Where is God When Life Hurts? - The Elephant In The Room

Hey, good morning. Real life church welcome you

excited to be here today, man, we're excited to have you here

today. It's going to be a great

morning. I know God's got something big

for us today. I just invite you to stand to

your feet. We're going to kick off with

some worship this morning. And I just invite you just to

lift hands, sing out, clap along with us.

Really just how do the Spirit leads?

I just invite you just to lean into that this morning and

really just give all of our worship to Him today.

Give them some glory. So just sing out with us.

Give you glory for all you've brought me through.

And now I'm ready for whatever you want to do.

I'm moving forward to follow after you.

Now I'm ready for whatever you want to do.

Your presence is an open door. Your presence is an open door.

So come now though, like never before.

Amen. If you want to join us as a

Clapper, keep singing. In every season the grace has

been eater and I believe it. The best is yet to come.

Do you believe that This morning the cross before me.

I hope all things are above. And did you, Jesus, The best is

yet to come. Your presence is an open door.

We want you though, like never before.

Your presence is an open door. S Come now, Lord, I've never

before. It's a bold prayer to pray,

isn't it? That we want your presence here

more than ever before? But man, we believe that when we

pray that prayer, God breaks down some strongholds.

Amen. You ready for a breakthrough?

Let's sing it. I know breakthrough is coming

and by faith I see a miracle. My God made me a promise and it

won't stop now. I know breakthrough is coming.

By faith I see a miracle. My God made me a promise and it

won't stop now. Come on, Church, declare this

this morning. I know breakthrough is coming.

I see a miracle, my God, maybe a promise, and it won't stop now.

Why settle for the status quo when he's ready to give us a

breakthrough? Amen.

Amen. I invite you just to keep

worshiping this morning as we continue to sing.

Feel free to lift your hands. Just sing this to him.

It's just you and him this morning.

Come on, Your presence is an open door.

We want you, Lord, like never before.

Your presence is an open door. So come now, Lord, Lord, like

never before. Amen.

Let's say. I know breakthrough is coming by

faith. I see a miracle, my God maybe a

promise, and it won't stop now. I know breakthrough is coming by

faith. I see a miracle my God made me a

promise that it won't stop now. Breakthrough.

Is coming by made me a. Promise that it.

Won't stop now. Do you believe that is for the

church? Do you believe he's a God of

breakthrough? Do you believe that he won't

stop? And then come on, let him hear

you this morning. All the praise, all the glory

from you to him. Amen.

Amen. Give.

Him some praise this morning. Amen.

And in the darkness we were waiting.

Without hope, without light. From heaven you came running.

There was mercy in your eyes to fulfil the law and prophets.

To a virgin came the world, my throne of endless glory.

To a cradle in the dirt. And praise the Father, praise

the Son, praise the Spirit. 3 In one God of the glory, majesty,

praise forever to the King of peace, to reveal the Kingdom

coming, and to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole

creation. You did not God despise the

cross, for even in your suffering gives all to the other

side, knowing this was our salvation.

Jesus, for our sake you die. Lift it up to Him today, say.

Praise. The Father praise the Son.

Raise must be red. 3IN the wild God of the rain, Manchester,

Raise whatever to the king. Of king, in the morning that you

rose, all of heaven held its breath till that stone was moved

for good. For the Lamb it conquered.

Death in the dead rose from their tombs, And the Angel stood

in arm. For the souls of all who'd come.

To the Father our restored, and the Church of Christ was born.

Then the spirit. With the flame and now this

gospel true love shall not be, shall not faint, and by his

blood in his name and in. His freedom I have free, for the

love of Jesus Christ, who has rested me.

Sing praise, our Father, praise. The sun praise the Spirit free

in one God of the glory that shall see.

Praise forever to the King of Kings, we pray.

Forever to the King of Kings. Father, we sing your praise.

Father. Praise forever to the King of

Kings, to the only one who's worthy of our praise this

morning. Father, we lift you up in this

place. Father, we love you.

We have to sing of your name. We thank you God for who you

are. Jesus name.

I was rich. I remember who I was.

I was lost. I was blind.

I was running out of time. Sin separated.

The breach was far too high, but from the far side of the chasm

you had me in your side, so you made away across the crate.

Divide left behind Heaven's room to build it here, inside there

at the cross, you pay the debt I owed, broke my chains, freed my

soul. For the first time I had heard

you, Jesus boy, the blood of the plight.

You, Jesus, as you wash me away, thank you Jesus, You have saved

my life, brought me from the darkness into glorious

You took my place, laid inside my tomb of sin, and you were

buried for three days, but then you walked right out of it.

And now Ted has no steal and life has no it.

For I have been transformed by the blood of you, and she's a

spoken word of God. When Jesus has washed me wild,

thank you Jesus, You have saved my life, brought me from the

darkest into glorious life. There's nothing stronger in the

wonder working power up the world because the sons and

daughters we are handsome by our father through the world.

There is nothing stronger then the wonder working Power up the

below, the below, because the Suns and tortoises be your

ransom. Power farther through the below,

the below. Jesus, come along.

Thank you Jesus. Jesus, wash me away.

Thank you Jesus, you have saved my life.

Brought me from the tortoise into glorious light.

Glory to his word, glory to His name.

There to my heart, was the blood of glory to His.

Near man Amen. Amen.

Man who's thankful for Jesus. Can we give it up this morning?

Man, I love that song. And just think about what God's

done and God's given and God's sacrifice for you and for me.

Man, what an opportunity. Just come in and worship him

today. Man, we're so excited that you

chose to worship with us here in real life.

Want to take this opportunity to let you guys know that we have

some new people with us today. They are online with this in

person. Can we show those guys some

love? Just give them a round of

applause. Amen.

Amen. Hey, won't you guys take 30

seconds, find somebody around you and greet them?

all right, you The guys can go ahead and be seated.

Hey, what you guys know about something awesome that you are

sitting on or it's in a chair next to you and that is our

awesome connection card. If you call real life home, we

would love it when you guys fill these out.

Let us know what's going on in your life.

Maybe you've got a prayer request.

Something is going on in your life, something you need prayer

for or maybe God has just showed up in your life in a miraculous

this way this week and you've got to praise.

If you guys write those down. We look at these week in week

out, we pray over them. We love to stay connected with

knowing what's going on in your life.

Don't have to pin just on Facebook.

So if you guys send those in, man, we love it.

If you call real life home, if you're neuter or newer to real

life, this is a great opportunity for you guys as

well. And I'm going to make you guys a

simple promise. We're not going to ask one other

thing from you today except for this one simple thing.

