You don't have to hide your messiness or build walls to protect yourself from hurt. Find a trusted believer who can walk with you through the struggles, offering grace when you feel like you're failing. Let their support help you grow into the person God created you to be.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Good morning. Good morning. I'm Courtney. It's nice to meet everybody. Hope that I get to see everybody today.
But, so I can genuinely say that I love this church. I'm the pastor's wife. You might think that I have to say that, but we named it Real Church so that we don't have to be fake. But I can genuinely say I love it here. I love that in a in a generation where church kinda has a bad rap, where where a lot of people think that you're gonna walk through the doors and you're just gonna immediately be judged.
There's people waiting to just tell you how awful you are. Like, I love that I can come in here, and I can just this is the place that I feel safe. I feel like I can be most myself and so I love it here. I don't know what your background is with church. Maybe maybe you went to church as a child or as a as a teenager and you got oh thanks.
Maybe you went to church as a child or a teenager or even as an adult and you got burned and and you got hurt by the people in the church. You know, you know, in all honesty, I can say that people are messy. *God*'s people are messy sometimes. We're messy sometimes. And so I just encourage you to press in, let down all reservations that you have here.
Relax. You can laugh, get comfortable, eat your donuts, drink your coffee. Like, I don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable because today, I want to encourage you. So, a lot of times whenever we feel like we're hurt, by the church or by family members or friends, we put up these defensive walls. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
You can talk back to me. Yeah. Yeah. Like we put up these big defensive walls, these fortified walls to keep any more things from hurting us. Like, I'm not gonna let anybody into my life.
I'm not gonna let anybody know how I feel because if I do that, I give them access to hurt me again. And so we put up these walls, but the problem with that is when we put up the walls, we also prevent the good from coming in to heal the hurt. And a lot of times what God wants to heal is what we fight so hard to hide. And so here we can relax. You can be yourself.
We are not going to judge you. You can come as you are, but we love you enough to help you not stay where you are if it's not where God wants you to be. So welcome to Real Church. I'm gonna be using my phone for my notes. David is really, really good at at preaching with, like, having his computer and running back and forth, but I talk with my hands and I move a lot.
And so I feel like I would have to run back over here. I was trying it in the living room this week, and it just wasn't working out. I was tripping and trying to get back to my computer. So I'm gonna use my phone. Is that okay?
So and my phone is coming up with all of these like notifications because I updated it. So, I also wanted to reiterate the value of small groups. You do not have to call yourself a member of real church to be in a real church small group. You do not have to have your life together before you get in a small group. To me, I actually changed my schedule so that I could be in an additional small group In addition to the 1 that we lead on Tuesday nights.
Because to me, that's where I grow the most. That's where I get connected to the most people. That's to me, that is life for me, is being with God's people throughout the week encouraging me. Because I get down to and we're gonna talk about that this week. I I am a very transparent person.
I have nothing to hide and you're gonna see that because you're gonna see how messy I can be. So just get ready. Last week, David really focused on the family dynamic and how to be in relationship with your family in general, your spouse, your kids, your parents, your siblings, your aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, whatever. And the verse that he focused on was *Philippians-2:5*. In your relationships with 1 another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
And I believe that if we apply that to every single relationship, even the difficult ones, because y'all know we got those people in our lives that are difficult, but in every single relationship, if we can have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, we will impact our world for Jesus because Lord knows that this world needs to see more Jesus. Am I right? So when we start, we start with those closest to us, with our family members, with those within our home. If you don't have family members that are around you all the time, it's your roommates. If you don't have roommates, it's it's the people you work with, the people you hang out with, the people that you go out to eat with, it's whoever is close to you.
That is the the best training ground for having the same mindset as Christ. Amen? So before I get started in the main message today, I wanna kinda break down a couple of really churchy terms because sometimes if we say churchy terms and you aren't familiar with them, it can kinda be like, I don't even know what you're talking about. So you kinda like, I know I do. If somebody says something that I don't understand, I'm like, I'm just not gonna understand.
