Why Does My Work/Life Feel So Unfulfilling? - The Elephant in the Room

0:00 Well, hey, good. Morning, real life. Hey, we're so excited you are here in the house worshipping with us today. Whether you are here with us in person or you're watching offline, stand to your feet. We're going to worship God. Together this morning you see my big dream, the mountain you see a.

0:40 Mountain and as I walk through the shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now for I you say. When? I fight out, flying on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you, and every fear out they ain't your feet. I'll sink through the night.

1:22 Oh God, the final belongs to you. And if you are for me, you can be against me. For Jesus, there's nothing impossible. Do you believe that today? Come on. When all I see are the end shapes, you see the beyond day. Thank you, God. When all I see is a cross God, you see the ante too. So when I fight, I'll fight on my. Knees.

2:20 With my hands lifted high. Oh God the battle belongs to you. Every fear I make your. Feet. I'll sink through. The night, oh God, battle belongs to you. Almighty Fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow, you win every battle.

3:01 Nothing can stand against the power of our God In Almighty Fortress you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God in Almighty fortress you go before us. Nothing. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow, You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifting high.

4:05 For God, the battle belongs to you. Every fear. I lay in. Your feet I'll sing through the night. Oh. God, the battle. Belongs to you. Oh. God, the battle belongs. To you. Come on, get back some praise this morning. That's right. Come on. So much comfort just in knowing that he fights our battles for us, that he's with us through all that stuff.

4:52 Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stay, and everything around me is shaking. I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus 'cause He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations, so how would he feel? Now he wants.

5:36 He won't, and I've still got joy in chaos and I've got peace. That makes no sense. So I won't be going on and I'm not helped by my own strength because I built my life on Jesus and he's never let me down. He's faithful in every season. So I would heave him out. He won't.

6:24 He won't won't. He won't help. He won't fail. He won't. He won't. He won't fail. He won't fail. Christ is my firm foundation, the wrong kind of which I stay. When?

7:07 Everything around me is shaking. I've never been more than glad that I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations. So I would he fail now He won't. He won't go. He won't fail, He won't fail. Never fail me, God, you won't fail me. Now rain came.

8:20 Came and went blue and my house was built on you. I'm safe with you and I'm gonna make it through. Came and went blue and my house was built on you. I'm safe you and I'm gonna make it through. Rain came and went, blew and my house was built on you.

9:07 I'm safe with you and I'm gonna make it through. Yeah, I'm gonna make it through 'cause I'm standing. Strong on you? Yes, I'm going to make it through 'cause my house is built on you. Christ is my firm foundation, the rock corner which I stand when everything around me is shaking.

9:48 I'm never been more glad, but I put my faith in Jesus 'cause he's never let me down. He's faithful through generations and so I will eat them now. He won, He won. He won't fail. He won't fail. He won't.

10:36 He won't won't. He won't fail. He won't fail. No, he. Won't. Amen. If you believe that this morning he'll never, ever fail, give him a shout. This grander earth is quake before move by the sound of his voice and sees that are shaken and stirred can be calmed and broken from my regard.

11:38 He's threw it all, threw it all. My eyes are on you and threw it all, threw it all it is well. And threw it all, threw it all. My eyes are on you and it is well with me. Far be it for me to not believe even when my eyes can see, and this mountain lands in front of me will be thrown into the midst of the sea. Do you believe it?

12:42 This morning they threw it all, threw it all my eyes are on you and threw it all, threw it all it. Is well and. Threw it all, threw it all. My eyes are on you. And trust in him. The waves in wind. Still know his name so let go my. Soul and trust.

13:33 In. Him the waves in. Wind still know his name, so let go my soul and. Trust in him, the waves in wind. Still know is there the waves in wind. Still know is there. It is Where? Where my soul singing after him, and it is a with my soul. It is a with my my soul.

14:51 It is a well. It is a well with my soul. Oh, it is a Wellness well. With my soul because of who you are or. It is away with my soul, all you've done, or it is away. Cuz threw it all, threw it all.

16:45 My eyes are on you and threw it all. Threw. It all it. Is well Lord. And threw it all. Threw it all. My eyes are on you. Man can weave it up for God this morning and I love those words and I and I know there's people in here walking today with winds and waves and storms of life is crashing in on you, but turn your eyes on Jesus. And my prayer for you today is that you meet Jesus in the midst of your storm and you're comforted and you're healed. And man, you're just restored to the hope that God's got for you in the gospel.

17:43 Let's give it up for God one more time, Can't we? Man, I love worship with you guys. Man, you guys are killing us today, man, I didn't, I know. It's just a blessing to God that we worship this way. So man, thank you guys so much for just giving your hearts to God. Hey, once you guys take this opportunity, we have a lot of new people with us today that are online and in person. Can we show those guys some love as well? Just give them some round of applause. Hey, once you guys take 30 seconds to greet somebody around you.

18:35 The. All right, you guys can go ahead and be seated. Hey, I want you to know we've got something awesome for you guys today. We've been praying for you guys. We've been praying for this gathering all week. And on your chair there's a connection card. This connection card is for everybody. This is an allscape moment, as our pastor Sean loves to say, if you call real life home, we love it when you fill this outlet us know what's going on in your life. Maybe you've got a prayer request, then maybe you've got a praise. Maybe God showed up in your in your life this week and something you've been praying for. So we love to hear about those. Write those down, send them in. We love to look at those we pray over week in and week out.

19:18 If you're new with us, we're so excited that you chose to join with us in this gathering. I'm going to make a promise to you. We're not going to ask anything else from you all day, but for this one small thing, we just want to know who you are, which we would love it if you would introduce yourself to us. And the connection card is the best way that you can do that. And the reason that we collect these is we want to send you out some more information about real life. We're not going to show up your door. We're not going to do anything weird, but we want you to know that we love you, that God loves you. And maybe this is the spot that God's called you to come in and be on mission with us. And so we'd love to say that we're a church on a mission. And that mission is to see people far from far from God, discover the real life and purpose in Jesus.

19:58 What that simply means is it's like in the song, right? The winds in the way, the storms of life, it beats people down, it breaks people. But our joy, our love, our mission is we get to see people commit their lives to Jesus week in and week out. And so we love to be on mission here and we pray that you jump in and are on mission with us. Before we do anything else, before we get Pastor Sean up here, one awesome announcement. If you are a real life youth or a parent of a real life youth, 6th through 12th grade, we're inviting you out to our second annual sporting event. The So we have a very generous family that has donated some tickets. And so this is the second time we're doing it being second annual, right? And so we want your kids to get signed up early.

