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

0:00 Hey, good morning. Real life church welcome you excited to be here today, man, we're excited to have you here today. It's going to be a great morning. I know God's got something big for us today. I just invite you to stand to your feet. We're going to kick off with some worship this morning. And I just invite you just to lift hands, sing out, clap along with us. Really just how do the Spirit leads? I just invite you just to lean into that this morning and really just give all of our worship to Him today. Give them some glory. So just sing out with us. Give you glory for all you've brought me through.

0:41 And now I'm ready for whatever you want to do. I'm moving forward to follow after you. Now I'm ready for whatever you want to do. Your presence is an open door. Your presence is an open door.

1:26 So come now though, like never before. Amen. If you want to join us as a Clapper, keep singing. In every season the grace has been eater and I believe it. The best is yet to come. Do you believe that This morning the cross before me. I hope all things are above. And did you, Jesus, The best is yet to come. Your presence is an open door.

2:19 We want you though, like never before. Your presence is an open door. S Come now, Lord, I've never before. It's a bold prayer to pray, isn't it? That we want your presence here more than ever before? But man, we believe that when we pray that prayer, God breaks down some strongholds. Amen. You ready for a breakthrough? Let's sing it. I know breakthrough is coming and by faith I see a miracle. My God made me a promise and it won't stop now. I know breakthrough is coming.

3:20 By faith I see a miracle. My God made me a promise and it won't stop now. Come on, Church, declare this this morning. I know breakthrough is coming. I see a miracle, my God, maybe a promise, and it won't stop now. Why settle for the status quo when he's ready to give us a breakthrough? Amen. Amen. I invite you just to keep worshiping this morning as we continue to sing.

4:03 Feel free to lift your hands. Just sing this to him. It's just you and him this morning. Come on, Your presence is an open door. We want you, Lord, like never before. Your presence is an open door. So come now, Lord, Lord, like never before. Amen.

4:57 Let's say. I know breakthrough is coming by faith. I see a miracle, my God maybe a promise, and it won't stop now. I know breakthrough is coming by faith. I see a miracle my God made me a promise that it won't stop now. Breakthrough. Is coming by made me a. Promise that it.

5:42 Won't stop now. Do you believe that is for the church? Do you believe he's a God of breakthrough? Do you believe that he won't stop? And then come on, let him hear you this morning. All the praise, all the glory from you to him. Amen. Amen. Give. Him some praise this morning. Amen.

6:32 And in the darkness we were waiting. Without hope, without light. From heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes to fulfil the law and prophets. To a virgin came the world, my throne of endless glory. To a cradle in the dirt. And praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit. 3 In one God of the glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of peace, to reveal the Kingdom coming, and to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole creation. You did not God despise the cross, for even in your suffering gives all to the other side, knowing this was our salvation.

8:04 Jesus, for our sake you die. Lift it up to Him today, say. Praise. The Father praise the Son. Raise must be red. 3IN the wild God of the rain, Manchester, Raise whatever to the king. Of king, in the morning that you rose, all of heaven held its breath till that stone was moved for good. For the Lamb it conquered.

8:59 Death in the dead rose from their tombs, And the Angel stood in arm. For the souls of all who'd come. To the Father our restored, and the Church of Christ was born. Then the spirit. With the flame and now this gospel true love shall not be, shall not faint, and by his blood in his name and in. His freedom I have free, for the love of Jesus Christ, who has rested me.

9:49 Sing praise, our Father, praise. The sun praise the Spirit free in one God of the glory that shall see. Praise forever to the King of Kings, we pray. Forever to the King of Kings. Father, we sing your praise.

10:30 Father. Praise forever to the King of Kings, to the only one who's worthy of our praise this morning. Father, we lift you up in this place. Father, we love you. We have to sing of your name. We thank you God for who you are. Jesus name. I was rich. I remember who I was. I was lost. I was blind.

11:13 I was running out of time. Sin separated. The breach was far too high, but from the far side of the chasm you had me in your side, so you made away across the crate. Divide left behind Heaven's room to build it here, inside there at the cross, you pay the debt I owed, broke my chains, freed my soul. For the first time I had heard you, Jesus boy, the blood of the plight.

12:14 You, Jesus, as you wash me away, thank you Jesus, You have saved my life, brought me from the darkness into glorious You took my place, laid inside my tomb of sin, and you were buried for three days, but then you walked right out of it.

12:56 And now Ted has no steal and life has no it. For I have been transformed by the blood of you, and she's a spoken word of God. When Jesus has washed me wild, thank you Jesus, You have saved my life, brought me from the darkest into glorious life. There's nothing stronger in the wonder working power up the world because the sons and daughters we are handsome by our father through the world.

14:19 There is nothing stronger then the wonder working Power up the below, the below, because the Suns and tortoises be your ransom. Power farther through the below, the below. Jesus, come along. Thank you Jesus. Jesus, wash me away.

15:06 Thank you Jesus, you have saved my life. Brought me from the tortoise into glorious light. Glory to his word, glory to His name.

15:51 There to my heart, was the blood of glory to His. Near man Amen. Amen. Man who's thankful for Jesus. Can we give it up this morning? Man, I love that song. And just think about what God's done and God's given and God's sacrifice for you and for me. Man, what an opportunity. Just come in and worship him today. Man, we're so excited that you chose to worship with us here in real life. Want to take this opportunity to let you guys know that we have some new people with us today. They are online with this in person. Can we show those guys some love? Just give them a round of applause. Amen.

16:39 Amen. Hey, won't you guys take 30 seconds, find somebody around you and greet them? all right, you The guys can go ahead and be seated. Hey, what you guys know about something awesome that you are sitting on or it's in a chair next to you and that is our awesome connection card. If you call real life home, we would love it when you guys fill these out.

17:25 Let us know what's going on in your life. Maybe you've got a prayer request. Something is going on in your life, something you need prayer for or maybe God has just showed up in your life in a miraculous this way this week and you've got to praise. If you guys write those down. We look at these week in week out, we pray over them. We love to stay connected with knowing what's going on in your life. Don't have to pin just on Facebook. So if you guys send those in, man, we love it. If you call real life home, if you're neuter or newer to real life, this is a great opportunity for you guys as well. And I'm going to make you guys a simple promise. We're not going to ask one other thing from you today except for this one simple thing. Just introduce yourself when we want to know who you are. And we just want to just thank so thankful that you're here with us. And if you feel that out to the level that you're comfortable with, we're not going to do anything weird. We won't show up your door, but we'd love to send you some information this week about real life, let you know a little bit about who we are.

