You are invited to stop trying to fix everything on your own and instead worship God in the middle of your pain. Reach out to your church community for prayer and lean on His promise to restore and strengthen you after your suffering. Remember that difficulties are coming, but you can take heart because He has overcome the world.
Hello, and welcome to the Real Church podcast. My name is Courtney Phillips, and I'm so excited to bring the word to you today. Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers. The message today is entitled Stretch Marks, and it is to encourage you when you're going through the stretching of life. How does God want you to move forward when life stretches you?
If this encourages you, share it with a friend. Invite somebody next week. I hope that you have a great day. Good morning. Good morning.
Happy Mother's Day, mamas. So there's a couple of things that I wanna share before I dive into the message. God actually set this, like, laid this message out, what I'm speaking on today in January. I I don't know, a year ago or maybe longer, David asked me to speak, and I had like 3 weeks to prepare, and I was like, listen, I don't work that way. I know like God like, has gifted you with that.
I need some time. And so, he told me in December, and he was like, you're speaking in May. And I was like, okay, that gives me some time. But in January, God laid this message out, and I believe that it is directly from his heart for you. It is not only for mothers.
Yes, it's titled Stretch Marks, and I am gonna be sharing about my path to motherhood. But, if you are in, have ever been in, or are about to go in to struggle, trial, stretching, like difficult times, this is for you. And I think that that encompasses everybody in the room. Amen? Yep.
So, a little PSA. I am usually unfiltered in how I speak. I don't filter what I'm saying to appease religious ears. So don't get offended. Just hear my heart.
Okay? Some some of y'all know what I mean by that. Yeah. Because David asked me, he was like, what's the subtitle of your message? I was like, how do you handle the suck?
And he was like, you're gonna have to clean it up a little bit. And I was like, I mean, we all feel it sometimes. But I am gonna be sharing about my path to becoming a mother. It's messy. It is sad in some ways.
I shared the message with David on Tuesday, and I cried, and he was like, It's okay. And I was like, I'm not a crier, but, you know, hormonal. I am gonna be sharing about some difficult things such as miscarriage, infant loss, delayed conception, that kind of thing. And so, if that is something that you've walked through, I just want you to know you are not alone. When we put this on the screen, when it says text growing to 97,000, that's not just to get connected.
If you need prayer, text that. It comes to me or David will reach out to you this week. If you need someone to walk through that path with you, just don't hesitate to reach out. We are here not just to come and sing songs and hear an encouraging message and then go about our week. We are here as a **body of believers** who want to grow and who want to connect with other believers, so that we can encourage 1 another forward in our faith.
Cool? Amen. Cool. I have known since I was a child that I wanted to be a mother. I was the kid that at the ballpark I'm from Louisiana, so basically, we spent every spring and summer at the ballpark.
I was the kid that all of the parents would send if I wasn't playing, they would send their toddlers with me. I was like 10 years old, and I had a crew of 2 and 3 year olds behind me going to play on the dirt pile. It's just the type of person I've always been. I knew I wanted to be a mother, and my perception of motherhood was this. Get married, ask God for a kid, you get pregnant, you carry a baby for 9 months, you have the baby, and then you do it again.
That was my rose colored picture of what conception and carrying a child and having a child was, and that happened with our first child. David and I had been married for about 5 years. It was 2006. We got married in 2006, got pregnant 11, and literally no issues. Tried in January, got pregnant by March.
By December 1, I had a 9 pound, 1 ounce, 21 inch baby boy with brown hair and brown eyes. I don't make small babies, and you all need to remember that. All of my kids have been giants. So there's actually like a medical term for babies as big as my kids, and I was like, I can't I'm not huge. I can't help it.
You know, they just they just come out big. So, we decided, hey, this is awesome. It was easy. I'm gonna we're gonna try again. So we just didn't, for lack of better wording, didn't do anything to prevent pregnancy.
And November the following year, 2012, I got pregnant again. I thought, get pregnant, carry a baby, have the baby, and then we just do it again. And this is my picture of pregnancy, but I had a miscarriage. And and it hurt, and it stung, and it all of a sudden put this dark cloud over pregnancy for me, over having children. Oh, I've heard this happens, but it's different when you hear something happens, and that's not your reality.