Just introduce yourself when we want to know who you are.

And we just want to just thank so thankful that you're here

with us. And if you feel that out to the

level that you're comfortable with, we're not going to do

anything weird. We won't show up your door, but

we'd love to send you some information this week about real

life, let you know a little bit about who we are.

And so again, we're so excited that you chose to worship with

us today here in real life. We like to say that we're a

church on a mission here. And that mission is, is to see

people far from God discover the real life and purpose in Jesus.

That's why we do what we do. That's why we make our

decisions. That's how we move throughout

our week because we know that lives get messy sometimes,

right? They get broken, they get jacked

up, but we believe that we have and know the person that has the

answer for you to get connected and be back on mission and

that's Jesus. So we love the living community

here and we live as a body as, as a fellow believers and, and

disciples and we are reaching out in our community and across

the world to get people on mission with God.

So I have something awesome before we get into, into the

message today. So this is calling all 6th

graders through 12th. We are going back to Sporting KC

for our second annual sporting event.

Man, you guys heard about it last year.

The kids loved it. So parents, teens, don't miss

this opportunity. This is a free event.

This is for leaders and youth that are in that age group and

part of real life youth. So don't miss out.

Get signed up early. I think they're playing Austin.

This is on September the 7th and they'll be sitting in the South

stands. So your, your kid does not want

to miss this. So get signed up early.

So we are launching into a new four part series called Elephant

in the Room, right? So do you guys love the elephant

in the room? It's the question nobody wants

to ask, but everybody's thinking about, right?

And so today we're going to dive into what the word of God says

about some of the biggest questions you guys have in your

life. And maybe it's a question about

faith, eternity, pain. And it's the thing that you're

thinking about that you think you're the only person dealing

with and that's not true. And today we're not going to go

into a bunch of church cliches try answers, but we're going to

give some honest answers from God's word about what God and

Jesus have for you to answer these questions.

So once you guys take. This opportunity give a big

round of applause to Pastor Sean as he comes up and he brings the

word. He gave me that a boy.

Go get him, pastor. Well, welcome today I want to

say first of all, was that worship awesome today?

Come on, give it for Jesus one more time.

Love him that you love him. It's always such a reminder of

who we are and who God is. And so in that line that Jesus

did God set aside on us and that that song was just fantastic.

If you're new with us, I want to welcome you guys one more time.

Or new where I know a lot of guys have been coming out

recently. I know we have some new faces

today. Will you guys make everybody

feel welcome one more time? Come on.

So there's two families you got to congratulate.

This is pretty cool. So last week we did the

celebration Sunday to the youth camp, kids camp, kind of just

celebrate the stories, impact and just all that God's doing

and it's really cool. We had two families that said

yes, God just speaking to them to serve and our kids program.

So you can congratulate them, let them know we love them for

jumping on the team. Come on, we love that some

you're like, it wasn't me, but it could be right?

Oh man. So just just amazing stuff.

So one last thing before we jump into the message.

I just want to encourage you guys, if you have a star

relationship with Jesus, if you commit your life to Christ

recently or you have in the past but not been baptized, I'd

encourage you guys to get baptized.

We were baptizing on our, I can't believe it said 8th

birthday. Come on somebody, and I'll

invite you guys to be a part of this.

And so if you called on Jesus, maybe I baptized as a baby or

something, but I would encourage you to take that step.

It's really going public through faith, just telling the whole

world, you're unashamed of Jesus.

You're just confessing to the world.

Man, I love Jesus. Jesus did something in me I want

to show you. And so really that we're dead

and sin and now we're alive to Jesus.

And we have so many stories of people doing this.

This is amazing. This picture, you guys who this

is Jerry. Jerry, I knew it was going to

happen. This is this is my

father-in-law, Jerry. He came to Christ a few years

ago here at real life. Thank you Jesus, Amen.

And he got baptized. This was Easter this year, so

about 5 months ago. And I see this picture and it's

it's very special because This is why we launched a church.

Really something special about somebody close to you but far

from God. You see God moving their life

and take those steps of faith. And this is just a significant

moment for me. This makes every moment worth

it. There's a lot of like things we

do behind the scenes and a lot of energy and effort, activity

things. But this is the stories of

impacting people, Amen. And they see families change,

lives change. This is this is personal, Amen.

And this can be personal for you too.

And I'm encouraging if you have not been baptized, this is the

impact. Like somebody's gonna be

excited. We'll be excited, we'll be

excited. Church.

Amen. I mean, just I'll encourage you

guys if you're like on the fence, they can baptize.

It is exciting. It's a great day.

And I'll encourage you a part of that.

We would just love to be a part of your story.

And if you're unsure what that looks like, if you sign up on

there, it's not like you sign up and just like you get thrown the

deep end, all that be kind of fun.

But we're gonna actually walk you through this like help you

understand, make sure it's the right fit for you.

And so don't feel like you sign up and just like you're just

gonna not know anything, we're gonna walk you the whole

process. So today we're jumping to a new

series, the Elephant in the room.

I don't know what I was thinking when I started this series.

So this elephant's getting, I'm going to have to obviously

preach some interesting messages to talk about the elephant in

the room. We all have questions.

Sometimes we don't even tell anybody these questions.

Maybe you tell your best friend, maybe your spouse.

Maybe you have questions that you feel guilty about even

having the question. Like I don't know if I'd seem

appropriate even thinking this question.

And sometimes we just don't say anything to anybody and we walk

around this these taboo thoughts and we don't want to interact.

And I also encourage the church that God can handle your

questions. Amen.

God, contend your hard questions, your weird questions,

all these different questions. And some of the questions might

be why? Where is God?

Why would God allow bad things to happen?

And is the Bible really true? And no one's ever struggled that

one, right? Like, can he be trusted?

I mean, I've asked all these questions too.

Amen. Some of the questions are just

like, maybe more personal, like, you know, what's wrong with

having sex outside of marriage or sex before marriage?

Like, you know, there's the world, like just teaches a lot

of stuff, right? And I would encourage you guys

as you walk through this to really be open handed.

I was at a church when I, when I grew up that you couldn't ask

these questions. Like it was almost like if you

confess Jesus, like if you called on Jesus that you were

perfect immediately. You've been in this type of

church before. Like there's no room for saying

like we trust you for salvation, but but not for sanctification,

not for growth. And you just everybody's just

perfect and you can never ask the question.