20:38 There's limited spacing and this is for your kids, their friends and real life elite leaders. So it's an awesome opportunity to go have a great time as as a youth group. So love for you guys to check that out. So today we're continuing our series The Elephant in the room. And if you guys missed the last week, you need to go back and check it out. But the elephant in the room is this, it's the question that you think you're the only one asking, right? It's the deep dark thing that you're ashamed to ask. You know, where's God where I heard, you know, why does God ask me to do this? What does this mean in my life? You know, where's the purpose? And, and I don't understand, but I'm afraid to ask. And we all have those elephants in the room. But I can tell you one thing, you're not the only person asking that. And so in this series, we're really diving into what God has for us from from the Scriptures.

21:20 There's no church cliches here, just some some good honest biblical truths. So I want you guys to take this opportunity as we continue Elephant in the Room and just show some love to Pastor Sean as he comes up. Hey, thanks, guys. Well, good morning. Happy Labor Day weekend. Oh, wow. We can do better now. Good morning. That's what I call Labor Day. It was like, yeah, good morning, pastor. I like some as like a smoker voice or something happened there. So could you give one more time? Everybody's new and newer today. Let them know you love them. Come on, one more time. I want to honor somebody today. Very special.

22:00 This is just a unique Sunday. I'll be last Sunday here for a while. George, may we stand up? Where's Jordan? He's like, don't do this to me. So Jordan, he is going to Spain to play for the national basketball team and he leaves tomorrow. So give it up for Jordan. So we're proud of you, Jordan. I've had a privilege, the honor privilege of being this young man's youth pastor, pastor and known him for a long time. And his family, Scott and Dana, we get for Scott and Dana as well. They've raised some good kids, man, and we're just we're proud of you, Jordan. We're proud of what God's doing. And I heard this. This is what I'm most proud of. Scott was actually bragging on you this morning. You probably you probably didn't figure that, but he said that you actually just finished up sometime last week. You read the entire Bible and you journaled all the chapters of the Bible of this last year.

22:52 Is that amazing? Go God give it up. Come on, dude, That's probably, I don't know, one to million. I don't know. There's not very many people would ever do that, especially at your age in the school and being an athlete and all the things you're competing with that time. So I'm looking for what God's going to do in Spain and we're praying for you. We love you. Give her more time, love, know we love him. Come on man, thanks for following Jesus, man. It's it's it's fun to watch. So a couple things for jump in one, we've got baptism coming up on our birthday, 8th birthday, September 21st. And I would encourage you to take this spiritual step. It is a significant step in your spiritual life. And if you know Jesus and yet to get baptized, I was gonna explain but why it's so important and what God's asking us to do outside of really knowing Jesus, getting baptized is the second most spiritual step you can take the most significant spiritual step you can take.

23:43 And Jesus actually asked us to get baptized. He says go therefore in the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And so when you get baptized, it's a picture of what Jesus has done in your life. Matter of fact, it's significant for you to be unashamed what Christ has done. You're sharing your story with the world that I was buried is a picture of Jesus being buried dead and arose again, the power of sin. And so it's a picture of what Christ has done in your life. And so you want to be a disciple of Jesus. One of the marks of the disciple is to get baptized. Amen. And a lot of people miss this. How many guys have been baptized? Show of hands. So I'm preaching to the choir, right? But there's some you're like, come on, right?

24:24 And in the Spirit, God's asking like take a step of obedience. And the Bible says it's, it's interesting. If you confess me before men, I'll confess my father. But if you don't confess me before men, I won't confess to my father. It's very interesting. There's something special when it's going public with your faith. And so I encourage you to do that. I don't think it plays a part of your salvation, but I think it's very special to get in that water and let the world know you're unashamed of Jesus. Amen. So we're excited for you guys. Didn't get baptized yet. This is your chance. We baptized twice a year. We do the whole thing up. It's a giant pool in the middle and it's a lot of fun to walk through the steps. But get signed up today. Today we, we jump into our second part of series, the elephant in the room, and this is a be a fun series because we're walking through taboo questions and some of these questions we we, we dance around and some are like so heartfelt and so heavy that we probably don't tell anybody.

25:11 And we as questions, we always have questions. We have questions about doubts like if I doubt God, if I doubt his plan, if I doubt it's who's real? Do I go to heaven? Am I saved? Like is, is hell a real place? Like we, we walk through this God really do these things. Why are Christians so judgmental, right? I mean, kind of, you know, you walk this season like, I can't believe Christians would do this. And you kind of walk away from gobble because you see how Christians act sometimes you look out and you're like, but why are Christians so divided over politics and the things of the world? And these are questions that we we typically don't ask. And a day is going to be a very interesting, heartfelt question. And it deals with Labor Day of all things. And it's a really this idea, what if or what do we do when we're can't find meaning and purpose and what we do for our work or in life? You're not going to probably ask our spouse or really anybody, man.

26:03 I'm not really feeling it Like what, what do we do? We kind of feel numb to the world or numb to our job. Ever just gone through the motions and punch the clock and it's just year after year or a season of just, I mean, I can't believe I'm still doing this. It's frustrating. God, why am I in this season? And so there you go walk through what's the purpose in work? What, what's got up to, why would I walk through this? Is it meaningless? And if you start thinking about your life and futility, it can be kind of meaningless pretty quick. It can feel that way. And so on my prayer day is that you will find significance. You find purpose. You'd have this aha moment, Jesus, where he purposes your work, where you have a higher calling than just showing up to punch a clock that's more than a paycheck.

26:44 It's Kingdom minded. And so to redefine our purpose today, it's always intriguing to think about why holidays exist. Labor Day, I had to research this. I've never actually researched why does Labor Day exist? That sounds kind of interesting. Amen. I know you all Googled it, You know, Chachi PT, they're like, oh, maybe what's going on with this? And I learned something. It's so interesting. Back in the 1800s, late 1800s, it had been the industrial revolution. People are are working endlessly. There's no laws for labor and children are going to factors and working at a young age. People are working 12 to 1618 hour days, seven days a week and with the threat of being fired if they don't show up.

27:25 And these unions are being formed and there's protest, people actually getting killed in riots. And eventually labor laws come to pass in Grover Cleveland in the 1890s. Basically in in to to memorialize. This sets up what we know today as Labor Day, not just to honor the work or the labor, but to honor the laborers doing the work. Now, how about you? But who's thankful for Labor Day? Amen. I mean, that's a different take on it usually thinks, oh, it's end of summer, it's a fun holiday, we really appreciate our workers, but to actually honor people and say we're not going to take advantage of you. And I just thought for the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that we will have a Labor Day, Amen. Like we've never had to do labor with Jesus.