And then, it hits you and you're like, dear Lord, this is an actual thing that people walk through. Oh, God. But we knew we weren't done having children. And so, in July 2013, just a few I don't have issues. I never had issues getting pregnant.
In July 2013, I found out I was pregnant again. And this rose colored picture of pregnancy that I had before was all of a sudden, I was gripped with fear. Oh my God. What if? What if I what if I like I said, I'm not gonna filter.
I'm gonna try not to be graphic, but what if I start bleeding? What if I start cramping? What if I lose this baby? All of these thoughts are are running through my head, and I'm I'm grieving what should be a joyous time in my life. Someone called us the morning we found out I was pregnant.
We hadn't even had time to digest the fact that I was pregnant again. Someone called and said, hey, I talked to somebody today who had a dream last night that you had a baby girl named Selah. And I was like, oh, so by the way, we just found out I'm pregnant. And so, we didn't know if it was a girl. I was, you know, 5 weeks pregnant.
I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, but we both said, hey, if if it's a girl, let's name her Selah. It sounds great. It's in the bible. It's great. But then we read what it meant, and Selah loosely translated means God has spoken.
Listen. Pay attention because God is speaking something. And then, it was like God was so sweet because he knew what I was gonna be dealing with. He knew that I was gonna be dealing with fear of loss, fear of death. And every time I would fear the loss of this little baby, I would be like, but but Selah, But God has spoken.
And so, was a promise to me that I had to cling to even when my mind was running in a bunch of different directions, hormones, and emotions, and fear, because of a very real thing that I had walked through just 7 months prior. And so, *God* didn't just speak this to me and and press this into me that God had a plan for Selah. If y'all know her, y'all know God's got a plan for that kid. Most people are like, yeah. But he also spoke it to David because when she was born, my perception of birth up until Selah was a year old was I had a long and traumatic labor.
Hundred and 52 and a half hours of labor with Selah. I went from Monday to Saturday. Went in the hospital that Friday. I labored at home. I'd planned on a home birth, but, like, she wasn't cooperating.
I delivered her 9 pounds 11 ounces, 22 inches long. Some of the moms in here are like, Hee. Like, Whoo. That's a big kid. But my perception was she was born.
Mom said David's over with her. My mom says, they're just checking on her, making sure she's okay. I'm like, okay, we're good. Okay. That's what I thought was happening because a few minutes later, they put her on me, she starts nursing, she's healthy, we have no issues.
So until she was a year old, I didn't realize that what was actually happening is she came out with a completely **collapsed lung**. Collapsed. That's not something that just like poof, it inflates and she's fine. There's usually medical intervention that has to happen to correct that. But David remembered, Selah, God has spoken.
She is healed. He prayed over her. It was a miracle, and and we've never had an issue since. She's been healthy ever since. The nurse next to him was like, I see what you did there.
She was a believer. Inflated under my hand. It inflated under his hand. And she well, the nurse saw it and was like, I saw what you did there. Incredible miracle.
*God* has spoken. And then 6 months later, after that long labor and long delivery, I was pregnant again, and I didn't have time to fear because I had 2 toddlers I had a toddler, a newborn, and I was about to have another baby. I was like, oh, God. Like, I didn't have time to be scared. And so then comes Eden.
Perfect pregnancy. I deliver her. She's 9 pounds, 1 ounce, 21 inches long. All my kids have been over 9 pounds. So up until that time, I have no trouble getting pregnant.
There is fear associated with pregnancy, and I wanna move forward from there to this season. When Eden was a year old in 2016 let me backtrack. I was 7 months pregnant with Eden, which is roughly where I am now, a little further along than I am now. We moved halfway across the country from our dream home to a place that we were from, and we had family, but I didn't have friends. She was born and she had colic.
I don't wish that on my worst enemy. I had postpartum depression. I had to repent to my daughter when she was 6 months old because for the first 3 months of her life, I called her a jerk. And David was like, you shouldn't speak that over her. I was like, but she's awful.
Like, it was it was very real to me that this was a difficult child in the beginning. Now, she's perfect now. She's just perfect. But but at 3 months along, because of all I was going through, he didn't know this, but I called the VA, and I was like, my husband's a veteran. Do y'all do vasectomies?
Because, like, I'm done. I got a 3 year old, a 1 year old, and a jerk newborn, and I can't do this again. I'm tired. My body's tired. I need help.
