SE ONLINE // Protected But Not Comfortable // Kyle Idleman

hey everybody it's so good to be here with you today no matter if you're in the room or if you're at home let's go ahead and stand up and get ready to worship come on he let me out of the desert and brought me into his streams river of living water my feet [Music] is oh [Music] [Music] set free [Music] is [Music] is come on put your hands together [Music] you are [Music] [Music] the freedom [Music] but you [Music] say so come on [Music] foreign foreign [Music] the oh [Music] [Music] come on i give you glory for all you've brought me through and now i'm ready for whatever you want i'm moving forward [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] in every season [Music] [Applause] [Music] is you jesus [Music] is [Music] the [Music] [Music] breakthroughs [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] oh [Music] it was [Music] we believe [Music] you guys can take a seat come on how y'all doing y'all doing good hey good to see you good to see you online people we love you good to see you um so has anybody else been there or brother you just you just come on man i'm just tired like i'm just i'm just done anybody cooked in the room anybody got it yeah okay the rest of you is great for you but some of us y'all we're tired and some of us right now are out of gas and i was just thinking about this and some of it's for good reasons right like the last few weekends the last two days i spent 30 hours um kind of diving into the gmhc here at the church where i know you all don't know this but y'all we saw over like a couple thousand medical workers from all over the globe hop in uh make commitments to over 181 countries around the globe to go to be sent y'all i'm sitting there i'm just going whoa this is so good man just watching the you know 61 plus countries just doctors all over the world coming together to figure out how do we be jesus and then over the last couple weeks i've had three weddings uh that i've performed over the last four weekends the other you know the one stacking before that and i just love it and it's awesome and it's so good and then being a pastor around here is really easy no it's not and so um like like this morning can i just be real just for a second i rolled out of bed y'all this morning i was like father come on man i'm tired man this brother's tired and something i'm just i just want to share this with you family because some of you are right here with me man it was like the father just like reignited my heart again and said awesome you ready to do some fun stuff then because you know i just i just want to say this because i think this is so true i think that sometimes we think we have to have enough rest and enough resources and enough joy and enough peace and enough security and enough like political stuff going down just the right way and enough everything right for us to step in and to be the radiant bride of christ but i'm just here to tell you that's not the case what happens is there's not a story that we read about with jesus feeding thousands on the hill because they had enough food y'all they didn't have enough and you know we love the story of elijah on a mountain you know pouring fire down you're like come on man like bring that fire i want to see us in our day do something powerful but we forget that he had spent years by a tiny little brook being fed by ravens which can't be good it's just this this beautiful principle in the kingdom of god that when we're weak god goes you all ready when we when we're all poured out we just have nothing left to like we can't we just would love to receive a blessing that's usually when the father's voice comes over me and says okay you ready to bless some people you ready to give you ready to give out of my resources because when and that's what we're about to celebrate together when the the the son of god came in flesh and dwelt among us and lived an obedient life and lived laid his radiant life down for our sins so we could be reconnected to him then he resurrected from the grave and then he sent his spirit to live in our chest at that moment we became the radiant bride of christ that will never again lack ever so today as we take communion i just want to remind you family i love this the last thing jesus did i don't know if you knew this or not but the last the last words of jesus on this earth aren't even recorded because they were so personal literally check it out in luke the last verse of luke as he's ascending into the heavens if you read it right there he says he blessed everybody and i'm like nobody gonna write that down nobody gonna write like jesus last words down like we got everything else and that's not it but i think it was because even as he was leaving he was just giving giving blessing just speaking personally to each person they're just giving giving giving that's the nature of the kingdom is to give and so radiant church i just want to remind you today are you empty are you tired are you weak are you worn out can you can we not just hand you know when you're when you can't handle one more news cycle of bad news when we can't when we can't when we can't this is about the time where the church shows up to be the radiant bride who has a spring of living water in their chest that's who we are so father right now as we take communion together god i just pray that you would remind us some are like me on the edge of the bed just saying man i got nothing left in the tank father like i like it there's literally i don't