Leadership Pain

Man, I missed you guys. It's so good to be home. Good to be back. We didn't really go anywhere, but it was more of a working summer break for us this year. My family and I recently moved into a new house. And so, yeah, come on. Anybody else believing for a piece of property, a new house? Let's go. All right. A number of you guys. Well, here's what Jesus said. The meek shall inherit real estate. I just modernized that a little bit, but that's what he said. So that's what we're going to believe for with you in Jesus' name. But we moved into a new house. I did travel a little bit, but not much. I spent a majority of my time focused on writing my first book. I'm not quite done. We're getting there. But it's going to come out at some point next year in 2027. So I spent the break doing that. But we had some amazing preachers. Obviously, our very own Pastor Brian, Pastor Michelle, Lisa Harper, my cousin, Pastor Jason Dottrill from Shelbyville. I learned that's the way you say Shelbyville is Shelbyville. And I know he toured up last week, but we missed you guys so much. It's so good to be back. We have a number of amazing people in the house today, starting with Jesus. Amen. Just below him in ranking, in my own heart, my own grandmother's here today. My granny's here today, Benita, all the way from Owensboro, Kentucky.

She does not get down very often, but whenever she is here, I want to make sure I give her a big shout out. She watches online every Sunday. Is that true? And did you watch the last month? Most of them. You got a little bored when somebody else was preaching? You weren't able to get one of them? Which one? The last one. Pastor Jason Dottrill, what's not up? Somebody's fired. No, I'm just kidding. Y'all, my granny texts me, usually, truly, every single Sunday. Thank you for that. Every Sunday. And she always tells me how good of a job I did. So, if none of you guys say amen, I don't care. Because I know that I'm going to get a text from granny at the end of my message, and she's going to tell me that I did fantastic. I remember, I got to say this, it's so funny. I remember one Sunday, the worship went long, and God was moving, and it was amazing. So, instead of sending up someone to transition, we just went longer. And then by the time I got up to preach, I probably had like 15 minutes in that service. And I kept saying, I don't have enough time, I'm sorry, you're just going to have to read the notes in the newsletter. And she texted me after that one, she said, I got a great idea. Just make worship shorter from now on. I need more of my grandson preaching. So, I just want to say, like, if you guys don't like me, today especially, I'm good. Also, some pastors are here, Pastor Tyler, Pastor Ryan, all the way from different church. Did I say your name right? Tell me your name again. Oh, I thought I messed it up.

I was like, oh my goodness, I need to publicly repent. From different church, which all of you guys, if you have TikTok, obviously follow them. I've been learning a lot about their church today, and I'm so excited that you guys are here. Thank you for coming. What an honor to have you and your girls. Welcome, guys. Come on, we can do a little bit better than that for some visiting pastors. Thank you so much, you guys, for coming. It's awesome to have you guys here. Take notes today, let me know how I can improve my delivery. Pastor Tyler is the king of sermon illustrations, and I am literally the worst at sermon illustrations. Every time I try to do one, bro, it never goes well. And my friends are encouraging me, like, you should do more sermon illustrations. I'm just not very good at it. So, at some point, you'll have to come and show us how it's done rightly, brother. We honor you, we bless you guys. Thank you for being here. We're so grateful that you're here on the day following July 4th. Honestly, I'm very impressed. all of you made it. Fireworks were going off over our heads past midnight last night. But we made it. I checked my recovery score on whoop this morning. It was a fine 24%. Anybody else have whoop? No, none of you have whoops. You're like, okay, cool. That means nothing to me at all. It's really bad. It's in the red. It's terrible. So I got up and I went for a run because I'm American. I'm not a quitter. Amen. So with that being said, open your Bibles to Philippians chapter one, because today we are going to dive into a brand new sermon collection. The whole summer we're doing this thing called summer school, but we're starting Philippians today. We're going to read all of chapter one. We'll have four Sundays in Philippians two, three, and four. We will have the goat of the UK, pastor John Norman back with us on the last Sunday of July. We love pastor John so much. Going to be good to have him back, but I am going to preach all of these chapters to you

