would let

them know, hey, if you're not planted at that church, come to

our church. Come to our church.

So after all of those invitations from Delaney,

eventually those invitations actually turned into prayer.

They started asking, God, is this what you have for us?

Is this our place? Is this where we're supposed to

get connected in This past summer, they said yes.

They joined a life group. They started making some real

connections, some real friendships.

John, her husband, jumped into apprentice on the worship team.

Abby today is her first Sunday apprenticing back in the kids

area. And they're making real

connections. And for the first time in a long

time, Abby said it really felt like they were re establishing

roots here and that honestly, that is what their forever is

about. It's about families, just like

the Vanderhoeven. It's about people who are

looking for a place to belong, a place to feel encouraged, where

people know them, where people greet them and have a smile on

their face when they come in here.

It's a place where people can put roots down, a place where

they can call home. Because when we give, when we

serve, when we open the door, when we save a seat for somebody

next to us, when we reach out to somebody and invite them to

church here, we're not just. We're not just building a

building. We're not just we're making

space honestly, we really are creating a home for people to

feel connected and for people to put down roots and that's a lot

of the stories I just looking for a place to belong and that's

what there forever. It truly is all about creating a

home where people can get connected, can put down roots

and follow Jesus together. An.

Invite from a little girl that changed the family.

Amen. Simple thing, not ordinary.

And so you see these little tiny stories of how people just get

connected in the relationships they have.

And that's why I do this. There forever could be changed

just by stepping on or coming into the team or the different

connections they have in our church shapes their soul.

And so it's amazing story. I'm going to give it up to

Logan. I don't know where that guy,

he's up here, right? Nice Logan.

Nice work, my man. He's got some more stories for

us. Good morning, good morning.

I love the, the heart of this morning so far.

I, I love the way that Sean put it, where the, the heartbeat of

difference maker and the heartbeat of the stories that

we're going through is that somebody took the time and the

effort to do something that should be common, but in our

culture, it is uncommon. And one, one of these stories of

a couple of women that I've had the, the pleasure of watching

their walk with God just unfold. They're doing things that are

uncommon. And it's happening right now in

the life in our youth group. First of all, how many of you

guys in here know Julie White? Where is Julie?

Is Julie in here? I don't know.

Julie's probably working. Oh, there she is.

Julie's in the back. Give it up for Julie, man.

If you know Julie. Julie is a trailblazer in our

church for work ethic and generosity.

You guys have ever been into the Hope Center?

That was half of it was done tooth and nail with Julie

hanging off like one hand on the lift, like painting a wall and

running electrical work. It's so cool that the effort

that Julie put in into this space is now a space that Julie

is able to put in even more effort in the leading young

people in the youth group to know God more closely and

cultivate a much stronger relationship with him.

And one of these women that that Julie is leading into leaning

into and just praying over is Luciana.

If you take a look at this picture, somewhere in Lucy, in

the next picture, somewhere in here, Luciana is getting prayed

over by Julie at the Fields of Faith event.

And that's the kind of heart that you see as you see Julie

spreading your hands across over all these students.

That's the kind of heart and the kind of effort that Julie's been

pouring into Luciana. Luciana is very interesting.

She was invited to the youth group in an uncommon manner

again by Kyle and Mandy Spratt, who know that Luciana's parents,

Lucas and Diana, and they keep inviting Luciana and they keep

pushing on Luciana to come out to youth group.

So Luciana does come out to youth group and one of the, the,

what was it called, stipulations for her being able to come out

to youth group was that her dad followed her along.

And because Luciana took the invite that was given to her by

Kyle and Mandy, her whole family started by the wildfire and

Lucas's life are now going through a transformation and

they're plugged into the church and they all know God a lot more

closely. And that happened because Lucy

was actually willing to come to youth group.

And so she comes to youth group, she, she starts this wildfire of

faith across her family. And who would, you know, other

than Julie to be her life group leader?

And they're actually now in a really cool position and they're

in a disciple making relationship.

And what that means is they're going through their Bible,

they're going through a book called the seven Checkpoints,

and they're, they're, they're learning more about God in

Luciana's life. And there's a really cool theme

that that kind of unfolds here. The theme that I pulled out of

this story and that I pulled out all the stories so far is that

in order to be a difference maker, you need to have had a

difference made in your life. For, for Julie to, to make a

difference in Luciana's life, we have no idea as to how many

people had to pour into Julie. And Julie pours her heart and

her soul into this space. And in this space, she pulls her

heart and her soul into Luciana. And in this space, Luciana is

having herself refreshed and filled in.

And she invites her friend and she invites her parents out.