think one more thing i like you know some of us feel like we need netflix and a nap but what we really need is a reminder of the promises that you've given us that we have a power inside of us because of the blood of christ to bless and to give and to love and to to to just be sacrificial with our lives to pour out even more because we don't give out of our own resources we give out of yours so father help us today to have the right mindset a kingdom mindset and thank you thank you thank you thank you for the blood of jesus that has reconciled us so that we can be the sons and daughters of the kingdom we love you we love you it's a powerful name we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] what a friend we haven't jesus all our sins and grace [Music] we often [Music] everything to god [Music] is we should never be discussed taken to the lord and [Music] can we find a foreign cause jesus [Music] lay between us how high the mountain i could not lie in desperate i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night then through the darkness your lovingkindness tore through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written jesus christ could imagine such boundless [Music] [Applause] the cross has spoken i have forgiven jesus christ [Music] jesus christ [Music] your buried body began to [Music] the breathe the roaring light declare the grave has no claim on [Music] that's good news this morning amen let's sing this down [Music] [Applause] you're [Music] [Music] is [Music] you have broken every day jesus christ [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh god you were good you were faithful you are just you are merciful and god we thank you that you wanted relationship with us we thank you that you saw us where we were you didn't leave us there we thank you that you chase us you pursue us and that you sent your son jesus to save us and it's in his mighty name that we pray amen amen you guys can grab a seat hey i want to thank all of you for your prayers over the past week i am officially out of quarantine i'm feeling much better honestly the physical symptoms from for me were pretty minor what i had the hardest time with was just the two weeks of isolation like i didn't think i would have a hard time with that in fact the first few days i kind of loved it but i just didn't feel that good right i didn't feel like zooming into meetings or reading or working on the computer and so i spent those first few days just binge watching stuff i binge watched documentaries and then i binged watched the netflix series stranger things and then i knew like it wasn't good for my brain to do all this binge watching because in my mind i started to get confused on whether or not stranger things was a documentary or a sci-fi series about aliens and so like the first three or four days i was just kind of vegging out just thinking about myself feeling a little bit sorry for myself getting a little bit discouraged a little bit lonely started to feel frustrated and annoyed with the whole situation i was especially annoyed when i lost my sense of taste because at first i thought well this is good i can break some bad eating habits and i'll start eating healthy because we can't taste anything then why not just eat brussels sprouts and cauliflower you know for the next week but here's what they don't tell you you lose your sense of taste but you still have an appetite for unhealthy things it's the weirdest it's the weirdest dynamic right like even though you can't taste pizza you still have an appetite for it i think there's a good illustration there at some point about having an appetite for sin even though it doesn't bring you any pleasure you still have this appetite for it i'll save it for another sermon but i was just five or six days of going stir crazy and eventually like towards the end of the first week i started to realize all i've done for the last week is focus on myself and stare at screens like that's it just focus on myself and stare at screens and it's one thing to do that for like six or seven days but it struck me that it's what a lot of us have been doing the past six seven eight nine months we've just gotten into this comfortable routine of thinking about ourselves and just staring at our screens just kind of passing the time waiting for things to get back to normal and we think about ourselves and we stare at our screens and i was just convicted i was just convicted about the fact that that is not how i want to look back on this season of my life and so in the next few minutes whether you're watching this at home or one of our campuses i want to ask you to be really honest about the last eight or nine months of your life specifically i want to ask you to be honest about your relationship with god how's that going maybe for you this has been a time of spiritual awakening maybe maybe maybe for you this has been a time where you have personally connected or reconnected with god in deeper ways than you ever thought possible i hope so i hope that's true for you i mean i hope you would say this is the best thing that's ever happened for your prayer life i i want that to be true for me i'm not sure up to this point that it has been like when my grandkids someday ask me about uh the pandemic of 2020 and did i get the coronavirus and i don't want my best story out of that season i don't want the highlight of this time in my life to be well i cleaned out the garage and i organized the closets and i sat around and didn't do much of anything now i really