over the next five weeks, Philippians one, two, three, and four. So if you don't mind to stand for the reading of God's word, you will be standing for a little bit. So, because we're reading all of Philippians chapter one. Is that okay? Awesome. You guys love the Bible? Amen. I have been thinking about creating some, you know how we have like the leader's creed. If you serve on team, I have been thinking about coming up with like a Bible creed so that at the beginning, we can all hold it up and declare something about the Bible, because I am so passionate about our church being built on a biblical worldview. Amen. All right. So Philippians chapter one, a little bit of context here. The apostle Paul is writing from prison in Rome and he's writing a letter to a church that he planted first church he ever planted in Europe. And that is in the city of Philippi. Now Philippi, the church there is being persecuted. They are experiencing pushback because Philippi is a retirement community for all of the former Roman soldiers that are extremely patriotic. So whenever these Christians pop up and they began preaching something like this, Jesus is Lord. That means everybody has got to bow their knee and with their tongue, confess this new reality. We know who the king is. It's not Caesar, it's Jesus. So they didn't take too kindly to that. So the church at Philippi is being persecuted and Paul obviously also being persecuted has now been put into prison and he's in Rome and the church at Philippi know this. So they send this guy with a very funny name, Epaphroditus with a letter as well as some money. How many guys know that's a good day when somebody shows up with an offering? Two people. Amen. All right. Amen. It's a good day. And so Epaphroditus comes in and Paul says, on behalf of me and Timothy, let's sit down, write a letter. I'm going to send it back with you guy with the funny name. And then you are going to read it to the church at Philippi because I want to encourage my people. Are you ready? Okay. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the salutation. And then Paul begins to pray. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy. What a good pastor he is. Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I'm sure this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Somebody say amen. He says, it's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart. You're all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel for God is my witness,

how I yearn for you with all of the affection of Christ Jesus. And it's my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So now that he's prayed for his people, he's now going to fill them in on how he's doing and catch this, how he feels about what's happening to him in his life. This is very important because we're going to examine a mindset today that Paul has that all of us must possess. If we would be King. leaders You ready? He says I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ and Most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are now much more bold to speak the word without fear some of them This is what I want to say from time to time on social media some of them preach Christ from envy and Rivalry, but others from goodwill the latter do it out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel But the former how do they preach at a selfish ambition? Not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment What then Paul says? Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice I don't even care about y'all making fun of me if you preach in Jesus. Amen and Then he goes on to talk more about his condition Yes, I will rejoice verse 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ This will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed But with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death Look at his mindset here for to me to live as Christ and to die as game I love that verse of Scripture that would make a great tattoo whenever I first bought an Xbox I

Have a gamer tag from this scripture Philippians 121 my gamer tag is this don't don't even look it up. I don't really play that much anymore, but it's martyrdom Just get excited, you know when I get on to just just crush some kids and halo, you know If I'm to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell he said I don't know if God gave me the option to die and go to heaven Or to continue in ministry. I can't tell you what I would choose That's what Paul's saying yet, which I shall choose. I cannot tell I'm hard-pressed between the two My desire is to depart go to heaven be with Jesus because that's far better But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your account convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me You may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again verse 27 here He shows us the results of aligning with the mindset that he's writing about that He has only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ So that whether I come and I see you or I'm absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel and not Frightened in anything by your opponents This is a clear sign to them of their destruction But of your salvation and that is from God now look closely at the last two verses of Scripture Because that's really where I'm going to focus in Verse 29 and 30 at least the theme of it for it has been granted to you. It's been granted to you church Receive this it's been granted to you that for the sake of Christ You should not only believe but also suffer That's the right way to start I Know that's tough But here what Paul is saying it's been granted to you Here is a gift that you have received not only that you would believe as you should

But suffer as you should Uh-oh Verse 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now Here that I still have I want to look at this mindset. I call it a suffer well Mindset and I thought about titling the message suffer believe and suffer, but I thought that might be too intense So I called it leadership pain Somebody say ouch Let's pray Lord. We say thank you for your word. It's everlasting and unchanging yet always faithful to change us We come before you today in humility And we ask you God for grace so that not one of us would leave this room the same Father I thank you for an increase and an upgrade in the Mind of Christ today we cling to you and we say thank you for salvation in Jesus name and everybody said Amen, you can be seated in 2015 an Acquaintance, I'll call him that now of mine. Mr. Sam Chan wrote a book called leadership pain and If you've never read it before it's a great book. I would totally encourage you to pick it up in the book Sam talks about the reality of being a leader and he says this if you are going to be a leader You are going to suffer 100% Write it down Suffering for you as a leader will be cyclical It's not going to go away forever, but it will be back because this is the nature of Leadership in the book he posits a theme that I've summarized in this statement your leadership Ceiling will be determined by your capacity for pain Read it again Your leadership ceiling will be determined by your capacity for Pain You want to be a leader You got to get ready to suffer like a leader. You want to be a founder?