28:05 Jesus finished all the work on the cross, Amen. And so we just get to take a part of that. And God does not put us through all this religion, but relationship with him. But what do you do when life feels a little meaningless when you have to work 12 to 16 hours a day? Imagine go back to eighteen 1800s and that would be kind of meaningless to be in a factory and put a nut on a bolt 12 hours a day. That seemed pretty meaningless. So wouldn't it? And this isn't really anything new. Matter of fact, Solomon, he talked about this quite a bit. Solomon got the gift of wisdom from God, one of the wealthiest people, if not the wealthiest personnel of history says in Ecclesiastes 227. He says, so I hated life because the what? What's it say? Yeah, the work, the labor that is done under the sun was what?

28:48 What to say? Grievous to me. But why is it grievous? Listen, this, he said. All of us meaningless. I chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had told for under the sun because I must look at this, leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows where that person will be. Wise or foolish, who knows they're going to take care of it like I spent all this time and energy to build this. And who knows where the next person is going to do? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toll into which I poured my effort and skill in the sun. And this too is what to say meaningless. What do you do in life and work is meaningless and he's just figuring it out. It's meaningless. And so my heart began to despair over all my tollsome labor under the sun for a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill that that's what we want. And then they must leave all they have to it one to another who has not told for it.

29:39 So like this is inheritance in a nutshell. And it like you get to leave your heritage like you didn't work for any of this. What are you really going to do? This is the end of life. I just, you know, basically here's a paycheck that goes to my heirs. This is it. This, this is this is burdensome. He says this too is meaningless. And he says it's a great misfortune. It's really interesting how he says that. And he asked this question in his text. It says, what do people get for all the total and anxious driving with which they labor under the sun? It says all their days their work is grief and pain. This is really exciting. Even at night, their minds did not rest. This too, is what meaningless. It ever felt this way, just real honest. Ever felt this way before? Real honest, just real honest.

30:19 Yeah. I mean, I, I, I feel like this is one of those like questions that we have a lot that we don't ask. And I've definitely had seasons where I was like, why am I doing not ministry, but why am I doing this? I, I was a general contractor and I finally was like, the Lord's not called me this like this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. Is it was total some, but there's purpose in that. It wasn't my purpose. But you think about this. I've had sayings. I think this is a jerryism. This is my father-in-law. He'll he'll say stuff like in 100 years won't matter anyway. Amen. It's just like, it's kind of meaningless. Like what, You know, it doesn't really matter, right? The next generation's really not going to appreciate that as much as we did and saw his mind say, look at the words, use frustration, grieved, despair, great misfortune.

31:02 Here's the big truth today without purpose, work and life are meaningless. They're they're useless. They feel wasted. There's there's not a purpose to tie what we're doing what we're doing to back to then it feels useless like you're in this rat race in this cycle who, how many guys know purpose matters? Amen. I know purpose matters. There's a greater purpose matter of fact in our church. We say it's every week, twice a week we talked about in the welcome, but our mission statement and at the end we, we say real life and do it again now real life. And there you go, right. We, we, we, we say it every week, right. Like, oh, we do say every week. It's so important to our lives that we actually talk about in our mission statement of church.

31:43 Then they find real life. What's real life? They find real life. The only real life is found in Jesus. So one that find Jesus and two, they find purpose. They find their purpose in Jesus. It's one thing to know Jesus. Nothing, no, why another thing to, to, to, to surrender, understand his plan. You know, it's been said this, I don't know who put this together, but the 2 greatest days of your life, right? The day you're born and the day you figure out why. Why? Why am I here? What is the point of all of this? Check out this picture. I'll give you illustration of purpose. All right? This is a Lego truck. A transformer Lego truck. Now, I built this. It took me 5-6 hours. That's exciting.

32:27 You know what really makes it exciting is I'm colorblind. Come on somebody. And these aren't Legos, these are Phacos. You know what I'm saying? The off brand that the Chinese brand that comes in and that you can't read the thing that you know and it will do at the bottom. She has shown your pace every page and you're just discouraged because it's 105 steps, 768 pieces, microscopic and blue and everything looks the same. And and you know why I built this? Let me know why I built this. You said because Diane wanted me to build a Lego transformer for that is not correct, right? Oh no, no, Levi wanted me to build this.

33:08 It wasn't because I like Legos and it wasn't because I have time. Amen. I did not have time to take two nights out of my week to build this Lego transformer. I'm telling you and and and and it's supposed to like have another thing a dude, all the instructions since it's in Chinese, I didn't know you can either build the truck or the dude. They don't transform. It's a non transformer. OK, so it took me 7 hours to figure out this is a waste of time. And as soon as I built it, Levi goes. That took a long time. Dad, where's my transformer guy? He's in there and he's going to stay in there because there's no I'm ever going to do this again.

33:51 Was like, I should get a super glue out and glue this truck together, dip it in some kind of glue like I'm never doing this again. I was just waiting for the knock off the table immediately and I'm like oh what boobs dad I was. Like. No right? But why did I build this? I didn't I didn't build it because I wanted to build it. I didn't build because I like Legos. I don't like Transformers. I really don't care for the movie series, to be honest with you. It's cool, but not for me. Like I don't like any. I don't spend time on it. But I did it for Levi. Levi to get home from from from school or from, you know, grandparents. And is it done yet, Dad? Is it done yet? We work on that dad yet. I'm like not enough time. And he just like he just wanted so bad and he has so much excitement and joy. Ever seen a little kid smile and light up?

34:31 I mean, he was gonna say I'm a sucker, right? Like, I'm gonna say yes. So I'm like, OK. And it's pain and suffering. I'm just telling you. Everybody's walked by and he complained. Dad's taking forever. I'm like, you're telling me, son. You're telling me, right? There's a purpose. Purpose matters. Amen. There was a deep meaningful why behind the what. There was a meaningful why behind building this. If I built that and I didn't tie it back to Levi and I did it myself, you guys would think I'm weird. Weird. Now some of y'all build these things I've insulted to you, right? But you think I'm weird. But what do you do when life feels meaningless? What do when work feels meaningless? You got a member of your purpose. And there's a great passage on purpose. And I was reminded this week as I was reading through the Bible with some of our men. But John Chapter 9, if you got your Bible, John Chapter 9, there's a story of a blind man who receives sight and gets healed where we right at the beginning, John Chapter 9 verse one.