18:14 And so again, we're so excited that you chose to worship with us today here in real life. We like to say that we're a church on a mission here. And that mission is, is to see people far from God discover the real life and purpose in Jesus. That's why we do what we do. That's why we make our decisions. That's how we move throughout our week because we know that lives get messy sometimes, right? They get broken, they get jacked up, but we believe that we have and know the person that has the answer for you to get connected and be back on mission and that's Jesus. So we love the living community here and we live as a body as, as a fellow believers and, and disciples and we are reaching out in our community and across the world to get people on mission with God. So I have something awesome before we get into, into the message today. So this is calling all 6th graders through 12th. We are going back to Sporting KC for our second annual sporting event.

19:04 Man, you guys heard about it last year. The kids loved it. So parents, teens, don't miss this opportunity. This is a free event. This is for leaders and youth that are in that age group and part of real life youth. So don't miss out. Get signed up early. I think they're playing Austin. This is on September the 7th and they'll be sitting in the South stands. So your, your kid does not want to miss this. So get signed up early. So we are launching into a new four part series called Elephant in the Room, right? So do you guys love the elephant in the room? It's the question nobody wants to ask, but everybody's thinking about, right? And so today we're going to dive into what the word of God says about some of the biggest questions you guys have in your life. And maybe it's a question about faith, eternity, pain. And it's the thing that you're thinking about that you think you're the only person dealing with and that's not true. And today we're not going to go into a bunch of church cliches try answers, but we're going to give some honest answers from God's word about what God and Jesus have for you to answer these questions.

20:03 So once you guys take. This opportunity give a big round of applause to Pastor Sean as he comes up and he brings the word. He gave me that a boy. Go get him, pastor. Well, welcome today I want to say first of all, was that worship awesome today? Come on, give it for Jesus one more time. Love him that you love him. It's always such a reminder of who we are and who God is. And so in that line that Jesus did God set aside on us and that that song was just fantastic. If you're new with us, I want to welcome you guys one more time. Or new where I know a lot of guys have been coming out recently. I know we have some new faces today. Will you guys make everybody feel welcome one more time? Come on.

20:46 So there's two families you got to congratulate. This is pretty cool. So last week we did the celebration Sunday to the youth camp, kids camp, kind of just celebrate the stories, impact and just all that God's doing and it's really cool. We had two families that said yes, God just speaking to them to serve and our kids program. So you can congratulate them, let them know we love them for jumping on the team. Come on, we love that some you're like, it wasn't me, but it could be right? Oh man. So just just amazing stuff. So one last thing before we jump into the message. I just want to encourage you guys, if you have a star relationship with Jesus, if you commit your life to Christ recently or you have in the past but not been baptized, I'd encourage you guys to get baptized. We were baptizing on our, I can't believe it said 8th birthday. Come on somebody, and I'll invite you guys to be a part of this.

21:31 And so if you called on Jesus, maybe I baptized as a baby or something, but I would encourage you to take that step. It's really going public through faith, just telling the whole world, you're unashamed of Jesus. You're just confessing to the world. Man, I love Jesus. Jesus did something in me I want to show you. And so really that we're dead and sin and now we're alive to Jesus. And we have so many stories of people doing this. This is amazing. This picture, you guys who this is Jerry. Jerry, I knew it was going to happen. This is this is my father-in-law, Jerry. He came to Christ a few years ago here at real life. Thank you Jesus, Amen. And he got baptized. This was Easter this year, so about 5 months ago. And I see this picture and it's it's very special because This is why we launched a church. Really something special about somebody close to you but far from God. You see God moving their life and take those steps of faith. And this is just a significant moment for me. This makes every moment worth it. There's a lot of like things we do behind the scenes and a lot of energy and effort, activity things. But this is the stories of impacting people, Amen. And they see families change, lives change. This is this is personal, Amen.

22:31 And this can be personal for you too. And I'm encouraging if you have not been baptized, this is the impact. Like somebody's gonna be excited. We'll be excited, we'll be excited. Church. Amen. I mean, just I'll encourage you guys if you're like on the fence, they can baptize. It is exciting. It's a great day. And I'll encourage you a part of that. We would just love to be a part of your story. And if you're unsure what that looks like, if you sign up on there, it's not like you sign up and just like you get thrown the deep end, all that be kind of fun. But we're gonna actually walk you through this like help you understand, make sure it's the right fit for you. And so don't feel like you sign up and just like you're just gonna not know anything, we're gonna walk you the whole process. So today we're jumping to a new series, the Elephant in the room. I don't know what I was thinking when I started this series. So this elephant's getting, I'm going to have to obviously preach some interesting messages to talk about the elephant in the room. We all have questions.

23:17 Sometimes we don't even tell anybody these questions. Maybe you tell your best friend, maybe your spouse. Maybe you have questions that you feel guilty about even having the question. Like I don't know if I'd seem appropriate even thinking this question. And sometimes we just don't say anything to anybody and we walk around this these taboo thoughts and we don't want to interact. And I also encourage the church that God can handle your questions. Amen. God, contend your hard questions, your weird questions, all these different questions. And some of the questions might be why? Where is God? Why would God allow bad things to happen? And is the Bible really true? And no one's ever struggled that one, right? Like, can he be trusted? I mean, I've asked all these questions too. Amen. Some of the questions are just like, maybe more personal, like, you know, what's wrong with having sex outside of marriage or sex before marriage?

24:00 Like, you know, there's the world, like just teaches a lot of stuff, right? And I would encourage you guys as you walk through this to really be open handed. I was at a church when I, when I grew up that you couldn't ask these questions. Like it was almost like if you confess Jesus, like if you called on Jesus that you were perfect immediately. You've been in this type of church before. Like there's no room for saying like we trust you for salvation, but but not for sanctification, not for growth. And you just everybody's just perfect and you can never ask the question. And so I would encourage you guys that we're we're on a journey together, Amen. Like the words discovery, like, like wandering, like just seeking out God, like we're all coming from different faith journeys and points. And these questions may you might have like solved the question for yourself. And it might be something next to you that like is just blown out the water by that question.