So maybe you're that way. So I'm gonna talk about *covenants* for just a moment just to kinda differentiate between what we know as the old covenant and the new covenant. So the old covenant was an agreement that God made with man. So many of us know the story, God told Adam and Eve, hey, don't eat from this tree. Adam and Eve ate from this tree.
Y'all don't blame them because y'all know at some point somebody would have it. So they ate from the tree, messed up the relationship with God, completely divided a good relationship with God. And so God said, I want you to be able to get to me, but the requirement to get back in relationship with me is perfection. See, some people say, well, God isn't the same now as he was. Yes.
*God is the same. His requirement is still perfection*. And in the old covenant, it was this list of of rules and laws and regulations that he gave to Moses. Some of us know of the 10 commandments that there's like 600 and something laws that people had to keep. They couldn't.
There's no way that a mere mortal person could keep all of these laws, but he gave them to them so that they could see, hey, this is perfection. If you fulfill all of this, it will be perfect. But man couldn't do it. And so he sent Jesus who did fulfill all of the law and died in our place and rose again so that we could rise with him. And the new *covenant* is that those of us who place our faith in Jesus Christ, those of us who I call it crossing the line of faith to make a decision to follow Jesus.
We are now in new *covenant grace*, and it's no longer our responsibility to try, try, and try and be "good enough". It's our responsibility to rest in the fact that Jesus is good enough. So the old covenant, just a brief summary, old covenant is before Jesus. New covenant is Jesus. Cool?
So old covenant, we talk about it like Old Testament, like Noah, Jonah, all of those guys, Moses. The Old Testament everything there in the Bible is a type and a shadow of the things to come. It's a small picture of what's going to become more significant and more substantial in the New Covenant, And so today I want to talk about something that was commanded in the old covenant and how that applies to us in the new covenant that we live in. I am actually talking about parenting today, but if you don't have children, you never had children, you never will had children, this message is not simply for people who have had physical children. This message is for every believer, every man, woman, and child who has given their life to Jesus.
Okay? So don't discount yourself because we're gonna be focusing in on biblical parenting. Okay? So God told Adam and Eve, *Genesis-1:28*, God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion of the fish of the sea and the birds in the air and every living thing that moves on the earth. So he told them, I created this planet.
Your job is to have babies and keep having babies. I feel so bad for Eve. Her job from God was to populate the earth. I had 3. Like I can't imagine.
And so I told you I'm real. So her hers and Adam's job was to populate the earth, and then the flood came, wiped out everybody except for Noah and his family, and God gave Noah the same commandment, be fruitful and multiply, have dominion, fill the earth, you know, have dominion over the fish and birds and animals and all of that. So the command for parenting was to have babies and populate the human race. Okay? So that was the old covenant direction.
So what does that look like in the new covenant? For those of you who say, well I decided not to get married and to live my life as a single man or a single woman for the rest of my life and not have children. What does that mean for those who maybe, I mean not to to touch on a sensitive topic, but for those who maybe can't have children or don't have chosen not to have children. Does that mean that you are not called to be fruitful and multiply? I just heard absolutely not.
You're right. So *Jesus Christ* fulfilled every command, every law of God. He lived the perfect life that we couldn't live, and Jesus never had physical children. So that would tell me that being fruitful and multiplying there has to be something different to it in the New Testament. Yes.
Have children. It's a blessing. The Bible says that children's are like arrows in a person's quiver like they're they're they're good. So but *Jesus* never had any physical children, but he spent about 3 to 3 and a half years of his life being a spiritual dad to a handful of people, and the ones we know the most of are the 12 disciples. He spent his he poured everything he told him what he knew, poured everything that he was out on these guys.
Why? Because he had a plan for spiritual parenting for the rest of humankind's time on earth. In Matthew-28 verse 18, we know it as the great commission and I want everyone to take this from, yes, we're supposed to be, we're supposed to make disciples. No, this is a direction from god. Old covenant, you had to do stuff to please god.