You got to get ready to suffer like a founder. You want to be an athlete? You got to get ready to suffer like an athlete. You won't be a preacher You got to get ready to suffer like a preacher He says this in the book and I'm quoting directly now if you're not hurting you're not leading If You guys like I'm not sure I want to continue with this message If you're not hurting you're not leading it's impossible to be cutting-edge and not bleed It's the tip of the spear that faces the most resistance if you want to go first, you're gonna forsake your right to do it best But you will take territory for other people so that future generations get the opportunity to live in the breakthrough That you fought so hard for if you are not hurting you are not leading Your vision for the future has to be big enough to propel you to face the heartaches and struggles. You'll find along the way Found one more quote. This is from the founder of success magazine So if you don't want to be a preacher, but maybe you want to be a businessman Here's what he said. Mr. Martin. He said success is not measured by what you accomplish But by the opposition that you have encountered and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds in that awesome, I Think that really summarizes what it is that Paul is talking about here when he says Here's how I'm doing. And here's how I'm thinking About what I'm doing the first thing he does after the salutation is he talks about how he's praying for his church and you've really got to consider this because Paul is such a wonderful pastor because he prays in such a way that he says my prayer at the end of the day Even if the persecution does not let up is that you would continue to grow in your love. That's first nine That's what Paul prays for you if you're going through something right now church Paul is praying Let your love continue to grow Despite your circumstance. I know that's easier said than done But that's what Paul is praying for the persecuted church Despite the fact that you are experiencing so much pushback and people are threatening you to take you to prison and in your life

Talking about you Backstabbing gossiping against you in spite of your circumstance. Here is my humble prayer for you as your pastor This is what Paul is saying that your love would still grow In spite of all the junk that your love would still grow In spite of the fight of your life that your love would still grow and I pray that your love would grow as well as your Knowledge and your discernment not only do I want you to grow in intellect and information but I want you to grow in the spiritual gift of Discerning good from evil So that you can call it out for what it is So that Paul says in verse 10 and 11 that you would stay pure Because ultimately that is the goal of God not just to give you everything you want But to transform you into the person he's called you to become Amen, so you read Paul's prayer and you know, okay. This is how a good pastor should be Praise for their flock and so this week as i'm reading philippians chapter one And i'm preparing to preach for the first time in a month. I'm praying this over you Lord, I know some of the people in our church. They're going through some stuff I I know there are people in our church that just got a negative diagnosis I know there are some people in our church That are experiencing the fight of their life as they're being attacked on all sides I know there are some people going through marital struggles and they've got prodigal children that are far from home I'm praying that in spite of their circumstance That their love would continue to increase and that they would not let this fight steal their love I'm praying That no matter how hard I get hit That I come back with more love I remember as a missionary I used to say all the time if it ain't working just add love You can overcome any situation by adding love to it maybe not for them maybe not in totality but for you You can see it differently so long as you're willing to receive the love of god and release the love of god So that's what paul is praying over his people and he says i'm thankful and I have joy because you guys have always been my Partners you've always been my partners because you give

Which is awesome The church at philippi was always a giving church I prayed that as well this week. I said lord Make us a church like philippi make us a church. That's a generous church Make us a church that whenever somebody is on mission for the kingdom. We would support them financially That we would send epaphroditus I don't know if anybody in here, uh had really saved parents and your middle name is epaphroditus, but You got an anointing baby He says i'm thanking but i'm thanking god because you're my partners you give financially but he doesn't stop there He says i'm grateful for the gift, but i'm even more thankful for the fact that you suffer with me This is how you know, you've got the right partner Not just somebody who will send an offering when things are going great But people who will climb in the foxhole with you and hold fast to you while you suffer And they say if you suffer and i'm suffering if i'm suffering I know you're gonna be there and you're gonna suffer with me. This is how you know, you got the right partners They don't abandon you when it gets rough. Oh i'm thinking about your thoughts and prayers No, i'm willing to suffer for you and i'm willing to defend the gospel right by your side until we see fruitfulness That's what he says So paul's in prison. He's writing this down timothy Epaphroditus. Hey write this down because I want to make sure that my church understands something They're gonna go through it and it ain't gonna let up suffering is always cyclical But they need to have the right mindset so that they don't see suffering incorrectly because there's actually an opportunity in an invitation in their situation So paul says in verse 12 I'm, actually glad i'm paraphrasing. I'm actually glad this has happened to me. He's writing from prison He's in chains He's being persecuted But he's looking at his situation through the lens of a victor and not a victim