35:23 And this is one of the most profound pieces of scripture that has spoke to me in my life. It says this, it says as he went along, as Jesus went along, he saw a man. What's it say blind? And it's from birth. This man was was born blind. He didn't go blind. So his life would have been a life of a beggar. He would have been a poor, he would have been on the streets, you couldn't afford a wage, you couldn't do a job. He would just have to beg and beg and beg. And that was his life until Jesus found him. It says this, his disciples asked Jesus, Rabbi, teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.

36:06 And there's always an assumption with suffering. We talked about this a little bit last week, but there's always an assumption of suffering that's caused by sin. There's always assumption that somebody did something wrong, somebody's at fault for somebody's life looking so bad or so horrible or so tragic that there there must be somebody to blame for that person being born blind. If he sinned for his mother and dad stand or some of his family saying that he has some kind of consequence to his life, it'd be unfathomable that God himself would actually allow us to be broken and be frail. It'd be outside their mindset to even think this way that he'd be born blind with this complete opposite. God is actually in charge of our suffering, yet actually put this whole story together.

36:57 That's what Jesus says to him. He says neither this man nor his parents send it's been shocking statement to disciples, said Jesus. But this what's it say? This this happened somebody say happened. Yeah, this happened. This was put together so that here's the purpose that the works of God might be what displayed that this happens on purpose so that the works of God will be on display in him. This verse blew my mind when I first read the book of John at 17 years old. This verse was it was catastrophically different from my life because I at that point I Lily didn't understand why I was going through. I was going through.

37:38 I didn't understand that God had a hand in the story that there's a greater purpose, like your life is not accident, man. Your job and where you work and all the things you told through doing the dishes, doing the laundry, having their family, the kids, where you live, all these things. God has ordained these things. God has put you in these places, Amen. It's not an accident and there's a purpose to your life, just like the purpose is blind man's life. You might look at the blind man, say man, that guy got dealt a really bad hand of cards, like life just happened to him and his environment dictate his life, like he was just a victim, like he was downhill from uncontrollables. It was somebody else's fault. It was it was somebody else. There's an accident.

38:18 It was on purpose and it wasn't a result of sin. It was actually a result of God's sovereign, selective hand that he was born blind, that God had put him in this situation so that he might get the glory and the power for what he's going to do in his life, like God put him in this season so he could redeem it and use it to bring himself glory. Jesus knew his life would be hard. Jesus knew that he would suffer. Jesus knew that he would spend time being a beggar. If you read the story, he's old enough to not live at home. So all John Chapter 9 you can read going through it. It's like 45 verses a day. But he he actually lives. He lived at home and he's outside the home. He's is of age.

39:01 His parents won't even testify about him being blind. And so this man is not young and he knew he'd spend his life in hardship. And here's the reason there was a bigger purpose. There was a mission to his life. Amen. There's something greater than the suffering that Jesus and his his sovereignty knew that with the glory that he would show and the works to be done in him would be displayed to a lost and dying world. And somehow it would be more effective in his brokenness than in His victory. Like the redemption of his story would bring glory to God in such a way it was worth the man being born blind. Look at verse 6. And after saying this, Jesus spat on the ground.

39:42 That's fun. And he made some mud with saliva and put it into the man's eyes. Now, it's interesting because when God created us as humans, he actually created us out of the dust of the earth and he formed us and instantly designed us and he breathed into us the breath of life. It's that same dirt that Jesus spits into any And you know, you might think he might actually like put together eyes with clay or just mold them up and then smeared him on this man's eye sockets or put him in the eye sockets. Who really knows, right? And he put it in his eyes and he said go. He told him wash in the pool Salome, which means since somebody say sent since because he's going to be a messenger for the things of God, he says So the man went and washed and came home seeing.

40:28 Now at this point he's actually never seen Jesus. He never actually saw Jesus. He left with mud on his eyes to go to the pool and to wash. And later, only later will he see Jesus. And we serve a God that does miracles in the mundane. This man was sitting and Jesus found him. This man didn't see Jesus. This man didn't ask for Jesus. He was sitting at the perfect moment for Jesus to come by and do a miracle. Do you know that Jesus positioned your life? Amen. He's not an accident where you're at. He's placed you and He's perfectly designed you and your story, the family you're born into, the circumstances you grew up with. He's perfectly designed your story so that God can get the maximum amount of glory from your life.

41:15 Amen. He's using all these things to bring himself glory. And listen this, he didn't just give the man sight, He actually gave the man purpose to give him purpose. The golden miracle wasn't that he just see. The golden miracle is that the Gods works will be on display, Amen. So he didn't just give him sight to see. He didn't do a miracle in his life. And thank you Jesus, what a great story. He actually did a miracle. So he live on mission. He did a miracle so he could proclaim that to other people. He could go out and say he did proclaim this. He said I once was blind, but now I see that that's a proclamation of God's glory, Amen. And the whole rest of his life he's going to go around and tell the whole world that I was a blind man, I was a beggar on the street. But Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ healed me. That's the glory of God.

42:08 And it's the reason it's so powerful in the New Testament, in this story, is that only one person and all of history could ever give sight to the blind, and that was the Messiah, Christ. That means the Messiah anointed 1 the chosen one of God, the one prophesied in Genesis 315, the one that there was to come. They didn't know it was going to be Son of God, but he is the Son of God. And so this, this blind man, this beggar who receives his sight isn't just clearing a miracle of God, He's actually declaring the identity of God. He's saying no, no, no, that Jesus is the Messiah because he did something to me only God can do. He's literally a picture.

42:49 He is the living proof of the living God. Amen. He is living proof of a living God. His story is saying only Jesus, God himself, the Messiah could have done the work and nobody could ever do this. He actually says this later on in in in Chapter 9. It says verse 32. It says nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind like this blind man like no one's heard of this. If this make we're not from God, he could do nothing. What he's saying is like Abraham, Moses, the prophets, there's nobody that's ever done this miracle. You see a lot of crazy miracles, Old Testament, Amen.

43:31 There's a lot of crazy miracles and Isaiah, it mentions that this person will give sight to the blind, the Messiah, and so is a picture of Jesus. Matter of fact, you search the New Testament, you have disciples that heal people who are blind but make them walk. So you don't really have any specific story of a disciple healing somebody's blind. It's it's crazy. Like it was just a picture. It was a sign that Jesus was the Son of God. He's the Messiah. He's a chosen one for us. And so this means living proof of a living God. Amen. Amen. Y'all with me now. It's just significant. The miracle is not just for you, the miracles for others to see God through. You see, this blind man wasn't supposed to have sight for himself.