New covenant, y'all, we get to. We get to do what god asked us to do. That's a good thing. Living for Jesus brings joy and peace and hope guys. So it's not that we have to do this and we have to fight to make God proud of us.
He's already proud of us and that should make us want to live for him. Right? So and Jesus came to them. He came to his 11 disciples. So y'all know he had 12.
You get a group of people together. There's always that 1 screw up. Judas, he went off. So and Jesus came to them and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So he is saying, hey.
Y'all listen because this is coming straight from the mouth of God. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them everything I've commanded you. Behold I am with you always until the very end of the age. So he spent 3 to 3 and a half years of his life pouring his life into these 12 people. 11 of them carried that call because Jesus directed them to.
Now our instruction from the *Lord* is no longer to simply fill the earth. I think we're sitting at like 7 something billion people. Like the earth is filled. Keep having babies. Keep like parents, like that's a great thing.
I pray that the Lord blesses us with more. I'm kind of crazy like that but I do pray that the Lord blesses us with more, but that's a good thing but our job is not simply to make people. Our job, our call, our direction from the Lord, a commission, the great mission of our lives no matter where you are in your life as a believer is to make **disciples** and it starts with those that are closest to you. So I want you to think about it. Everybody close your eyes.
Just close your eyes. I'm gonna close mine too. So think of if you're a believer even if you don't feel like you are discipling someone, I want you to think about at work or at home or whatever. Most of us have at least 1 person that comes to mind that like they might not hang out with you and they might not call and chat with you about random stuff, but when they need prayer or they need guidance or advice, you're their person. Like, anybody?
I I know that I have those people in my lives. You can look up. I just wanted you to I just wanted you to think about do you have someone in your life even if you feel like you're not discipling someone, you have someone like I I'm going through a lot and like I went and gossiped over here to these people but with you can you pray for me? We've all got that person in our lives. That is a person that god wants you to pour your life out to.
That's someone right there. If you are a parent and you have children, your job as a Christian, and I say job like it's this hard thing, listen no it is a good, it is a blessing that we get to make **disciples** of our children. If your children are grown, I just wanna this isn't in my notes. I was just thinking about this during worship. If your children are grown and they're not disciples of the Lord, guess what?
His mercies are new every day. Give yourself a break and move forward. Move forward in what God has asked you to do. I understand that we have no control over the decisions that other people make, even our children. But what I can tell you is that his mercies and his goodness, it is just new, and it's it's it's new every single day.
So give yourself a break and move forward. Don't let that hinder you from reaching out. If it's not the people that are in your home that you're discipling, reach out. Find someone. So today we're gonna learn kind of how God parents us.
You might find yourself as the parent in this situation. You might find yourself as the child with our heavenly *father* in heaven. So I'm a I'm a sit down. So you can laugh at me. It's okay.
I'm just prefacing this. So once upon a time I'm gonna tell you about my parenting journey. Once upon a time I was the best parent in the world. I was better than you. I was better than all of the doctors.
I read all the books. I watched all the videos. I listened to sermons and then I had kids. So and God was like l o l, j k, like it's not gonna look the way that you thought it was. David and I have a 7 year old little boy, a 5 year old little girl, and a 4 year old little girl, and I have never learned more about how annoying I must be to God than I do being a parent.
I'm just being honest. So I l o l. I find myself, and I don't know where you if you're a parent, I know I cannot be alone in this y'all. I can't. You might find yourself in the position of my kids with God, but like I find myself almost every second of the day saying "if you would just do what I told you to" do, you wouldn't get hurt.
Can anybody understand where I'm coming from? Like mama back there is like, y'all. So I'm gonna talk a lot about my middle child, my sweet sweet Selah Rain. Like God has such a plan on her life and the devil doesn't like it and so I'm gonna talk a lot about her because she is my strongest willed child. I love that about her but I am constantly praying that God redeems that and he is little by little.