I need this to end. I'm glad I didn't walk through with it because when Eden was 1 year old, it was 2016, that desire, that, like, guttural, it's time to have another baby. So I talked to him, and his response was like, well, you do most of the work anyway, so let's do it. So we start trying again, and we tried for a year, and I didn't get pregnant. But at the year point, we were moving too clear water to start a church.
So was like, okay, God. I see I see why you delayed this. Like, I'm okay with it. I wasn't grieving or anything. God will bless us with a child later.
And then we get here, we plant the church, and in April 2019 I'm telling you all of this for a reason, just so you know. It's getting to the good stuff. In April 2019, it's like, Hey, God's opened the door again. We start trying again. 4 months later in August, I was pregnant, and many of you were here and walked through that with me.
A baby that was loved, wanted, *prayed* for, desired, I had another miscarriage. And, that 1 hit a little bit differently because of the and I yeah. Sorry. That 1 hit a little differently because this was a child that I wanted so much, and I hadn't ever really I'd gotten everything I wanted, really. Stuff was tough.
I went through tough times, but really, I'd never desired something so much that was just ripped from me. And I'm grateful for my church family, for walking through that. Some of y'all were some of you were in my house when that started happening. But I knew I wasn't done, And so, I was like, my midwife even told me, you might wanna give it a little a little break because emotionally, you might not be able to handle it. I was like, no, girl.
I'm good. Like, we're keeping going. We're gonna keep trying. And we tried, and we tried, and we tried. And up until this point, I had never had an issue becoming pregnant.
But, I hadn't At this time, I was having an issue, and it took over a year after the miscarriage for me to conceive River Royce. That was a very, very difficult time of waiting and trusting and having to trust because I didn't have another choice. Like, there's you know, I was looking into trying to figure it out and make it work. Like, I looked into intervention, looked into, like, inter reproductive therapy, I looked into all of these different avenues to make happen what somewhere deep inside I knew was going to happen. So, River, I get pregnant in October, November time frame of last year, and when I was 7 weeks pregnant, I got a really sharp pain right here in the middle of the night.
It took my breath away, I hit my knees, I made it to the bathroom, I didn't wake David up, I tried not to. And I was terrified because of what had happened the 2 times before with miscarriages. And I was crying out to God, God, you gotta you gotta move in my body. Like, you you this I can't face this again. I can't face loss like this again.
And and I was so scared. And then, it comes to find out, there's this thing called round ligament pain. Round ligament pain means, I've had 3 kids. *God* made it to where my body recognizes, alright, you make giant kids. We gotta start stretching early.
And so that stretching and I guess the older you get and the more kids you have, it can be more painful. And it I was stretched. I was like, oh, thanks God for the stretching. But in the middle of the stretching, where was I? In the middle of the stretching, was this is uncomfortable.
When I've gone through this before, it sucked because I faced loss. I don't wanna go through this again. I was my mind was consumed with all of the negativity surrounding stretching, and pain and all of this, and God's just like, hey, I'm kinda doing what I'm supposed to be doing in your body here. We're stretching it out, getting ready for your giant child. So what I wanna talk about today, I give, like, the longest intro and the shortest message, I promise.
What I wanna talk about is where are we in the middle of the stretching? In the middle. Not not where when we're like, oh, that's what was happening, but when we're in the middle of it. Relational issues, work, financial, family, just all of these these physical issues, where are we in the middle? And David mentioned it earlier.
I I actually I have a microphone over here that I could talk to the band. I was like when he was praying, I was like, he's preaching my message. Amen. I what do we do in the middle? Well, yes, we keep our eyes on Jesus, but we also he's given us some tools on how to perceive the situation that we're in in the middle of the stretch.
A lot of times, what we do is we want to fix it. We wanna we wanna make it make sense to us. And I thought about thinking about Mother's Day, and what was a mother that was just kinda crazy in the Bible? And I thought about Abraham. Abraham was I'm just gonna summarize this.
He was 99 years old, y'all. And God told him, I'm gonna give your wife a baby. He's like, God, she's 90. And I mean, I'm a logical thinker. I'm like, she's already passed, you know, the change.
Like, how is she how is this gonna work? And I feel like Sarah felt the same thing. She was like, listen, Abraham, I can't this isn't I'm done. Like, we're done. So maybe maybe what we'll do see, *God* God told you this, but but I think maybe you got it backwards.