24:42 And some people maybe have gone to church today and you've not been in church or followed God because of these hard questions. And we're going to dive into, I mean, definitely the easiest question, right? Where is God? When I heard the questions of pain and suffering, this might be one of the the heavier questions and just going to go in the deep end and walk through what God has for us. I would encourage him and praying that you have an aha moment about your suffering, like an aha moment about pain, like where is God? Why God? That God would just show you things. Holy Spirit would just come on you and you maybe see things differently and actually worship God for your suffering. So it's been a big prayer. Amen. It's a big prayer. So this is one of the main reasons people don't follow God to go to church because of the pain that happens in their life. And so where is God when life hurts? A few weeks ago had the privilege and honor of speaking and sharing God's word at my step brothers celebration of life.

25:31 My stepbrother Chad, he is 4 years older than me, so it makes him 44 and he passed away unexpectedly. He was at work working at Walmart and they found him in the backroom, in the storeroom and he had passed away and it was a brain aneurysm, a heart attack. Like, you know, people are they're figuring things out, but it's just one of those things like so unexpected, right? And so much pain, so many things around it. And you know, it's just weird for me. Like I've done a lot of funerals and been in church for a long time, done a lot of ministry stuff, but it's just different when it's like your sibling. Like that was a different level for me. Like I've never, you know, I thought a million years, like I am going to be doing my stepbrothers funeral like this year. I mean, it's just I just kept thinking it's just too young, right? This is he's just young, but anyway, I want to show you a picture.

26:14 I met Chad when I was 6. My mom got married by step dad when I was 7, became part of family. So this is my family. Come on, somebody, this is awesome. This is a great picture of the 90s. Come on on the right, the redhead. That's my that's my brother Adam. Come on. I met other Adam today. The visitor guy down the corner there. That's Alana. Where you at? Alana? She in there. Oh, she's back there. Everybody say oh, oh, that's so cute. Yeah. And then Tricia is my step sister in the middle, Chad. So there's Chad he he he's the big guy in the front there. He's always big. He's bigger than everybody just larger than life down here at the glasses on the on the lower level, that's the lower level that that's Gabe that's that's my stepbrother Gabe. He he's six months younger man the life of the party.

26:57 This is my step. My stepdad Alan, he passed away a couple years ago. And then you'll words can't describe that picture of me that that my mom's here. Where are you, Mom? Thank you. I think you're trying to keep me single as long as possible. Alan Jackson was not very proud of that. It used to be really flowy and amazing bullet and that turned like I was some kind of French person there. It's really cool. I think Dumb and Dumber found this picture and they bottled the movie kind of after that a little bit there. Oh, man, God can use anybody. Amen. You never like that picture. You'd be like, that's the man's going to play at the church. And I was a Chiefs fan proof right here before they were good. Amen.

27:41 Praise the Lord. All right, enough of that picture. You can keep looking at that. That's awesome, man. Oh, that's good. I'm going back in here. We're in the I'm in a generation now where it's like it's going to be like after maybe like 1518, the pictures can be like, man, that's really cool. And before 18 like you're so old, you know, like I was going through the pictures of my stepbrother, you know, and it's just like it's either you're scanning it, it's old school or it's like a digital awesome picture and there's like nothing between. So anyway, this thoughts for you, but the thought about my family, like where's God in the midst of suffering and hurt? And there's verses I've been traveling through Psalms this last year and there's been verses that just stick out to me and speak to me.

28:22 And this just was easy to go back to as I walk through the Lord, like some verses that remind me where God is and suffering. And so this is Psalm 3418. This is what something has been on my heart. It says this is the Lord is close to The Who. What's it say? Yeah, broken hearted. Yeah. Where is he? He's right there. He he's with you. It says that he saves those who are what? Yeah. Crush the spirit. This is good news. Amen. Here's what about the Bible. It's what makes it not a fable makes it real because you have people that are struggling with real humanity, struggling to follow God and they're being pressed down and and hurt and they're emotionally broken. But the Bible says clear that God is with us. I love it as a personal God. Amen. I love it's not like, oh, he's out there. Hope you hope you, you know, do good enough and he loves, you know, God's a personal God and he wants relationship with and he's close enough to us. And I could have bridged the sermon down about, I don't know, about 5 minutes and just answer the question, where is God when you're hurting with you?

29:14 Amen. And we could just pray and be gone. You're like, yes, not quite chiefs in the game today, but one day you'll say Amen to that, right? But Psalm 6, this is another Psalm that just sticks out to me. This is one of the Psalms I Amelium. I've read it and I just put it in my heart, my mind, and I go back to the Psalm very often. And this is something that I thought through with my family. This is David Rice says have mercy on me, Lord, for I am what even those seasons where you're just you're just overwhelmed, you're weary like you're feeble minded, like you just have no more energy to go forward. And this is this what I love about the Bible. It's just so real because I can relate to this, right? I lack the ability to move. I'm uncertain, I'm unsettled.

29:54 He says heal me, Lord, for my bones are and what in agony? I mean, that's the emotional pain that he's walking through that even to your core, you're hurt. And there's moments of life where the unexpected happens or the tragic happens or the things around you are so broken that it actually bothers you to the to your bones. You guys been here before. You know, you're in that season when you wake up and then you feel like man, God's good and everything is perfect and they're not 20 or 30 seconds And after waking up, you just remember what you're going through. Like, you know, you forget the season went right at that moment. That's how you know you're in agony. And for some of us are walking that season right now. For some of us, it's usually a broken relationship.

30:36 There's like a powerful loss and we walk that season emotional pain. And this is what David's doing is walking through there through this agony. He says this in verse 3 says my soul is in deep anguish. Just how long, Lord, How long says turn, Lord, deliver me, save me because of your what what to say? There's failing love. Who knows, God is full of failing love. You can call on God's life. It's just motivation for save me because of your character, God, because you love me. God speak to me, changed me, he said, worn out from my groanings. I mean, there's this is like pain without words, right? I just don't know what. It just hurts. So all night long I flood my bed with what?