And so I would encourage you guys that we're we're on a

journey together, Amen. Like the words discovery, like,

like wandering, like just seeking out God, like we're all

coming from different faith journeys and points.

And these questions may you might have like solved the

question for yourself. And it might be something next

to you that like is just blown out the water by that question.

And some people maybe have gone to church today and you've not

been in church or followed God because of these hard questions.

And we're going to dive into, I mean, definitely the easiest

question, right? Where is God?

When I heard the questions of pain and suffering, this might

be one of the the heavier questions and just going to go

in the deep end and walk through what God has for us.

I would encourage him and praying that you have an aha

moment about your suffering, like an aha moment about pain,

like where is God? Why God?

That God would just show you things.

Holy Spirit would just come on you and you maybe see things

differently and actually worship God for your suffering.

So it's been a big prayer. Amen.

It's a big prayer. So this is one of the main

reasons people don't follow God to go to church because of the

pain that happens in their life. And so where is God when life

hurts? A few weeks ago had the

privilege and honor of speaking and sharing God's word at my

step brothers celebration of life.

My stepbrother Chad, he is 4 years older than me, so it makes

him 44 and he passed away unexpectedly.

He was at work working at Walmart and they found him in

the backroom, in the storeroom and he had passed away and it

was a brain aneurysm, a heart attack.

Like, you know, people are they're figuring things out, but

it's just one of those things like so unexpected, right?

And so much pain, so many things around it.

And you know, it's just weird for me.

Like I've done a lot of funerals and been in church for a long

time, done a lot of ministry stuff, but it's just different

when it's like your sibling. Like that was a different level

for me. Like I've never, you know, I

thought a million years, like I am going to be doing my

stepbrothers funeral like this year.

I mean, it's just I just kept thinking it's just too young,

right? This is he's just young, but

anyway, I want to show you a picture.

I met Chad when I was 6. My mom got married by step dad

when I was 7, became part of family.

So this is my family. Come on, somebody, this is

awesome. This is a great picture of the

90s. Come on on the right, the

redhead. That's my that's my brother

Adam. Come on.

I met other Adam today. The visitor guy down the corner

there. That's Alana.

Where you at? Alana?

She in there. Oh, she's back there.

Everybody say oh, oh, that's so cute.

Yeah. And then Tricia is my step

sister in the middle, Chad. So there's Chad he he he's the

big guy in the front there. He's always big.

He's bigger than everybody just larger than life down here at

the glasses on the on the lower level, that's the lower level

that that's Gabe that's that's my stepbrother Gabe.

He he's six months younger man the life of the party.

This is my step. My stepdad Alan, he passed away

a couple years ago. And then you'll words can't

describe that picture of me that that my mom's here.

Where are you, Mom? Thank you.

I think you're trying to keep me single as long as possible.

Alan Jackson was not very proud of that.

It used to be really flowy and amazing bullet and that turned

like I was some kind of French person there.

It's really cool. I think Dumb and Dumber found

this picture and they bottled the movie kind of after that a

little bit there. Oh, man, God can use anybody.

Amen. You never like that picture.

You'd be like, that's the man's going to play at the church.

And I was a Chiefs fan proof right here before they were

good. Amen.

Praise the Lord. All right, enough of that

picture. You can keep looking at that.

That's awesome, man. Oh, that's good.

I'm going back in here. We're in the I'm in a generation

now where it's like it's going to be like after maybe like

1518, the pictures can be like, man, that's really cool.

And before 18 like you're so old, you know, like I was going

through the pictures of my stepbrother, you know, and it's

just like it's either you're scanning it, it's old school or

it's like a digital awesome picture and there's like nothing

between. So anyway, this thoughts for

you, but the thought about my family, like where's God in the

midst of suffering and hurt? And there's verses I've been

traveling through Psalms this last year and there's been

verses that just stick out to me and speak to me.

And this just was easy to go back to as I walk through the

Lord, like some verses that remind me where God is and

suffering. And so this is Psalm 3418.

This is what something has been on my heart.

It says this is the Lord is close to The Who.

What's it say? Yeah, broken hearted.

Yeah. Where is he?

He's right there. He he's with you.

It says that he saves those who are what?

Yeah. Crush the spirit.

This is good news. Amen.

Here's what about the Bible. It's what makes it not a fable

makes it real because you have people that are struggling with

real humanity, struggling to follow God and they're being

pressed down and and hurt and they're emotionally broken.

But the Bible says clear that God is with us.

I love it as a personal God. Amen.

I love it's not like, oh, he's out there.

Hope you hope you, you know, do good enough and he loves, you

know, God's a personal God and he wants relationship with and

he's close enough to us. And I could have bridged the

sermon down about, I don't know, about 5 minutes and just answer

the question, where is God when you're hurting with you?

Amen. And we could just pray and be

gone. You're like, yes, not quite

chiefs in the game today, but one day you'll say Amen to that,

right? But Psalm 6, this is another

Psalm that just sticks out to me.

This is one of the Psalms I Amelium.

I've read it and I just put it in my heart, my mind, and I go

back to the Psalm very often. And this is something that I

thought through with my family. This is David Rice says have

mercy on me, Lord, for I am what even those seasons where you're

just you're just overwhelmed, you're weary like you're feeble

minded, like you just have no more energy to go forward.

And this is this what I love about the Bible.

It's just so real because I can relate to this, right?

I lack the ability to move. I'm uncertain, I'm unsettled.

He says heal me, Lord, for my bones are and what in agony?

I mean, that's the emotional pain that he's walking through

that even to your core, you're hurt.

And there's moments of life where the unexpected happens or

the tragic happens or the things around you are so broken that it

actually bothers you to the to your bones.

You guys been here before. You know, you're in that season

when you wake up and then you feel like man, God's good and

everything is perfect and they're not 20 or 30 seconds And

after waking up, you just remember what you're going

through. Like, you know, you forget the

season went right at that moment.

That's how you know you're in agony.

And for some of us are walking that season right now.

For some of us, it's usually a broken relationship.

There's like a powerful loss and we walk that season emotional

pain. And this is what David's doing

is walking through there through this agony.

He says this in verse 3 says my soul is in deep anguish.

Just how long, Lord, How long says turn, Lord, deliver me,

save me because of your what what to say?

There's failing love. Who knows, God is full of

failing love. You can call on God's life.

It's just motivation for save me because of your character, God,

because you love me. God speak to me, changed me, he

said, worn out from my groanings.

I mean, there's this is like pain without words, right?

I just don't know what. It just hurts.

So all night long I flood my bed with what?