44:18 He's actually helping other people have sight, the spiritual blinds to see the things of God. He's there to declare God's glory. Like I said, when I was 17 years old, I've read this for the very first time and I grew up in a broken home. I grew up, I saw my dad, you know, every other weekends. I grew up with step siblings. You saw my picture last week. I think that's last week, week before last week. Elblers together. I'm not going to put it back up. Don't you dare do that. I never probably got there. It's probably back in the folder there, right? You saw my family, right. And you know, at 17's interesting age because you start thinking about the future quite a bit, like you're getting close to graduate high school. Like what's my life? Can you be out? Like I'm going to make a bunch of money. Like what?

45:01 What do I go to college? Like is it about money is why? Why is this hardship? You start seeing the news and it's making a little more sense and you start realizing your family wasn't like the like a nuclear family, you know? And you're like, why did this? How did this? And you start wondering like, what's the point of life? Like, am I going to really spend the next 40 years like slaving and making a paycheck just to maybe get sick and not enjoy it Like you like I'm starting thinking about this stuff like 17 and, and wondering like all these purpose questions and I read this passage and just stuck out to me like there's a reason I'm here. Like I have a purpose. Like it's not an accident that I'm in a blended family in Raytona Beach. Come on with somebody. That's Raytown, by the way, right?

45:41 Maritona Beach. Like it's just not an accident that I'm in this, in the place I am with the last name I have, with the family I have and the friends I have. It's not actually God has put me on purpose so I can declare his works. That's refreshing. Amen. Like this is not an accident like I'm not coming out some cesspool and all the evolved and what's the point of life? Like I don't know just enjoy all you can because once it's over it's over. Like it was so significant to my life that I knew I had to live my life for God because he'd give me such purpose like what it look like my life to display his glory and it begin this battle of my soul for the next year. Whether I should go off and be a doctor, go pre Med or I should go into what I've considered full time ministry.

46:23 And I was I was fighting back and forth and it went down to the very end. I changed, I changed schools about two weeks before school started and it was crazy. But that that's because of this scripture that was in my mind. I found my purpose. It was the second day, right? Greatest of your life. So what do you do in life feels meaningless. And I think you got to go back to your purpose that God's work is greater than our work. Doing God's work is greater than doing our work. It's not about just running cable or flying UAVs. Come on, somebody right here, this guy's about to change the world. His name's Adam. And there's some drones that may be flying out for Amazon that will go over your house and hover. If you see that at all. He's the guy to go talk to.

47:05 And you think I'm joking, but I'm dead serious. It's happening, dude, it's happening literally changed the world. Thank you for doing what you do, Adam. I appreciate that, but it's just not about that, right? It's a bigger point to this whole thing. And this is what it says in John Chapter 9. This is what Jesus was teaching the disciples at the beginning of this this whole thing. We healed the blind man. John Chapter 9, John Chapter 9, verse 4, it says as long it is this day, we somebody say, we say we all right, as long as they we must do the works of him. Thank you. We must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work so much crucifixion. So Jesus, he's actually including his disciples. He's not just him doing the work of the Father.

47:46 It's including disciples. It's really the point of our life that we do the work of the Father that sent Jesus. Who knows? You're in your Father's business, Amen. That's who you work for. You're doing the works of the Father. When Jesus talks, he's actually taking conversations that he had around the throne of God and he speaks to us the words of the Father in heaven around the throne about he's doing and his purposes in his ways. That's amazing to think about. Like you're part of a way bigger company than Amazon, Amen? You're part of the company. What God is doing this with the Father's work and our work is do the work of the Father who sent Jesus. It's way bigger than a paycheck.

48:28 We got to make a paycheck, Amen? I mean, that's what earthly is about. You got toil, you got all these things, but it's more than a paycheck. There's something way deeper than this punching the clock, put in the four O 1K going to retire. I talked to so many people. I've talked to a man. He, he owned like everything on the South side of College Blvd. between Null and Row. He was a anesthesiologist and and he went into commercial business and he's still working. He's still working and he's upper 70s. And I asked him, I said you could retired like you're 40. You know, you could retire when you're 50. You could do all this stuff. And he said, hey, you know what, You're right. Like, I wish I would have gone back 40 years ago and had a vision for my life, for retirement. And so I just keep working.

49:11 He's like, just to kind of what I do. It's just, it's just amazing because we have just kind of settled into like, that's the life I'm going to have. But what's the purpose beyond that? Amen. Maybe maybe the purpose is to fund missions or to be on mission or just share the gospel. These are all purposes we should live out every single day of our life. You might ask why work is unfulfilling. It's because we mistake work for purpose. We mistake work for purpose. And God could use your work and maybe your work has a purpose, like maybe it ties more directly and maybe God put you there to be a light. Amen. And the gospel or, or to, to. I always think if you're going to do something you do with all your might, like like whatever your hand puts to do with all your might, like you're working to the Lord, Amen.

49:57 I always think like if you're roofing a house, you should roof it like it's Jesus house, Amen. Like you, you should do everything for the glory of God. So it's not just like they're spiritual and secular. I don't want you to get that idea, but like you're doing it for the glory of God. But it may not, but it's tied back to the fact that people get glory through that. Why do you roof the house so well? Oh, because I love Jesus and you get to Share your story with people around you and point people to Christ as relationships. You build. It's not just about roofing, it's about the relationships. But you, we, we say this often, you know, people ask you, hey, what do you do? And we, we tell them like earthly answers, which makes sense, but we don't really tie it back to the bigger purpose. She'll say, what do you do is say, oh, I'm a nurse, you know, I work construction, You know, I, I, I clean, I'm a, I'm a custodian. Like we fill in the blank.

50:45 Like people ask immediately, You tell them a job title, you tell them the earthly job title. Some of you guys are teachers, like I said, to pick on the Amazon drunk guy here in the front, right. Quite a bit, right? But these are all earthly titles. They're man made titles. These are smaller purposes and they're awesome purposes, Amen. Like we need every one of these, Amen, Amen. Some of us need to I won't I'll stop interesting day yesterday, but here's what God calls us. Here's our heavenly purposes. All right, I'll I'll give you 3 big heavenly purposes. There's way more than this and one is we're ambassador for Christ, we're bashed for Christ. 2nd Corinthians 517. This is a famous passage by Paul says, therefore, if it was in Christ our new creation, the new has come, the old is gone, the new is here.