31:16 Yeah, weeping. We've all been there in seasons. You just there's no comfort. There's no solace. You're just beyond yourself. He said drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow. They fail because of my foes. In this situation, David is surrounded by his enemies. He thinks he's being overtaken. He's tired of seeing his friends die, his commanders die, the people around him being persecuted, and he feels like he's up against the wall that he's being buried and there's no way out. Verse A says away from me all you do evil and I love this. So it says for the Lord has what? How many guys knew that the Lord hears your weeping. It's pretty good, Amen that the Lord isn't isn't absent like he's not gone.

31:56 We can make the mistake of thinking and mistaking silence for God's absence, but God's not absent, Amen. Just because he's not speaking doesn't mean he doesn't hear. Just because he's not speaking doesn't mean he is not hearing. You're weeping. So the Lord has heard my cry for mercy and the Lord accepts my prayer that in my pain God is close. I'll give you some some stories, some guys to talk about these, the scripture and the pain to walk through This man who wrote second most, second most famous book in history, John Bunyan, pilgrims progress and he writes this about tears. He says it's not the mouth that is the main thing in prayer, but the heart. And if it is the heart that prays, it matters not what the mouth if the mouth is silent. So the prayer is the cry of the heart, sometimes with words and sometimes without words.

32:43 Amen. I mean, God knows exactly what you're feeling, what you're what's, what's inside of you, and you don't have to maybe even mature even to express it or even figure out why it's happening, but the Lord knows exactly the language of your heart. Others say about this scripture, it says that these prayer, these tears are the tears or liquid prayers, Amen. That God had actually hear your tears. He's listening to your weeping. They're silent prayer requests. God knows exactly why you're crying. He knows exactly what you're walking through In that season. Spurgeon said this. He said tears are the diamonds of heaven. Sighs are part of prayer, and tears are the blood of the heart. They're the essence of prayer and the substance of devotion.

33:25 Tears are almost paved the way for God's will and our broken. This guy is going to speak to us and this what it says about suffering and tears in the Bible. Psalm 56, eight says this. It says you being God have kept count of my what tossings Anybody been in the season where they can't sleep through the night right and you tried new pillows and it's still not working right. Like you just there's anxiety and there's worry and there's it catch you off guard. Every season has a temptation like don't ever think you get mature enough. We're like your life isn't going to have some arrows and some attacks like God is always showing us things about ourselves. I actually bought 4 pillows yesterday. I slept through the night, praise God, Hallelujah, but it wasn't because of these kind of season, but my pillows were dying's like I picked the $6 pillows up all the time. I'm like, let's just not do that anymore. Let's get a $10 pillow.

34:13 Let's move up, you know, but it says this is amazing. He said, he says he puts my tears in your bottle and they're not or they're not in your book. He's not absent. Amen. Like like your your pain isn't wasted with God to think that God knows exactly what you're going through, exactly what you're walking through, understands the situation and it's collecting your tears. He's listening to your weeping. He knows and he's close. Amen. He's not distant, he's not gone, he's not absent, he's not apathetic. He is there. Romans 826 says this says the spirit Spirit of God intercedes for us with what to say with groanings too deep for words that even when we our words fail, our logic fails, our emotions are heavy.

35:00 The Holy Spirit is groaning and having prayer requests for us and over us to the Father in heaven, Amen. That's good news that that we're not alone that that that the Holy Spirit is also called the comforter. He is comforting us. He's he's he's giving us what we really need to have. He's praying prayer requests that we not even ever mutter. These lead us to places that we don't even need that we know don't need to go yet. We don't know we need to go there yet And so we can find solace that got us close enough to whisper that he, he knows us better. We know ourselves. Amen. But there are times, if you're real honest, that we we don't feel God. There are times where it feels distant. It feels cold. Your prayers feel like they're hitting the ceiling. You're wondering what's going on. You're kind of getting aggravated like I, why'd you leave me this far to, to kind of feel like you're not in this season, like why am I feel like I'm a little abandoned? Have you guys been that season before? Real honest, show hands.

35:51 Real honest. Yeah. I think most of us have been that season maybe more than once, right. I feel like it just kind of comes with the journey. And I think God wants us to teach us something like in the deserts and the valleys where we don't have this awestruck moment. He wants to show us a few things about prayer, about our lives. What's interesting about prayer is that when you pray, God does not often download the answer that you're praying to your life. It doesn't usually come if I can use this Good. Met a guy that's in charge of this right now. He doesn't fly the package of your prayer request with a blue bow on it and drop it at your front porch, Amen. It doesn't usually work that way. God does usually answer your prayer with this an immediate thing.

36:34 Now there's two things the Bible he'll do that for. But most of the time God gives you the gift of an opportunity to become what you're praying for. Like think about this when you pray for patience, God doesn't download patience into your soul typically, but God gives the opportunity to be patient, Amen. God gives you circumstances and people and relationships and you give those moments where you can trust in him and rely on him, but very few times you can say, OK, now you're a patient person that that's not typical works. He wants to develop your character. Matter of fact, God is more interested in developing character than for you to download your wish list. Amen. Because it doesn't doesn't change anything because gives you the answer. He wants you to become something that you're not.

37:15 Think about this. We pray for strength. He put you in seasons where you feel weak, you feel like, oh Lord, I'll be strong. What He's going to give you circumstance with your family or your friends or whatever it is where you have to rely on Him and His power and His strength made perfect in your weakness and lean on Him. You pray for faith. Typically it's because He's walking through a circumstance where you don't have sight, like you have to walk by faith. You have to hold His hand, lean His direction to seek His will, and you're asking for faith, but He's given the circumstance. If you pray for love, God often brings people in your life that's hard to love. Amen because now a good time to point, but often times it's just how it works, right. And so in other words, God answer a purse, but it's always the way we expect.

37:58 Like instead of shortcuts, he gives us soil, right? He gives you a place to grow. He doesn't give you the the quick easy path. Now sometimes God can do that, but often times he doesn't. He takes a long way around the barn instead of comfort, he he wants to develop our character. There's a couple things Bobby can pray for though and get wisdom. You can pray for wisdom and God will give it to you liberally as long as you're asking faith. If you don't ask in faith, don't expect anything. That's exactly what it says in James one verse 5 and 6. And so you can ask for wisdom, but by faith that God, I want wisdom. I trust you. You know everything. I'm gonna follow. You gotta give me divine wisdom. And he will download it. Amen. Amen. That's a daily prayer by the way, like I'm not very smart, but God right. He gives you peace beyond understanding is the Philippians 4.