Yeah, weeping. We've all been there in seasons.

You just there's no comfort. There's no solace.

You're just beyond yourself. He said drench my couch with

tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow.

They fail because of my foes. In this situation, David is

surrounded by his enemies. He thinks he's being overtaken.

He's tired of seeing his friends die, his commanders die, the

people around him being persecuted, and he feels like

he's up against the wall that he's being buried and there's no

way out. Verse A says away from me all

you do evil and I love this. So it says for the Lord has

what? How many guys knew that the Lord

hears your weeping. It's pretty good, Amen that the

Lord isn't isn't absent like he's not gone.

We can make the mistake of thinking and mistaking silence

for God's absence, but God's not absent, Amen.

Just because he's not speaking doesn't mean he doesn't hear.

Just because he's not speaking doesn't mean he is not hearing.

You're weeping. So the Lord has heard my cry for

mercy and the Lord accepts my prayer that in my pain God is

close. I'll give you some some stories,

some guys to talk about these, the scripture and the pain to

walk through This man who wrote second most, second most famous

book in history, John Bunyan, pilgrims progress and he writes

this about tears. He says it's not the mouth that

is the main thing in prayer, but the heart.

And if it is the heart that prays, it matters not what the

mouth if the mouth is silent. So the prayer is the cry of the

heart, sometimes with words and sometimes without words.

Amen. I mean, God knows exactly what

you're feeling, what you're what's, what's inside of you,

and you don't have to maybe even mature even to express it or

even figure out why it's happening, but the Lord knows

exactly the language of your heart.

Others say about this scripture, it says that these prayer, these

tears are the tears or liquid prayers, Amen.

That God had actually hear your tears.

He's listening to your weeping. They're silent prayer requests.

God knows exactly why you're crying.

He knows exactly what you're walking through In that season.

Spurgeon said this. He said tears are the diamonds

of heaven. Sighs are part of prayer, and

tears are the blood of the heart.

They're the essence of prayer and the substance of devotion.

Tears are almost paved the way for God's will and our broken.

This guy is going to speak to us and this what it says about

suffering and tears in the Bible.

Psalm 56, eight says this. It says you being God have kept

count of my what tossings Anybody been in the season where

they can't sleep through the night right and you tried new

pillows and it's still not working right.

Like you just there's anxiety and there's worry and there's it

catch you off guard. Every season has a temptation

like don't ever think you get mature enough.

We're like your life isn't going to have some arrows and some

attacks like God is always showing us things about

ourselves. I actually bought 4 pillows

yesterday. I slept through the night,

praise God, Hallelujah, but it wasn't because of these kind of

season, but my pillows were dying's like I picked the $6

pillows up all the time. I'm like, let's just not do that

anymore. Let's get a $10 pillow.

Let's move up, you know, but it says this is amazing.

He said, he says he puts my tears in your bottle and they're

not or they're not in your book. He's not absent.

Amen. Like like your your pain isn't

wasted with God to think that God knows exactly what you're

going through, exactly what you're walking through,

understands the situation and it's collecting your tears.

He's listening to your weeping. He knows and he's close.

Amen. He's not distant, he's not gone,

he's not absent, he's not apathetic.

He is there. Romans 826 says this says the

spirit Spirit of God intercedes for us with what to say with

groanings too deep for words that even when we our words

fail, our logic fails, our emotions are heavy.

The Holy Spirit is groaning and having prayer requests for us

and over us to the Father in heaven, Amen.

That's good news that that we're not alone that that that the

Holy Spirit is also called the comforter.

He is comforting us. He's he's he's giving us what we

really need to have. He's praying prayer requests

that we not even ever mutter. These lead us to places that we

don't even need that we know don't need to go yet.

We don't know we need to go there yet And so we can find

solace that got us close enough to whisper that he, he knows us

better. We know ourselves.

Amen. But there are times, if you're

real honest, that we we don't feel God.

There are times where it feels distant.

It feels cold. Your prayers feel like they're

hitting the ceiling. You're wondering what's going

on. You're kind of getting

aggravated like I, why'd you leave me this far to, to kind of

feel like you're not in this season, like why am I feel like

I'm a little abandoned? Have you guys been that season

before? Real honest, show hands.

Real honest. Yeah.

I think most of us have been that season maybe more than

once, right. I feel like it just kind of

comes with the journey. And I think God wants us to

teach us something like in the deserts and the valleys where we

don't have this awestruck moment.

He wants to show us a few things about prayer, about our lives.

What's interesting about prayer is that when you pray, God does

not often download the answer that you're praying to your

life. It doesn't usually come if I can

use this Good. Met a guy that's in charge of

this right now. He doesn't fly the package of

your prayer request with a blue bow on it and drop it at your

front porch, Amen. It doesn't usually work that

way. God does usually answer your

prayer with this an immediate thing.

Now there's two things the Bible he'll do that for.

But most of the time God gives you the gift of an opportunity

to become what you're praying for.

Like think about this when you pray for patience, God doesn't

download patience into your soul typically, but God gives the

opportunity to be patient, Amen. God gives you circumstances and

people and relationships and you give those moments where you can

trust in him and rely on him, but very few times you can say,

OK, now you're a patient person that that's not typical works.

He wants to develop your character.

Matter of fact, God is more interested in developing

character than for you to download your wish list.

Amen. Because it doesn't doesn't

change anything because gives you the answer.

He wants you to become something that you're not.

Think about this. We pray for strength.

He put you in seasons where you feel weak, you feel like, oh

Lord, I'll be strong. What He's going to give you

circumstance with your family or your friends or whatever it is

where you have to rely on Him and His power and His strength

made perfect in your weakness and lean on Him.

You pray for faith. Typically it's because He's

walking through a circumstance where you don't have sight, like

you have to walk by faith. You have to hold His hand, lean

His direction to seek His will, and you're asking for faith, but

He's given the circumstance. If you pray for love, God often

brings people in your life that's hard to love.

Amen because now a good time to point, but often times it's just

how it works, right. And so in other words, God

answer a purse, but it's always the way we expect.

Like instead of shortcuts, he gives us soil, right?

He gives you a place to grow. He doesn't give you the the

quick easy path. Now sometimes God can do that,

but often times he doesn't. He takes a long way around the

barn instead of comfort, he he wants to develop our character.

There's a couple things Bobby can pray for though and get

wisdom. You can pray for wisdom and God

will give it to you liberally as long as you're asking faith.

If you don't ask in faith, don't expect anything.

That's exactly what it says in James one verse 5 and 6.