i really want this time to be a time of drawing closer to god i really want to know him in a way that i've not known him before and i really want that to be true for you too like i am i'm praying that that would be true for us as a church that we would we would experience his presence in deeper ways that this year would change the way we worship and it would change the way we pray and i really think the series we're in is going to help us with that we're in a series going through john chapter 17 and it's just the prayer that jesus prays on the night that he would be betrayed and arrested and all of chapter 17 is is a prayer it's just us listening in on this very intimate and personal conversation that jesus has with his heavenly father and here's what he does for us in john 17. he shows us how to pray when we feel overwhelmed and i don't know if you need some help with that in this season but i i do like how do i pray when things aren't going according to my will how do i talk to god when the future can seem so uncertain how do i pray when i'm suddenly not sure of what to even ask for or what questions that i even need answers to and so jesus models this prayer for us in john 17 and maybe the most significant thing about this prayer is that it's even in the bible i mean just think about this you have this point of crisis at the end of jesus life and there's a whole chapter where he just prays and and i guess i'm a little surprised by that because part of me would say is that even necessary when jesus prays isn't that him just talking to himself because isn't he god you know in the flesh and and yet there's huge implications and convictions for me in this because if it was important for jesus to do it at a time of crisis then how much more important is it for me to be that way how much more important is it for me to cry out to god as a father and so the entire chapter is just jesus praying and that alone is a point of conviction for us in this season john 17 verse 1. here's what we read jesus looked up to heaven and he said father the hour has come and last week we talked about the word father that when we pray our tendency is often to focus on what like you know what do i say what's the right formula what what am i supposed to say to god when i pray but when jesus prays the focus i don't think is so much on what he says but who it's who he's talking to and so he talks to god as father and it's that relationship that teaches us how to pray and so here's here's what we learn about prayer in a season of crisis when praying in a time of crisis you lean you lean on your father rather than on a formula you're not so focused on what am i saying am i saying it the right way instead you're understanding it's a relationship it's not a ritual it's a relationship um last night i sat with my wife on our front porch swing and watched the sunset i should do it more often i loved it i loved it we don't get to do that very often because we're just always so busy and so much going on and so many things that need to be taken care of and checked off the list but we just sat there and i kept trying to scoot closer to her i mean i was officially safe to be close to her and so i kept trying closer to her but for the last two weeks she's kind of been avoiding me so uh but we just sat there and talked and if he would have pulled up to my house at first i would have told you to leave because but if you would have pulled up and said hey what are you doing what are you guys talking about we probably would have said nothing it didn't feel like we were talking about anything like it's not that we were talking about something significant or making some big decisions we were just just sitting on the front porch if you pulled up it would have felt like you were pulling up into a country music video because just sitting on the front porch i'm trying to get closer to my beautiful wife wearing her cowgirl boots my son's in the front yard shooting his bow and i'm just loving being a husband and a father just loving being a husband and a father it's not that i was doing something it's not what we were talking about it's not an agenda that we were working through we were just sitting on the front porch spending time together and and this i think is an image of the kind of relationship god wants to have with us where we just spend time with him as a father we stop focusing so much exactly on what we're saying and are we saying it the right way but we just cry out to him as father and jesus underlines this throughout that prayer because six different times in john 17. six different times he refers to god as father and he's helping us understand the dynamic that god wants to have with us when we talk to him and i know we talk about that a lot the idea that god is a loving and kind father but it's huge because it unlocks so many things for us spiritually and dave kennedy was a pastor on our staff for for many years and he tells about an elderly man that was in a nursing home and every sunday his daughter and her husband and kids would come to visit him in the nursing home every sunday afternoon they would come and every sunday afternoon he was always waiting on them to come and visit never missed it he would always wait on the front porch for them to come and to see him and this went on for years but then his mind wasn't as sharp as it used to be and he started having um you know memory slips and and so his daughter was always surprised that he never missed a sunday afternoon that he was always there waiting on