And you don't know where that's all going to go out.

And it all happens and it all starts because somebody took the

time to pour into somebody else's life.

And the person that was poured into then goes out and they pour

out into other people's life. Can I tell you all that as you

listen to these stories and as you listen to my story on the

screen, that your generosity and you're the difference that you

makes go so much deeper than you could ever realize?

Do you see as we're going into the story, how many layers deep

of difference making is happening?

How it's not just this linear thing, but it's an exponential

thing. Luciana and Julie are both

difference makers because that they had a difference made in

their lives and because of that difference made, their forevers

have been changed and they have the opportunity to change their

feathers of other people. It's.

Fantastic. Nice work, man.

Not bad for a guy used to walk outside and scroll his phone.

That's pretty good, Logan. Every time he comes up here,

just, you know, you, somebody out does what you expect.

That's good. Amen.

So thank you, Logan, for sharing that story.

Very, very, very, very powerful. Next up, Barry.

Where's Barry? He's hiding in the back.

I can see the wind blowing through your hair right now.

I appreciate you making me follow that.

By the way, I like to tell people I'm misunderstood.

Do you guys believe me? I'm, I'm definitely there's team

Christy and team Barry in the house and team Barry has very,

very few members. I told I told pastor I'm gonna

throw a left hook up here and I want you guys to know I got to

tell you a short story because you're gonna misunderstand my

intentions here in a second. But I've got 4 great kids and

you got to meet one of them here just a minute ago.

But when I just had three, I was stirring the pot a little bit.

One time we were, we were on a car trip somewhere.

And I know none of you dads would ever do this, but I, I

said, all right, which one of you kids you think your mom

loves you the biggest, right? And so I just started this huge

fight in the car. Mom loves me the biggest cuz I

did this and this and then next one like, no, mom loves me the

biggest because I do this for her.

And they just kept going on and on and on.

And it kind of calmed down a little bit.

And of course, my wife says, all right, who does dad love the

biggest? And my daughter, who's a lot

like me in the back seat, she goes, he loves himself the

biggest. And I'm not like, oh, I told you

I misunderstood. I misunderstood.

So as I throw this picture up, I'm gonna throw it with this

risk of being misunderstood again.

This is the person that you guys are are making a difference in.

And as I thought about there's, there's a lot of things they had

flooded through my mind when Sean asked me to come up with

story. And, and from the front row to

the back row, I could think of story after story after story of

interactions I've had with you guys.

And I had so many stories I could come up with, but they all

revolved around a relationship that that I got to have with

each one of you guys, whether it's at the front door, whether

it's in here setting up and tearing down the church.

Truly, it is best is a family and I'll try not to get

emotional with with, with with with Sean up here.

But part of our story is this is we came from a we came from a

situation where we had our families torn apart.

And if you guys have ever been in that situation, whether it's

your blood family or whether it's an adopted family, you're

left looking for how to pick up the pieces, right?

So the cool thing that God has made a difference in my life is

you guys and the ability for, for us to be family there.

There's nothing, there's no price.

There's nothing you can that you can put on that.

You guys are the people that I pray for.

You're the people that pray for me.

There's a, you're the reason why I have white hair now instead of

I, I used to have, I used to have brown or black hair.

You guys are the ones that called me and sing Christmas

songs to me, Dan Bray. You guys are the ones that are

there for my family. You're the ones that have

visited me when when we've been sick.

You're the ones that are just calling for hey, how things

going. And my encouragement for you in

this moment is this because we're talking about difference

makers, right? The difference making is the

people you surround yourselves with.

And the cool thing is this is that I get to go to church.

I get to come hang out with you guys.

And really the church isn't enough.

The spot we meet, this is where we gather.

That's why we call it a gathering.

If you guys don't know that, we gather together as a family.

So thank you guys so much for playing a difference in my life,

in my family's life and in real life.

Thanks. Well, Barry didn't tell me he's

going to talk about his own story.

He told me I've got something special to go with it, which is

Barry. You can trust them.

Amen. And I love about his story of

sharing because it starts out, hey, I'm here to serve.

I'm here to get back. And then if you are in ministry

long enough, like you serve a little, long enough, you start

realizing that the glory of your story is other people like you.

You came to get something for yourself and to kind of, you

know, play a difference. But the end of the day, you're

the one humbled and to say thank you, Lord, for using my life.

Amen. And that's the story.

And today, you know, you hear these stories.

I'll use a Chuck Smith line if this doesn't get you excited.

Your woods wet. Amen.

Did I say it wrong? I'm sorry.