And so you can ask for wisdom, but by faith that God, I want

wisdom. I trust you.

You know everything. I'm gonna follow.

You gotta give me divine wisdom. And he will download it.

Amen. Amen.

That's a daily prayer by the way, like I'm not very smart,

but God right. He gives you peace beyond

understanding is the Philippians 4.

If you if you continue in prayer.

That was those who give you peace by understanding of guard

your hearts and mind Christ Jesus.

Those are two things you can have, but everything else it's

almost like God is giving the opportunity to develop your

character. He's giving you the opportunity,

the gift of growth to be the kind of person that you're

praying God to turn you into. He's given opportunities to

shape you. And often times we walk through

suffering and hardship and we kind of get mad at God or we're

upset about God's character and God's timing and we don't like

it. Instead of send back to God, I

know you're using this to develop me, God.

You're putting this in my life to show me things about myself I

need to develop. God, I trust you in this season.

God, I'll walk with you even closer in this season.

It's very easy though, to get jaded.

It's very easy to, to step back and, and to get upset.

And honestly, there's times where you feel like you're,

you're just, you're irritated. God, things are broken.

There's things in our past. I see this quite often.

I've seen this with my own foster kids and different things

where it's the heavy question like elephants in the room.

But now we can kind of put on the table.

It's fun as a leader, by the way, put an elephant on the

table. Don't you like doing that?

There's problems and people are upset and you're like, hey, you

know, let's just let's go on. Just take that.

It's over here. It's actually pretty big and

we're going to go put that right here.

We're going to talk about Amen. That's what leaders do, Amen.

That's kind of culture I love to be in like families get real

sideways when the elephant Duggan talked about in a healthy

God honoring way. Amen.

And just be real honest with you.

There's there's a lot of pain that same causes that sin causes

that the world causes that's affected so many of our lives.

Ever been in this room? People, you know, could be watch

things all the time and they're they're the question like, why

would God allow me to be abused as a child?

Why would God allow my dad to hit me?

Why, why would God allow my parents to be Alcoholics and to

be in the foster system? Like, why would God put me

through all this? And those are the questions that

we're not going to ask. Typically we're going to ask God

will you mad about it may tell a friend, but then a day like the

wrestle that I want to wrestle through the hard elephant.

Amen. Yeah, I did that today.

I told you to keep it real. It's on the sign, you know?

So I'm gonna put it on the table and it's gonna talk through the

through the. Yeah, you know what you're

getting into there, right? About to talk through that hard

question. What does it look like?

Like, why would God allow this? Like, where is God and all his

hurt and his suffering, this pain?

And I'm gonna do is just walk through really a conversation.

I saw it. It's really a video I watched

and I just turned into, I can't play it, so I'm just gonna read

it. And it's very powerful.

And there's this this lady that's been through a ton and

she's probably in her 60s and she's asking this this preacher

what where was God when? And so I'm just going to read it

for you guys ready. Don't act too excited.

Well, I'll just hear this is what she said says where was

your Jesus when young kids were in institutions and being raped?

Just I'm a survivor of being raped.

So you tell me where Jesus really was.

I love this guy's answer. It's profound.

He said the reasons why, the reason why you went through what

you went through is because of the human heart of sinful

actions of people. Your parents, your community has

opened the door, has affected everybody else.

It's sad. You want to know where Jesus

was? I love this.

He said Jesus was on the cross dying for our sins.

Before that he was calling people to repent of their sins.

But your family, your ancestors, those around you have decided

not to repent of their sins, and it affected your life.

And all those who harmed you and did that will have their day

before God. And if they don't repent,

they'll be sent to hell. They'll face the wrath of God

for what they did. And God is going to bring

justice to every person. So in the meantime, don't let

your past become your burden forever.

But because of the one man's decision, Jesus Christ, you can

now be delivered from your sin, set free from your bondage, and

you can be brought back to into God's Kingdom.

That was straight truth. Amen.

Now that that's pretty trite when you're talking to somebody

in the season, but if you think about why the suffering happened

and he put it on to the, to the sin, to the human condition of

sin, to to community, to family, to those around you, we, we get,

we get into some big issues when we start to blame God for sin.

Amen. When we say God authored this

God, why would you? And we get mad at God, you know

who she's mad at? And he lays out your family,

your community, the world. Sin itself saved himself.

That's to blame, Amen. God is not to blame.

And he said it so, so perfectly. And I love how he gave the

justice side of it too, because we often think, well, they're

getting away. They're not.

Nobody's getting away with nothing.

God's tails are just. Amen.

And when you stand before him, which I mean face down on the

ground, prostate on the ground, right, you're prone and you're

just like, there's no friends there, there's no family,

there's no, it's you and the Lord.

His skills are just Amen. The Bible says you can account

for every other word, for every deed.

Everything will go through the fire in the judgment of God.

There's wood, hay and stubble and there's the things of God.

And, and, and so I trust deeply in God's justice.

And it reminds me of like, well, why do we, why would God allow

this to even happen in this season?

I keep coming back to this thought.

How much God must love us to endure such depravity in sin?

Like how much must God love us to tolerate all this junk?

It's just just hear me out. Just think about this.

Second, Peter 39 says this. This is Peter.

He's he's speaking to one of the most persecuted group of people

in history. There's a church that was

started in a Rome and it was persecuted by the emperor Nero,

who blamed the Christians. Nero burned down his own city of

Rome and then blamed the Christians.

And now being arrested, persecuted and they're being put

on trial. Peter will be crucified by Nero

under his orders. His wife would be crucified

right before him. Peter be crucified upside down.

This is the kind of suffering we don't even see right now.

This is one of those wicked leaders in all of history as

Emperor Nero and he writes this these people that are suffering

greatly. He says the Lord verse 9 says

the Lord is not slow and keeping his what his promise.

He's not he's not slow in keeping it but as some

understand slowness that what they're saying is where's God

and all this Why is this happening?

I thought I prayed for Jesus my life would get easier like any

remember Jesus on the cross right.

This guy mentioned so so eloquently like where was Jesus?

He was suffering for us and to think just as a holistic picture

that if Jesus were to suffer at the hands of sinful people, why

would we be any different? Like why would our lives be any

more innocent or easy than Jesus's life?

Like to think that we prayed a prayer that it was our life is

going to be perfect is the complete opposite of the gospel.

And that Jesus would suffer and die for us and we still have

this brokenness and this humane has fallen that we wouldn't

somehow like partake in some suffering as well.

And this is what Peter's telling him.

