Process Progress Purpose by Kenn Kington

Yeah, last week I got a bunch of uh emails and texts.

People really excited about uh Ken being here and what what Ken shared.

Far and away, the most excited text I got was right afterwards, and it was from Ken.

And uh because he is so excited when when he comes here and so excited to be here.

And I sometimes, you know, we have people that are our guest speakers, but uh Ken is definitely uh more extended family.

And so I know you're excited that he's here today, and so let's welcome Ken.

That was awesome.

That was awesome, man.

Wow.

Well, I do feel incredibly welcome, and uh, I think one of my favorite times even last week was getting to hang out with you guys in the back and just getting to talk and catch up.

Uh, I want to encourage on a couple levels this morning, several of you that are couples went back there and you grabbed some of these cards, and I want to encourage you this morning to do the same.

We ran out last week and they found some more and they put them out.

But there's also posters there.

So if it's your work or your social gathering, your neighborhood or whatever, grab these cards and posters and simply do this.

Just say, God, bring somebody across my path that you might want me to invite and give them a card.

It is the greatest, easiest way to do that.

And here's the deal we're gonna put just everything that we have out there, and if possible, grab a stack enough to take them all today, because uh we need to get them out there and just let people know this is happening.

Uh, as Steve said, it is a great opportunity to invite friends to the date night, and and I agree with that completely.

But if as a couple, you need one of those times where you just you just get together and you have to face those tough issues and you you pour your heart out to one another.

That's not gonna happen that night, okay?

That's not gonna be the situation.

What's gonna be the situation is you're gonna have some phenomenal desserts, you're gonna have an incredible fun time.

I'm gonna do a comedy content set, and you're going to get five tools, and one of those is gonna immediately, very simply, make your marriage better, which is incredible.

And it's a lot of fun, and I still use those today.

So I encourage you as well to do that.

Secondly, though, one of the things that really hit me last week, and I don't know how God works in your life, but in mine, I'm a little slow.

I really was in special class in school, and and things don't hit me as quick.

So God just kind of keeps hitting me and keeps hitting me and keeps hitting me with something until finally I go, ding, maybe this is not coincidence.

And uh last week I had several of you who are singles said, Oh, that sounds fun, but what are you doing for single people?

And uh it just kind of was the exclamation point.

I I wrote a book a few years ago called Searching for a Superman, Watching for a Wonder Woman, prepare to find the love you desire.

And I have not done that series in a few years.

It was voted one of the top ten books for singles in the entire country several years ago, and that just keeps coming back up.

And even Steve and I were talking about so this fall, somewhere, I'm gonna be doing that series over several weeks.

So, so keep and keep an eye out for that.

I want to also validate and say thank you.

Thank you.

Several of you had asked this week and prayed for me this week.

We did some filming for a TV pilot, and I met some of you that actually came out to the punchline and saw that, and it was just an incredible week of encouragement.

I want to thank you for that support.

And it was just it was just wonderful.

And uh we just have such a great time.

My wife was here with last week.

She had a commitment this week, but she said, Man, what an incredible group of folks.

And I agree with her in that.

This morning, I want to kind of pile on or continue what we talked about last week is God is our father in parenting.

With that in mind, I want to just share one of the pieces that I am learning.

And I say that very specifically because I do not have this figured out at all.

I have three kids and I learned something from them on a regular basis about God on a regular basis, and I'm learning how to parent.

And in that realm, you may be sitting here, well, I am single or I'm a student or I don't have kids.

And even greater than that is the fact that God wants us to realize that He is our Father, He is our parent, and He wants us to experience that.

So, with that in mind, if you have a Bible, I want you to turn it open to James chapter one.

We're gonna learn some incredible truths there.

And if you don't have a Bible, we're gonna put it on the screens, but I want to encourage you to get one for future reference because you're gonna want to make notes in the margin.

Before we read this, though, I want to pray and just ask God to kind of bless our time.

Father, thank you.

Thank you that you tell us to pray, Father or Daddy, and that your entire being is and your creation is to allow us to be your children.

And Lord, that's an adoption and we accept that.

But Father, I know there's that point in time where we have to accept that, and it's our choice that you give us to do that.

But Father, in that relationship, I pray that that relationship between us and you, and maybe even some sidelines between us and our kids, would become just crystallized this morning, a little more clear that we can experience the fullness that you call the abundant life a little bit more.

Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for this beautiful part of your truth that we're gonna look at today.

Help me to get out of the way and make it completely clear.

And it really is only through the sacrifice of Jesus and the blessing of your spirit.

Speak to our hearts individually and intimately today.

And it is only through Christ.

Amen.

Well, this morning, I really do want us to catch a little insight as parents, but even greater than that, an insight of who God is and how he made all this to work so that we can experience the fullness of life.

Now, if I were to ask those of you, let me see, quick show of hands, how many of you are parents?

And before you raise your hands, I want you to hold up the number of fingers you have of children, okay?

So, how many, okay, a lot of parents.

Two, oh, two hands.

All right, all right, that's great.

Well, with that, I would dare say that if we were parents, we would we would say, I want, and this statement would be true, I want my children to be mature and completely ready for and have the ability to deal with anything.

There's a good chance we would say that.

I want my children to be completely mature and completely ready for and to have the ability to deal with anything.

As a parent, that would almost be my creed.

I want my kids to have that.

That is what I want them to have when I send them out into the world.

But the question I've been asking myself is is the way I parent and the way God deals with me, am I doing that?

Am I preparing them for that?

Or am I just kind of going through the motions?

And what I found is that I am I am too influenced by the concept of our society, and I would even say, in general, a world concept.

And it's not to prepare for maturity, it's not to completely get us ready for anything, but it's rather to avoid anything that brings pain and avoid anything that is uncomfortable, and we work towards comfort and safety above all else.

But God's economy is a little bit different.

And if we look at James chapter 1, we will see, starting in verse 2, a different kind of concept is God as Father.

James 1 · chapter mention

He says, Consider it pure joy, my brethren, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Now we're going to pull this apart, but don't miss that concept.

There it is.

God's philosophy as our Father is He wants us to become mature and complete, not lacking anything.

And I want that for me as well as for my kids, and I'm discovering this.

First, I want you to look at this phrase.

If you have a Bible, I want you to consider underlining it, and that is simply this consider it pure joy.

Now that's a weird word to use when you're going to follow it up with when you have trials.

That just doesn't seem right.

Woo, I'm so happy, my life's falling apart.

Yeah.

You know that that's not what it's talking about, though.

And several months ago, when I was here before, and I love this, I did a talk called Joy versus Happy.

Our society is just barraging us with the concept of shouldn't we be happy?

And anything that makes us uncomfortable or that is painful or is trial, we're supposed to get rid of that so we can be happy.

And it's completely happiness is circumstantial by nature.

Joy, on the other hand, which is what God is saying here, is does God want me happy?

No.

He wants me to have joy.

Joy is not the absence of trials, it is the presence of God teaching us to be mature and complete and lack nothing.

Joy is no matter what circumstance happens, I'm ready.

And I have the confidence and the ability and the backing and the power to get through anything.

That's joy.

That's what God longs for us to have.

And if we'll take that to heart in that mindset, we'll realize that in the midst of trials, in the midst of hard times, there's really two results that happen.

When we face a trial, that which is overwhelming, whether it's relational or financial, whether it's vocational, whatever it is, when we feel that way, two results happen.

One, we have a greater realization that we don't have all the answers.

We have that realization of, I need help.

And I don't know how you are, but if you're human and breathing, there's a really good chance you have a greater sensitivity to God's voice.

There's a natural when things are not going well, we turn to God and go, God, what is happening and why?

During the tough times.

There's this realization and a sensitivity in that way.

From a parental sense, we need to begin to realize.

Rather, it is to walk with them through that and help them realize that trials are a process to the progress to the purpose.

Let me say that again.

It is a process to the progress to the purpose.

And the purpose is, as we see in the letter in that verse, to become mature and complete and lacking nothing.

And if parents, if we're not allowing that struggle to happen, we are stealing or robbing an essential that God longs for us to have.

And God longs us to teach our children.

We are robbing of them of that essential.

Now, is it natural for us to want to struggle?

No.

But even greater than that is our need to know that we can make it and that we have the ability to do it.

And as we foster these children in these hearts, is to say, hey, I'm going to teach you that you can do things you don't realize you can.