Then light your fire. I'll totally mess it up and I

didn't get hit with a pole. You believe that Unreal explains

everything. If God can use me, he can use

you. Amen.

Oh, I love it, but your story makes an impact.

There's a lady in the Bible, and I'm not going to take any much

time on this, but John chapter 4 is lady that goes.

John 4 · chapter mention

She's one of the well that Jesus finds, crosses lines, crosses

everything, finds her and she does something remarkable,

something very simple. She goes and she tells her story

to a whole city and to think about like actually sharing your

life with somebody. She said, she told me everything

she's done. Like what would motivate

somebody to say, hey, man, my life is jacked up, Tim, you

talked about it. I've been there.

I went through a divorce. It was hard.

But God, like, what would motivate you to talk about your

deepest things to somebody else? It's because you experienced the

difference between your life by Jesus.

Amen. And then we get the privilege of

just sharing our story, but we all qualify to share our story.

Like you don't have anything but your story.

It's old adage, right? Work what you got.

And all she had literally was a story.

And you can take your story and you can just bring it to other

people and just give the glory to God and all of a sudden

you're making an impact to the things of Christ.

It's just because you're willing, you're humbled because

you know Jesus has made difference in your life.

You know, I think the song, I can only imagine.

You guys remember the song, right, Bart Millard and the

whole song you can come up by, by the way, babe, it's it's

1010. You know, like we can do that.

But Bart Millard wrote the song I can only imagine.

And the whole idea of the song is he's staring at eternity and

wandering in his mind like what the moment's going to be like

when he meets Jesus. And is he going to, is he going

to just stand there or it's your knees going to fall?

Is he going to, is he going to sing Hallelujah?

Worse than nothing at all? And it's just amaze.

Imagine a moment of like, what's going to be like?

And there's this amazing scripture that you may have

never seen in your life where Paul actually gives us a glimpse

of the answer to the question. And so it's found in Second

Thessalonians, which you have to flip because my notes are behind

me. It says, for what is our hope?

This is Paul, Timothy and Silas or ministry leaders or people

were just pouring out their story just preaching Jesus.

He says what's our hope, What's our joy or the what?

What's it say? What's the crown in which you

will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes

like what's the story that we're going to 1st tell to Jesus?

What what's that story going to have repeat on repeat in heaven?

What's your go to story where you get to in front of Christ

and say, I can't wait to tell you about and Paul says this.

He says, is it not you? Indeed, you are the glory and

joy. He's talking about the the the

people of God in the Church of Thessalonica.

So thank you, Barry, for the nail on the head for saying

today that you are the story that we're going to brag about

when we get to heaven. It's going to be like, hey,

Jesus, let me tell you about Logan.

Let me, let me tell you about Abby.

Let me tell you how those people came to Christ.

Let me talk about Teresa and how her faith was broken and she's

running with the world. And then she found the community

and then she's a glory bear for you.

And she's full of faith and courage and boldness and

insecurity straight away. And now she lives out for you.

That's glory. Amen.

That's the story we're going to tell.

And the Bible actually calls this the crown of rejoicing.

So it's called that. You're given the crown of

rejoicing. So when you get to heaven,

you're telling the stories of where you made the biggest

difference for the cause of Christ, where the gospel went

out. And my suspicion as a pastor and

a leader for following Christ for last 25 years of my life is

that most of us are not thinking about this crown.

Most of us are building a crown of sorrow.

Like our focus is work or family and there's all good things,

right? Sports, all the other things

that spend our energy and focus and effort and and just just

trying to pay bills and then we think, oh Lord, what am I really

here for? It's your gospel and things that

God will go out and impact souls.

Amen. That's that's free, but it cost

you because you have to humble yourself.

And for guys like Barry, he can say that because he's grinded

out with God to lay himself down as a servant, as a broken

vessel, as a humble man, to make a difference in life of people.

And you do that long enough and you realize that what God does

is all that really matters. Amen.

And we can live that out. And so my challenge today is

that we build a crown of rejoicing that we would

intentionally think about our life, think about our budget,

think about our influence, think about what God's put in our

hands and say, Lord, this is yours.

How can I leverage everything for you?

And so, Father, we come before you today.

Thank you for the stories that are our crown and our glory.

We take pride in the fact that you alone write the story.

Jesus, I want to pray for those today that would like to

exchange a crown of sorrow for a crown of joy, for those that are

realizing today the story is really not about me.

It's about you, Jesus, and I make your name famous.

I've got a story to share and Lord, give me people to share it

with God. Give me boldness to speak up.

Let me be a servant of you. God, the first thing I'm going

to run to you and tell you about God is the people that have

impacted through me, through you for the cause of Christ.