And sometimes as wives, I do that with my husband, God will tell him something, or he'll think, tell him something. I'm like, that just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Let's figure this out. And and the reality of that is, as wives, we do have a lot of of say spiritually with our husbands, so we should take that very seriously. Because I don't wanna be like Sarah, because Sarah's got the plan to make sure that what God said happens, and she's like, I'm gonna give you my slave girl, you're gonna knock her up, and then she's gonna deliver the baby that God promised you.
See, I'm not. She is. And Abraham, who just verses before says his *faith* in what God told him was credited to him as righteousness, a few moments later is like, yeah, that'll work. Aren't you glad that God uses screwed up people? Like, that just encourages me.
He's he's noted in the faith hall of fame, Hebrews-11, as a man whose faith was credited to him as righteousness. And then we see, like, he slept with his wife's slave and got her pregnant, and then caused a whole bunch to jump. And God still said, listen, I didn't tell you that your wife's slave was gonna get pregnant. I told you your wife was gonna get pregnant. And what I said goes, I don't care how old she is, she's gonna get pregnant, and she's gonna deliver a child, and kings are gonna come from this child, and your descendants are gonna be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and sand of the seashore.
Like, God made a promise, and she, in the waiting, in the difficulty, tried to figure it out on her own. Right? So what happens when we are in the middle of that waiting season of the what's gonna happen in this relationship? What's gonna happen financially? Are we trying to pick up the pieces and figure things out?
What happens when our bodies are sick and weary? This is not to discourage you to pray in faith that God will heal because he still does. He still does miracles today. This is what happens when our answer is no or not right now or hey, I'm I'm working this, even this crappy situation out for your good. What happens in this?
A lot of times we have you ever had this the thought or said a person can only take so much? Y'all could talk back to me. It's cool. Yeah. Okay.
So I think that a lot of of people I'm not really like this, but I know a lot of people who are like a number 2 pencil. Like, it's got a little bit of give, but there's a point where it's gonna snap. Right? Like, there's those people that you kinda have to be like, I don't know if the next thing I say is gonna set them off. I don't know if I'm going to be the 1 that makes them snap.
I don't wanna be the 1 that makes them snap, but but they only have so much give in their season of stretching. And then, there's another type of person, and that's I think the majority of us probably fall in this category, like a rubber band. I was I tell a lot of stories. When I was a senior in high school, I worked at a prison, and we had this drawer full of rubber bands. And what are 2 17 year olds in 2002 going to do?
Let's make a rubber band ball and throw it at each other. So so we start making this giant rubber band ball, and we realize that different rubber bands have different amounts of stretchiness, but at some point, every rubber band is gonna snap. I feel like we're like that. Like, I could take a lot, but there are times when I'm like, I'm done. I can't take 1 more stress, 1 more bit of stretching, I can't take anything else, or I'm going to snap.
And I recognize it, and I view myself in that position, in that mindset. But, do you all remember, some of you might, in I think it was 2013, there was a guy that walked across a tightrope across the Grand Canyon. Do you all watched it? So, I mean, I was glued to the TV because it was so fascinating, and it was also kind of terrifying. This guy decided he's going to stretch a tightrope across the Grand Canyon, and him and his stick are going to walk across with no net, no harness, no nothing.
And before he started walking, there were a bunch of people, like, pricking the stick and using meters to, like, test the tension because he recognized if there wasn't tension in the situation, he couldn't get from 0.1 to point b. And so, finally, he tests it, and then he starts walking, and we're all like, dear Lord, I hope he doesn't fall. His family's there. They're gonna see him die. Like, that's I know all of us thought that.
Right? So so he's walking in the tension. Remember that. He's he's hanging out in the tension, and he gets to the middle and the wind starts blowing. Do you all remember that when we were like, oh, no.
And he's doing this, and they zoomed in on his calves, and his calves were like, Charlie horsing. I'm pregnant, so, like, my calves have been tightening up, and I just I I thought of this guy, and I was like, dear Lord, he's gotta be in pain. And his whole body was tense, but his face was like he was like, we're good. His face was so calm. And when he got to the other side, the reporter said, that you were in pain.
What were you thinking when the waves I mean, not the waves. When the wind was blowing and and you were having trouble keeping your balance, what were you thinking? And he was like, I mean, if I focus on where I am, I'm gonna fall. I need to focus on where I'm going. I gotta get to the other side.