51:30 That sounds the moment you come to Christ, the moment you start relationship with Jesus that you're a new man, a new woman, the old is gone. I love it that Jesus doesn't upgrade your life. He tears down the old one and brings a new one. Amen. You don't get little tweaks. You don't paint the cabinets. No, no, you're a new person in Christ and says all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ. And look at this. He gave us the ministry of what? The ministry of reconciliation. He gave us the ministry of sharing good works and being a light man. You quit smoking. Yeah, I don't smoke. I heard you maybe a little bit. That's good.

52:12 But it gives a ministry to bring people back to himself. Like like God didn't move. We moved. That's why we're reconciled back to God and we have the ministry of sharing the gospel so that other people can get back in a relationship with Jesus. That that's why we're here. It's a purpose that God was reconciled the world to himself in Christ. This is the message you preach. So we tell people God was reconciled the world to himself. We down the cross, but we did not counting people's sins against them. Who's playing for that verse Amen that we don't have a Labor Day with Jesus. Like I said earlier, we don't have to earn our way back to God. God is actually carries a big eraser and we know Jesus and we make mistakes. He forgives us all says we confess our sins faithful and just forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness like we came to Christ.

52:57 We just said we were confessing our need for him. Lord, I need you, Lord, forgive me. And he took that eraser out and he washed away as far as the east is from the West. And every time we mess up, God erases. Sometimes you think God's out to get us and we're not good enough for God. But God is not sitting there going in heaven and he's writing down all this of your sins and going, man, I'm going to get you. He's not that kind of God, Amen. He's a grace filled God and he is reconciling us back to him. This is the message of you to preach. That's a great message to preach. He's committed to us. So not only did he give us, he's committing to us the message of reconciliation. He's saying it's no longer mine. I'm leaving. I'm going back to heaven. It is yours to preach.

53:37 Amen. I mean, I always think God help me. Oh, thank you. I didn't even see you over here. That was tricky, Rick. Nice work, my friend. You're a good man, Rick. I like that. I'll probably trip on it later. It's a trap. But He gave us the ministry of reconciliation, verse 20. We are there for Christ. Ambassadors. Who are we? Christ ambassadors? We're diplomats for Christ. We're ambassadors for Christ. That means we speak on behalf of Christ. We're sharing things with Christ. He's not here to share. We are sharing for Him as the God. We're making His appeal through us.

54:18 We implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God. God made him. This is it. Who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might be the righteousness of God. That's the message we preach. Amen. And so while you're spinning and you're toiling and you're thinking, oh man, well, everything owns you to go to the next generation. And I don't know if it really is going to matter if we have excellence and it's kind of hard to get a bed to go to work and you gotta go wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not showing up to do it. Just a job that's important. I'm actually here because I'm an ambassador for Christ. Amen. The gospel has to go into every little place where you work, play, live, study everything.

55:01 The gospel goes with you. So not only ambassador, you're actually salt and light. Matthew 514. This is the Beatitudes, Jesus sermon, the mount. He said you're the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its salt in this, how can it be made salty again if it's no longer good for anything except be thrown out and trampled in her foot? I learned something about salt this week. This is going to be really interesting. There's a man in my group named Jamie Montgomer. You guys know Jamie, He's in. He's actually not here today. All right, now we can say we want to. He he read a book on the history of salt. I said, dude, you're a boring dude, man. He said it was really interesting. I was really curious.

55:43 Tell me something about salt. I don't know, He said. You know what's crazy is they used to pay people with salt. A Roman soldier would get paid in salt sometimes, like when this time period salt was valuable. Like nowadays we don't think anything of it, you know, just get the shaker out filled up. You buy, you know, buy the ton, right? We just put on the road and it's icy out, right. But but salt like it was significant. Like you need it to be healthy. And so they would actually get paid in salt off and they'd store salt. He told me in Civil War they'd just be salt like carts for people to have enough salt for their bodies. It was crazy. But the thing like that salt was significant in that time period. And if you lose your salt in this, what good is it like if you're not getting the salt that you're supposed to get?

56:25 Like salt was valuable is a preservative. It was a flavor. He told me that salt is actually why you have salad named after salt to keep its flavor, to keep it to last. I was like, OK, dude, you're blowing my mind now. Like he's going through all this different things, right? It's like, I'm not. What's the name of that book again? I didn't go there, right? I just got the Cliff notes from him Is perfect. They said this. You're the lie of the world. We're 14. A town built on a hill could not be hidden. I always think about Bogota, Colombian, as a town on the hill. You get out and like the, the mountains and you get little houses or little villages. I mean, it's just a such amazing picture that when you turn a light on it don't matter if you're 20 miles or 10 miles or five miles. You know, there's a, there's a city there, there's a house there and you can see it, it, it's something we don't really think about here in the States a lot because you don't have this kind of rolling valleys and stuff. You just kind of see subdivisions, but out in different areas of the world, there's villages in the night. He says neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it instead on a stand. They elevate the light so it gives light to everyone in the house.

57:30 They elevate it at their workplace. They elevate with their family. They elevate it wherever they play, elevate at school. They elevate it so people can see a light. Amen. Amen. Like your goal is to be light, to be salt, to preserve the things of God and to shine out God's glory and God's work so that people can see him and know him. He says, therefore let your light shine for others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. That's a purpose. Amen. If you're discouraged, I would encourage you, baby, to get your eyes more on Jesus because it's easy to go. Well, I can't get these deadlines and all this is stressful and we're so looking down at all the things, you know, like, oh, there's there's my you know, there's this account.

58:17 There's an all all man so busy, so busy, so busy. Why? What's Jesus want you to do? Share the Gospel, shine a light, be different for the things of Christ. Maybe it's add to change, right? Negativity. There shouldn't be a bunch of negativity in the Christian life. Like it just shows like there's some room to grow. Amen. Last thing is this your disciple maker Matthew 28, 18 says, then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me. This is one of the last things that Jesus says to the disciples for you to act rightful ascension. He says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.

58:57 Go and make what make disciples if if, if you're if you're can't find your purpose in me in life. Like Solomon, he was like, he was so discouraged. Like, I'm just gonna hand off everything. What are you leaving disciples? Disciples. If your life isn't invested in disciples, it would probably feel pretty meaningless. If your life wasn't about the things of Christ going to the next generation, it'd feel pretty futile. Like, what would be the point? That's why I kind of love this story over here. I mean, Scott and Jordan, the family, right? Like, dude, God's got them. This guy's reading the Bible, praying, seek care of things like God. That is reassuring and that's the gospel going forward. Amen.