38:42 If you if you continue in prayer. That was those who give you peace by understanding of guard your hearts and mind Christ Jesus. Those are two things you can have, but everything else it's almost like God is giving the opportunity to develop your character. He's giving you the opportunity, the gift of growth to be the kind of person that you're praying God to turn you into. He's given opportunities to shape you. And often times we walk through suffering and hardship and we kind of get mad at God or we're upset about God's character and God's timing and we don't like it. Instead of send back to God, I know you're using this to develop me, God. You're putting this in my life to show me things about myself I need to develop. God, I trust you in this season. God, I'll walk with you even closer in this season.

39:22 It's very easy though, to get jaded. It's very easy to, to step back and, and to get upset. And honestly, there's times where you feel like you're, you're just, you're irritated. God, things are broken. There's things in our past. I see this quite often. I've seen this with my own foster kids and different things where it's the heavy question like elephants in the room. But now we can kind of put on the table. It's fun as a leader, by the way, put an elephant on the table. Don't you like doing that? There's problems and people are upset and you're like, hey, you know, let's just let's go on. Just take that. It's over here. It's actually pretty big and we're going to go put that right here. We're going to talk about Amen. That's what leaders do, Amen. That's kind of culture I love to be in like families get real sideways when the elephant Duggan talked about in a healthy God honoring way. Amen.

40:07 And just be real honest with you. There's there's a lot of pain that same causes that sin causes that the world causes that's affected so many of our lives. Ever been in this room? People, you know, could be watch things all the time and they're they're the question like, why would God allow me to be abused as a child? Why would God allow my dad to hit me? Why, why would God allow my parents to be Alcoholics and to be in the foster system? Like, why would God put me through all this? And those are the questions that we're not going to ask. Typically we're going to ask God will you mad about it may tell a friend, but then a day like the wrestle that I want to wrestle through the hard elephant. Amen. Yeah, I did that today.

40:49 I told you to keep it real. It's on the sign, you know? So I'm gonna put it on the table and it's gonna talk through the through the. Yeah, you know what you're getting into there, right? About to talk through that hard question. What does it look like? Like, why would God allow this? Like, where is God and all his hurt and his suffering, this pain? And I'm gonna do is just walk through really a conversation. I saw it. It's really a video I watched and I just turned into, I can't play it, so I'm just gonna read it. And it's very powerful. And there's this this lady that's been through a ton and she's probably in her 60s and she's asking this this preacher what where was God when? And so I'm just going to read it for you guys ready. Don't act too excited. Well, I'll just hear this is what she said says where was your Jesus when young kids were in institutions and being raped?

41:32 Just I'm a survivor of being raped. So you tell me where Jesus really was. I love this guy's answer. It's profound. He said the reasons why, the reason why you went through what you went through is because of the human heart of sinful actions of people. Your parents, your community has opened the door, has affected everybody else. It's sad. You want to know where Jesus was? I love this. He said Jesus was on the cross dying for our sins. Before that he was calling people to repent of their sins. But your family, your ancestors, those around you have decided not to repent of their sins, and it affected your life. And all those who harmed you and did that will have their day before God. And if they don't repent, they'll be sent to hell. They'll face the wrath of God for what they did. And God is going to bring justice to every person. So in the meantime, don't let your past become your burden forever.

42:22 But because of the one man's decision, Jesus Christ, you can now be delivered from your sin, set free from your bondage, and you can be brought back to into God's Kingdom. That was straight truth. Amen. Now that that's pretty trite when you're talking to somebody in the season, but if you think about why the suffering happened and he put it on to the, to the sin, to the human condition of sin, to to community, to family, to those around you, we, we get, we get into some big issues when we start to blame God for sin. Amen. When we say God authored this God, why would you? And we get mad at God, you know who she's mad at? And he lays out your family, your community, the world. Sin itself saved himself.

43:04 That's to blame, Amen. God is not to blame. And he said it so, so perfectly. And I love how he gave the justice side of it too, because we often think, well, they're getting away. They're not. Nobody's getting away with nothing. God's tails are just. Amen. And when you stand before him, which I mean face down on the ground, prostate on the ground, right, you're prone and you're just like, there's no friends there, there's no family, there's no, it's you and the Lord. His skills are just Amen. The Bible says you can account for every other word, for every deed. Everything will go through the fire in the judgment of God. There's wood, hay and stubble and there's the things of God. And, and, and so I trust deeply in God's justice. And it reminds me of like, well, why do we, why would God allow this to even happen in this season?

43:46 I keep coming back to this thought. How much God must love us to endure such depravity in sin? Like how much must God love us to tolerate all this junk? It's just just hear me out. Just think about this. Second, Peter 39 says this. This is Peter. He's he's speaking to one of the most persecuted group of people in history. There's a church that was started in a Rome and it was persecuted by the emperor Nero, who blamed the Christians. Nero burned down his own city of Rome and then blamed the Christians. And now being arrested, persecuted and they're being put on trial. Peter will be crucified by Nero under his orders. His wife would be crucified right before him. Peter be crucified upside down. This is the kind of suffering we don't even see right now.

44:26 This is one of those wicked leaders in all of history as Emperor Nero and he writes this these people that are suffering greatly. He says the Lord verse 9 says the Lord is not slow and keeping his what his promise. He's not he's not slow in keeping it but as some understand slowness that what they're saying is where's God and all this Why is this happening? I thought I prayed for Jesus my life would get easier like any remember Jesus on the cross right. This guy mentioned so so eloquently like where was Jesus? He was suffering for us and to think just as a holistic picture that if Jesus were to suffer at the hands of sinful people, why would we be any different? Like why would our lives be any more innocent or easy than Jesus's life?