So Selah so she has FOMO. If you don't know what FOMO is, it's "fear of missing out". So she, for the longest time, will go in the bathroom, get her toothbrush, you know, we brush our teeth twice a day. Why? Dennis told us to.
We just do it. So they go. She gets her toothbrush. She will not stay in the bathroom to brush her teeth. Like she won't.
Like I can't force her to unless I lock her in there but like she will not. And for a while I was disciplining her and I was trying to help her like realize, hey like you need to be in the bathroom to brush your teeth and I disciplined. I spanked. Yes. We spank.
We do things biblically in our discipline. This is not up for dis debate. I love you guys. If that's not your thing that's okay. Mamas, daddies, you do you.
Just be led by Holy Spirit in whatever you do but I would I would just do anything that I could to show her hey this is not going to continue to happen and then something amazing happened. This sounds terrible. Rachel is Rachel knows what I'm talking about. Every time she comes out of the bathroom to brush her teeth she gets hurt like every time. Like sounds terrible and I'm like you know as a mom I'm kinda like but not really.
It's little hurt. So she comes out sometimes like she'll run into a doorknob. The other day she slipped like this week. Yeah. This isn't me talking about some distant memory.
I'm talking about this week y'all. There was a dryer sheet on our floor and we have tile floor. She slipped and bumped her butt on the floor and again if you would just do what I told you to you wouldn't get hurt. To me that makes sense. It's like if you stay in the bathroom you won't get hurt by apparently all of the obstacles in our very short hallway that are there but it never fails.
Something happens. She runs into a doorknob. She runs into a door. She runs into somebody. She elbows the corner of the thing.
She slips on a dryer. She like she stepped on a Lego. All the parents are like, oh no. So so it's like I'm continually saying, if you would just do what I do, do you ever as parents feel that with your kids? Now we're going to take this to a whole another side of things.
Do you as someone who is trying to teach someone in your life, an adult, a teenager, somebody that's not your child and it's like if you would just do what I told you to do. Like I I'll have people come to me that are like I'm not gonna date for a while because I just wanna be in love with Jesus and the next day they have this terrible boyfriend and I'm like they're not good for you and then they get their heart broken. I'm like, if you would just do what I told you to do. You know, we all have those people in our lives that just constantly just don't like those that we are trying to disciple and it's draining and it's like I'm really really working with you here and I want you to understand that everything I'm teaching you is from love. But I understand and I'm sure you do too the frustration that comes when people that God has sent to us just won't listen.
Right? So I admittedly I spend a lot more time praying that God would change my kids than I do that he would teach me to disciple them well. The people in my life, people in your life maybe, it's it's easy to just be like oh my gosh if you would just change things would be better, But we have got to say, you know what? I gotta learn from the master. I gotta learn from the best disciple maker that ever lived, Jesus.
And y'all know y'all know that *Jesus* he didn't just create disciples. There were these 11 guys that gave their lives to the mission that God asked them to. I have in my notes, and I'm gonna read it because written down, it just is so much better than than me just saying it. We've gotta learn the patience and persistence and the unwavering dedication to the discipleship process of those who God's given us. You know, God is so so patient with us.
And I look at David pointed out a story for me in, in the bible. I look at Jesus and sometimes even his **disciples** just didn't were it seemed like they were annoying. I know that sounds unholy but it seems it's like come on guys. If you would just listen to me like you would get it. *John-14* verse 6.
*Jesus said to him, he's talking to Thomas but he's got his disciples* around him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No 1 comes to the father but by me. If you knew me you would have known my father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. So basically he's saying if you've seen me you've seen my father in heaven.
You've seen God. That's what Jesus was saying. Oh Philip. Philip. Philip said, Lord show us the father and it is enough for us.
And Jesus said, have I been with you so long you still don't know me Philip? Like Philip I just said if you've seen me you've seen my father and he's like "show me the father". Like I feel like Jesus was so patient with these guys and he and he went on and you can read it yourself in in John-14. He went on to explain again and again about him being if you've seen him you've seen the father and even even *Peter-1* of his best friends. Like he was a disciple but he was 1 of his friends.