God help me to expand that list and maybe here dating to Jesus

following God just speaking to you like then I don't have these

stories, but I want these stories like I want God to use

my life. I want to be a difference maker

for Christ. If that's you, just raise your

hand, hide. Just let Jesus know that God

speaking to you to go all in to this leverage your time, your

influence, your words, because we know attorneys at stake.

You talk differently and you give differently and you walk

differently and you hope differently and you joy

differently and you rejoice differently.

And so God, you see the hinge in the hearts.

Help us to be those type of people, Lord difference makers

and our generation. But people look back and say, if

it wasn't for them, I don't know where I would be.

I can't quite figure out what they made different.

They did unordinary things, simple things.

We're the generation that picked the phone up, the generation

that prayed, the generation that that got in the word of God,

that read the Bible, that that had some boldness in our culture

that said, no, I'm good for me, my house.

I follow the Lord. Help us to be that generation

and I pray for one more group of people.

That's those of you that walked in a day and you recognize that

you still need your story written.

You recognize that there's a God full of grace that loves you,

that cares for you, that every person that you saw on the stage

is a broken vessel and every story heard another story of a

broken person. And you recognize that in your

brokenness you need rescued, you need Jesus.

It all says that Jesus Son, the sinless Son of God that downed

the cross for our sins 2000 years ago.

If you believe in him, you have eternal life.

It's a free gift. Nobody can boast.

There's nothing to do to earn it, nothing to do to keep it,

nothing to deserve it. That we're stranded in sin, but

Jesus, our Savior of the world died for us.

You can call on him today. He'll give you a new name, a new

purpose, a New Hope, a new passion, and he'll write a

chapter in your life. You look back and say I'm

unashamed of my past because he's unforgiven, but I'm going

to use it to reach people in the future.

Today you're not here on accident.

You may recognize that somebody else and their story is actually

writing your forever today. And so today if you need Jesus,

thought I'd be looking around, not making it weird.

Maybe it's came for your family and the child dedication.

But if you need Jesus, God's getting a hold of you speaking

today for the very first time. We should raise your hand high

in this place and say I need Jesus today.

Come on, I got hands all across the room, I knew Jesus and then

walk in here right with God. I know he's working in my life.

That's the Spirit of God that's drawn to you.

If this is you, I'm not going to believe through a prayer, but

the prayer didn't save you. It's just your heart.

It's that humility you've seen all day.

Just cry to God, say God, thank you so much for loving enough to

send your son Jesus to down a cross.

God, I am so unworthy of your son, but God, I know you love

me. God thank you all the things you

could think about, all the things you do.

God you would choose to love me and down across my sin.

God, you have my life, you have my tomorrow's.

I surrendered you. God, I believe in you.

I pray this in Jesus name. The church said Amen.

Give it up big for those who came to Christ today.

Stories heard today. I would encourage you if you

made that decision to follow Christ, let us know we we don't

want to just leave you on your own.

Want to help you grow. Take that connection card and

check the box. I committed life to Jesus and

we'll do some very special we're going to mail you a book called

begin. We're going to follow up with

you. We're going to connect you If

you want to get connected with a believer in our church to help

you grow with your first steps with Christ.

And so I'd encourage you guys to do that.

There's a Bible on the way out the door as well.

If you came to Christ, take that Bible as a free gift and

encourage you guys to read it. Amen.

We got a lot of new people in the house.

We'd love you to introduce yourself.

We have a free gift for you at our New Year booth on the way

out. Just drop your card off there or

drop in a giving bucket. Can you guys give up for

everybody's new one more time? By the way, let them know we

love them today. I'd encourage you real quick

next week. We're doing some very special.

We are having commitment Sunday. So we have our cards and I'll

encourage you guys to pray. Continue to fast if you've been

fasting over what the Lord would have you to do.

If if you're new, you don't know about the card, maybe you have

the card you hadn't looked at yet and prayed over it.

I'll just encourage you real quick on the back, it's just a

type of chart with the different type of gifts we think, believe

that God's asked us to have to reach our goal of 1.9 million /

2 years. No shame, whatever you pick,

Amen. Just between you and the Lord.

But I will encourage you when you look at it.

And if you're like me and Diane, like we've struggled, like man,

I could be here, but Lord would look like to be here, like to

challenge ourselves to step of faith.

And that's that's what we've done.

We'll talk about that next week. Inside the card, you'll see

different boxes. The top box is what you anly

give. If you're giving, you just put

that in. The next one's expanded giving.

So if you look at that, you'll say what when we step into in

the season to come to our first permit space and that's the

expansion. You take it times 2 and there's

a special spot. And this is a spot that really

gets me excited as I look at for myself, it's stored resources.