He's not slow. He knows exactly what he's

doing, his promise. God is seldom early, but never

late. I've learned this about people

sometimes Satan. He uses things in your life,

voices and people, circumstances to bury you to, to, to get you

off of God's journey off of God's path to keep you quiet,

silent, to to be non active, for the gospel, to not to share his

goodness, to think less of God and to bury under guilt, shame

and all these things to stop you from doing things of God.

And I remember when I was planting this church, it came

out of season. It was one of those seasons, you

know, it was a hard season. It was all I don't have time to

go through it and I'd probably I just came to say all the things

I want to say about it. It was a difficult season.

And I just this, somebody said this in that season and it

always stuck with me is that Satan didn't know when he when

he buried you that you're a seed being planted.

He didn't know that you were being planted in the things of

God. And oftentimes we don't

understand that. Like Satan has a agenda and God

has an agenda. We kind of forget that, that God

is who he is. He loves us and cares for us.

And this is exactly what Peter is saying.

He's not. He's not slow.

He'll be on time when he wants to be.

Instead, he is What? What's to say he is patient.

I think that's the lost verse. Yeah, we're still on the verse.

Sorry, guys. I'm preaching forever here.

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but

everyone to come to repentance. He's patient.

What's that mean? He's patient with you like he's

patient letting us to grow towards Christ.

We didn't pray a prayer of perfection.

We prayed a prayer of confession.

We said to Jesus, I talked to a man yesterday who who's

struggling, He's defeated. He's walking through a valley, a

very difficult season that's going to cost him a lot and he

just can't get his head up. And I'm like, listen, it's a set

back. It's not the future, right?

And and we think we're defeated, not defeated.

Like what is God trying to teach you is the lesson you can learn

when you look at this God as an intention to the suffering?

He's patient with us. He's patient with humanity.

But like, ultimately God could come back any second he wanted

to and he could wipe away all sin from the earth, all

suffering from the earth. Do you guys believe you could do

that right now if you want to? He could do it right this

second. And one day he will.

Amen. The first time he came as a

child. The next time he comes as a

warrior, he rides a horse. Next time, first time he was a

donkey. You know what I mean?

Like he could do what he wants to.

He wants to. So why is God waiting like he's

suffering? He's watching the suffering,

watch the genocides and and the wars and the, and all the sex

trafficking and all these difficulties.

Why he says right here, he's patiently waiting through all

the sin and depravity and the pain with the with intention

that no one perish. But everyone comes repents to

him like God's longing is for people to know him, and by his

mercy he allows suffering because he's delaying his

judgment so more people can repent.

So to think about if you wish suffering away, you wish every

person who doesn't know Jesus to hell.

That's what you're wishing for right this second.

You're saying my suffering is so significant that nobody else has

a chance of finding the good news of Jesus.

Am I preaching today? Just keep it real.

That's what we idolize ourself. All this pain.

I'm so mad. What about other people I need

Jesus. There's a man I met today that

spent a year in a wheelchair. I'm about to get surgery on my

shoulder. You might not know that yet and

and I'm like, it's going to kind of like, oh man, this is going

to suck. Take forever.

It's six months and that it's like, brother, it could be

worse. Amen.

It's not about me, it's about Jesus.

And so in my mind, suffering is not the proof of God being evil.

Suffering is the proof of actually God being loving

suffering actually a proof of God's love.

Paul says even better in Romans 2, four he says or do or do I

show or do you show contempt for the riches of listeners of God's

kindness, usual contempt for God's forbearance and God's

patience loses us not realizing like you're not smart, you don't

know yet. Not realizing, understanding

that God's kindness is intended to what, Yeah, lead us to

repentance, like God's kindness, intend to lead us to things of

God like. And what's God's kindness?

And you know, we like the second part of the verse.

I've always thought of the second part of the verse.

So the first part of the verse is, is God's forbearance.

You know what it means to forbear?

Yeah, it means to put up with forbear is just like, OK, this

is the verse for all the teenage parents in the house, right?

Just put up with some things. If you're married, you forbear.

It's actually in the Bible. You know, it says right there,

there's forbearance. There's things you just put up

with, but there's patience as well.

And then there's God's kindness and the reason that we have

this. You show contempt.

God, why you so patient? Yeah, why you put up all this

stuff right now? Should we be mad at God for

being patient and forbearing and having kindness?

And he said, what's the intention of all those things?

What's it? What does allow this, allow

suffering? What's the intention of

suffering to lead you to repentance?

God's kindness, forbearance and patience.

The suffering has a purpose to lead us to repentance.

Amen. These are hard truths, but

they're real. Amen.

So one final word about the elephant in the room, because we

there's a lot of different truths on this, right?

This isn't like a touchy feely certainly at the moment, right?

But there's a lot of different things you can talk about.

I would just encourage you to do this.

Don't waste your pain. Don't waste your pain.

Don't waste it. I think it's Charles Spurgeon.

He said something like this. He talked about the soul.

He said how precious must the soul be that both God and the

devil are after it. How precious must a soul be that

wars are fought in heaven and hell for a soul like how

precious must it be and you're going to war and sometimes at

war you get you get hurt and you suffer and Satan has a season

and uses people they do evil things that they hurt you like

Joseph and his brothers and they throw them in a pit to die and

it's all I have some compassion some the slavery and when all

these things happen, but God redeems Amen.

And if you write this story where Satan gets the glory of

your story, you miss the point of the story.

Like if you don't purpose your pain for God, your pain is

wasted. If your story doesn't end with

but Jesus changed my life, I'm here to share my story with

somebody else. Then we're missing the point of

what God is asking us to do 7 Corinthians 214 says this.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession

in Christ. It always leads us in this

procession, this parade for Christ, and who makes known.

Listen to this through us the fragrance that consists of the

knowledge of him in every place that God has lead us this pray

to victory so that through us the fragrance of God's victory

goes out to every place. Now think about this.

In Jesus's time, there's something very famous.

It was actually called the triumph, which is why this is

written this way. Paul knew this.

The triumph is where a Roman general will go to war, and

they're pretty good at that. And they come back after a

victory and the whole city of Rome will come out of the

streets and they cheer maximus maximus maximus.

They would just go on in a triumph of victory.

There's a victory prey that was well known in the Roman culture.

And So what Paul is saying here is that we are in the triumph of

Christ. Amen.

Amen. The victory parade of Christ.

We're not on the sidelines. We're not the ones cheering.

We're the ones in the parade. We're the victors in Christ.

Amen, That He's given us the victory to defeat sin.