45:06 Like to think that we prayed a prayer that it was our life is going to be perfect is the complete opposite of the gospel. And that Jesus would suffer and die for us and we still have this brokenness and this humane has fallen that we wouldn't somehow like partake in some suffering as well. And this is what Peter's telling him. He's not slow. He knows exactly what he's doing, his promise. God is seldom early, but never late. I've learned this about people sometimes Satan. He uses things in your life, voices and people, circumstances to bury you to, to, to get you off of God's journey off of God's path to keep you quiet, silent, to to be non active, for the gospel, to not to share his goodness, to think less of God and to bury under guilt, shame and all these things to stop you from doing things of God.

45:51 And I remember when I was planting this church, it came out of season. It was one of those seasons, you know, it was a hard season. It was all I don't have time to go through it and I'd probably I just came to say all the things I want to say about it. It was a difficult season. And I just this, somebody said this in that season and it always stuck with me is that Satan didn't know when he when he buried you that you're a seed being planted. He didn't know that you were being planted in the things of God. And oftentimes we don't understand that. Like Satan has a agenda and God has an agenda. We kind of forget that, that God is who he is. He loves us and cares for us. And this is exactly what Peter is saying. He's not. He's not slow. He'll be on time when he wants to be. Instead, he is What? What's to say he is patient.

46:31 I think that's the lost verse. Yeah, we're still on the verse. Sorry, guys. I'm preaching forever here. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. He's patient. What's that mean? He's patient with you like he's patient letting us to grow towards Christ. We didn't pray a prayer of perfection. We prayed a prayer of confession. We said to Jesus, I talked to a man yesterday who who's struggling, He's defeated. He's walking through a valley, a very difficult season that's going to cost him a lot and he just can't get his head up. And I'm like, listen, it's a set back. It's not the future, right? And and we think we're defeated, not defeated. Like what is God trying to teach you is the lesson you can learn when you look at this God as an intention to the suffering?

47:15 He's patient with us. He's patient with humanity. But like, ultimately God could come back any second he wanted to and he could wipe away all sin from the earth, all suffering from the earth. Do you guys believe you could do that right now if you want to? He could do it right this second. And one day he will. Amen. The first time he came as a child. The next time he comes as a warrior, he rides a horse. Next time, first time he was a donkey. You know what I mean? Like he could do what he wants to. He wants to. So why is God waiting like he's suffering? He's watching the suffering, watch the genocides and and the wars and the, and all the sex trafficking and all these difficulties. Why he says right here, he's patiently waiting through all the sin and depravity and the pain with the with intention that no one perish. But everyone comes repents to him like God's longing is for people to know him, and by his mercy he allows suffering because he's delaying his judgment so more people can repent.

48:12 So to think about if you wish suffering away, you wish every person who doesn't know Jesus to hell. That's what you're wishing for right this second. You're saying my suffering is so significant that nobody else has a chance of finding the good news of Jesus. Am I preaching today? Just keep it real. That's what we idolize ourself. All this pain. I'm so mad. What about other people I need Jesus. There's a man I met today that spent a year in a wheelchair. I'm about to get surgery on my shoulder. You might not know that yet and and I'm like, it's going to kind of like, oh man, this is going to suck. Take forever. It's six months and that it's like, brother, it could be worse. Amen. It's not about me, it's about Jesus. And so in my mind, suffering is not the proof of God being evil.

48:55 Suffering is the proof of actually God being loving suffering actually a proof of God's love. Paul says even better in Romans 2, four he says or do or do I show or do you show contempt for the riches of listeners of God's kindness, usual contempt for God's forbearance and God's patience loses us not realizing like you're not smart, you don't know yet. Not realizing, understanding that God's kindness is intended to what, Yeah, lead us to repentance, like God's kindness, intend to lead us to things of God like. And what's God's kindness? And you know, we like the second part of the verse. I've always thought of the second part of the verse. So the first part of the verse is, is God's forbearance.

49:36 You know what it means to forbear? Yeah, it means to put up with forbear is just like, OK, this is the verse for all the teenage parents in the house, right? Just put up with some things. If you're married, you forbear. It's actually in the Bible. You know, it says right there, there's forbearance. There's things you just put up with, but there's patience as well. And then there's God's kindness and the reason that we have this. You show contempt. God, why you so patient? Yeah, why you put up all this stuff right now? Should we be mad at God for being patient and forbearing and having kindness? And he said, what's the intention of all those things? What's it? What does allow this, allow suffering? What's the intention of suffering to lead you to repentance?

50:20 God's kindness, forbearance and patience. The suffering has a purpose to lead us to repentance. Amen. These are hard truths, but they're real. Amen. So one final word about the elephant in the room, because we there's a lot of different truths on this, right? This isn't like a touchy feely certainly at the moment, right? But there's a lot of different things you can talk about. I would just encourage you to do this. Don't waste your pain. Don't waste your pain. Don't waste it. I think it's Charles Spurgeon. He said something like this. He talked about the soul. He said how precious must the soul be that both God and the devil are after it. How precious must a soul be that wars are fought in heaven and hell for a soul like how precious must it be and you're going to war and sometimes at war you get you get hurt and you suffer and Satan has a season and uses people they do evil things that they hurt you like Joseph and his brothers and they throw them in a pit to die and it's all I have some compassion some the slavery and when all these things happen, but God redeems Amen.

51:25 And if you write this story where Satan gets the glory of your story, you miss the point of the story. Like if you don't purpose your pain for God, your pain is wasted. If your story doesn't end with but Jesus changed my life, I'm here to share my story with somebody else. Then we're missing the point of what God is asking us to do 7 Corinthians 214 says this. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ. It always leads us in this procession, this parade for Christ, and who makes known. Listen to this through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place that God has lead us this pray to victory so that through us the fragrance of God's victory goes out to every place. Now think about this.

52:18 In Jesus's time, there's something very famous. It was actually called the triumph, which is why this is written this way. Paul knew this. The triumph is where a Roman general will go to war, and they're pretty good at that. And they come back after a victory and the whole city of Rome will come out of the streets and they cheer maximus maximus maximus. They would just go on in a triumph of victory. There's a victory prey that was well known in the Roman culture. And So what Paul is saying here is that we are in the triumph of Christ. Amen. Amen. The victory parade of Christ. We're not on the sidelines. We're not the ones cheering.