These are the guys he dedicated his life to on Jesus worst night of his life when he was arrested and flogged. Peter denied that he even knew him. Like I can't imagine the hurt and the betrayal that Jesus felt from the person that he was discipling. I know that I have discipled people. I have poured my life in.
I have given everything that I have given and I felt like they just betrayed me. And my reaction is not always the best but I wanna learn from Jesus. So when Jesus rose from the dead and there was an angel in the tomb and the ladies went to him and they were like where's Jesus? He said Jesus is risen. Go tell his disciples and Peter.
*Jesus* didn't forget about Peter. He had an unwavering dedication to the disciples hip process and he saw something in him and he didn't give up on him. So, I understand that as parents, as spiritual parents to people, as we see these people that God has brought to us, maybe you're thinking like, oh my gosh, like I get so annoyed with the people that I'm supposed to be ministering to, but in all honesty if we can take a note from Jesus Christ himself, he didn't quit. He didn't give up on these people. I I understand so much more clearly how I can be with God, where he's just saying if you would just do what I told you to do, it would be better.
Amen. That's it. If you would just if you would just listen to me. I love you and what what I'm asking you to do is not to put a burden on you. It's to take a burden off of you because God loves us that much.
So I I'll tell you just a a 1 more story or so but I also find myself complaining to *God* more more than thanking him. And I see it and I learn what that looks like through my kids. My kids I'm I'm fortunate. I'm we are very blessed. My children have never had to go to bed hungry.
I'm grateful for that. I understand that that's not the case for everyone. And so I I don't take that for granted. I thank God. My kids eat regularly.
They eat relatively healthy. And I I had this story planned out from like a few weeks ago but literally God just dropped something in my lap Friday and it's like oh gosh. It's just non stop. And this week this week has been 1 of those weeks where y'all know it's been rough like getting ready for the message and my kids are like here's all your material about annoying things kids do like this week. So Friday David went to pick the kids up from school.
03:00. Okay. He went and got them at 03:00. Selah, 5 year old had snacks in her lunchbox that she hadn't eaten. She had a treat.
It was like a cookie and she had an apple and she ate it by like 03:15. So David takes the kids and gets them a little cup of ice cream by like 03:30. Okay. So Selah's had in a 30 minute period she's had an apple, cookies, and ice cream. This is after a healthy breakfast, a morning snack, a big ol' lunch because she eats so much, and then she has all of this by 03:30.
Well she gets home and the first thing she says sometimes I my eyes open to, can I have a snack? Like that's just what happens at our house. At 03:35 she walks in and she says first thing she says to me is, there's an apple and pretzels on the table can I have them? I said have you had a snack? She was like well.
Like Dave has she had a snack? He's like yes she's had snacks. She's had a lot. And I said, Selah do not ask me again for a snack. You are going to get dinner at between 05:30 and 6.
You are good. You should not be hungry. Do not ask me again for a snack and y'all this was at 03:35. At 04:00 she comes in. Mommy I'm so hungry and there's an apple and pretzel right there and I was like I was I mean in my flesh I was like go away and leave me alone But I was like no.
I'm not giving you the apple and pretzel. You've had plenty. And it's just like a constant You've had everything that you need and everything that you could want and you're still begging and complaining. And it's not just my kids. I do it to God.
I have every spiritual blessing in Christ, and yet I'm like give me more, and I know that I'm not alone in this. And it might not be it might not be as significant as just begging and pleading. It could just be a discontentment with everything that God has blessed us with. So I told you about the old covenant and the new covenant. And everything in the old covenant is type and shadow of things to come in the new covenant.
Right? And so in the new *covenant God*'s people are those who have given their life to Jesus. Who have said Jesus you are my Lord. No longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. I recognize you lived perfectly, died a sinner's death, and rose 3 days later to save me.