them when they would come and visit and one day she asked her dad about it said dad you do you know what day it is today and her dad thought for a minute and said no no i don't know what day it is and she said to her dad well then why why are you waiting for us today how did you know to wait for us today and her dad said i wait for you every day and i love the simplicity of that story of a father longing for relationship and connection with his daughter and and i i i'm hesitant to use it a little bit just because you know i know god's not this fragile needy elderly man but he is a loving father the bible describes him as knocking on the door wanting wanting to spend time with us and so jesus prays to the father but here's the question all right as we're studying this we see who he prays to but what does he pray about like what does jesus talk to god about when he talks to him and for the first four verses or so jesus prays for himself but here's what i want you to catch is that when jesus prays for himself he prays specifically that he would give god glory in this time of crisis that's what he prays for and so verse 1 jesus says father the hour has come glorify your son so he can give glory back to you and so here's the second thing that we learn about praying during a time of crisis is that in times of crisis pray that you will give god glory understand that in difficult seasons when life is hard you have an opportunity to glorify god in a profound way like you know this but the darker things are the brighter your light can shine and so when jesus prays for himself he's praying that he would glorify god he's not praying for his there's comfort he's not praying for his own security he's not praying for his own desires to be fulfilled in fact matthew 26 when matthew records the prayer that jesus prays in the garden of gethsemane matthew records jesus saying to god take this cup from me but not my will yours be done god i want i want what you want and so his primary focus is on whether or not he's going to glorify god in that moment so even when he prays for himself he's really praying for the glory of god and in this season what would that look like if if we started every day and just said god and this is a scary prayer god do in my life today whatever's going to bring you glory even if even if what you want isn't exactly what i want even if what you want isn't going to be what's most comfortable and convenient for me i have a uh a friend i go to lunch with sometimes who does this crazy thing where he sits down at the table and without even looking at the menu he says to the server you order for me to me that's that's crazy like i i don't mind asking the server for his or her opinion like what do you think i should order what's good here you work here you know you know what's best so give me your opinion i might veto it i might go a different direction it's one thing to ask for an opinion it's another thing to have somebody order for you and when jesus prays he's not just consulting god he's submitting to god he's not just asking god for his opinion on the situation he's saying god whatever you want and i it would be my desire for you to take this cup from me but ultimately what i want the most is for you to be glorified and that's just a little bit of a dangerous prayer because look when you pray god be glorified you just need to know that oftentimes what most glorifies god is not what's going to make you most comfortable right so a few weeks ago i was talking to a friend of mine he and his wife are getting close to retirement their kids are out of the house they're looking forward to empty nests but they had recently started praying saying god this is our plan for the future this is what we want but is it what you want for us because really what we want is what you want and that's that's a dangerous prayer what god wants for you is not always going to be what is most comfortable and so they find themselves now in the middle of adopting a sibling group of four that otherwise was going to be divided into a couple different foster homes so in that in a time of crisis pray for yourself yes but pray ultimately that you would glorify god let that be our prayer in times of crisis that god would use what we're going through to give him glory to draw people to himself so jesus prays to god as a father then he prays specifically to glorify god in this moment of crisis and next what we see jesus do is he he begins to pray for other people he specifically prays for his disciples and so what you find is in a moment of crisis he's not praying for himself he's praying for others and so that's really the rest of the prayer like the next 20 verses it's just jesus praying for other people verse 11 jesus says to his heavenly father i am departing from the world they are staying in the world but i am coming to you holy father he prays you have given you have given me your name now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are and so here's what jesus does is he prays for his followers first to be united and then second to be protected next week our campus pastors are going to talk to us about this prayer that jesus prays for unity that in his final moments on earth he's praying for the unity of the church that we would be one they also praise for protection now listen protection isn't the same as as comfort he doesn't pray for god to take them out of the world he doesn't pray for their comfort and convenience he does pray that god would keep them safe verse 15 jesus says