He's given the heart and the mindset of the Holy Spirit of

God inside of us to reconcile and put those things in our

lives that were broken on suffering and bring it back to

God. And we can be in that parade and

we can shout and share the fragrance and the aroma of God's

victory to all people everywhere.

It's not an accident what you've been through.

God could have. He could have, in His

sovereignty, stopped it. But he wants to redeem it.

Amen. He wants to redeem your pain and

now you get the opportunity and it's a blessing that when you

serve Jesus, God will bring you into relationships with people

where you can share your brokenness and God's goodness

together and be an aroma to people who need saving knowledge

of God. There are so many people I get

to talk to and share about the hardships and the pain or this

alcoholism or a loss in the family or there's been sexual

abuse in somebody's life. And I get to share, like through

my personal journey or through experiences I see, I get to

point people back to the goodness of God, Amen.

And if you take your story and you're willing and you say, God,

I want to purpose my pain. I don't want to waste one tear

or one moment of shame. I want to use it for your glory.

God will allow you to do that, Amen.

He will bring stories and relationships and people into

your life. I can tell you this, you cannot

change your past, but you can change where you place the

blame. You can change what you learn

from it, and you can change who gets the glory.

Who is getting the glory for the story that God has put in your

life. Who?

Who's the one, the only one? And we look down and we're full

of shame and pain and regret and anger.

There's only two people going to glory.

That's you and the devil. Satan wants to rob you from

God's goodness and his power. If you can look at your pain and

say God, I don't understand why, but I trust you because you

could do anything you want. There is somebody in this world

that needs your story. You don't have to go very far to

tell it. I've had so many conversations

with people, encourage them to share their story.

And I'm not saying go up here and spill the beans about all

this stuff. Maybe that's what it is.

As a preacher, I get to do some of that and share some some

wounds. Sometimes people are still

alive. You can't share stories, Amen?

But sometimes you can. And there's sometimes there's

people that you get in a relationship with your life grip

with, you're sitting next to or you see somebody's upset, you

see somebody hurting. I was on the phone yesterday for

an hour with a man. He kept apologizing for taking

my time up and he's really struggling.

I said, stop apologizing. I don't hear about that.

God put me here to talk to you, Amen.

Like there's a reason on the phone today.

I could be doing a lot of stuff, but I'm here because God, I

picked the phone up. You called like use that story,

weaponize it for the things of Christ.

Let Christ purpose your pain. Don't mistake God's patience for

his absence. Don't confuse his silence for

apathy. God wants to use your pain.

God wants to weaponize your pain for his Kingdom.

We'll have scars, We'll have skeletons.

We've all shed blood. Amen.

And what if we said, Lord, I can use this like you give me a

gift, like I can connect with these people I can never connect

with before God, you didn't write the story, but God in your

sovereignty and with this brokenness we live in, I expect

to take some shots. I expect people to come after

me. I expect Satan to come after the

all the force of hell to stop me from speaking up and sharing and

living out the love of God and to keep my head down and step my

head up like I'm not a victim, I'm a victor.

This isn't the victim parade, it's the victory parade, Amen?

And I can just point to Jesus. I like if he can help me, he can

help you, Amen. This is the kind of people we

got to become and we got to stop holding on to the past and

letting it dictate our life. Like the past is over, like it's

gone. You don't get it back, Amen.

But what does God wants to do? Stand up.

Like be bold, be courageous. He, he knows exactly what he's

doing and his perfect timing. I trust when he comes back,

revenge is the Lords. Like I'll have to get even,

Amen. I don't, I don't have to like do

all this stuff and be angry. Like do that, change it, dude.

That's not changing anybody else.

Like let God work through your life and be a be a picture of

God's grace and God's mercy and God's love.

Speak up when you have the opportunity and weaponize that

story. Don't let Satan take it.

Use it. Amen.

So Father, come before you. I pray God, as we search out

where are you and we're hurting, God, we have the aha moment

today, like some of us have maybe seen through Scripture and

just reminded that man that brokenness is used for God as we

struggle and walk through the season.

God, I pray for somebody there that say, no, I'm not wasting

one ounce of my pain. Like Lord, I'm using it for your

Kingdom. God, it's going to drive my

purpose. It's going to drive my calling.

I'm not going to keep my head down.

I'm going to put the head up exactly where God wants it.

I trust you, Lord, with my pain. I'm in your procession of

victory. It's not my story that I'm

writing God, it's your story. And so God, I trust you even

though I have all the answers, God, I know right now I'm

waiting patiently for you because you're being patient

with me. So you got to trust you in this

season. I'm going to say the day that

today you're not going to waste your pain.

We just put your hand there today.

Let the Lord see it. Not going to waste your pain

today. Are you going to use it?

That pain will drive our purpose, will drive our

direction, will show us the things of God.

So Lord, teach us through our pain, teach us through our

suffering. God, thank you.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to grow in patience

and grace and forgiveness and love to be more like Jesus.

Thank you the opportunity to do the hard things, not the easy

things. Thank you God, that I can live

out a path that is maybe wronged or maybe I'm persecuted or hurt

or offended. But God, I still trust you.

And while other people would have been angry and upset and

small, I don't have to do all these things because of you.

And so God teach me to walk like you.

God, forgive me when I've fallen short.

Forgive me for being upset. Forgive me for holding on to my

past so much. And God free me today.

God set me free in your name through your spirit.

God, you're groaning. You've been praying for this

moment. So God, we trust you.

I'll pray for a more group of people in the room.

That's those you say, you know what, I need to join the

procession of victory. I need to be in the triumph of

Christ. I have maybe been upset with God

because my past that you walked in today and you have all these

wounds and these things have happened and not recognizing

until today that's actually God's grace that the kindness

and the goodness and the forbearance and the patience of

the Lord is intended to lead you to repentance today.

The greatest thing you could do today is turn the Lord Jesus and

turn from your sin and say Jesus, thank you for down a

cross for me. Thank you for loving me, even

those unlovable God. Thank you for loving me and

those around me. God, in this season, I know I

was wronged and it wasn't from you, but you will use it.

You'll turn to Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus came

2000 years ago down a cross for us.

He was on that cross while the world was at its worst.

God was at his best, He was allowing sinful humanity to

crucify himself so he could become a substitute as a

sacrifice for our sin and make the full payment, the permanent

perfect sacrifice for our sin. The Bible says we call name of

Jesus to be saved, forgiven and made new today for you Jesus.

That's a promise of God. It will come true in this very

instant. The Holy Spirit come in your

life and give you a name, a new purpose, the purpose, your pain.