Those are God's people today. I'm 1 of those people. In the old *covenant* God used this particular race of people to have a show a picture of his people. It was the Israelites. They were God's chosen people.
He had a he pursued them relentlessly. He they they were the ones used to show how he views us. Like I'm not gonna give up on you people. Just like with us today in the new covenant he doesn't give up on us. And I I love the story of Moses because I love learning about like where he came from and everything, but but I want to focus in on what happened after just a little backstory.
What happened after he saved the Israelites from slavery? So they had been in Egypt for a long time. They were they were slaves in Egypt and you know *God* came to Moses and said, hey you're gonna free my people and he went to Pharaoh and he said let my people go. Like I feel like he said it like that and he so God so God saved them but then they come up on a beach and it's like there's this Red Sea in front of them and there's an army behind them and they're like oh snap. Like we're about to get killed y'all.
And God opens the Red Sea in 2 so that his people can walk through on dry land. And in *Exodus-14* it says, thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and it says Israel saw the great power of the Lord used against the Egyptians. Right? God has blessed them. He saved them.
He set them free. Kinda like you set us free from bondage. I'm just saying that's sad note, but he saved them and it says in *Exodus-15* that a great song of praise broke out. They weren't trying to say that it was a tsunami that pulled the water back. They weren't trying to use science to explain what happened.
They were saying, hey God saved us. We are celebrating what God did. And then in the same chapter I don't know how much time went on between like the first verse and verse 22, but it I feel like it was pretty close together because it's like right there together. *Exodus-15* verse 22, they were thirsty but the water was bitter and the people grumbled against Moses. Moses just freed y'all.
Like Moses just got y'all out of slavery. Like he's not the person you need to be grumbling against. Like you can grumble against somebody else, but not him. He's the guy that saved you. That's a big deal.
And and so what did God do? They're complaining against Moses but really they're complaining against God because God's the 1 that really set them free. God made the water sweet. Like okay I get it. You guys are thirsty.
I love you guys. I'm here for you. I'm here to save you. Here's sweet water. *Exodus-16* they were hungry and they even said, I wish God would have just killed us back in Egypt.
And I was reading that and I was like, if I was Moses I would have been like then swim back across the ocean and let the Egyptians kill you because I can't handle this negativity right now. And Moses just continually went to God, what do I do with these people? What do I do with these people? Y'all God sent bread from heaven. Like God sent little sweet bread.
If you've ever heard the phrase "manna from heaven" literally clouds of bread rained down. Plenty for them to eat. They were happy for a minute. Then they got thirsty again and the water wasn't good and then they said, you've just brought us out here to kill us and our children. They threw the kids in there.
It's like you brought us to kill us and our children. I wish we could just go back to Egypt where we could at least have some food and God made water come out of a rock. Then again they had water. They had bread. Literally it says that none of their shoes broke in all this time that they were walking.
*God* cared for even the little things and they started saying we're tired of this bread. We want some meat. I'm glad I'm not God. I'm I would have took them out because I know how I feel when my kids start complaining about stuff when I have given them everything and I'm like, God I am so sorry. I put myself in the position of those Israelites.
Like I I'm discontent a lot. Are you? I'm not alone there. And I see people that come to me to be discipled and ministered to or people that I'll go to and be like hey I'm I'm taking you under my wing. I want to see.
I know there's something amazing in you and they just complain all the time. Like I get so annoyed and tired of it But when I look at what God does with the complaining, he says I'm gonna give you everything you need. I'm gonna love you where you're at. I'm not going to fuss at you from for complaining. I'm just gonna continue to be God, and I'm gonna continue to love you and train you.
That's what he does for us, so that's how we can treat others. Those that God has brought us. Those people who persistently push our buttons. Y'all got any siblings? Y'all know what I'm talking about.
Those people that could persistently push our buttons we can love them well and again I'm gonna say what I said in the beginning. If you messed up and you haven't been doing this his "mercies are new every morning". He's good. There's *grace* for your worst mistake. There's grace for your worst discipleship mistake.