i'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to keep them safe from the evil one in other words jesus isn't necessarily praying for their physical protection in fact most of the disciples that he's praying for are going to be persecuted they're eventually going to be martyred for following him but jesus is praying for their spiritual protection that even in the midst of physical suffering and struggle that they would be faithful to him to the very end that they would they would follow him to the very end and so he prays for his disciples who are with them but he also prays for his future followers look at this in verse 20. jesus says i'm praying not only for these disciples not only for the eleven that are here but also for all all who will ever believe in me through their message so that's you and me and so here's what jesus is showing us is that when we find ourselves in a time of crisis it is it is the time to pray for other people it's a time to pray for other people so i just want you to think about your prayer life over the past nine months and and ask if this has been true of your prayers have your prayers been more focused on you or more focused on others and you know let me go first in answering that question i've been more focused on me like i've prayed more in this season but i recognize over the past week or two that i have become increasingly uh self-focused in my prayers now i think some of that had in a point of crisis is um it's just subconscious like we we naturally go into the self-preservation mode like fear and anxiety causes us to turn our attention on ourselves and and we have to intentionally and purposely say okay i'm not going to do that i'm going to give my heart my mind i'm going to give my prayers i'm going to give my resources to showing care concern and love for other people so it's in this season especially i think it's counterintuitive it just um it feels like we have so many things ourselves that need attention and need to be worried about and concerned with but i would love for us as a church in this season to learn how to pray for other people um and and in doing so we end up finding the joy that we were searching for all along there's a psychology professor his name's martin seligman he wrote this book called uh authentic happiness and um he really has devoted his whole life to try and figure out what makes us what makes us truly happy right and one of the things that he has learned is that we think what will make us happy is something almost always very selfish like we think more of something typically will make me happy like more money more chocolate more sex more success more achievement more stuff he's got this list of things if i just had more of this then i would be happy but he says the gap between more and enough is never bridged and and there's this fascinating dynamic that takes place the more we focus on doing things to make ourselves happy the more we put ourselves at the center of the stage the more we make it about ourselves the less happy we typically feel and so he did this experiment with one of his classes where he told them to go out and first do one activity that was purely altruistic one act of kindness and then he said i want you to then go out and do one activity that's purely selfish one thing that you think will make you happy and then compare the results and and here's what he writes in in his book here's his conclusion he says the results were life-changing he says the afterglow of the pleasurable activity you know whatever it was hanging out with friends watching a movie getting hot fudge sundae he said it paled in comparison to the effects of kind action and he's found that there's this irony that takes place when we when we start to shift our focus towards other people that we become you know less not just less self-absorbed but we become less depressed we become more grateful more capable of empathy we have a greater sense of community we have decreased sense of loneliness and and it's just this great irony in life right like when we finally get the focus off of ourselves and put it on to others we end up finding the happiness that we were wanting from the beginning and one of the most effective ways that we can do this is through prayer is by praying for other people at a time where we're more likely to want to put the attention on ourselves so i i um i really want to challenge you this week i i know for me this is a struggle right like not just praying but but praying for other people but i i know in this season it's one of the things god's wanting to teach us it's to model the heart of jesus in john 17 by focusing our prayers on other people you know who did that for me this past week is um is a guy named charles charles mungura and charles grew up in the congo um grew up very poor his family struggled to get by when he was five years old his dad died he was determined that he was going to provide for his family got a degree in finance but he kept praying the more he prayed the more he had this this burden to serve jesus full time as a pastor and so he became a pastor to somali refugees that were living in nairobi but but these days um charles is a pastor with me here on staff charles serves as one of our campus pastors he's the campus pastor for our multi-nation campuses the dude speaks seven languages and he he reaches people from all over the world who find themselves in louisville kentucky many of them are struggling and scared and and he reached out to me this week because he knew that i had tested