The Miracle You Never Saw Coming - At The Movies Special Edition: The Chosen

Hey, good morning, real life church.

So great to see you this morning in the house.

And man, we're just excited to worship with you.

I invite you to stand to your feet and I invite you just to

sing boldly this morning and just direct it all to him today.

I'm also going to invite you one more thing that's clap along

with us today. Yo world, it's a lamp unto my

feet. Yo is the only way for me.

It's a narrow Rd. that leads to life.

But I want to be on it. It's a narrow Rd. but the mercy

is why? Because you're good on your

promise. Let's sing.

I'll take you at your world. If you said it, I'll believe,

man, I've seen how good it was. If you started, you're

completed. I'll take you at your word.

That's right. We keep those hands going.

We got some fun in the house today, so we can keep singing.

You spoke and the chaos fell in life.

Oh, I know because I've seen it in my life.

It's a narrow Rd. that leads to life, but I want to be on it.

Yes, it's a narrow Rd. The tide is high, but you're

part of the water. I'll take you at your world.

If you said it, I believe it. I've seen how good it was if you

starting your computer. I'll take you at your word if

you said it. I believe it.

I've seen how good it was. If you starting your computer,

take you at your word, 'cause you're good on your promise.

Yeah, you're good on your promise.

All right, guys, I just invite you to keep singing along today

and sing directly to him. You said your love would never

give up. You said your grace is always

enough. You said your heart would never

forget or forsake me. You said I'm saved.

You said I'm saved. You call me yours.

You said my future's full of your hope.

And you've never failed. I know that you'll never fail

me. Come on, sing it again.

You said your love never give up.

You've said your grace is always enough.

You set your heart. Never forget or forsake me.

You said I'm safe. You said I'm safe.

You call me yours. You said my futures full of your

hope. You've never failed.

I know that you'll never fail me.

I'll take you out your work. Come on, you said it.

I believe it. I've seen how good it was.

You started your competing. I'll take you at your world.

I said it. I believe it.

I've seen how good it works. If you start in your company,

I'll take you at your word. You're good on your promise.

Yeah, you're good on your promise.

Take you at your word. Come on.

Do you believe that this morning?

Do you believe he's a good guy? That we can trust in his promise

today to give him a hand? Come on.

Lift up all your praise and your heart today for him.

Come on, come. On, let's try.

Giving some praise this morning, man, it is so good to worship

God with you, to praise him together with one voice this

morning. And I know this, that God is

chasing you, that He is pursuing you, that He sees you and He

wants a relationship with you this morning.

So come on, let's give Him our praise today.

For I spoke a word you were singing over me.

You have been so so good to me. Before I took a breath, you read

your life in me. You have been so so high to me.

All the overwhelming never ending reckless over God chases

mean I'll fight still and father leaves the night and night I

couldn't Hardy I don't deserve it till you give yourself away.

All the overwhelming Never Rain. Need a reckless love again?

How was your fool still your love far from me.

You have been so, so good to me. I felt nowhere.

You paint it off for me. Thank you, Jesus.

You have been so, so kind to me. Come on, look this up.

This one voice hold me overwhelming Neverland in

reckless of the God. It chases me down, fights too.

And the founder leaves the nighty night.

I couldn't hide it. I don't deserve it.

Still you give yourself away. Hold me overwhelming never in

the reckless love God. Yeah.

There's no shadow. You won't light up mountain You

won't climb up. Coming after me.

There's no oh, you won't kick down a light.

You all tear down coming after me.

There's no shadow. You won't light up mountain.

You won't climb up coming after me.

There's no oh. You won't kick down a lie.

You won't sit down coming after me.

There's no shadow. You won't lie mountain.

You won't climb up coming after me.

There's no oh, you won't kick down a lie.

You won't turn up coming after me.

There's no shadow. You won't light up mountain, you

won't cry, you know, call it after me.

There's no you won't kick, you lie.

You won't turn up, come it after me.

Holy, overwhelming never and deep reckless love of God where

chases means I'll fight too long.

Please not God, not going to learning, not going to stop this

till you give yourself away. Holy over the world in every way

regularly is the love of God. Yeah.

There's no mountain, no shallow, no coming after me.

Amen, God, it's your love, and it's only your love, God, that

comes after us. And so we lift up the praises to

you. Today

I cast. My mind.

To Calvary, where Jesus bled and died for me, and I see his

wounds, his hands, his feet. My Saviour on that cursed.

Tree. His body bound and drenched in

tears, they laid him down in Joseph's tomb, the entrance by

heavy stone. Messiah stand and all alone, and

all raise the name of the Lord our God, or praise His name

forevermore, for in these days we will.

Sing your praise. Alone, alone our God.

Then on the 3rd had break a dawn, the sun of heaven rose.

Again, oh, tremble down, Where is your sting?

Thee. Thy child's.

Roar for Christ thy King. Some praises this morning.

Lift him up. The more, for in this case we

will see our praise. Oh Lord, oh Lord our God, shall

we turn? The blazing sun shall Pierce

sunlight, and I will rise among the Saints.

My gaze transfers on Jesus face. And all the pain and the sorrow

of this life will be passed away, and everything that is old

will become brand new in Jesus who redeemed us, who saved us,

who loved us, who healed us. He wiped every tear.

So let's lift him up and praise us, and sing to him the grace of

the name. Of the Lord our God.

Oh praise his name forever and Lord forever.

And listen, we will sing our praise, oh Lord, oh Lord our

God, oh praise our name of the Lord our God.

The praise is again forever more.

Forever we will see our praise, oh Lord, oh Lord our God, oh

Lord, oh Lord our God. Give him a shout of praise this

morning. Man, what a powerful moment just

to come and just give praise back to God.

Would you guys just go with me before the throne of God and

let's pray God, we just come before you.

God, what a moment just to just to sing the praises of our God

and the God that came, the God that rescued.

God, we know that what you did then you continue to do today.

My prayer today for everybody in this room is that we're moved,

that we're convicted, that we're comforted, that we're lifted up.

God, I know that you'll meet us wherever we're at today and God

that that we'll receive the thing that you've got for us in

this moment, in this gathering. God, again, we take this moment

just to just to praise your awesome name.

God, we give you all the honor, all the glory.

We pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.

Can we give it up for God one more time man, Welcome to

another awesome at the movies gathering of real life.

Man. I hope you guys are encouraged

today. I know we have a lot of new

people online and in person. Can we make them feel welcome?

Let's just let them know we love them.

Amen. Amen.

Hey, why don't you guys take 30 seconds?

Just welcome somebody around you.

All right, you guys can go ahead and be seated and what you guys

know you got something awesome on your chair and that's

something awesome is a connection card.

If you call real life home and we love it when you guys fill

these out, let us know what's going on in your life.

Maybe it's a praise, maybe it's a prayer request.

Our team re sees a praise over these week in and week out.

If you guys are new with this, here's my promise to you.