I'm going to be here, but I'm going to let you struggle in ways, and you're going to feel frustrated and overwhelmed, but I'm going to walk with you through it.

I'm going to teach you to be mature and complete and lacking in nothing.

But dare I say, we have, too many in the spiritual in the Christian realm, have over-spiritualized, and I would even dare to say, Americanized God.

And see if you agree with this statement or not.

We have been taught that if I am going through a rough time, I am doing something wrong.

Let that sink in.

Because truth is, that's the way we feel.

If I'm going through a rough time, I'm doing, I must be doing something wrong because I shouldn't be struggling if I'm doing things right.

And if you're struggling right now with anything, with any area of life, I want to just encourage you.

One of the places I go every time I'm facing overwhelmed, frustrated, I'll go to the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis, and I'll read one of my favorite stories.

I'm not going to go into great depth, but in Genesis 37 through 48, it is the story of Joseph.

Here's a guy who has a dream and a vision and a passion in life.

And then the circumstances of the next decade plus, he does everything right, and yet he gets the complete wrong result.

Over and over and over.

And yet it was God's plan to help him mature, to become complete and lack nothing, so that when he was ready, God literally used him to save an entire nation.

Because it was that preparation time.

I want to encourage you, if you're struggling, if you miss everything else today, write down Genesis 37 through 48.

They're short chapters, and it will literally refresh your heart as you go through tough times.

Then the question is, is do I want a child, if you're a parent, do I want a child to live a life with no pain and thus no purpose?

Or do I want them to face meaningful trials and have great fulfillment?

See, in our world, we have this concept, and I don't know if you've ever said this, maybe you did, but I hear this in a lot of students that are about college age and young singles.

I'm just going to take some time off so I can find myself.

And my response to that is go look in the mirror, there you are.

But if you really want to discover who you are, it is not going to come from taking time off and doing nothing.

Actually, it's quite the inverse.

In God's economy, and you and I understand this at a fundamental level, if we'll just be honest and think back a little bit.

It's during those times where we are most uncomfortable and most frustrated that we have a vision, a dream, a concept of what we really would like to do.

Well, if I wasn't doing this, I'd rather do this.

If you doubt me, let me ask you a question.

How many times did you sit in school, during school, and all you could think about is what you were going to do after school?

I just want to play.

I just want to go and play.

I just went to a family reunion, and two of my nephews, they're 13 and 11.

They sat, we were in Orlando, Florida.

We're at a resort that had everything.

They sat in the bedroom, and I went in there one day and I'm like, hey, what are you guys doing?

And the TV was on.

They're like, we're bored.

We're bored.

And with a big smile on my face, because I'm not their dad, I just looked at them and I said, Hey, you know what?

I guarantee you, if you sit in this room and look at that TV, you will be bored the rest of the time you're here.

I promise.

Because they were doing nothing.

But see, my kids, my kids know that that's a dangerous phrase to use.

Dad, I'm bored.

Wow.

I am so glad.

Thank you so much.

Because here's what I need you to do.

The basement is a wreck.

And here's what you're gonna do.

You're gonna go clean the basement.

It's probably gonna take you 30, 45, maybe an hour.

But I tell you what, if you get done cleaning the basement and you are still bored, come back and talk to me.

I got a list of things I need done.

You know what's amazing?

They go clean the basement.

And they get up and I'm like, hey, are you guys done?

They're like, yeah, but we're gonna go play, we're gonna do this.

They got stuff to do at that point.

See, it's not in boredom, it's not in doing nothing that we find fulfillment.

It's through those trials and those tribulations and working things out and doing what we maybe not feel like we want to do that we start becoming mature and we start thinking of passion.

It's not doing nothing, it's doing something.

And it's in that process, and as a parent, I realize, you know what?

I want that.

Now here's the question I have for all of us to ask.

Do I want life of no pain?

Do I want a life of no pain for me, or do I want a life of great fulfillment?

Ask that question.

Because we spend too much of our time too often.

We will spend our life avoiding pain, avoiding that which is difficult.

And in truth, that is part of the process.

And don't look for our society to validate that.

Our society's the opposite, and it's getting worse.

I'll give you one of my favorite examples.

How many of you remember the old TV show, The Dating Game?

Do you remember that?

Anybody?

Okay, a few of you are older, that's awesome.

It was it was simple.