And God wants us to sit in that tension sometimes. He wants to deliver us from it, but there is a purpose for the tension and the stretching and the trials and the difficult times of life. He's developing something in us to help us get from 0.1 to point b. Just like the stretching that I face, I wouldn't be able to carry this baby if I didn't go through the stretching. And of course, I say, Lord, this pain is uncomfortable.
*God*, deliver me from this pain. I trust you in the midst of it. I'm gonna pull my phone out because I've got some some verses to prove it that that the Christian walk is not all you're never gonna face an issue again. Right? A lot a lot of people, they'll come to Christ and they'll think, yes, all of my problems are solved.
I'm saved from hell. I get to spend eternity with Jesus. I have peace. Well, why do you think that he gives us peace? Says in John-16:33, I've told you these things, everything he's encouraging them, so that in me you may have peace.
In this life, this is Jesus, red letters, in this life, you will have trouble, but take heart because I've overcome the world. We know that we have a promise of issues in life because Jesus let us know that. And he's given us peace, and he's given us Holy Spirit to comfort us when we're walking through them. But what a lot of times we do is we fight so hard to get out of them that we don't let God work while we're in the middle of them. We know that he is gonna work.
*Romans-8:28, he's gonna work all things together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. That is a promise as much as God* telling me, I have spoken. When I speak, when God speaks, you can put your money in the bank and say, you know what? I know that this is truth. I know that I can cling to this even when my circumstances say that I shouldn't.
He's gonna work all things together for good. Even what I'm in right now, even when this relationship isn't working, even when I can't pay my bills, even when my body feels like it's falling apart, I know that in this, he wants to develop something in me to get me from where I am to where he wants me to be. And maybe, just maybe, I need to sit in the tension for a minute with the Lord. *God*, how are you gonna get glorified in this? This sucks.
I love I love the guttural the guttural prayers of David in the Bible. This wasn't in my notes, but I love those those prayers. I love how Moses was like, it would have been better if you just killed me than brought me out of here with these people. That's real life. We've all felt that way sometimes.
I felt that with my kids. Lord, if oh, Lord. I don't even know if I can make it. David, I got to leave. I need you to stay here.
I need a minute, especially when they're toddlers. For those of you that have toddlers, Rachel, I'm looking at you. I'm like, you keep going, mama. It gets better. *James-1* verse 2 through 4.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Joy when life sucks. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Wait.
You're telling me that there are times that I'm gonna have to persevere when it's hard, even though *God* didn't cause the bad stuff that I'm in? He's gonna let it do something in me to get me where he wants me to be? I don't like that. If I'm being real genuine, I don't like that. I don't want to sit in the perseverance.
I don't I don't want to have to persevere. I don't want to have to try. My son, he failed a test about 3 weeks ago. You might have seen it on Facebook. He's 9.
He failed a math test that he said he studied for. And you don't if you studied and you're ready for it, you're not going to just bomb it. It was his times tables, you know, 4 times 6, 4 times 8. So David said, We about to persevere, and you're grounded from all screens until you learn all your times tables through 12. And I was like, that punishes me as much as it punishes him.
So I was like, And he persevered, and there were a lot of tears. He had to do a lot of push ups because when we're trying to teach him to persevere and be tough, we get him to do push ups. I don't know if you like that about parenting, but that's how we handle it. He persevered and finally, was it yesterday? Was it yesterday?
Finally, lots of tears. I'm sitting there. I'm like, David, I'm like, can't we just give him a bone? It's my baby. He's worked so hard.
He persevered and he got from 0.1 to point b, and he's gonna be better for it and he recognizes it because this past week, he had a times tables test on the sevens, and he made like a 99. And he was like, I made like a 99. Dave's like, you're still grounded, but but great work. And he had to push through that difficulty because he was getting from where he was to where he needed to be. He had to sit in that trial.
*1 Peter-1* verse 6, in all of this, all of these trials, you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds. I don't like grief. I don't like dealing with grief because I know that when someone is grieving, there's very little I can do to help them. Because you gotta learn to walk through grief the way that God wants you to, and every single situation is different.