52:58 We're the ones in the parade. We're the victors in Christ. Amen, That He's given us the victory to defeat sin. He's given the heart and the mindset of the Holy Spirit of God inside of us to reconcile and put those things in our lives that were broken on suffering and bring it back to God. And we can be in that parade and we can shout and share the fragrance and the aroma of God's victory to all people everywhere. It's not an accident what you've been through. God could have. He could have, in His sovereignty, stopped it. But he wants to redeem it. Amen. He wants to redeem your pain and now you get the opportunity and it's a blessing that when you serve Jesus, God will bring you into relationships with people where you can share your brokenness and God's goodness together and be an aroma to people who need saving knowledge of God. There are so many people I get to talk to and share about the hardships and the pain or this alcoholism or a loss in the family or there's been sexual abuse in somebody's life. And I get to share, like through my personal journey or through experiences I see, I get to point people back to the goodness of God, Amen.

54:09 And if you take your story and you're willing and you say, God, I want to purpose my pain. I don't want to waste one tear or one moment of shame. I want to use it for your glory. God will allow you to do that, Amen. He will bring stories and relationships and people into your life. I can tell you this, you cannot change your past, but you can change where you place the blame. You can change what you learn from it, and you can change who gets the glory. Who is getting the glory for the story that God has put in your life. Who? Who's the one, the only one? And we look down and we're full of shame and pain and regret and anger. There's only two people going to glory.

54:50 That's you and the devil. Satan wants to rob you from God's goodness and his power. If you can look at your pain and say God, I don't understand why, but I trust you because you could do anything you want. There is somebody in this world that needs your story. You don't have to go very far to tell it. I've had so many conversations with people, encourage them to share their story. And I'm not saying go up here and spill the beans about all this stuff. Maybe that's what it is. As a preacher, I get to do some of that and share some some wounds. Sometimes people are still alive. You can't share stories, Amen? But sometimes you can. And there's sometimes there's people that you get in a relationship with your life grip with, you're sitting next to or you see somebody's upset, you see somebody hurting. I was on the phone yesterday for an hour with a man. He kept apologizing for taking my time up and he's really struggling.

55:36 I said, stop apologizing. I don't hear about that. God put me here to talk to you, Amen. Like there's a reason on the phone today. I could be doing a lot of stuff, but I'm here because God, I picked the phone up. You called like use that story, weaponize it for the things of Christ. Let Christ purpose your pain. Don't mistake God's patience for his absence. Don't confuse his silence for apathy. God wants to use your pain. God wants to weaponize your pain for his Kingdom. We'll have scars, We'll have skeletons. We've all shed blood. Amen. And what if we said, Lord, I can use this like you give me a gift, like I can connect with these people I can never connect with before God, you didn't write the story, but God in your sovereignty and with this brokenness we live in, I expect to take some shots. I expect people to come after me. I expect Satan to come after the all the force of hell to stop me from speaking up and sharing and living out the love of God and to keep my head down and step my head up like I'm not a victim, I'm a victor.

56:35 This isn't the victim parade, it's the victory parade, Amen? And I can just point to Jesus. I like if he can help me, he can help you, Amen. This is the kind of people we got to become and we got to stop holding on to the past and letting it dictate our life. Like the past is over, like it's gone. You don't get it back, Amen. But what does God wants to do? Stand up. Like be bold, be courageous. He, he knows exactly what he's doing and his perfect timing. I trust when he comes back, revenge is the Lords. Like I'll have to get even, Amen. I don't, I don't have to like do all this stuff and be angry. Like do that, change it, dude. That's not changing anybody else. Like let God work through your life and be a be a picture of God's grace and God's mercy and God's love.

57:17 Speak up when you have the opportunity and weaponize that story. Don't let Satan take it. Use it. Amen. So Father, come before you. I pray God, as we search out where are you and we're hurting, God, we have the aha moment today, like some of us have maybe seen through Scripture and just reminded that man that brokenness is used for God as we struggle and walk through the season. God, I pray for somebody there that say, no, I'm not wasting one ounce of my pain. Like Lord, I'm using it for your Kingdom. God, it's going to drive my purpose. It's going to drive my calling. I'm not going to keep my head down. I'm going to put the head up exactly where God wants it. I trust you, Lord, with my pain. I'm in your procession of victory. It's not my story that I'm writing God, it's your story. And so God, I trust you even though I have all the answers, God, I know right now I'm waiting patiently for you because you're being patient with me. So you got to trust you in this season. I'm going to say the day that today you're not going to waste your pain.

58:08 We just put your hand there today. Let the Lord see it. Not going to waste your pain today. Are you going to use it? That pain will drive our purpose, will drive our direction, will show us the things of God. So Lord, teach us through our pain, teach us through our suffering. God, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to grow in patience and grace and forgiveness and love to be more like Jesus. Thank you the opportunity to do the hard things, not the easy things. Thank you God, that I can live out a path that is maybe wronged or maybe I'm persecuted or hurt or offended. But God, I still trust you. And while other people would have been angry and upset and small, I don't have to do all these things because of you.

58:50 And so God teach me to walk like you. God, forgive me when I've fallen short. Forgive me for being upset. Forgive me for holding on to my past so much. And God free me today. God set me free in your name through your spirit. God, you're groaning. You've been praying for this moment. So God, we trust you. I'll pray for a more group of people in the room. That's those you say, you know what, I need to join the procession of victory. I need to be in the triumph of Christ. I have maybe been upset with God because my past that you walked in today and you have all these wounds and these things have happened and not recognizing until today that's actually God's grace that the kindness and the goodness and the forbearance and the patience of the Lord is intended to lead you to repentance today.

59:32 The greatest thing you could do today is turn the Lord Jesus and turn from your sin and say Jesus, thank you for down a cross for me. Thank you for loving me, even those unlovable God. Thank you for loving me and those around me. God, in this season, I know I was wronged and it wasn't from you, but you will use it. You'll turn to Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus came 2000 years ago down a cross for us. He was on that cross while the world was at its worst. God was at his best, He was allowing sinful humanity to crucify himself so he could become a substitute as a sacrifice for our sin and make the full payment, the permanent perfect sacrifice for our sin. The Bible says we call name of Jesus to be saved, forgiven and made new today for you Jesus.