He'll be with you, His presence be inside of you.

He made new from Christ to be forgiven.

So if you need Jesus, I'm looking around, you'll call on

Jesus. You recognize who he is today.

Will you put your hand high in this place?

I need Jesus all across this room.

That's you Holy Spirit, just pull my heart.

It's the Holy Spirit calling you to himself.

Just pray this prayer. The prayers not save you.

Is your heart towards Christ. It's hard to believe to say,

Lord, thank you so much for loving me.

Thanks for down the cross. Thank you for doing what I could

ever do in a million lifetimes. God, it's beginning to make

sense the story been writing God.

I can't change my past God, but I can change my future God, I

trust you. I see the day God from your word

who you are is true that you love me.

I'm being a procession of victory, no longer a victim of

sin, a victim of humanity, a victim of Satan, no longer in

that Kingdom God, I'm a Kingdom, I'm your son, I'm your daughter

today and I pray that in Jesus name and the church said Amen.

Come on, give it for Jesus. Amen.

And such a word today, just a reminder that God doesn't waste

our pain, but that he redeems it.

That even the hard stuff, even the, the shame and the sorrow

and all the things that we walk through in our life, even that

can be used to point people to the gospel.

And that we don't have to walk in that, but that we can walk in

the parade of victory. So what a word today and

encouragement today. Some of you are walking in that

parade of victory today. For the very first time you

accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior today.

Congratulations, we are so excited for you.

We have a couple things for you. If you would grab that

connection card, fill out your information and just check that

box that says I committed my life to Jesus.

You can drop it in the giving buckets here in just a few

minutes. But by doing that allows us to

get you a few things. The first one is a free resource

for you. It's a book.

It's called begin. We'll drop it in the mail

tomorrow. We would love to get that to

you. Really will be a blessing to you

as you take these next steps with Jesus.

And if you pray that prayer, you're right here in the house

today as you exit the worship center, there is a table with

some red bags as you leave. Please grab one of those as

well. There's a free Bible for you in

there and a list with some other resources.

But we would love to get that to you today.

And once again, congratulations if that's you for accepting

Jesus at today. Hey, I've got something exciting

today as well that's happening. That's fall life groups.

They are live online today for signups.

You can check them online. You can check them out in the

hub. We have groups meeting almost

every night of the week in both Raymour and Belton.

They actually don't start meeting until September 7th.

They're Live Today for you to sign up.

And I could tell you story after story of a life change that's

happened throughout these semesters.

But what's better than me telling you is for you to hear

it first hand from somebody who's experienced that

themselves. So I'm going to invite right

Megan Duvall to the stage, give her some encouragement.

There we go. But I've had the joy of

attending Life Group with Megan this last semester and I just

wanted her to share with you guys the impact that Life Groups

has made in her life. So here's Megan.

So I've actually done 2 life groups and I started right after

I started church here And I will say that doing that, I have

found a community of multiple different people that have made

me feel completely welcome along with myself and my daughter.

And it has been an amazing experience and I recommend it

for anybody that is looking for people to make them feel welcome

in the church and in the community.

I love that. Okay, that's right, give it up

for her. And that's what it's all about.

It's it's real people, it's real growth, it's real community and

real relationships. That's what you're signing up

for when you sign up for a life group.

So we'd love for you guys to sign up.

You can check them out on the hub or online.

Give it up for Megan one more time.

Thank you. Well, if you're newer in the

house with us today, thank you so much for being here.

You really are honored guests. We have thought about you this

week. We have prayed for you this

week, and we're just so glad that you're here with us this

morning. We really don't want anything

from you except for this. And that's just to introduce

yourself to us. If you can do that by grabbing

that same connection card, fill out your information on the top

there and just check that box that says it's your first time

here. You can take that to the new

here booth as you exit. We have a free gift for you.

Just our way of saying thank you so much much for spending your

day here with us and we would love to see you back next Sunday

right here at Kentucky Trail. And hey, I get to share a really

super cool story with you guys about generosity.

We have a lady in our church who's really walking through

just a hard season. She's had to move and relocate,

make some adjustments in her life.

She actually was renting a car to make it to to church on

Sundays and to run all of her errands.

And she just found herself in a difficult season.

And we had the opportunity this week because of somebody's

generosity in our Church of donating car, we had the

opportunity to gift this car back to her.

So check out this picture. Go God.

That's right. So cool and the Bible calls us

to take care of the widows and the orphans and those who are in

a tough season. We had the opportunity to do

that. And as somebody who was there

first hand to watch her get those keys, I can tell you that

it is more blessed to give than to receive.

To see the tears in her eyes and her heartfelt gratitude.

It really is a blessing to be a blessing.

And so we really did just get to be conduits of that wasn't

anything we did. We just got to be a conduit of

God's blessing through our church and to her.

And so I you to be a blessing to others as well.

And so if you call real life church home, you can do that

too. You can head on over to our

website reallifechurchkc.com. You can click give on the

website there, you can scan the QR, you can text, you can drop

it in the giving buckets in the box in the back.

So many ways that you can take part in that at today.

And hey, if you find yourself in immediate need of food, of

clothing, of shelter this week, whatever that looks like that

you need, please reach into the giving buckets as they pass here

in just a few minutes. Grab any loose cash in there.

We really do want to be a blessing.

We want to help you in your time of need.

Man, what an awesome day man, if you guys were blessed by God

today, can you give it up for God man those elephants in the

room, they're the questions we all ask but I guarantee you guys

got an answer for you. Hey so before we get out of here

one last awesome thing. So we are getting ready to throw

a party here real life. You guys ready party people

there we go Hey our 8th birthday party September 21st be looking

for information on it. We're going to do baptism we're

going to pull out all the steps. One of the other awesome things,

once you guys mark your calendars for anybody on the

Dream team or interested in the dream team, on September the

16th, we are going to do a pig roast.

I've never been a part of one. I've heard they're awesome.

But we're going to do, we're going to do a pig roast.

S'mores yard games, man. You guys are invited to mark

your calendars and get ready for that.

So hey, if you guys need prayer for any reason, somebody will be

up here to pray with you, whether it's individuals or as

families. And we would love to pray with

you. I can't wait to see you guys

again next week at 9:15 or 10:45.

And as always, remember, whoever finds Jesus discovers real life

and purpose. This is the end of this podcast.

We hope you've enjoyed it. If you have, be sure to hit the

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podcast. For more great content and

updates, visit reallifechurchkc.com.