positive and thought i might be a little discouraged so he reached out to encourage me but here's what you should know about charles is that he has been separated um against his will no choice of his own he's had to be separated from his wife and his four kids four sons they've been in kenya for more than a year uh stuck there waiting for immigration paperwork processing because of covid he can't go see them and they can't come to him and yet here he is making sure that i'm okay reaching out telling me he's praying for me reaching out speaking encouragement and life into me and if you spent time with charles you would be struck by the fact that he is a man of joy and he is a man of peace how is that possible when he's separated from his wife and four sons for for more than a year because of these circumstances that he can't control control how does he have that kind of joy i think it's because he has the heart of jesus in john 17. he is praying for loving for caring for other people and so i want to challenge you this week to to model that a couple things um when you pray pray with your eyes open like for many of us we learned to pray in a quiet place with our head bad and our eyes closed it's hard to pray for other people when you're not around other people and praying so can't always do it out loud but just pray your way through the day keep your eyes open if you're on social media pray your way through social media if you're walking the neighborhood and walking outside in the neighborhood then pray your way as you go from one neighbor neighbor's house pass one neighbor's house to the other and then i want to challenge you as a church to pray for all people see one of the things we tend to do is when we pray for others we tend to have a list of people that we always pray for which is good right it's good to pray for people we love and care about obviously do that but the bible also goes out of its way to teach us to pray for people who are different than us people who are difficult towards us matthew chapter 5 jesus says to bless your enemies and pray for those who curse you how's that how's that going for you and so let me just ask you in this political season you know how much time have you spent praying for people who are on the opposite side of the political aisle from you in 1st timothy paul writes to timothy and he says to timothy he says i urge you first of all to pray for all people wait you mean all people paul like even even the roman government that is responsible for the death and the crucifixion of jesus even the roman government which is persecuting christians even pray for those people and paul says yes all people ask god he says to help them intercede on their behalf give thanks for them pray this way for kings and all who are in government authority so that we can live peaceful quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity and paul says yeah all people and when you pray for those people it's not your it's not that you're praying down a curse on them you're praying that god would help them you're interceding on their behalf you're asking god to give them wisdom and mercy you're praying with the spirit of thanksgiving so this week let's model the prayer of jesus in john 17 and start every day by praying god do in my life today whatever brings you glory whatever brings you the most glory is what i want you to do in my life not my will but yours be done this week in fact let's just say today today i want you to reach out to someone and let them know that you're praying for them today this week i want you to reach out to someone and ask someone to pray for you for some of you you haven't done that in a long time and it's it's an act of humility and vulnerability and and it's easier for you to tell someone you're praying for them than to ask for prayer but you need prayer and i do too so let's ask one another to pray to pray for each other and then i just want to challenge you to take intentional time every day this week to pray for someone who's on the opposite side of things for you ideologically or politically i want you to pray for them i want you to thank god for someone who disagrees with your perspective on things going on in our nation the title of the series is in but not of what we're talking about when we're praying this way at a time of crisis when we're crying out to god as a father what we're saying is i'm in the world but i'm not of the world this world isn't my home and when we're praying for god's glory when things are difficult what we're saying is i'm in the world but i'm not of the world i'm more concerned about god's glory than my own comfort and convenience and when we pray for other people at a time where it would be so natural to focus in on ourselves we're making it clear that we are in the world but we are not of the world we are living according to a different kingdom so in john 17 jesus shows us how to pray in a time of crisis this week if you find yourself just very aware of the struggle very overcome and overwhelmed by the uncertainty of life model the prayer of jesus being in the world not of the world and crying out to god as your heavenly father he's waiting he's waiting on the front porch let's pray god i thank you for your grace towards us that when we feel overwhelmed and uncertain that we can come to you and we can be honest with you as our father who loves us and cares about us jesus i thank you that in your moment of darkness when the hour came for you that that you would pray for us i pray that that would