Yes, this flies in the face of our culture today. Don't worry. You don't have to say amen because I know Victimization and living your life as a victim has become so popular that you get rewarded for it on social media But that is not the way of scripture. That's not the way of our savior. We are not victims We are victors and even though all hell could be breaking loose around us We can look at our situation like the apostle paul in verse 12 and say I want you to know something I want you to know something What has happened to me? Has really served? To advance the gospel it sucks But it's serving It stinks but it's serving trying to think of another s word It's stupid It's stupid But it's really serving It's serving to advance the gospel write this down point one. Here's the mindset Here's the mindset that we must have church The mindset we must have nothing bad happens to me so long as it serves to advance the gospel When the enemy comes to attack you say I hear you I see you I got it We've got to flip the script romans 8 28. Just pull that up real quick. And we know that for those who love god some things didn't leave nothing out cancer diagnosis, all things divorce papers, all things lost a friend, all things got a speeding ticket y'all don't want to talk about that huh I was leaving Easter service at South my wife texted me I pulled the phone up I was like oh I got to pick up some food state trooper was right there like God bless you brother Easter Sunday pulled me right over gave me a ticket I said man I'm coming from church he says sir here's your ticket you know what I said all things and I blessed him in the name of Jesus all things work together for the good of those that love God check out Genesis chapter 50 verse 21 more as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good God can take oppression and

turn it into a blessing you meant it for evil but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive you see that many people see you don't know how you're suffering enduring suffering and other people watching you do that with your head up and your faith in Christ Jesus how it has an effect on other people here's point to write it down when I respond to suffering God's way it empowers other people to do the same check this out verse 14 and most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are now much more bold to speak the word without fear how you suffer matters listen anybody can whistle and skip and be happy on the way to the bank with a fat check anybody can do well when they're winning anybody can look impressive when everything is going their way when they're blowing up but how do you respond when everything is going bad how you suffer matters to everybody who's connected to you it's not just important that they watch you win they also need to watch you lose so that you can train them as to how they are to respond to loss come on fathers you know what I'm saying like your kids need to see you respond to losing righteously I know you're you're really good when you win but how do you respond when you lose how do you respond when you're having a bad week how do you respond when people are talking about you how do you respond when you lose your job how do you respond when somebody has an argument with you or cusses you out on the highway road rage your kids are right there how do you respond you're training other people who are connected to you to respond to suffering righteously whenever you respond God's way people are watching you number three I love that Paul says this this is a word for somebody I refuse to make other people my enemy wasting my energy with offense this is this is part of the mindset this is part of the mindset that Paul has he says okay I'm here in prison and there's other people preaching about me making fun of me saying terrible things about me lying about me trying to ruin my reputation while I'm suffering for the cause of Christ and they're saying oh yep see he wasn't actually in line with God's will as much as he said he was his theology must not be as accurate as he has written about in the past

so they start they start preaching against Paul while he's in prison and he goes through and he says these people are preaching out of selfish ambition they're not sincere they're preaching out of rivalry because they're actually jealous of my ministry so they're making their whole ministry about tearing my ministry down and Paul's like yeah I see all of that but you know what the very fact that Jesus is getting talked about I will rejoice I'm not going to waste any of my energy being offended with these bozos delete block buy good day sir you lose you stole fizzy lifting drinks Willy Wonka anybody yeah I do random movie quotes that Times just to see who my people are. Good day, sir. Goodbye. I'll see you in heaven. See in heaven. Hopefully, you know, like you live in a different neighborhood than me, but we'll both be up there. Praise God. Bless you, brother. Bless you, sister. The whole summer I've been off social media and I have to tell you it has been the biggest blessing for my soul. It really has. Sorry. I haven't posted as much but it really has. It's been a blessing because like I don't have to put up with people teaching dumb stuff coming through my timeline and I'm like, that's not even biblical. That is a TED talk. You stole that from Brene Brown and you are calling it the Apostle Paul.