We were not going to ask anything else, but we would ask

this one thing. We would love for you to

introduce yourself to us this week and the connection cards.

The the best way to do that. If you fill that out to the

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

anything crazy. We won't show up at your door,

but man, we want you to do that. That we that we would love you

guys that we want you to feel welcome here in real life.

We'd love to send you out something this week.

So if you would do that for us, man, we would really, really

love that. And we do.

We do all this is because we're here for a reason.

We like to say that we're a church on a mission, and that

mission is to see people far from God discover their real

life and purpose of Jesus. Hey, man, I just know by talking

to people, there's people that have walked in here today and

they're giving God their last chance.

Or maybe they're walking here in the spirit of fear because they

don't know anybody here. They don't know what's going on.

But we believe that God has you here for a reason.

God wants to speak some truth in your life.

And I don't know what's happened to you this week, this, this,

this month or even this year, but man, God doesn't want you to

stay in the valley. God wants you to give you

purpose, meaning. And maybe hopefully that's in

this community here of, of disciples here at real life.

So man, we are so excited that you chose to worship with us.

And again, you're in the middle of an awesome series.

So maybe you've never been to at the movie.

So I want to give you a little, a little warning.

This is something a little different.

If you've never been here, you've never experienced church

this way. And that's cool.

We like to do something a little different, but we're in the

middle of a movie or a series called the chosen.

And what we're doing is we're really driving in to the themes

of of this show. We're taking the clip and man,

there's some soul searching stuff in here.

And our prayer is, is that as we take that clip and then we drive

into the gospel after that, man, that your guys's lives are

changed, that you're encouraged, that you leave different today

than when you walked in. So you guys just relax.

You're going to have a great time here in a minute.

We're going to have some soda water, popcorn coming up.

So it's free, It's on the House. Take whatever you guys want.

I want you guys to take this opportunity to welcome up Pastor

Sean as we start our next series at the movies.

Nice. Good morning, guys.

Good morning. We're gonna get there.

It's gonna be a good day. Before I jump in, I want to

celebrate what God did a little bit.

Just a little bit. It's not the whole thing at our

summer youth camp. So it's those first picture up.

You guys gonna love this? A little bit of shaving cream or

come on. Somebody always fun.

I don't know how many water balloons.

There's way too many. They were killing each other and

they try to kill me. But I was agile and quick at 40,

you know? But my favorite part of camp was

what God did. And but this picture, though,

check out this picture. There's something out of place

here. It's Jan.

Come on, somebody. You guys see Jan?

She's the one that's clean in the picture.

She wasn't feeling very good that morning.

And this is actually a video. I was having to do silly stuff.

I said everybody hug each other and she ran off like a bolt of

lightning from the picture. So it's awesome.

So but we had awesome camp. I don't know, 20252526

teenagers, like 10 adults, like 3536 people in my house and it

was awesome down there. One of the greatest things is

the worship. So check this out all youth kids

getting together just singing praises to God real crane in the

living room. It is sweaty come on somebody

who needs AC when you have JC come on somebody right and it

just AC was not keeping up but man they're just working the

Lord and it was really cool. There's an instrument called

Cajon. It's like a box you sit on and

you kind of like, you know, you beat you like snare up top and

bass, whatever. And there's a kid in a youth

group that tried out named Julian did a great job by the

way, gift for Julian and if he's in the place, but awesome.

So I was like, Hey, that's your song.

Awesome. I give it up.

I took the Cajon and put it down.

I hear this voice say I keep stay on beat and like challenge,

right. And so I look over and I'm like,

who said this? And my son Jack, who's 8, he

looks at me goes dad, I can stay on beat.

And he sat down that Cajon and man, he played for the next two

days every song and he was on beat.

Amen. It was just cool.

I was like, man, so I'm like, all right, you go, boy, you're

killing a man. So it was it was just fun, you

know, so you got got to do that. But the best part was just

relationships and having spiritual conversations.

And I got a picture of one of the guys came down.

He's one of the youth leaders with us.

His name's Lucas Odell, and he shared his story.

Come on, give it a hug for Lucas.

He just did a great job. He's shared stories through his

CDs and his life map and all he's been through.

And it really just like cut to the heart of the teenagers and

he really stepped up some big ways.

But it's all this conversation. You talk about identity, talk

about forgiveness, just talk about surrender.

And it was just so powerful to hear their stories.

And so I want you to give it up for all our youth leaders that

served and helped out the fantastic.

And there's one person in particular, he preached the

entire time, led the way, really hit some home runs with some

messages. I mean, it was on point.

It was very, very good. And it has been behind the

scenes just he was plowing through, did a fantastic job.

We guys get up for Logan Hardy. I think he's back on the sound.

It's fantastic. I think he's on a sound board.

I don't know what you guys did today.

The Spirit of God. I don't know that worship was on

fire today. It sounds like there's been like

5000 people here. I mean, in the way that you

filled it out at Logan, God was in the AVL system out of

something fantastic. You guys are fantastic today,

but camp and it's amazing. You spend time with teenagers

and you just get enough time with them to get unplugged from

the world a little bit. It's like peeling back the

layers, like the onion, the all the walls of the paint and all

the things. And you can just see, look

behind the scenes and there was some heavy stuff.

This camp. I, I kind of came home a little

conflicted. Like there was, there's stories

of forgiveness or people asking forgiveness from their dad, from

dads having met, don't know their names, stories of

brokenness. So things have happened, young

lady's lives that somebody taking advantage of them and

their bodies. I mean, it was just one of those

camps that I left kind of kind of heavy.

Like it was like watching a group of people like Jesus

talked about like sheep without a shepherd, like the people are

completely broken and isolated and hurting.

And out of that, there's this question that can come in mind.

What do you do with all this pain?

Like we, we do with all this suffering?

Like what do you do when there's unanswered prayers?

Like I listen, I listen to kids talk about that.

They pray their dad will walk through the door, but he never

showed up. I mean, and, and you sit there,

you're like, man, how do you deal with that kind of

suffering? Like how you do with loss and,

and what do you do when you have the faith to move a mountain,

but the mountain doesn't move? Like what do you do when you

trust God and, and nothing changes and you, you believe God

for a miracle. What the miracle never comes.

And so today we're going to dive into this amazing clip from the

chosen. This is going to be from season

2, episode 3. And it it's called 2 by two and

it's holidays message is waiting for God to have a miracle.

And so you're going to see the miracle today.

So check it out. Master.

It's of James. May I have a moment?

Of course I. Have forgive me, I'm not always

confident to speak. Slow to speak, it's a very good

quality. Wanted to ask you a question.

Please. So you're sending us out with

the ability to heal the 2nd lane?

Yes, that, that is what you said.

Yes. So you're telling me that I have

the ability to heal? Look at me.

I just find that difficult to imagine with my condition, which

you haven't healed do. You want to be healed.