59:42 As we talk about the future and what it looks like, it means that we're making disciples of the next generation. They're pouring all of the things of God in our life into somebody else. That is significant. That's the purpose. You guys ever thought about starting a Bible study at your work? You guys ever thought about asking different questions like, hey, man, I heard heard that I saw on Facebook, man, how can I pray for you? Like, hey, what? What's God showing you? Just building spiritual, redemptive relationships with people around you. This might be brand new to think for. Like, you know, we're really, really good at our jobs, but we're really, really good at our job, our Heavenly Father's job to make disciples. That's what we got to focus in on because that's a life worth living and a life worth dying for. So Jesus died for to make disciples. This passage is about making disciples. We go so we can make disciples.

1:00:37 We baptized because we made disciples. We teach because we made disciples. Go and make disciples with all nations. That's every person. That's your workplace. And I promise you, I ain't show up to your work. Amen. I'm going to be around all your friends. I'm gonna hang with your fried night buddies. That's your place to make disciples. Live on a mission where you go every place you step foot, baptizing the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey you. Teach you obedience, not just thanks God, but teach them to follow God, obey God and everything. I've command you and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. What a great promise. Never forget who you really are. When somebody says, hey, what do you do for a living? I always love this. Imagine an airplane. It's a great captive audience, Amen. And they always ask the same questions. It's never anything new.

1:01:23 Nowadays it's more like earbuds and nobody talks. But if you start talking to say, what do you do? Seems like the first or second question. And usually you tell somebody, hey, you know what? Actually, I work in my father's business. It's an international company kind of worldwide, Amen? Like it actually helps people discover real life and purpose. It's a pretty cool company. It's a lot of fun. Matter of fact, I'm actually an ambassador. Oh, really? Wow, that's so exciting. Wow. Tell me more about that. Well, I don't, I don't mind. I will. I think I'll, you know, I got 3 hours on this flight. Thank you for asking. Right. It may be a little cheesy, but that that's the point. Like we are ambassadors. We are disciple makers. Like it's way bigger, it's way bigger.

1:02:05 It's way bigger than just all I got to get A to B get my job list done, be transactional, get my stuff put together, notice slow down. Who in your life can you pour into to build disciples? I'm not sure who I'm poured into is my kids, but put put that thing back on the screen by my awesome truck. So proud of this truck, right? You know it's never going to be the same, right? This is a good illustration of hanging it to a teenager and start driving. It's just never going to come back the same way you left it, right? But you know why? Why do this? Because you know, it's not just all I built a truck because he was excited. What I was excited about was spending time with my son. He's 4, right?

1:02:46 And he didn't sit next to me for six hours. OK, But he came next to me. Dad is already blah, blah. And I can just start telling him the things of God. I can say, hey, leave a story. What's that? So. Well, I once was blind. Come on. Somebody. I once was blind, son. Yeah. I was a 15 man. Didn't go to church, grew up in a family, didn't follow Jesus. You're so lucky to know Jesus, man. I found Jesus and changed my life. Now I see, just slow down for that relationship, Amen. And you can do that. Everywhere you go, you work on something. Hey, man, I'm going to tell you a story, man. I think you know, it's a great storyteller.

1:03:27 Bill Hardy was a great storyteller. That boy could tell a story. If you don't know Bill, Bill, Bill went on the Lord a few months ago, and he always had time for a story. He didn't always have time for work. He did work hard, but he interrupted your work to tell some stories, Amen. And those stories always are redemptive. It always went back to the things of God, always challenge you spiritually, always encourage you deeply. That's what it looks like to make disciples. Amen. And this week, if you could just say, I can't find meaning and purpose in my work, well, maybe it's because you've been living for work and not for Jesus and say, what does it look like to to encapsulate my word for the things of Christ? Yes, with excellence, yes, with passion. But I've got coworkers in the Christ. I need people to be some encouragement. Am I praying for these people?

1:04:08 Am I loving those people? We're looking to start a Bible study. Invite them to your house, invite them to the things of God. Our job as a church is not to get people to church and to get them to Jesus. Amen. There will not be a banner in heaven that says real life church. There will not be a name in light that says Sean Petrie. There will be a name that says Jesus. There will be a throne. He sits on it and so our job is to scatter out throughout the week and live on mission for Christ and come back and gather and celebrate what God's done. That's why we're here. That's the purpose. That's what makes life meaningful. Being come back and say, man, you know what, God did something amazing. I saw this person hear the gospel be praying for him. He may come to Christ. I'm trying to share these things with them. Hey, I'm linking about sort of Bibles with my kid like I want to walk through where should I start because I'm living on mission with my family.

1:04:55 These are the conversations we want to have a church. Amen, like we don't want to talk about football. Amen. We want to talk about the things that matter, the deep things of God that once was blind, but now I see, Father, come before you can help us to purpose our labor. Remind us for Our Calling. Maybe that you're speaking to some people in the room today For those of you that are so you know what, I need to purpose my life. I need to purpose my work. I've just drifted into my own routines. But the day I realized that God has put me on purpose here with a purpose to share his life, to be an ambassador, to be a stopmaker, to bring in light to share my story. If that's you and God speaking to you, to live out your purpose and your calling in these different areas, raise your hand high, says me. God speaking to me to live on mission everywhere I go. Come on, God sees the hands.

1:05:47 He knows the hearts that help us to be ambassadors, to be reconciler speakers, to share the good news. You're not counting our sins against us. Help us have the boldness and the courage to share the deeper things in life, to slow down and to share the stories of God with our children, with our coworkers, with our friends, with their family. And we would just put our light up on a light stand, a lamp stand for the world to see, to be on display. Just amazing about the blind man. He never asked to be healed. He never asked to be healed. It's because God had purposed him to be healed. Maybe today you need to find your purpose. Maybe today for the very first time, you recognize who Jesus really is.

1:06:37 And the Bible says the day is the day. Salvation. You heard about Jesus not countering sins against us because Jesus the only one who can erase sins, the sinless Son of God who came 2000 years ago down across for us. The Bible says today if you call name of Jesus, you be saved, forgiven and made new. The Bible said right earlier, first Sin Corinthians 217, First Corinthians 2/5/17 that the old has gone, the new has come, your new creation in Christ. And today if you need to be new in Christ, that means you find your purpose in Christ, your identity in Christ, your name in Christ. You'll be given a ministry of reconciliation that's actually coming to save you. It's supposed to go through to the world. If you'd be saved by Jesus, if that's you without me looking around, would you just raise your hand, hand high? So I need Jesus, I need, I need my purpose. I recognize a sinless Son of God who died on the cross for me that's you.