Anyway, look, that's a distraction. Let's go to the fourth point. No, no. Let me give you some scripture. Real quick, real quick. 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies because you know, they breed quarrels. Titus chapter 3 verse 9, but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies. That's crazy. Who's the, well, this person's my pastor and this person's my apostle and this guy's my spiritual father. Uh-oh. Okay, dissensions, quarrels about the law for they're unprofitable and they're worthless. Last one, Proverbs 20 verse 3. It's an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife. But every fool will be quarreling. Point four. Just write this down. No matter what happens, I win. Let's write it down. No matter what happens, I win. This is what Paul is talking about in verse 19. He says this, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ that this will turn out for my deliverance. And then he goes on to talk about in what way he will be delivered.

He does not know. I could die, but that's deliverance. Or I could live and continue in ministry and I'm delivered from prison and that's also deliverance, but it doesn't matter how this situation turns out. I win because I know that Jesus is Lord. So if my next season is in heaven with Jesus or my next season is in ministry with the church, I win because Jesus is Lord. One is better than the other. Paul was like, I don't know man. I might rather die. Last point. This is the thing about Paul. Suffering is never a surprise for Paul. The thing about the Apostle Paul is that he did not know the difference in a prayer request and a praise report. Brother was just consistent. He was like, yeah, I mean, I'm in prison and I know how to be abased, but I also know how to abound. I could be, I could be in, I could be in India. Vegetable curry is not good for me, not to offend anybody. Oh, we can eat filet mignon or as my son calls them, flaming yawns, you know, flaming yawns and he's full, man. You're like, dad, you're cooking steak. Yep. I'm like, I'm not cooking steak. I'm not cooking steak. I'm not cooking steak. I'm not cooking steak.

I'm not cooking steak. I'm not cooking steak. I'm not cooking steak. What kind? How do you know what kind of steak? It's just steak. Filet? Sirloin, bro. I don't want that. We're gonna have to teach him, you know, how to be abased like Paul. Paul, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where I'm at. It's all good. I was in a, I gotta tell you this story. I was, I was in a, I was in London recently. I was preaching there. This church invited me and I never been there. I just went because it was London. That's one of our 12 cities. So I'm like, I'm going, I don't care. I don't care what kind of church it is. It could be four people. I don't care. Doesn't matter. I'm gonna preach my guts out and they brought me to this hotel. I'd never seen it before. I didn't recognize the name and it was so nice and I went in and Pastor Brian was there with me and I expected he and

I to stay in the same room because like it's a lot to fly people over and give us two rooms and they said, oh no, Pastor Brian, he got a different room. I said, okay, great, cool. And so they take him to his room and they had. handed me a bag of home cooked food. Now, if you travel in ministry, that is a very dangerous gift because you have no idea what is in that bag. That food could be delicious. It could give you dysentery. Like, you're like, you're not gonna be able to preach tomorrow at the conference because you can't get out of the bag. I've been there. And honestly, I was just gonna order room service. I was like, bless the lady who made this. I'm not eating it. So I put it to the side and then Pastor Brian texted me because he's much more adventurous than me. He was like, bro, this food is crazy good. So I opened it up and it was like an Asian thing. And that's my favorite food. It was like noodles and shrimp and there was some steak in there. It was like, it was amazing. I got it out. Man, this is awesome. This food looks incredible. So I sat down, I put my phone up

and I said, I'm gonna play some worship. And it's like, it's like midnight at this point. I play some worship. I eat my food. My family's probably going to bed. I'll just eat my food and I'll go to sleep. I took a bite of that, that noodle dish. And dude, it was out of this world good. And I said, thank you, Jesus. This room is so nice. And this food is so good. And man, right away, he said back to me, he said, we stayed in some pretty crazy places, haven't we? And we've ate some pretty crazy meals, haven't we? I was like, yeah, we have. I remember eating that pig fat in India. Remember that, mom? It was terrible. I remember drinking that coffee in the bush bush with spoiled milk. I said, God, you want me to do that again? And in my heart, I was like, please, no. And I said this, I said, because if you want me to, I will. If you want me to, I will. I don't care. This is great. I really like luxury items. I like expensive stuff, I do. Sorry, I didn't mean to do this like Trump.