Yes, of course, if if that's possible.

I think you've seen enough to know it's possible.

Why haven't you? Because I trust you.

What? Little James, precious little

James. I need you to listen to me very

carefully because what I'm going to say, it defines your whole

life to this point and will define the rest of your life.

Do you understand? In the Father's will, I could

heal you right now and you'd have a good story to tell.

Yes, yes. That you do miracles.

And that's a good story. But there are already dozens you

can tell that story, and there will be hundreds more, even

thousands. But think of the story that you

have, especially in this journey to come if I don't hear you, to

know how to proclaim that you still praise God in spite of

this. To know how to focus on all that

matters so much more than the body.

To show people that you can be patient with your suffering here

on earth because you know you'll spend eternity with no

suffering. Not everyone can understand

that. How many people do you think the

Father and I trust this with? Not many.

But the others, there's so much more.

So much more What? I don't know stronger, better

whether it is. James, I love you, but I don't

want to hear that ever again. I know how easy it is to say the

song of David that I fearfully and wonderfully made, but it

doesn't make this any easier that this group.

It doesn't make me feel like any less of a burden.

A burden. First of all, it is far easier

to deal with your slow walking than it is to deal with Simon's

temper. Trust me.

Are you fast? Do you look impressive when you

walk? Maybe not, but these are things

the Father doesn't care about. You are going to do more for me,

and most people ever dream. So many people need healing in

order to believe in Me, or they need healing because their

hearts are so sick. That doesn't apply to you.

And many are healed or not healed because the Father in

Heaven has a plan for them, which may be a mystery.

And we remember what Job said, the Lord gives and the Lord

takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

When you pass from this earth and you meet your Father in

heaven, where Isaiah promises you will leap like a deer, your

reward will be great. So hold on a little longer, and

when you discover yourself finding true strength because of

your weakness, and when you do great things in my name in spite

of this, the impact will last for generations.

Do you understand? Thank you bastard.

The man like you healing others. Oh at the sight.

I can't wait to hear your stories when you return.

James, remember you will be here.

It's only a matter of time. Powerful scene, you may know

this, may not know this. That scene is not found in the

Bible at all. Some of y'all like I'm going to

go read that today and it's not there.

But I will say that the conversation is highly biblical.

The truth that Jesus said and the things that happened in

little James life is highly biblical and I just love how the

chosen actually created this scene to bring up some heavy

topics that we need to walk through today.

There's some things you can learn in this from the Bible.

There's actually, there's James, he's one of the apostles.

There's actually two of them. And so I'm gonna have a lot of

verses today, so just kind of follow along on the screen.

But in Luke 613, it says this when morning came, Jesus called

his disciples to him and he chose 12 of them whom he had

this designated apostles. Simon, whom he named Peter, his

brother Andrew, James. This would be James the son of

Zebedee, John Phillip Bartholomew.

If you're trying to count 12 disciples, this is also known as

Nathaniel. Just if you're just food for

thought there. Matthew, Thomas and James the

son of who? Alpheus, this is the James that

he talks about little James and Simon, who's also called the

Zealot. And so he picks them as a 12.

And during the crucifixion, you'll see his name come up

again. It's this is Mark 1540.

It says someone were watching from a distance.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother, Mother of James

The Who? Yeah, James the younger and of

Joseph and Salome. And so James the younger, this

is opposed to James the son of Zebedee, the sons of Thunder.

The James is an inner circle. That's the Peter, James and John

with the to the mount Transfiguration.

This is James the younger. And that name younger actually

can translate to less or little. And so when Jesus talks to

little James, it's actually highly biblical for the chosen

to pick that name. Now, I've never read the name

little James in the Bible, so I saw the clip.

I'm like who's this dude who is of little James, but this is an

accurate picture of what could have happened.

Now was James actually handicapped Most likely not, but

most likely in the Bible he is not handicapped.

Now it's possible, but it's very improbable that he was but the

artwork in the in the in the truth that that they're going to

show from the story that they fabricated from the Bible is so

powerful for our lives today. I think it's beautiful to the

chosen picked out this story to create this this really

conversation. These take place of what just

like to be marginalized. What does it look like to to

have a wait or a trial that is ongoing in your life?

What's it like to to wish for a miracle and have it not happen

to you? What's it like to carry a burden

in a season and continue to carry that burden?

Maybe it's not just a season. Maybe it's a space in your life.

Maybe it's a burden since you're a kid.

Maybe it's a burden that happened in a relationship that

broke. Maybe it's a loss around you.

And that pain, that suffering, that agony, that brokenness,

that hardship, that weakness, those things that we don't go

into an Aaron to. We've created a space for in our

lives as love. How they created this

conversation to take place and So what you have in this story

is Jesus is actually sending out his disciples 2 by two.

That's the name of the episode he sends disciples out as 12 to

really find people of peace to go into villages to towns and to

just move in with people take up residence and to share the

gospel to share the good news of Jesus.

That gives them some power and it says this in Matthew 10 verse

one. It says Jesus called us 12

disciples to him and gave them authority to drive on impure

spirits into what and to and to heal every disease and sickness.

Now the way they portrayed this, which I thought was just a great

job you have little James would have had the ability to heal

someone else, but he was not healed himself.

He had the ability to cast out demons, the ability to to

cleanse and to get rid of disease, to heal all sickness,

but he was still broken himself. He had the ability for others to

experience things about God that he had not experienced himself.

He was going to give things away that God would work through him

in areas that God had not yet worked for him.

If you've been a Christian for an amount of time, you're going

to see other people's lives, maybe take turns and maybe be

healed and changed, and there's some work that God does in them

that has not yet happened in you.

Amen. And you can look out and say,

man, I'm broken and I'm, I'm weak and why God am I stuck in

this situation? And it brings up some

spiritually significant questions that we need to dive

through today. What what does it mean for us as

Christians to actually walk with a limp?

Like is God still good if we're not healed?

Is God still good in our infirmity and, and our burden

and, and our weakness and our pain and, and the burdens of

life? It can God be trusted if I'm in

a season or a space of a long term trial or hurt and this is

just an amazing concept that they brought up.

This actually is in the Bible, but it's not under little James.

There's actually another apostle.

He's the last apostle. He is by his own saying is the

least of the apostles. His name is Paul and Paul had a

thorn in the what thorn in the flesh.

And so I want you to turn your Bible saying Corinthians 12, and

it says this. This is Paul talking about his

own thorn in the flesh. We don't know what it exactly

is. It could've been his eyesight.

It could have been a physical ailment or infirmity.

It could've been a demonic force.

It could've been the persecution all around him which all these

things took place. The Second Corinthians 12/6 says

this. Even if I should choose to

boast, I would not be. What?

Yeah. I wouldn't be a fool Paul's I'm

not I'm going to be foolish enough to boast and how great my

life is because I would be speaking the truth even though I

would be saying the truth that I refrain so no one think me more

of me. So no one would think more of me

that is warranted by what I do or say.