It was simple.

There's a chick and three dudes behind a wall, she asks some questions, she picks one, and everybody's like, man, I wish I had that girl that asked me a question.

And then if you won, you went on one date and you went to Ponderosa and uh got tickets to Disneyland or something, and that was it.

Now we have we have morphed that into a reality of fantasy land that is ridiculous.

And I actually like to watch this for how ridiculous it is.

Now they have a version of that called The Bachelor.

The Bachelor.

Talk about a total that they call it reality TV.

There's nothing real about this.

It's the concept of we're gonna remove all pain, all this in the process.

We're gonna give you 25 options.

Now, I don't know how you have gone through the dating scene if you're here and you're single, but let me just tell you.

I I don't I wonder how many, raise your hands.

If your first date you were whisked to a foreign country, flew around in a helicopter, and ate dinner on top of a 200-year-old castle.

Anybody?

This is not real.

And let me just tell you, if you're single and you're sitting on your couch on a Friday night waiting for limousines to pull up in front of your house, and you're a guy, and there's 25 hot women, and they all get out.

They're all in love with you, and you can make out with all of them, and they know about it, but don't care.

Let me just tell you, if that's your expectation, it's not real.

And my point in sharing that is very pointed and very clear.

If we look at this, there's been over 300 contestants in this process.

None of them.

None of them have found fulfillment.

There's one couple from one season that I believe would have hooked up anyway that actually got rid of and plowed their way through the fantasy nonsense and ended up saying, you know what, we're not gonna get engaged at the end of ten weeks after living in fantasy land.

We know enough about each other that we want to start dating at this point.

And they they literally started to discover who each other was.

There's nothing real about that.

It is through the struggles and the hardships of trying to figure out what does this mean and how do we get there.

Let me bring it down to reality, especially for parents, as God's children, no pain means no purpose.

And even as parents, I will not forget it.

I won't use names and I won't even point out who it was.

But I my wife and I were here uh a few years ago, and we were just talking to this one couple, they'd been married for three or four years, and I said, Wow, that's great.

And Heather had piped up, she goes, Oh, are you gonna go are you guys gonna have kids?

And the and the husband, he was just like, Oh, I can't bear the idea of having kids.

And I'm like, Really?

He goes, Yeah, the kid part's great, but I just can't stand the concept of having to change a diaper.

And I said, Really?

He goes, I that freaks me out.

I can't do it.

I can't have kids because I can't change diapers.

I'm like, let me get this straight.

Your entire concept of parenting is changing a diaper.

That's why you don't want to have kids.

And he goes, Yeah.

And and I laugh at that too, and I told him, I said, I'll be honest with you, I changed most, the majority of the diapers with both my boys.

And I cannot remember one of them that I enjoyed doing, not one.

Never did I think that, but I tell you what, I said, dude, you're missing it.

I said, Do you realize in that child's life, that actual negative part, there's probably six to seven diapers a day.

It probably takes a minute to three minutes each time.

That's less than two percent of the total time you're with that child.

And if you take that over the life of a child and the incredible relationship and what we can learn and And how much love your heart will just explode with by having a child, that literally, that time of diapers is less than one one-hundredth of one percent.

And I said, You're gonna let that stop you from experiencing the unbelievable joy of children?

And yet, as radically negative as that sounds, as a reason to not be, our society, and I'm afraid it's crept into our relationship with God too often, is I avoid trials, I avoid pain so much because it seems so big, and we buy this lie that I can't get over it, that God is saying, But it's to prepare you.

It's to prepare you to be mature and complete and lack nothing.

Because what I'm preparing you for is so infinitely greater than the trial that you're going through, that it's worth it.

But trust me in it and turn to me in that.

To quote the great theologian Garfield the cat.

I shared this a couple years ago, and it's one of my favorite comics of all time.

Garfield is looking through the window and it says pet store backwards, so you know he's looking in.

And he waits for the shop owner to go to the back, and he runs in, swings open the door, and runs down and opens all the cages to all the doors.

And he screams, opens the front door, be free, be free.

And the next frame is all these animals standing at the edge of their cages, just looking at each other, standing there.

And the final frame is the tragedy.

He goes back and he's shutting the cages.

Be safe.

Be safe.

Be safe.

We have bought this lie that life is about being safe.