give us incredible courage and comfort in this season to know that you still do that that's still what you're doing you sit at the right hand of the father and you intercede on our behalf that you are continuing to advocate for us just as you did in john 17 even now you're you're praying for us and so would you pray for us not necessarily to be comfortable but for us to be protected and would you help us jesus to model your heart and praying for other people this week it's in jesus name we pray amen so no matter where you are right now let's just uh let's just commit family to this um let's pray with our eyes open this week it's a really i think probably important time i think you all know to keep our eyes open there's so much going on around us but just keep our eyes open i uh second of all let's pray let's pray for let's just do what kyle asks let's just pray uh for the people on the other side of the fence and some sometimes some for some of you it's not it's not political the other side of the fence is the person that's sitting across the dinner table from you for some of you right now it's the person it's it's the boss in the office it's a co-worker it's not all political division is kind of running rampant right now but to just pray for them and to bless them even if you don't feel like you have their in you to give uh and then thirdly i just just that simple prayer and like kyle said it's it's a gift it's one of those prayers that um is always so hard to pray but always so much beauty on the other side of just saying father whatever brings you glory today you know i'm in like i'm in just show me and i will i will give you my best yes even if i'm a little freaked out and even if i don't know what to do i'll give you my best yes and so some of you right now also need to hear um yes you need to pray yes some of you i love what he said i need to reach out for prayer especially those of you right now that are still you know out and watching online we've got people all over the world right now and i just want you to know um i was literally watching the chat back here on you know multitasker and i'm just sitting there watching all of the people's prayers and what's going on in their lives and the chemo and the divorce and the hurt and the job loss and we just want you to know man reach out we'd love to pray for you i don't now is not a time to feel like you can't ask for help now is the time to ask and now is the time for the church to come alongside of you and just love you and uh pray for you and lift you up and i but i also want to say this now is also the time for decision some of you know that you need a reset button in your life you know maybe it's time to recommit your life to christ maybe you know that it's time for you to to literally say and to confess for the very first time jesus i need you i want to be in a relationship with you i just confess my sin that what i've been doing in the past man just that's just not what i want i i repent i want to turn around and i want to trust you with my life i want to trust you with my future you i want you to be savior and lord and i just want you to know i'm of that to you right now whether you're online right now whether you're in the room right now we just want you to know now is the time let's pray for each other let's bless each other let's be a people that make decisions so we're going to worship together and if you have a decision to make either online or in the room if you'd like to make your way to the next step room we just got great people there would love to pray over you with you on chat so many great people that are going to be praying with you and connecting with you but let's stand and let's worship [Music] together [Music] there's no mountain high there's no valley [Music] separate us now you gave it all for me there's nothing love can do [Music] i'm surrounded by your grace i'm standing on the name of jesus [Music] forever you paid it off [Music] standing on jesus forever [Music] yes [Music] [Music] nothing in my hand i bring to the cross i clean rock of ages clap for me [Music] to your [Music] [Music] is is in my [Music] standing [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] soul hey all right guys well thank you for joining us on southeast online we are so glad uh that you chose to be a part of us uh today my name is stephen joining me right now this is sarah you know her and we're glad that you're a part of our today's broadcast here's what i want you know before we get started today i want you to know one big thing if today's message connected you connected with you in any way if you're looking for a way to engage further maybe you need some follow-up or some prayer text the work connect to 733-733 there's nothing more we'd love to do than follow up with you now sarah today's message is a big one we were just talking about it back and forth we're texting about it what really connected with the kyle so the story of the elderly father at the nursing home waiting for his daughter and her family to come see him every sunday and how you know as time progressed he didn't know what day it was he waited every day and just so for me that story is so personal in this season my grandfather in puerto rico has alzheimer's and so he has slowly progressed sure and that's personal when you hear that story yeah to me it means something you were talking too about what it's like right now with your grandfather going through this and i know you're not alone we all have experienced this but he always every day