He doesn't want people to think much of himself.

He wants them to see Jesus or because of the surpassing great

revelations, even though he's writing these books and the

revelation of God's coming on him.

He doesn't want people to think of him and to boast themselves.

He says therefore, in order to keep me from becoming what

what's it says being becoming conceited because I want to be

arrogant. I only prideful.

I don't I don't be full of Paul and full of myself.

I was given a thorn in my flesh. I was given some kind of

affliction, a messenger of saying to torment me, and I love

verse 8. He says 3 times I pleaded with

the Lord to take it away from me three times.

I ask God, please take this burden, take this weakness, take

this affliction from my life. This is what the Lord says in

verse 9. But the Lord said to me, my

grace is sufficient for you. My grace is enough for you,

Paul, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

I love this, that it's not our power that's made perfect

weakness, it's God's power that's made perfect in weakness.

It's God's power that's going to show forth when we're not

enough. He is.

Amen. And Paul, he, he's going to

understand this throughout his journey.

Just therefore, I'll boast all the more gladly about my

weaknesses. So I'm not going to boast about

my strength, about my ability, my intellect, my knowledge, my

my my man driven power. I'm going to boast my weaknesses

so that Christ's power who is made perfect my weakness may

rest on me. Verse 10.

This is why for Christ's sake, look what he says, for Christ's

sake, I, what I, I delight, James says, I find joy, I

delight in my weakness, I delight in insults, I delight in

hardship, I delight in persecutions, I delight in

difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am,

I'm strong. So it's Christ's power that

becomes perfect and our weakness, and then we're weak

that we become strong in Christ. Amen.

And this is what Paul is learning from the thorn to

flesh. But big picture, Paul prayed 3

times. I mean, who is more spiritual

than Paul, right? And he prays the Lord to take

away this affliction, this pain. And yet the Lord didn't.

And Paul would go on to author over 30% of the New Testament.

He would go out on three missionary journeys and he plant

churches across the world. But he carried a burden and he

walked with a limp For Jesus, you know, all of us to some

degree have a limp, Amen. All of us have a burden.

We carry, all of us have a space in our life.

We carry all these keys to our heart.

And there's like that one key, maybe a handful of keys or say

Lord, those, those are mine. And you can have all these keys,

but this, this is my area. This is the burden I carry.

There's places sometimes you want the Lord to go into.

There's places we don't understand what the Lord is

doing. We maybe even trust the Lord,

but we don't know what he's doing.

And we have to come up peace and wrestle with what are these

burns and these, this pain, this affliction.

Paul actually said life was the burden of life.

David said that life every day has sorrow and trouble.

James said there's trouble every single day and talks about the

brevity of life. There's a space between a

promise and a promise fulfilled. Like we have the announcement of

a king, but we do not yet have the inauguration of a king,

Amen. We live in this silent Saturday,

this space between Jesus being crucified.

He had a resurrection, but yet we have a resurrection to come,

which each of us going to have our Easter Sunday.

Amen. There's a day when Jesus parts

the eastern sky. The dead in Christ rise first.

And then those who are live remain, are caught up in the air

together with them, and meet Jesus in the air.

There's a day when our tears are wiped away.

We experience the resurrection power of Jesus to his fullest.

But in this season, for a lot of us, we're in that silent

Saturday season. Amen.

Where there's things in our lives that are broken and you're

waiting for God to give you an answer that there's questions

that you are asking God, you're not getting the results you

want. There's miracles, there's

children waiting to come home, there's brokenness.

There's people who leave this earth prematurely in your mind

and it should be here today. There's all this around us who

wonder, God, what are you doing? And today I want to give you

some truth, some things to help you as you walk through the

seasons of this burdens. And we carry heavy things that

we may not even share with people closest to us, but the

Lord wants to work in it. So I'm going to give you 3

points of how to walk through the trials of life, how you work

through hard burdens, the things you carry maybe on the inside

that you never share with anybody.

And maybe the Lord, you just question his goodness or his

power. And so then we give you 3

things. You're taking those three

things. Number one is this pain is a

problem. Everybody say it, pain is a

pain's a problem. We're all going to experience

pain. I don't have to preach on this

point very long, right? We live, we live in a fallen and

broken world. The Bible says this in Matthew

545. It says he causes the sun to

rise on evil and good. He sends rain, which is a lot of

rain. Come on somebody on the

righteous and the unrighteous. It rains on the just and the

unjust. We live in a broken, fallen

world. Even the earth groans with

redemption for God. There's tornadoes, there's

hurricanes, there's thunderstorms, there's rain,

there's affliction, there's pain.

We all have those moments in life.

We pick the phone up, it takes your breath away.

We get tragic news. We're broken, as happens around

us or to us. Sometimes we would do things we

wish we couldn't, we wouldn't have done ourselves, and we live

in a broken world. Some of the pain just comes from

falling Jesus. Second Timothy 312 says this

says in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ

Jesus will be what will be what this is.

This is like the least favorite verse of the Testament, right?

I mean, we, we thought some of you y'all come to church and

thought, man, my life's gonna be a lot easier because I follow

Christ. In a lot of ways it actually

becomes more difficult because we're a light in a Dark World

and we persecute. Look at first thing 13.

It says while evil doers and imposters, we'll go from what,

bad to bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, that there's

evil that's getting worse and that imposters are getting worse

and that they're being deceived and they're actually deceiving

others. There's a lot of deception in

our culture. There's a lot of false idols,

There's a lot of false gods. There's a lot of things that

claim to give you hope or claim that there is no hope.

There's a there's a lot of things that we put our life

into, our hope into, our passion into, and we replace God

himself, Amen. And it's easy to choose those

things, but the Bible says in the last days as Jesus fault,

it's actually going to get harder.

And so the first thing is this, that pain is a problem.

The same thing is this pain has a problem.

Pain has a problem. His name is Jesus, Amen.

We often don't think about pain having a shelf life.

Like oftentimes you think, oh man, this life is so hard.

My mom had a saying, I can't repeat, I'm from the stage.

It's very difficult. And then you die and then just

all life is full of pain. But pain does not have the

victory, Amen. Pain is defeated by Jesus.

A matter of fact, Jesus could do something very special with your

pain. It says in Romans 828.

It says we know that all things God works for the good of those

who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.

What that means is that God has made pain as a short shelf life

so that you would transform you, that he'd use it for a greater

good, that it would go out and be weaponized for his glory.

And so pain is a momentary affliction.

Pain isn't going to last forever.

It's going to be it's going to be a stronghold turned down by

Jesus and Jesus going to redeem our pain.

The other thing we OFT times you think that pain is running

rampant, it's unchecked that we're helpless to pain, but pain

is actually not going to last forever.

Amen. This is good news.

Matter of fact, it's what Paul says about our pain.