I tell my children this and they laugh, and my wife cringes.

Every time they leave, I say, Be careless, take chances.

Like, Dad.

My boys are getting the age of starting to scare me.

They're like, yeah.

But consider it pure joy when we face these.

Because God is within it.

It is part of the process.

Look quickly at the next one in the next verse, verse 3, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Testing develops perseverance.

Testing.

Now I can say my least favorite part of school was testing.

Because I did not enjoy that process.

But here is the truth.

The truth is we will do as humans what is inspected quicker and greater than we will do what is expected.

Too often as parents, we tell children, this is what I expect.

But the question is, is are we inspecting them?

And I want you to write down a couple words in the margin or on a piece of paper.

And that is, am I giving clear and simple instructions?

Expectations.

And then am I inspecting those instructions?

Plain and simple.

My kids, I'll give you an example.

When I'm in town, I take the kids to school.

And there's a specific time they have to be there by.

And I know how long it takes and the two different routes if something goes wrong, and I know that.

But I got so frustrated each morning telling them, you've got to get in the car.

We've got to go.

We've got to go.

We've got to go.

And finally I thought, they're getting mature enough.

They can handle this.

Without emotion, I sat down and I said, okay, here's the deal.

When I say get ready, here's what I mean.

When I said I need you to get ready for school.

And if you have any questions, ask them to me.

Here's what I want.

I need you to have clothes on.

I need you to have eaten.

I need you to have all your stuff for school.

And I need you to be in the car at 808.

And look, there's a microwave, there's a stove, there's the numbers.

Is there anything about that you do not understand?

Oh, that's easy.

Okay.

Here's the deal.

If you are not in the car with clothes on and your books and haven't eaten, then that night what you're telling me is that you didn't get enough rest and that you didn't get up in enough time so that you'll go to bed 30 minutes earlier so that you can get up earlier.

And all of a sudden, huh?

And sure enough, during the school year, three or four times, each of them, I'll never forget my favorite one.

We're driving to school.

We're a mile and a half down the road on the five and a half mile ride to school.

And my oldest son, 11 at the time, he goes, uh-oh.

What do you mean, uh-oh?

I don't have shoes.

What?

How do you not have shoes?

And it was in January.

It's not like it's hot and I'm used to water.

You don't have shoes.

And we turn around and go back.

And I'll tell you that night, see, they love it.

They love it when you forget.

But see, I inspected it and I said, hey, dude.

I said, how you doing?

Great.

Great, I'm doing good.

Dinner is great.

And they're getting all nice and happy.

I'm like, all right, well, hey, we'll see you in the morning.

Go ahead and go up to bed.

What?

I say, you forgot your shoes.

Yeah, but uh, we got them.

And I'm like, no, no.

808 in the car, prepared.

Well, why?

Why?

And I'm like, I don't know.

I didn't forget my shoes.

Apparently, you are too tired to remember your shoes.

So go ahead and go to bed early tonight and not forget them.

But what why?

And I'm like, just lay in your bed and think about it.

He remembered his shoes the next time.

Now I know that's that's a bit easy, but I'm learning this concept of clear expectations.

And I tell parents, I had this one couple, they said, Well, what?

Well, if you have teenagers, and I'm like, give me an example.

I said, Well, we have a curve, we've got to be home by 10:30, and she's always coming in five, ten, fifteen minutes late.

I'm like, that is a great example.

And I said, Next time, be simple and clear.

Tell your daughter, how old is she?

She's 17.

I'm like, tell her very simply.

Here's the deal: 10:30, you have to be home.

And if you're not, here's what you're communicating to me.

Father, mother, you have failed to teach me how to properly plan my evening to be able to be home on time.

I need your tutelage in this area.

I said, don't get mad, don't get upset, just tell her it's 10:30.

And if you're not home at 10:30, I realized that I have not done that.

I have not trained you and taught you.

So the next time you go out with your friends, I am going with you.

And I'm just gonna hang back and I'll just come in and say, okay, now's the time where we look at the watch and we start planning in two hours, and okay, y'all go be fun, okay.

And then come back every 30 minutes, and okay, now's the time where you think of, yep, I'm still good, and it and teach them.

So one of two things will happen.

Either they will get this inspected idea, or they will just they will just cringe in fear.