he wants to know one thing what is the big thing he wants to know if like you saying your mom or your aunt had reached out if they've called and so my mom and my aunt are actually amazing they call it just about every day but um sometimes he doesn't remember so they've called and he'll have that moment of like no one ever calls me anymore which kind of makes us giggle a little his reaction but also breaks our hearts because we we do love him and we are you know the family is calling him but sometimes he just doesn't remember but that desire in his heart to be connected to his children is still as present and strong as ever and that's what we were talking about is that even in the midst of you know deteriorating mind the power and need to connect matters and guys right now i think kyle's been talking about right like in the middle of the pandemic right our need to connect an authentic community really does matter you know we're not alone right now joining me actually is uh our connection inspector pastor his name is derek and he's over in kind of the control room with our chat host hey derek how you doing man hey guys how are you i'm doing well you know we were just talking about you know the power of connecting with people in the season and praying for people kyle mentioned it we've seen that online too derek uh share with us a little bit from today's broadcast in this service how have you seen folks reaching out and connecting yeah there have been so many people reaching out and connecting and asking for prayer a couple of the ones that were i just felt like were really significant the first one was a from a guy named scott uh he was just sharing how uh he was just praising god for how god had been relentlessly pursuing his daughter in the midst of her addictions uh and how he has brought her through that recovery and brought her through that recovery program wow and now she's moving towards healing and that's just huge what a praise you know and that's it it does have that same image we were just talking about of a dad praying and waiting praying and waiting for his daughter to come home that's awesome what else do you have neck with yeah so there's a girl named april on here too that her family's going through a pretty rough time this week and she was reaching out and asking for prayer uh her sister and her sister's husband had lost a baby this week due to miscarriage um and so just some really hard stuff going on in their lives this week yeah and that's the thing i want to highlight with this is you know folks can reach out about anything and we want to pray and connect and we want to make it super easy to do that and you can see where derek is guys real folks are right there that are our chat hosts that are ready to pray and connect but derek we go a step further tell us a little bit about the southeast online family room yes so right now in the chat no matter what platform you're on there should be a zoom link in there i'm in here right now in our zoom room for our sc online family room we wanted just to make a very clear next steps for you for you to be able to ask for prayer to ask questions about essie online about southeast christian church and for us to just be that friendly face right there for you to talk to absolutely so if you've got a question and want a real person right now a real pastor someone to connect with you right now the zoom link is in the chat just click it and follow through derek thank you so much buddy thanks guys all right sarah so heavy stuff i know on all of us the season hasn't been one that's been light it's been a heavy season and i know folks are interacting differently what encouragement do you have for them online that are thinking about do i break this barrier this digital barrier yeah would encourage me to have something i would say god made us to thrive on healthy safe loving connection and what better place than with his sons and daughters um and a place where we really we really do love you those who are watching us um so please join us in that family room yeah um reach out because we want to connect with you and we can only do half of it we need you to do the other half yeah um but it's how god made us and so it will be um the best thing for your heart to be able to you know probably i'd say one of the biggest uh i don't know byproducts of this season is the lack of connection that we used to have and i know a lot of us are feeling that in different ways this is authentic real stuff happening yeah right now absolutely real people reaching across so i know what this feels like when it's digital yeah it feels fake sometimes yeah because so much digital interaction can be but this is not this is a space of authentic connection so like sarah said maybe it's the connectex to seven three three three seven three three seven three three there it is uh maybe it's the zoomer link but maybe it's an email but whatever it is whatever you're facing don't do it alone we are here to pray follow up and connect you sarah thank you so much it's been fun hanging with you and the online family thank you guys thank you so much for sticking around and being a part of our sc online family don't hesitate to reach out other than that we'll see you all next week bye everyone [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Southeast Christian Church

Views: 7,499

Rating: 4.9384613 out of 5

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Id: GqdrzCEvoS4

Length: 67min 3sec (4023 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 15 2020