Matter of fact, he goes on to say what God does through a pain

will last forever. This is what it says in 2nd

Corinthians 4. It says for our what's it say

for our light? He's almost saying it's like

it's it's our it's our small, maybe necessarily easy, but it's

our it's our small and momentary troubles like the this, the

fleeting of this life are achieving for us an eternal

glory that far. What outweighs them all?

That the weight of our pain is actually smaller than the weight

of the product it produces. That there is something greater

coming from our pain like that pain is shaping us and it's

moving us and it's moving things in us to create something of

eternal value. And so he says, so he fixed her

eyes not on what's seen. Don't fix your eyes on the pain.

We fix your eyes on what's unseen.

Since what's seen is temporary, the pain is temporary, but what

is unseen is eternal. And so we see through our pain.

And we asked Jesus, what are you going to teach me?

What are you showing me? That God is going to write one

day a story where he redeems every broken thing, every owl

word, everything spoken against you, you, everything done to

you, all of the, the, the trials, the tribulations, the

heartbreak, the weakness, all the suffering you walk through,

God is going to turn it into something good for himself.

Amen. We got to realize that's what

pains going to have. But Joseph said this.

He saw a man meant for evil, God used for good God.

God took the worst thing and turned into the grayest thing.

Here's a New Testament standard for pain and suffering, and it's

that we're in Christ. There is a great truth that we

are baptized in the Christ, that we are one with Christ, that

we're positionally in him. And what that really means is

this is that anything that happens to you had to go through

him first in any, any circumstance, any situation had

to be authorized by the Father. Amen.

Amen. Like you, you're surrounded by

him. His hand is strong, he's in

charge of everything, his sovereignty, his power that

you're actually in Christ and so everything belongs to him.

Jesus said this way he was being crucified his right force

crucifixion. He's in the trial and he's had a

false trial on the all night and he got sent to to the Romans,

the pilot because they had the ones authorized him being put to

death and John 1910 it says this do you refuse to speak to me.

This is what Pilot said. Do you refuse to speak to me?

Don't you realize I have what I have power either to free you or

to crucify you. Look what Jesus said to him.

Jesus answered. You have no power over me if

we're not given to you. From where?

From above. You have no power over me except

the one that my Father has given you, like the world does not

have power over you, Amen. You're not downhill, You're not

subject to the world, you're not a victim of life, Amen.

Like you are in God's hand, you're in his power.

And what this means, we have the same confidence that what

happens to us actually came through God himself.

And maybe give you some reasons of what maybe God trying to

teach you through, through the pain, through the suffering,

through that hardship, through those hard nights as long

seasons. Here's some reason.

I'll list quite a few of them. Maybe God's trying to give you

clarity for what matters most. You know, if we often don't

change as adults until we have to, right?

We, we, we don't like, we, we like to be very comfortable.

But maybe God has give you some pain to give you some clarity.

Maybe he wants you to, to think about your life deep enough to

say this is what matters most. I've been living for the

weekend. I've been living for myself.

I've been living for everything else, but I'm not living for

Jesus. And so God gives you some pain

to get your eyes focused back on him.

Maybe he's trying to give you some awareness of his presence

and we can often go through life and we don't pray, but we don't

thank God. We were not aware that he's next

to us. We were trying to build our own

Kingdom, our own sand castles, right?

We we try to build our own direction, our own way and have

her have it comfortable as possible.

And God maybe just trying to remind us that you need me.

Amen. That you do walk with me that

that near that the shepherd in Psalm 23, he actually brings in

the right path. That right path immediately

brings me into the valley of darkness.

Like oftentimes we have to get the space in our life where all

we need is a Lord and all we have is the Lord.

We got to trust Him. Maybe God's preparing you.

Maybe He's preparing you for the next season.

Do you think the honestly, the next season is going to be

easier than last season was? Was that ever?

I don't know. I've yet to find one.

I'm still looking for that easy season.

Come up somebody, right? I feel like every season is just

another level and it's just uphill and we want to run to

comfort, but but Jesus is always preparing us for the next

season. We had seasons of hardship with

foster kids. We had seasons of hardship of

loss. We've had seasons of stripping

away where I had so many enemies around me.

And through all those things, I just chased the Lord and trust

him through it. And now that we planted a

church, which has been super easy, right?

No difficulties, no problems, no one's ever left or said anything

critical. It's been great the whole time,

right? No one had opinions.

It was perfect. It was every guy along perfectly

well, right? I mean, he's preparing you for

the next season. So often times we walk through

the the problems and the pain and we think we're underneath

it, but we're actually above it. And so we have to start asking

the question, Lord, what are you teaching me?

What what are you preparing me for?

What I should be more aware of? What clarity do I need?

What do I need? For some of us, God's using our

pain, our suffering, so we can realize the deep seated idols in

our life. Then we can just realize that

this is just a lot about Sean right now.

Like you need, you need that kind of validation.

I'm going to show you what's looked like not to have it.

You need to have your name in light.

You need to be a force. You need to make something of

yourself. No, you don't like you need to

get really good at slipping into obscurity.

You're like John the Baptist, like these other disciples.

All you're just going to just disappear, brother.

Like it's not about Sean, it's about Jesus.

And sometimes we were just given that kind of pain to remind us

that we need Jesus. We're going to walk with a limp

in these seasons. For a lot of us, we did increase

our gratitude. He didn't heal little James in

the story. And he said, well, you know what

kind of stories? If I were to heal you, there's a

lot of people being healed. And be real honest, it's really

easy to worship Jesus on the mountain top.

It's easy to get there. So thank you, Lord, these are so

beautiful. Like it's we want those

experiences, but to truly worship Jesus in the valley.

It's a different type of worship that that's true worship.

That's how you know your heart's really lined up with Jesus is

when it's really hard and you can just open it and say, God,

you're a good, I trust you. I have no idea what you're

doing, but no, you're teaching me something and you said this

heart of a gratitude. Maybe God wants some deeper

worship from you so he doesn't give you everything you want.

Maybe maybe he's just stripping away some of the secret sins of

self as Tozer would say. There's this deep rooted sins

that only you really know about. Maybe he's just a wake up call.

The brevity of life, like you talked about little to little

James. He said, hey, one day you're

going to be healed and it's coming quickly, but it's not

going to happen now and life is short and your story's going to

be used. Remember Paul?

What? Why did Paul the thorn split you

guys? Remember to stop him from being

conceited. Paul was going to be arrogant.

He's looking at how great I am. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees,

a Hebrew Hebrews. He he knew all the law.

He's got memorized most little Testament.

He he, he could have just done anything you want to do and just

man, look at me and said no, no, no, no, no, you can't do this

without me. Paul, I'm gonna remind you every

single day. Sometimes we seem to remind that

the Lord is with us. That's what the Paul had to

have. He could not do it on his own

except with Jesus. And the temptation is he

probably would have. And so CS Lewis, he said this.

He says God whispers to us in our pleasures.