I don't know why I'm doing that. Frankly. So. Here's my point, okay. Here's how you suffer well. Here's how you suffer well. And this is what Paul prays for them. You suffer well when you don't lose love. If you didn't hear anything else, I just said the entire time, I want you to write that down. This is how you suffer well, is that you do not allow your suffering to steal your love. And that's what Paul said, to suffer well, don't lose your love. You're gonna go through some stuff, don't lose love. People are gonna push back on you, don't lose love. You're gonna be persecuted. Some of you might even be killed. Don't lose love. Not every day is gonna be a good day. Don't lose love. Some days are gonna be really hard. Don't lose love. This is the mindset of a biblical leader. Whenever Paul was asked to defend his apostleship, Paul didn't say, I'm an apostle because I've had an encounter. And he did. Jesus knocked him off the horse.

The light blinded him. Why are you persecuting me? Jesus took it personal. Who are you? I'm Jesus. Paul could have said, I'm an apostle because I've seen Jesus, just like the other 12. I've seen Jesus, I'm an apostle. I've had an encounter. But he didn't do that. But he didn't do that. Paul could have said, I'm an apostle because I hang out with the 11. We've been kicking it in Jerusalem. They've been training me. They've been teaching me. I'm out here working miracles. I'm an apostle because I raise the dead. I'm an apostle because I prophesy. I'm an apostle because I write prolific letters. I'm an apostle because I'm the man. Whenever Paul was defending his apostleship, he does not use anything as a valid attribute to defend that title aside from one. I'm an apostle because I suffer like one. I'm an apostle because I suffer like one because I've been beat up, I've been berated, I've been lied on, I've been gossiped on, I've been beat with sticks, I've been stoned, I've been shipwrecked, I've gone hungry.

I'll tell you why I'm an apostle. I'm an apostle because I suffer like an apostle You want the next level of your leadership? What you're also praying for is grace to endure the next level of suffering So, I'm sorry I didn't come off a summer break with a Microwave message to tell you that you're beautiful and wonderful and nothing bad ever happens to you. You're fine No, I'm telling you that the next season is going to include suffering So suffer well Tell your neighbor suffer well Tell yourself suffer well You remember that you remember I got a close but you remember when that the bombing and everything was happening in Israel The bombing and everything was happening in Israel Y'all remember that all stuff was happening in the Middle East. Y'all remember that? Y'all don't remember that? You remember that? Member of our church called me. They're in Israel. He said I'm trapped. I can't get out. I'm in a bunker He said I got like 50 people I'm responsible for I don't know what I'm gonna do So I said, let's pray we prayed Call me back the next night. Hey, I got an idea So what is it? He said I'm gonna I'm gonna pay somebody Sneak us out The middle of the night and we'll make a break for the border. I Said bro, that's not wise Like as your pastor, I just have to tell you like I don't think you should do that And he said I prayed we heard from God this is the plan And I said well then I Thought of I was like dude if this dude dies I'm gonna be with his family and that is really gonna suck. I Mean bridging his funeral and that's gonna be terrible And I said well, bro if this is the last time I see your face Suffer well, bye Bye That's it let's stand He made it by the way should have told you that

Kind of left you on a cliffhanger there Father we say thank you for the privilege of believing father. We say thank you for the privilege Enduring the trial father. We say thank you for the opportunity that we have to suffer for the kingdom I know it hurts, but turn it into worship. I know it stings, but turn it into praise I know it's been a difficult season, but don't let the season steal your love Come on, let's sing this through one time if you would lift your hands Lift your voice Oh as we're wrapping up here I just wanted I want to do an altar call for anybody who's suffering I don't know what that means to you it doesn't matter but if you know that's you I just want you to come to the front we're closed we're closing now but if that's you come get some prayer this your family up here these are people who love you and just like Paul was writing he said to my partners in Philippi not only do you give generously but you stand with me in my suffering and if you're suffering today come get some prayer come on down come on down the Lord bless you and keep you make his face to shine upon you lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace go to next steps serve days next week hug somebody on your way out we love you bless you come to the altar bless you in Jesus name