She goes, Yeah, but she'll never go for that.

And I'm like, You're the parent.

She doesn't have a choice in the matter.

We're going to inspect, not just expect.

And I'm not going to do that with great emotion.

I'm going to go through that.

Now, here I want to turn the corner and I want us to look at ourselves personally.

And that is, but I'm struggling right now.

And God is my father.

I don't understand why this is happening to me.

I'm going through a tough time.

I don't understand why I'm going through this.

Is it for God discipline me?

Is he trying to teach me something?

I don't know what it is.

The answer is yes.

And the good news is verse 5.

In chapter 1, he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God.

And I love this next part between the commas.

Who gives generously to all without finding fault.

And it will be given to him.

As parents, we need to be that way.

We're not finding fault, we're teaching, we're training.

I'm not going to beat you up with this.

I'm just going to teach and train you this.

I'm not going to find fault.

I'm going to teach.

To have that attitude, but the truth is we have to ask the question and understand the foundation.

I want to give you another passage to look up if you're struggling with this, because as parents, too often we can feel like all we're doing is saying no, and all we're doing is giving rules.

There's a beautiful story in Matthew chapter 19, verses 16 through 24.

Matthew 19:16–24

And it's a beautiful story of a young man who comes to Jesus and he goes, Good teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?

And Jesus says, Well, why do you call me good?

And he's working the situation.

And he says, Well, you know the commandments.

And he starts quoting the Ten Commandments.

You know the rules?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

All you said, love your neighbor as yourself.

And don't miss this line as you read this beautiful short little story.

The man said, Those commandments I have kept.

I've kept the rules.

I've done that.

But I still lack.

What am I still lacking?

And see, here's the truth: God is not about heaping rules upon us for the sake of rules.

Rules are there to protect us and teach us and correct us and train us.

But they're never the purpose.

The purpose is not the rules, the purpose is the relationship.

And he says, What do I still lack?

And Jesus cut right through all the rules and all the positioning, and he says simply, go sell all you have and follow me.

I'm what you're missing.

Not the rules.

You got all the rules down.

You're missing me.

And this morning, I dare say that there's some of us here who are doing all we know to do right, and we're getting frustrated with God and saying, God, I'm doing all the right things and I'm still struggling.

And Jesus would say, Let it all go.

Because I don't have that for you, it's for me.

I want to know you personally.

I want you to experience this fullness in me.

It's not about the rules, it's the relationship.

And then finally, in verse 4, perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete and not lacking anything.

The question we have to ask is it doesn't matter the cause of the trial.

It really doesn't.

And I know that's going to be a great encouragement to some of us.

The cause may be that I screwed up.

And I know why I'm going through this because I screwed up.

Or it may be that you say, you know what?

It may be for the sake of us realizing I need help.

I don't have all the answers.

I need to be trained in some area.

But God, you show me what that is.

Here's a revelation that I've gained.

My greatest progress and realizations and revelations have always come through trials.

Always.

I'll give you a couple quick examples as I did an overview of my life.

I've shared here before that I really was in special class.

One of the most frustrating parts of my life, my sister was a straight A student and never studied.

I was in special class.

And I struggled through school.

Struggled all the way through, all the way through college.

I struggled.

And it used to frustrate me until I realized years later this is the way God made me.

And it was not pain without a purpose.

It was specific for me.

Because I began to realize later in my life that this wasn't just a mistake God made, it was a realization.

Because I had to work three times as hard to make B's and C's as my sister did.

She didn't do any work and she made straight A's.

And that used to frustrate me.

But here's what I discovered later on in life.

When you work three times harder than everybody after you get out of school, you get three times further than everybody.

God was training me for that.

My learning disorder, dyslexia.

It's not that I can't learn, it's I see things differently than you do.

And what I didn't realize at the time is that God was preparing me for what I do now.

I love who I am.

I make a living seeing the way I see.

I see stuff you see every day cracks me up.

And I just see these things.

We were in Orlando, Florida, and I saw the sign again.

I love this.

We're driving down I-4, and I started laughing.

And my wife said, What is funny now?

And I said, look at that sign.

And it's in the median on I-4.

And I said, they've spent hundreds of dollars to put up this sign that says, do not mow.

And I said, that's just funny to me.

She goes, why is that funny?