1:00:13 That's a promise of God. It will come true in this very instant. The Holy Spirit come in your life and give you a name, a new purpose, the purpose, your pain. He'll be with you, His presence be inside of you. He made new from Christ to be forgiven. So if you need Jesus, I'm looking around, you'll call on Jesus. You recognize who he is today. Will you put your hand high in this place? I need Jesus all across this room. That's you Holy Spirit, just pull my heart. It's the Holy Spirit calling you to himself. Just pray this prayer. The prayers not save you. Is your heart towards Christ. It's hard to believe to say, Lord, thank you so much for loving me. Thanks for down the cross. Thank you for doing what I could ever do in a million lifetimes. God, it's beginning to make sense the story been writing God.

1:00:55 I can't change my past God, but I can change my future God, I trust you. I see the day God from your word who you are is true that you love me. I'm being a procession of victory, no longer a victim of sin, a victim of humanity, a victim of Satan, no longer in that Kingdom God, I'm a Kingdom, I'm your son, I'm your daughter today and I pray that in Jesus name and the church said Amen. Come on, give it for Jesus. Amen. And such a word today, just a reminder that God doesn't waste our pain, but that he redeems it. That even the hard stuff, even the, the shame and the sorrow and all the things that we walk through in our life, even that can be used to point people to the gospel.

1:01:36 And that we don't have to walk in that, but that we can walk in the parade of victory. So what a word today and encouragement today. Some of you are walking in that parade of victory today. For the very first time you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior today. Congratulations, we are so excited for you. We have a couple things for you. If you would grab that connection card, fill out your information and just check that box that says I committed my life to Jesus. You can drop it in the giving buckets here in just a few minutes. But by doing that allows us to get you a few things. The first one is a free resource for you. It's a book. It's called begin. We'll drop it in the mail tomorrow. We would love to get that to you. Really will be a blessing to you as you take these next steps with Jesus. And if you pray that prayer, you're right here in the house today as you exit the worship center, there is a table with some red bags as you leave. Please grab one of those as well. There's a free Bible for you in there and a list with some other resources.

1:02:25 But we would love to get that to you today. And once again, congratulations if that's you for accepting Jesus at today. Hey, I've got something exciting today as well that's happening. That's fall life groups. They are live online today for signups. You can check them online. You can check them out in the hub. We have groups meeting almost every night of the week in both Raymour and Belton. They actually don't start meeting until September 7th. They're Live Today for you to sign up. And I could tell you story after story of a life change that's happened throughout these semesters. But what's better than me telling you is for you to hear it first hand from somebody who's experienced that themselves. So I'm going to invite right Megan Duvall to the stage, give her some encouragement.

1:03:05 There we go. But I've had the joy of attending Life Group with Megan this last semester and I just wanted her to share with you guys the impact that Life Groups has made in her life. So here's Megan. So I've actually done 2 life groups and I started right after I started church here And I will say that doing that, I have found a community of multiple different people that have made me feel completely welcome along with myself and my daughter. And it has been an amazing experience and I recommend it for anybody that is looking for people to make them feel welcome in the church and in the community.

1:03:47 I love that. Okay, that's right, give it up for her. And that's what it's all about. It's it's real people, it's real growth, it's real community and real relationships. That's what you're signing up for when you sign up for a life group. So we'd love for you guys to sign up. You can check them out on the hub or online. Give it up for Megan one more time. Thank you. Well, if you're newer in the house with us today, thank you so much for being here. You really are honored guests. We have thought about you this week. We have prayed for you this week, and we're just so glad that you're here with us this morning. We really don't want anything from you except for this. And that's just to introduce yourself to us. If you can do that by grabbing that same connection card, fill out your information on the top there and just check that box that says it's your first time here. You can take that to the new here booth as you exit. We have a free gift for you.

1:04:33 Just our way of saying thank you so much much for spending your day here with us and we would love to see you back next Sunday right here at Kentucky Trail. And hey, I get to share a really super cool story with you guys about generosity. We have a lady in our church who's really walking through just a hard season. She's had to move and relocate, make some adjustments in her life. She actually was renting a car to make it to to church on Sundays and to run all of her errands. And she just found herself in a difficult season. And we had the opportunity this week because of somebody's generosity in our Church of donating car, we had the opportunity to gift this car back to her. So check out this picture. Go God.

1:05:14 That's right. So cool and the Bible calls us to take care of the widows and the orphans and those who are in a tough season. We had the opportunity to do that. And as somebody who was there first hand to watch her get those keys, I can tell you that it is more blessed to give than to receive. To see the tears in her eyes and her heartfelt gratitude. It really is a blessing to be a blessing. And so we really did just get to be conduits of that wasn't anything we did. We just got to be a conduit of God's blessing through our church and to her. And so I you to be a blessing to others as well. And so if you call real life church home, you can do that too. You can head on over to our website reallifechurchkc.com. You can click give on the website there, you can scan the QR, you can text, you can drop it in the giving buckets in the box in the back.

1:06:04 So many ways that you can take part in that at today. And hey, if you find yourself in immediate need of food, of clothing, of shelter this week, whatever that looks like that you need, please reach into the giving buckets as they pass here in just a few minutes. Grab any loose cash in there. We really do want to be a blessing. We want to help you in your time of need. Man, what an awesome day man, if you guys were blessed by God today, can you give it up for God man those elephants in the room, they're the questions we all ask but I guarantee you guys got an answer for you. Hey so before we get out of here one last awesome thing. So we are getting ready to throw a party here real life. You guys ready party people there we go Hey our 8th birthday party September 21st be looking for information on it. We're going to do baptism we're going to pull out all the steps. One of the other awesome things, once you guys mark your calendars for anybody on the Dream team or interested in the dream team, on September the 16th, we are going to do a pig roast.

1:06:59 I've never been a part of one. I've heard they're awesome. But we're going to do, we're going to do a pig roast. S'mores yard games, man. You guys are invited to mark your calendars and get ready for that. So hey, if you guys need prayer for any reason, somebody will be up here to pray with you, whether it's individuals or as families. And we would love to pray with you. I can't wait to see you guys again next week at 9:15 or 10:45. And as always, remember, whoever finds Jesus discovers real life and purpose. This is the end of this podcast. We hope you've enjoyed it. If you have, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss another inspirational podcast. For more great content and updates, visit reallifechurchkc.com.