He speaks to us in our conscience and he shouts to us

in our pain. He shouts in our pain.

That's when the Lord has our attention.

Amen. It's he's like wake up.

And CS Lewis said it's a megaphone to a lost and dying

world to arouse them to God so they will see Jesus.

So pain's a problem. Pain has a problem.

Third thing is this is pain is truly not your problem.

This is very interesting. First Corinthians chapter 6,

1 Corinthians 6:19

verse 19. Who says this?

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit

who is in you, whom you've received from God?

You are not your own. You are what?

You're bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your

bodies. So you're bought with a price.

What was the price? You were bought with Jesus.

What about Jesus? What?

What about Jesus? What was actually given for you?

It wasn't a trite gift and matter of fact, it wasn't a

cheap gift. I'm not a big fan of cheap

grace. Like it requires something of

us. Like the the price that Jesus

paid was that he spilled every ounce of his blood on that cross

and it was the final permanent, perfect sacrifice for our sin.

Behold the Lamb of God who died for our sins in the perfect Lamb

of God. Jesus, the Son of God was our

sacrifice. It was the highest cost.

Amen. There was no greater price to

get every pay than the Son of God, Jesus himself, Amen.

And we're bought with the Son of God.

And so it's not cheap, Amen. As we don't tread on it, we

don't go, well, that was great. Thank you, Jesus.

I'm gonna go back to my life. I got big plans.

I got things I want to do. I've got dreams and ambitions.

What? Jesus saying no, you ask,

Something is required of you and you're bought.

To think you're actually bought by Jesus, that means you're

actually owned by Jesus, Amen. That he owns your life.

It's no longer yours, it's his because you come under his name

and that saves his name, that casts out demons, His name that

every niche about, it's all about Jesus, Amen.

But here's the thing about your life.

If your life's been bought by Jesus, what else is bought by

Jesus? Your pain's been bought by

Jesus, Amen. We, we, we, we think that we're

like often time possessed by our pain.

We're driven by our pain. You know, I listen to guys that

are kind of that motivation kind of style and they go to people

and say, Hey, I can help you. I know your dream in 2 minutes

or less. And they always go back to this

question, Hey, what's the moment you're most hurt in life and

your purpose is found in that pain and that the world is kind

of figured out that that God has been shaping you through your

pain for a purpose. And so you listen to this, but

it's like you, you're not under your pain.

You're not controlled by your pain.

We matter of fact, we don't even possess our pain.

We don't just step above it. We don't even own our pain.

Jesus owns our pain. Amen.

Oftentimes we're trying to get even, like we're underneath it

and we're victim, we're above it and we're bitter and jaded,

right? And we're unforgiving.

Or we give it to Jesus and he owns it.

Amen. It's nice to have Jesus as a

landlord. Amen.

You know, if you have a bad landlord, it's terrible, right?

We've got Jesus. Landlord.

Just nice. Hey, Jesus, the sewer backed up.

Hey, Jesus, the roof is leaking. Amen.

Hey, Jesus, this lawn, it is falling apart.

Hey, there's termites. Jesus, the sink is called Jesus.

Do you think Jesus can take care of it?

Amen. Like, do you think Jesus know

he's doing with the house? Do you think Jesus knows how to

run a home? Do you think Jesus know how to

run your body? You think Jesus knows what it's

like to walk in your shoes? He knows all these pieces, Amen?

And so we just trust him that we this pain is not ours.

It's one of the benefits of being a Christian, being in

Christ. And So what is the miracle you

never saw coming? What's the miracle that little

James never saw coming? Like He wanted to be healed,

that He wasn't healed, but there's still a miracle, and the

miracle was something that happened inside of him.

It wasn't the mountain that God moved out there.

He didn't move the circumstances, but He changed

the posture of his heart. Amen.

There's a mountain inside of us that God is trying to move.

There's a mountain that God wants to grow a faith.

There's a mountain of our will. Like I got, I just have to have

it my way like we got. We like God's sovereignties and

control, but we don't like Him being the architect, right?

Like I would have built it this way, Lord.

Like I want my plan still. I want my direction still.

But maybe God just stripping you away or it's like, Lord, I don't

know what you're up to and I wish I did, but I still trust

you and there's gonna days come. You will be healed.

Now think about the devil. The devil's a lot of strongholds

in this area. There's a lot of people that

that deconstruct their faith because they're disillusioned in

what God's trying to do. The disillusion that pain should

not be a part of the equation of Christianity, that somehow

because you know God, that you'll be, you won't have a

painful life, your life won't suffer at all.

That it will always be a mountaintop and you prayed a

prayer of perfection and holiness and everything that's

going to work out great and you always be happy all the time.

And that type of Christianity does not exist.

That's not biblical Christianity, Amen.

And Jesus is actually teaching us so much different in this

text. Is that simply this?

And it it maybe is not even simple.

This is actually very loaded, very deep plot.

But what what if God chose not to do things in his sovereignty

because he wanted to do it about sovereignty is in his control.

So maybe God decided not to do things in his sovereignty

because he wanted to redeem it alongside of us in Christ, in

our humanity. Maybe he didn't like prevent it

from happening because we're like, oh, God's not good or

God's not all powerful. You can't be trusted.

But maybe God allows it to happen our lives as Christians

because he wants to overcome it alongside us and still get

worship even though we're still walking in pain.

So we connect with the rest of the world and he redeems it and

his time along us. Amen.

OK that was like 15 levels deep. Like some of y'all like I don't

know what this dude's talking about.

Re watch it and here's just something to say about why does

God allow us to happen. I don't have all the puzzle

pieces but I do trust God with everyone he puts down.

I've walked to Jesus long to know that he is a way better

person to paint the picture of my life and I don't know why the

pieces are cut the way they are and why this happens.

I don't see bass eternity but there will be a day I will have

every answer to all my questions.

Amen. I will know, like that's why

Lord, like I suffered for that because somebody saw that

somebody need that. I needed that.

If I would have had a life of comfort, I never would have gone

to church. I never would read the Bible.

I would never do stuff because I had everything I wanted.

Amen. I wouldn't need Jesus, but God

takes some things. He strips some things and he

wants us to walk with him in those seasons.

Think about Paul praying three times.

I mean, just Lord, take it, take it, take it, take it.

The Lord says, no, no, no, my grace is sufficient.

Is God's grace sufficient for you today?

Like is he good enough for you in those hard seasons like

little James? You can say, you know, Lord,

there is a day coming where I will be healed.

It's not today, but Lord, I trust you like I'm going to use

my life to just share the gospel even through my pain.

The thing about this, your strength doesn't come from you.

The strength comes from God in you that his, his, his power is

made perfect in our weakness. It's not your power.

And so when you're walking along with Jesus and you're like,

well, I'm not enough. Well, you're right.

That's, that's half the, that's, that's the lie part of it,

right? But the truth of it is you're

not enough. But he is Amen.