It's like, what can I give you, Lord, beyond my earned income?

What what? Maybe there's is a savings

account, maybe there's some inheritance that's sitting

there. Maybe there's this leftover

item, maybe some stuff. Maybe there's a a motorcycle or

a car, an RV, maybe a second house and whatever, right?

Like, Lord, is there something I can leverage?

You called me this season to play a part of what real life is

doing. And there's so many different

resources for many of us that we could look into.

Even stocks or investments don't revise funds requirement

distributions. There's so many ways to think

about it. And that's why you get excited

because I'm like, Lord, there are some things in my life that

I could give and leverage more. And you add that up and that's

your to your commitment. And so I encourage you guys,

this isn't really about money. It's about souls.

Amen. It's a step of faith.

I've pastored or separate more people through financial

conversations in the last six months and has been the greatest

conversations. I would encourage you with one

more thing too. You may be in a situation where

you're like, hey, I I want to be generous, but I can't.

And you may be in a situation where I would like to do more,

but I can't. And I would do something very

special for you. I'm going to lead a life group

this next semester that next spring because I've had so many

conversations with people that are really struggling.

So I'm going to live group called Financial Freedom and

it's going to be very basic, but very powerful.

And if you don't get these steps right, you're probably not going

to get the rest of it right because we're not going to go

into like second level stuff. But it's like, what's the

purpose of money? How to master your money, like

strategies of getting out of debt, knowing your, your net

worth, what's your assets, what's your liabilities walking

through? And what I'm going to do, I'm

going to actually give you, I have a sell spreadsheet with all

my stuff and I'm just going to give you what I have with my

real numbers. No shame, OK?

I'm not embarrassed by them. And if you don't like it, that's

OK Amen. I'm going to give it to you and

you can tweak it for yourself. And I want to give you some

tools, Amen. Something very practical to help

you those next steps. And I'm very passionate about

this because so many people are doing it wrong and they're

missing out on the opportunities that God has.

And I see families that have a lot of resource but don't have a

lot of the ability to be generous.

Because of credit card debt or they're not aligned together.

We're going to walk through what looks like to do finances

together. I'm going to give you a no

tracking budget, Amen. Praise God, Hallelujah.

I'm going to give you some principles to follow to pay

yourself 1st and to honor God. And I'm going to walk through

this every week. I'm very passionate about it.

But if you're in a spot where like you want to increase

generosity or you're just struggling in debt and like,

man, I wish I could do more. I just want to get my stuff

right. I'm here to help.

Amen. Does that sound good?

Because you may look at this card and go, man, this want

money? I'm like, no, we want you to be

better. And so I want you to have that

opportunity today. I'll encourage you guys to be

generous as always, like you always are.

We have so many new givers this last season.

We're going to pass some buckets in a second.

I would encourage you as you pass if you need money for any

food, clothing or shelter. I know it's a tough season.

Just take out a loose cash. You see, I will encourage you as

well. If you really need some help.

The the been a lot people always give cash in the buckets.

Come talk to me or one of our team and say I'm really, I need

some help in this season. I will note this if you need

this can be weird. I got a guy in our church.

He's got a freezer full of of roasts and all sorts of

different meats. And you're like, hey, you know

what? I'm struggling financially.

Well, guess what? We got some meat here.

Amen. And we'd love to donate it.

So if you need help, just come let us know and we'll do it.

We're glad to do that. So I'm a turn to the Berry to

get us out here. But God, God bless you guys.

Thank you. Man, what awesome did you guys

enjoy those stories today man, praise Jesus, Praise Jesus.

Hey, before we get you out of here, I want to give you guys

one awesome announcement this Saturday.

REAL Life Men is meeting at the Hope Center 6:30 to 8:00.

Here's my cursement for you men, man.

God has called us to be on the front line of our families, to

lead well. And this is a, this is a

breakfast you do not want to miss.

And so we're going to lean into what it looks like to be the

church and not just go to church.

And Jesus did some radical things in his day because he

pushed back against the Jews traditions and going to temple

and sacrifice and he instituted the church.

So it's been, we get to take that opportunity to lead our

families well, lead this church well.

So I'm invite you guys out for some biscuits and gravy.

Who loves biscuits and gravy, guys?

You guys love it. Yeah, so come out, come hang out

with us. We want to see you guys there.

Hey, if you need pray for any reason, we would love to pray

with you up here. Can't wait to see you guys again

next week, either 9:00 or 10:45. And as always, remember, whoever

finds Jesus discovers real life and purpose.

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