1:07:26 Those are the called out and make it weird but that's you need Christ. Just put your hand in the hair. See your hand that you need Christ just call it to him. I believe through a prayer. The prayer does not save you but your heart towards him. This crowd say Father God, thank you so much that you have purposed me. You love me enough to send your son to down across from me. He erased my sins as far as the east is from the West God. And I recognize today I'm a Sinner in need of a savior and I've been living my own path, my own direction. I've been struggling trying to maybe figure it out or been prideful. Look at me. But today I recognize the story. It's all about you. This story is about your glory. It's about your work.

1:08:09 And today I can proclaim for the first time in my life that was spiritually dead. But the day I was blind and leaving here today and I can see. So thank you Jesus for saving me and I praise in Jesus name and the church said Amen. Come on, give some glory to God today. Let them know you love him. What a powerful word today. Just a reminder on our purpose and where our purpose is found, not in what we do, but in whose we are. And some of you have prayed that prayer and found your purpose in real life in Jesus today. If that is you, we are so excited for you. We would love just to walk alongside you this week to resource you with a couple of things. So if you would grab that connection card that is on your seat, fill out your information, but make sure and check that box that says I committed my life to Jesus.

1:08:56 And you can drop that in the giving buckets here in a few minutes. But by doing so, it allows us to get you 2 things. And this is the first one is this. It's a free resource. I will drop it in the mail tomorrow. It's a book called Begin short read, but a powerful one really will be a blessing for you as you're taking these next steps with Jesus this week. Also, if you pray that prayer and you're right here at Kentucky Trail, as you leave the worship center, there is a table with some red bags inside. Those bags are free Bible and some other resources that we would love to get to you today. And once again, we are just so excited that you chose to make that decision today. We love that you committed your life to him today. And hey, Next up is fall life groups. Hey, they are starting very soon. They start meeting next Sunday, September 7th.

1:09:38 I know summer's winding down for all of us. Kids are back in school, routines are in place. This is a great time and opportunity to really get connected and to get plugged in with the people of God. And so I want to ask this, how many of you do you raise your hand if you have been encouraged, if you have been challenged, if you have been changed by attending a life group, turn around and look at all these hands. Well, that is real community. That's what community looks like. It's real people just doing life together, growing deeper in their faith together. And that's why life groups exist. And so I want to challenge you with this. Maybe in your mind you're already saying, I don't really know a lot of people here. I've never joined a life group before. I don't really know where I would have fit in. But that is exactly why life groups exist. That is your community for people to do life shoulder to shoulder with and to know people's names and to get connected.

1:10:34 That's why we do life groups here at Real Life Church and we would love to have you in a life group this fall. There are so many ways that you can check them out. You can go online to see them. You can go out in the Hub. There's a life group board that has all of them on there. You can scan the QR and sign up. Once again, They start meeting next Sunday, September 7th. If you have questions about life groups, I'll be hanging out there. Come hit me up. I'd love to talk to you, help you find a life group, life group that would be a good fit for you. Hey, if you are new with us today, thank you so much for being here. We truly are so glad that you're here. We've been praying for you this week. We've been planning for you, preparing this gathering just for you and with you in mind. And so thank you so much for being here. We don't want anything from you except for this. And that was just for you to introduce yourself to us. You can do that by grabbing that same card, fill out your information on there, check first time here and you can take that out to the new here booth as you leave. We do have a free gift that we would love to get to you just as our way of saying thank you for being here with us. And we would love to see you back next week right here at 9:15 or 10:45.

1:11:34 And thank you again so much for being here. Hey, I want to share and say thank you so much to those of you who give here at Real Life Church. I was just looking last week at a report and so far this year, we've had 61 people come to know Jesus because of your giving. That is huge. That's right. Give it up. That's amazing. Your generosity is making an eternal impact. And every time you get here, it's so much more than just allowing us to turn the lights on to rent this space. To me, it truly is allows us. It fuels a ministry, it changes the lives, it opens the door for more people to come to know Jesus. And that's exactly what it's all about. I want to share what we believe about money here at Real Life Church.

1:12:20 It's a simple principle, but man, it's powerful and it's called the funnel. And that's this. You give to God first and that honors God, shows that you trust him. Hey God, I'm going to give to you first before all the other things get in the way. You invest 2nd and that builds wealth. That's like the parable of talents. It's using what we have and multiplying it to be able to give back to Him. And then you live on the rest. And that builds contentment, just says, hey, God, I trust you with what you've given to me. And I'm content with what I have. And it truly, at the end of the day, is about so much more than money. It's about souls. It's not just a financial plan. It is a discipleship plan. Because man is our generosity, heroes, our impact. Gross and at the end of the day that is what it's all about so I invite you I encourage you today to take part in that If you call real life church home, there are so many ways you can take part in that check out the screen there. You can go to our website reallifechurchkc.com. You can text any amount you can scan the QR. The buckets are going to pass here in just a few minutes. You can drop cash or check in those or you can drop it in the giving box in the back.

1:13:21 And as always, if you're your family, find yourself in any kind of need this week, food, clothing, shelter, would you please, please reach into the buckets here and just a minute as they pass and grab any loose cash that you find there. We really do want to bless you this week. Man, what awesome day. Who's thankful for what God's doing. And get rid of these elephants. I got kicked over your water, Sean. I didn't even see it was there. Hey, before we get out of here, I want to let you guys know about something awesome. So real life is having a birthday. We are turning a man. And God is so good, isn't it? Yeah, give it up for God. So we celebrate every time. If you've never been to one of birthday parties, we celebrate with baptisms and we just blow the walls out.

1:14:02 So that's coming on the 21st. But for our dream team, or maybe you're looking at serving and jumping our dream team. We have an awesome party on the 16th. It's a Tuesday. We want to invite you guys to come hang out with us. It's it's at Jerry's house in Raymore. We'll get you some directions. But we have a whole hog roast, S'mores, yard games. It's just going to be a party. Great time to make some memories and just hang out. So we'd love for you guys get these things on your calendar. And we want to just blow this out for our 8th birthday party. Hey, if you guys need prayer for any reason, we'll have somebody up here. We'll pray with you guys either as individuals or families, you know, whatever makes sense for you guys. And we can't wait to see you guys again next week at 9:15 or 10:45. And as always, remember, whoever fights Jesus discovers real life and purpose.

1:14:56 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.