And when something hard happens in your life, it, it really

breaks the heart when people run from God because you're actually

running exactly the play that Satan just set up for you.

You're running the exact direction that Satan wants you

to go. We're supposed to run to God,

and God will heal you and God will show you over time that he

can be trusted. This is why James, one of the

most persecuted churches in the New Testament, James will be

beheaded in his life. But he said this, he wrote this.

And James 1-2 said consider it pure.

What? Yeah, consider it pure joy.

Actually, Scott quote this earlier is pretty good.

Consider it pure joy. Pure joy.

Pure joy. I don't know.

I don't know a lot of people that get a lot of joy out of

this, what he's about to say, but he said, consider it pure

joy. My brothers and sisters,

whenever you face trials of many kinds, multi colored trials, any

variation of trials, because you know that the testing, that's

what it is, the testing of your faith produces what

perseverance. You're going to need that in the

race. You're going to need that.

I got a lot of guys that like to start out and they Sprint and

don't have any perseverance. And then something happens and

they drop off and they stop coming.

They stop falling, Lord, they stop reading the Bible, they

walk away from their family. They were started strong, but

they don't finish. And one of the things that I've

just focused on my life through trials and hard things is Lord,

I want to finish the race strong.

There's a lot of guys who make it 10 years, three years, two

years, 15 years, 20 years, 40 years.

Lord, I want to finish all my years strong.

Amen. And that requires perseverance,

the perseverance to walk with God through trial.

So let perseverance finish its work so that may so you may be

what? Mature and complete, lacking

nothing there. There are things that God wants

to do in your life that you don't have the faith to ask for

right now. There are things that got, there

are places that God wants to take you that you don't have the

faith to ask Jesus to do. But God is putting pain and

pressure and allowing burdens in this testing to pull that out of

you to grow your faith, Amen. To be mature in Christ.

Some of the greatest things happen in your life under

pressure. Some of the greatest things

unanswered prayers. There's some great things that

happen when the Lord doesn't show up the way you want them

to. That's where the Lord's going to

do some great work. Amen.

You know what Diamond takes pressure to make.

It takes immense amount of pressure to make a diamond.

You know, to get gold to purify it takes a Crucible.

This is all biblical principles here.

You have to walk through the trials in the fire.

And God strips away those impurities like refining of

silver and gold. And Spurgeon said this, Charles

Spurgeon said this. If God does not pay you in

silver, he'll pay you in gold. If he does not pay you in gold,

he'll pay you with diamonds. I don't think for one second

that God has not taken away your pain and your burden and your

hardship, that He's not exchanging it for something far

greater, Amen. There's something greater that

God has given you than that pain, something that lasts for

eternity, something that is from Him, something that's of great

value in your life. And there will be a day, make no

mistake about it, where God wipes away every tear, Amen.

There's no more suffering. There's no more burdens.

Wherever you're wrong is made right.

Wherever where there's no sin, we're finally makes sense.

Why God did not answer those prayers, why God left you in

some affliction and some pain, why that thing happened and all

this all that's going to make sense one day.

But there's that space in the middle, Amen.

The silent Saturday, like the promise, the space between the

promise and the promise fulfilled, the space between an

announcement and inauguration, like that's the space we live

in. And so the question is, are you

at peace with this season? Are you at peace being between

the promise and the promise fulfilled?

Is there an area of your life you say, God, I need to trust

you with? Like I don't have all the

answers and know what? I don't need all the answers

because I know I'm under the one who does.

There's so many people that walk.

Every great Christian walks the limp.

There's not a mature person in Christ that doesn't walk with a

thorn in the flesh, doesn't walk with some kind of burden, some

kind of pain. And you say, Lord, are you good?

Yes, he's good. Amen.

He can't be trusted. I follow him.

There's gets the point. You say God, your grace is

sufficient for me. It's good enough for me Lord,

it's good enough for me. I trust you.

I don't need to know the whole picture Lord, I I I I don't need

to be selfish. It's less than me.

It's more of you and in my weakness I made strong because

of Christ. Amen.

Remember we told little James the very last part of the scene.

I loved it. He said, remember, you will be

healed, it's only a matter of time.

Amen. Sometimes healing doesn't happen

on this side of eternity. Sometimes we don't get it our

way. Are we OK with that?

Can we persevere that? And then you know what, that

kind of worship is greater than any other type of worship

because that's true worship. Lord, you're enough.

So Father, come before you. God, we thank you so much for

just showing yourself to us. God that you're faithful.

God, for some people today you were shouting to them, you're

shouting in their pain, you're waving them down, you're

flagging them down, that the bridge is out, that there's a

better way that this in of themselves, that the road is

hard and you're pulling them to a better way.

God, today I want to pray for those that Jesus followers that

say that God is speaking to me, that there's some work that be

done in my soul, that I'm trusting God, that he's moving a

mountain inside of me, that I want to worship in my affliction

because I'm trusting God to redeem what is broken, that He'd

make something beautiful from the ashes of my life.

Today I just recognize I need to trust him in these areas.

He's speaking to me. He's not, He's had not removed

this. I don't know why, but I'm

trusting him today and that's you.

As Jesus followers, we just lift your hand high in this place and

say, yes, that's me. Jesus, there's a mound being

moved in my life. It's just in me.

God, I'm being changed, I'm being shaped.

It's not my circumstances that you just put your in high Lord

and say, Lord, I need you more than ever.

Lord, I need you. I know you're near to me and

you're teaching me. You're living things inside of

me that I don't want to go to, but you have pushed me into.

There's some work to be done. I don't have the faith to ask

for, but God, you're calling me up.

So God, you see the hands, you know the hearts.

God strengthen us. God, you'd never give us more

than we can handle God, because you're with us are in our

humanness. We're broken, God, but in you we

can handle all. And so God show us that our

flesh is weak, but you are strong that your power in US is

made perfect in our weakness. Help us not think too much of

ourselves to boast in ourselves to dream of ourselves without

you. Lord, help us to go in those

spaces that may be locked off and broken and sealed is we're

hard hearted. God help us to remove a foothold

that may be Satan is done in some of our lives and surrender

to you. God that we give our pain to

you. We trust it doesn't belong to

us. It belongs to you, Lord that

you're using it to shape us, to guide us, to teach us, to humble

us, to remind us of how good you are that we can trust you in a

watching world can relate to a broken group of people that have

the power of Christ in redemption through brokenness

more than perfect people have no pain God.

You use our pain, God. We don't wish away our

affliction, God, we just trust it to you.

I'll pray for a group of people in the house that say, you know

what? It's making really good sense

today because I've not followed Jesus, because I've walked

through some really hard seasons.

I've seen a lot of brokenness, I've seen a lot of hurt, and

I've done anything but trust God because of what I've seen.

But today's making sense what God is actually trying to do

through pain and suffering. Today, for the very first time,

I recognize that Jesus loves me even though my life is painful

and they're suffering and there's hurt.