I said, because apparently there's some renegade landscapers in Orlando.

Driving around going, hey Bubba, you see any cops?

Breaking up the gentleman, we're cutting some grass.

I mean, just really?

See, I see that stuff.

And it cracks me up.

I see I got to a hotel.

It's been such a crazy week.

I don't know if I shared this last week or not, but if I did, just roll with it because my mind is fried.

And I was in a hotel, and my whole purpose in a hotel is sleep, take a shower.

That's it.

And I remember looking into the bathroom and I grab just when I take a shower, I want to wash my hair and condition and soap.

That's all I need.

I walk in and they've changed this.

And again, I think this is ridiculous.

No longer do they have shampoo and conditioner.

Now that now they have wash, tame, and soften.

What is that?

Apparently my hair is dirty and wild and insensitive.

I don't know.

It's frustrating.

So I grab them and I get in the shower and I'm like, okay, wash.

Hopefully that shampoo and it wasn't tame.

I hope that's the conditioner and I tame my hair and soften.

I didn't even know it was supposed to soften.

So I softened and it turns out soften is lotion.

So you don't really need that.

If you soften, you have to wash and tame again.

Okay?

Just frustrating.

But see, that is the way my mind works.

One of the greatest frustrations, one of the most overwhelming parts of my life was what God was using to prepare me for what has become the greatest fulfillment in my life.

Relationally, in our marriage, I look back in the times of greatest growth.

Several of you know the story about my daughter.

Our greatest fear in the world was realized a child has cancer.

But it was through that time that God not only showed himself to be real, but it was during that time that our relationship galvanized, and I learned one of the most important lessons of my life that I needed, and that was to learn to take initiative and to see priorities for what they are.

And it came out of one of the greatest trials.

My wife and I, right now, we're gonna sit down this week.

I I got to tell you this real quick because it is funny, because last week they shared about the t-shirts, the new t-shirts out there, and my wife said, Oh, I love that one.

Which is great because our anniversary is coming up.

Our 10-year anniversary, we went to Hawaii, and I gave her a band.

She lost her original band that we were married with.

I gave her a band with 10 diamonds for the 10 years, and I gave it to her at sunrise on the top of a volcano, and it was awesome.

This is our 15-year anniversary.

I'm taking her to Chili's and giving her a t-shirt, so that's gonna be awesome.

But we're gonna sit down in the next couple weeks because we're at that stage of life, and I'm I don't want to totally outrun my headlights here, but I am so excited about being back in September because of what we're learning, and that our our resources are limited, and yet there's unlimited things we have to pay for, and we're gonna sit down, and it's not easy right now because here's the balance and here's the expenses, and we got to go, okay.

Well, what do we do?

And let's sit down and let's communicate and let's pray and let's prioritize and let's go through this together.

And it's not easy, but I'm starting to catch the glimpse that this is why God made it this way, because I know on the other side of this, she and I will be more connected.

She and I will be more knit together because we're going through it together.

And I've told her that's the key.

And we are as a couple and individually more sensitive right now in this area because we're going through this.

It's turned our focus and our realization of God, we don't have the answers to all this.

Help.

We're asking for wisdom because we lack and we know you're gonna give it.

This morning I do want to close in a prayer, but before I pray, I just want to ask you to kind of take your heart and say, God, what am I going through?

And Lord, change my mindset of trying to avoid it, get past it.

And Lord, I want to just ask with a specific thought in mind, say, God, what do you want to teach me in this?

How can I mature, become complete, and lack nothing in this area?

And Lord, because I know that there's in your economy, when I know you were as my dad, there is never pain without a purpose.

And that's the promise we have.

Pray with me.

Father, thank you for the joy and privilege of getting to be here this morning.

God, thank you for my friends that are not perfect.

And Lord, that we get to go through this together.

Thank you for your truth that shows us that we need you.

And Lord, that you have that purpose.

Help us to not avoid what we're going through, but learn and mature in the way you want us to.

And God, for those who are parents, I pray that we would not rob our children of this essential of struggling and getting through it to learn and mature and become complete lacking in nothing.

God, thank you for the way you love us, and it is only through Christ we can pray.

Amen.

I look forward to seeing you on August 20th, if not before, and thank you for letting me share.

You guys are a blessing.

God bless you.

Thank you.