When you say you know I was discipling this person and they just went crazy and I feel like it's all my fault. Hey if it is there's mercy. There's mercy there. If your kid has run off and been kind of crazy look there's grace there. I wanna I saw a picture of this on Thursday, and I told David that I was gonna read this.
He said I could. I sent him a text on Thursday, and let me get to it. We text a lot. We kinda like each other. So, I sent this text to David Thursday.
Just a little backstory. Thursday morning like I work at my kids preschool on Thursdays, and, Thursday morning it was like all 3 of my kids lost their flipping minds. I couldn't even get them out of the bed to get them dressed. I couldn't even get them out of the bed to get them to wine. Like, they just wouldn't wake up.
And then the second that they get out of bed, all of them fighting, mommy, I'm hungry. Mommy, can I have this? Mommy, can I have money for a snack? Mommy, this. Mommy, that.
And it was just a constant to the point where I went and put them in the van, cranked the van, and I went inside to have 3 seconds
of
quiet. I texted this to David. I was sitting in the office, at work and I texted this to him and you know when you're like it might sound nice but you know when you're trying to get out how you feel to somebody that is willing to listen to you and you're like texting like that. That's how I was. I said our home is not peaceful for me.
The second I wake up, there's begging, whining, arguing, and complaining. We get in the van and I have to crank up worship music to drown it all out. Even attempting to have a conversation turns into can I, will you, you never, why can't I, And it feels like never ending incomplacency in our home? Then when you seemed incomplacent with 1 more little thing, was like the "straw that broke the camel's back". I'm just so drained from it being constant every second I have the kids.
I don't know how to teach them to be grateful and just enjoy life. Grammy called this morning and they all said to the effect, can I have on the phone? I know this is material for my message Sunday. I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna read this. I know this is material for my message Sunday but I think something has to change or they won't be able to be content with life when it actually starts happening to them.
The kids behavior and attitude is not Christ like and it's getting worse. I don't know what to do except "seek the Lord". I'm already constantly correcting, encouraging, disciplining when necessary every single day. I feel awful that I don't like when they walk through the doors, And I feel like I'm just waiting on you to walk in and show dissatisfaction with something and I'm wrong for that and I'm so sorry. I'm so drained at the end of the day with the little bit of time that I have with the kids that I have trouble doing anything.
I need help but I don't know what will help. And if I could show you what he sent me I would but he did the voice text thing and it disappears. So I don't I'm not techy. I don't know how to keep it. You can come on up, babe.
He sent me immediately. *Father God, I pray for my sweet beautiful wife*. Thank you that she is and he just laid out everything he's grateful for with me. And then in all of my negativity and whining and complaining in that text about how much my kids had been whining and complaining, He's he started building up the kids in his prayer. Thank you God that Eden is joyful.
Thank you God that salah is obedient. Thank you God for trip and everything amazing that he is. Like all 3 of my kids have so many amazing qualities. Thank you God. Thank you that this is gonna make them stronger.
That he's praising *God* and I'm just like, I want you to just whip him. I don't know what else to do. I just wanna he It's real church. Right? But in my weakness, God brought someone to disciple me.
And so the disciples had Jesus to disciple them. Jesus had his heavenly father that often he would retreat from the people he was ministering to and he would go be discipled. If we are called to be disciples who "make disciples" who make disciples and the cycle keeps cycling, then we must be discipled. Find somebody. Find somebody that can grab your hand and say, hey.
Stop being an idiot and let's "walk forward in this thing" like he did with me. I love you babe. Hey. Let's let's walk through this together. Let's celebrate together and let's let's learn from our trials together.
If you don't have someone like that, find somebody. Find a Christian brother or a Christian sister who can build you up and can help you be the man or the woman that God has created you to be so that you can disciple those that God has brought to you effectively. The world will not be able to contain a bunch of on fire for Jesus disciples, but it starts with those closest to you.
Thanks for listening to the real church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clear water or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the gift button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you are playing a part in every "life being changed". Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.