I recognize I'm bought with the price of Jesus and He wants to

show off some miracles and some work in US.

And even if it doesn't happen to me, I can give to somebody else

and be a voice piece of God's faithfulness.

And so today, if you need Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus came

2000 years ago. He was the perfect Lamb of God.

He was the final sacrifice for us, like the permanent perfect

Lamb of God. And he took where his sins as

far as the east is from the West.

They'd never run into each other.

And he, he doesn't count our sins against us.

For those who believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

And so they may be the very first time you put your faith in

Jesus that you don't want to walk through this pain and

suffering. These burns are afflictions of

life on your own. You need the power of God to be

perfect in your weakness, and you're calling on God and your

brokenness at your low point in your weakness and your mess,

you're not promising God to clean your life up.

You're promising to God that He will forgive you and make you

whole. It's not a prayer of perfection.

It's a prayer of confession and you're just confessing your life

that Jesus, that you need him now more than ever, and you want

his forgiveness and his grace to come into your life.

And so if you need Jesus today, thou said he'll forgive you all

your sins, He'll make you right with him, He'll take away all

your wrongs, has changed for all his rights, and he'll be in a

relationship with him you found in Christ today.

And so to the day is a day of salvation.

God has asked you to step towards him to humble yourself

in faith and that God will come in and change your life.

So if you need Jesus today and be looking around, I can make it

weird to call you out, but if you need Jesus, we just raise

your hand high. This place say Jesus the Holy

Spirit is speaking to me. I need Christ today.

I need I need to be forgiven today any relationship with God

today I relate to the story of little James.

Today I come to end of myself the beginning of God.

That's you just pray this prayer.

The prayer does not save you. It's your heart towards him.

It's your humility, it's your confession to say, Father God,

thanks so much for sending Jesus to Donna Cross for me.

I'm so undeserving now. There's nothing in me that's

good. Thank you for loving me, God,

enough to Donna Cross to pay with the most high payment you

could ever pay. God, with your own blood, your

own sacrifice for me. You love me enough to die for

me. It's not that I loved you, Lord,

so you love me. It's that kindness.

It's that goodness, the Lord, that's all me to you today.

So God, I ask for my forgiveness.

You can have my life. You can have my pain, you can

have my past, you can have my future.

God I want to walk with you and be a mouthpiece of you got to

worship you God. I serve my life.

I praise in Jesus name. The church said Amen.

Come on, give some glory to God today.

Let me know you love him. Praise God.

It's such a powerful reminder today, but how God uses our pain

and our suffering to draw us closer to him, how he can use

our story for his glory. And some of you today recognize

that for the first time that God's using the pain and the

trials in your life to pull you closer to him, to draw you to

him. And you accepted Jesus today.

We are so excited for you. If that is you, we would love

just to celebrate with you, to know your decision, if you would

grab that connection card that's on your seat, fill out the

information on the top there, but check that box that says I

committed my life to Jesus. And you can drop that in the

giving buckets here in a little bit.

But we would love just to get a free resource to you this week

when you let us know that you made that decision.

Man, we'd love to get you a book in the mail.

It's called Begin. It's a short read, but it's a

great read. Really will bless you this week

as you start that journey with Jesus.

And that journey does start today.

So as you leave the worship center, there's a table with

some red bags. Please grab one of those bags.

Inside is a free Bible for you, a list of some other resources.

We really do want to be a blessing to you.

This. Week and hey, if you are new

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

We really are for you. We love you chose to spend your

morning with us. We do ask one thing and that's

just that you would introduce yourselves to us.

We'd love to get to know you, to connect with you, to answer any

questions you have. So if you could fill out the top

of that connection card there as well.

Check first time here. You can take that to the new

here booth as you exit the worship center.

We have a free gift for you. You can also just drop in the

giving bucket. But we would love to know you to

introduce ourselves to you and help you feel at home right here

at Real Life Church. And hey, I want to share with

you as well why we give here at Real Life Church.

There's a couple of really awesome things I want to share

with you in the first is this. You can see that picture there

of Logan at Youth Camp. We had youth campus last week

and Logan really brought the word to these teenagers, shared

his own story. We had teens open up and forgive

people in their past that have hurt them.

They really worked through some of that with our leaders and

were able to open up and think through what that looks like for

them. We have teens really nail down

and solidify their relationship with Jesus.

We have teens just recognize some of the truths in the Bible

and the things that Jesus is calling them to.

And this week we have another awesome opportunity for some

kiddos to head to camp. We've got about 20 kids heading

to Connect Camp this next week, which is so awesome.

And when you give here, a 20% of everything you give goes right

back to support and to fund these ministries.

Kids camp this week. We, like I said, we have 20

going. We have kids that need to know

Jesus. We have kids that need to know

that he loves them, that he is for them, maybe that he's

calling them to surrender, to do more for him in his life.

And so when you give here, it really is a Kingdom investment.

We like to call it an EROI, that's an eternal return on

investment. And when these teens come back

from camp here in a few weeks and you hear their stories and

these kids share their stories from camp about how Jesus

changed their life, about how he opened their eyes to the truth

of who he is, you get to say I played a part in that.

When you give here, you get to say, hey, I played a part in

moving the Kingdom work forward. If you haven't given, or maybe

you haven't given yet, you're missing one of the biggest

blessings in your life to be able to trust Jesus and say,

hey, I'm just going to give back a little bit of what you've

given in me back to you. I want to play a part in all

that you're doing through real life Church and through these

kids and investing in their lives.

And so if you call Real Life Church home, there are a lot of

ways you can take part in generosity.

And to do that, you can see them on the screen.

You can text to give, head to our website.

You can drop cash or check in the giving buckets as they pass

here in just a few minutes. And as always, if you or your

family members are in any kind of immediate need, be it food or

clothing or shelter, as these buckets pass here in just a

minute, please, please reach in and grab any loose cash.

We really do want to bless you and your family this week.

Man, I hope you guys had another great time at the movies, man.

You guys are leaving here encouraged.

Blessed man. Can you guys give a shout to God

if that's you today, man, Amen. So if that's you, I want you

guys to do something for me on your chair.

There's an invitation card. This is something that we do and

it's not just print just to print.

What we want to do is give you guys the ability to share with

somebody else in an easy way what you've received today.

And maybe God uses you. Maybe God uses a little card in

a conversation just to allow somebody to come in and find

their person, their, their, their passion and their and

their meaning in God. So take these, pass them out

somebody, man, just pray to God today.

Like who can I give this to? And I know if you make that

prayer, man, God will give you an answer.

Hey, if you need prayer for any reason, we would love to pray

with you up here as individuals or as families.

Can't wait. See you guys again next week at

9:15 or 10:40. And as always, remember, whoever

finds uses discovers real life and purpose.

This is the end of this podcast. We hope you've enjoyed it.

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