I can't put myself in someone's shoes that I've never walked in before. And so, that that bothers me because I'm a fixer. I'm a like, I always have a word for somebody. You know, the Bible says, be prepared to give a testimony for the hope that you have. I can give a testimony for the hope that I have, but it is very difficult when someone is walking through difficult times that I haven't faced before.
And so, this says, in all of this, you, as you're walking through the grief, as you're walking through the situation, as you're walking through through the trial and the stretching, you rejoice, greatly rejoice. *James-1* verse 12, *blessed* is the 1 who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life the Lord has promised to those who love him. Having stood the test, sometimes stretching is a test to see if you're gonna stand, if you're gonna stand firm on truth. And sometimes that truth we gotta cling to is that Romans-8:28. God, I know you're gonna work this together for good.
I don't know how. I don't understand, but I'm gonna stop trying to fix it, and I'm gonna worship you in the middle of it. And that is hard, but it's so worth it. *1 Peter-5:10*, and the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. I don't know about you, but there's only so much strength that I can gain on my own.
But this says, after suffering for a little while, he will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. That is encouraging to me because the work of strengthening myself only comes from resting in him. Instead of fighting, instead of trying to get from 0.1 to point, we try and run through. If if that dude were to run across the tightrope, he would have fell. He took his time.
He sat in it. He sat in the pain and was focused on where he was going. But hey, if I were to look down, if I were to think about all of my muscles bulging and hurting, I would have fallen because my focus wouldn't have been on where I'm going, my focus would have been on the mess that I'm in. So, want us and I'll have the band, y'all can come on up, Nate, if you'll kind of play behind me on the guitar. But I want us, when we're facing whatever trial you're going through, *1 Peter-4:12*.
There's so much scripture surrounding this. I didn't even realize it until God started writing this message. You know, I always you know, we we wanna focus on, you know, the good of God. He is good. He's good when life is bad.
We wanna focus on on His peace, but the reality is He is peace when life sucks. Because there are times that things are gonna be difficult, and that's okay. But where is our focus? Where is our perception in the middle of it? 1 Peter-4:12, dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
Come on. Don't be shocked. *Jesus said, John-16:33*, in this life, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. He assures us, hey, difficulties are going to come.
How are you going to handle them? So my question to you is what are you walking through? What are you walking through today? Are you having relational difficulties with someone in your marriage? I mean, we we're a testament of walking through it and staying strong during it and screwing up a lot in it too, but but we're a testament of of just, okay, God, I know what you've said.
I know what you've told us to do. There are times when it says that we just stand the test. Sometimes, we just have to stand in the middle of the junk. Sometimes, we have to stand there, Holy Spirit, comfort me, guide me, teach me in the middle of this. Because if I take a step to the right or to the left, I'm gonna fall.
So I just have to focus on you in the middle of this. The test might be, hey, God telling you, this is this is what I want you to do today. I want you, the relational difficulties you're in, I want you to call the person that you've wronged and apologize. I want you I want you to text somebody and let them know, I forgive you even though you might I wouldn't say this. Even though they might not deserve it.
I forgive you because God has forgiven me. The bible actually says, and we're about to worship a little bit, but the bible actually says, don't bring your offering or your sacrifice of praise to the altar until you deal with all this stuff. It's easy to write a check, text. It's easy to to put our hands up in worship. It's hard to say, oh, I messed up and God wants me to take a step, a step towards someone in reconciliation because he's a God of reconciliation.
So church, this is not just a time to come together and sing some songs and go home. What are you walking through? Do you need prayer? Ask for prayer. Take a step.
Sometimes your next step is just, hey, I I don't know what to do and I need prayer. Could I have just some of the dream team stand? Some of some of the dream team with their with their tags on. If you're okay with praying for people, look around for these these mighty men and women of God that have these tags on. Got a couple of them in here.
If you need prayer, you can ask the person next to you. But if you're kinda like, I don't wanna ask the person next to me, fine. Just look at their faces, "get to know them", and go find them during worship. We're gonna we're gonna go into worship in just a moment, and I I love you guys. And I know that this message was not written just as a "feel good message".
It's a challenge to face whatever is coming or whatever you're in, or maybe to get a different perspective of what you were in in the past, and maybe move you forward in what God wants for you.
Thank you for tuning in today to The Real Church podcast. I pray that you "walk away from today encouraged" with a deeper understanding of how much "God loves you". If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church of the Lord. God bless you, and the best is yet to come.