Romans Week 4
Notes
Transcript
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Transcript: (Snow Day recorded in my office.) We are going to be in Romans chapter eight this morning. So if you have your Bibles, I would encourage you to turn there. We're going to be in Romans 8, and we're going to start in verse 17. And we're going to go over some fairly difficult topics this morning. In fact, we're going to go over the topic of suffering, Just giving people a chance.
Y' all got any questions for me before we get started this morning? Luke told me to tell you that he's watching, too. Hello, Luke. How are you this morning? Have you been out to play in the snow yet?
I don't know if my family's at home watching, but Forest Frank is one of Daisy's favorites. So here's. Here's a little bit of Forest Frank for this morning.
Glad. I'm glad he got to play outside Adam, verse 17, chapter 8, verse 17 in Romans.
I'll put it in the comments, too.
And we're going to be going through verse 4, 28.
All right, if y' all do me a favor while y' all are on there this morning, if you would share this. This video, if you would tag some people in it, that way we can get people plugged in and on here. Just I want to give everybody an opportunity to. To jump on.
All right.
All right. While y' all tag some people and y' all share the video, let me give you a little bit of a recap as to where we've been the last several weeks so that you kind of know where we're going and what we're doing. So we have been in Romans the last three weeks. This will be our fourth week in Romans. And we have gone over various topics.
We have gone over the foundation of the gospel that Paul expressed. We have gone over justification, which is what we receive when we have faith in the sacrifice of Jesus. And then we went over sanctification and what that was in the process of being molded and shaped into the image of God and going through in our life and chipping away things that are not of God and that we need to do better at. And so this week, we're getting into the topic of suffering. And I know it's a really difficult topic, and I know that it's really heavy, and I know that nobody wants to talk about suffering, but that's what we're going to talk about today because it is.
It is something that is a constant in life. It's something that we're going to deal with all of the time. It is. We've been roaming around. You calm down, Veronica.
Oh, man. That's a good dad pun right there.
So we're talking about suffering and what that means in our life as believers, because it is a constant. It is something that everybody's going to go through no matter what. In fact, it doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter how much money you make. It doesn't matter what you have going on in your life.
You're going to go through some type of trial or tribulation or suffering or difficulty. It's just a way of life. So how do we respond to that? And that's really kind of what we're going to go over today. So I think.
I think we've given everybody enough time. We're almost 10 minutes past 10:30, so why don't we go ahead and jump into Romans, chapter 8, verse 17. And I'm going to be reading from the ESV version. And I love this Bible. I'm going to show it to you guys.
I absolutely love this Bible. I picked it up from Amazon. I love the design on it. It's a. It's a hardcover.
And on the inside it has lines where I can make notes and I can write down what it is that I learn, what it is that I'm questioning, what it is that I want to find out. And so I love this Bible. Like I said, picked it up on Amazon. I have made my way through several books of the Bible in this book and it has my notes on it and in my underlines and things that I have focused on. And so I love this Bible, but I hope you guys have your Bibles out.
So we're going to start in verse 17. And it says this, Romans 8, 17. And if children, then heirs. And last week we talked about being children of God. So this is just the following of that.
And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified in Him. For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was Son subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, in not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. And we're gonna stop there. And the way that I start with my study every time is I read through the whole passage that I intend on reading. And the way that I read Scripture in my own personal Bible study is I go through a whole book at a time. I don't just sit my Bible down and then open it up randomly and go through a verse.
I want to go through the whole book. And the reason why I want to do that is because I want to understand the whole context of what is going on. I want to know exactly what happened prior to the verses that I'm reading. I want to be able to look ahead if I need to, to see what's going on in the verses ahead. I want to be able to put together a whole picture, whereas if you just pick and choose individual Bible verses, it makes it difficult to get a fuller understanding of what's going on.
So what I do is I sit down and I start by reading the whole passage. And then what I'll do is I'll go back and I'll reread it. Because let's be real, with my adhd, there are lots of things that I missed the first time that I read through it. And so I go back and I reread the passage, and then what I do through the next time that I reread it, I start to write down questions that I have, things that I want to find out, things that I want to dig deeper into. So what I want to do is I want to share with you one of the questions that I had over this Bible verse.
And then what I would love for you to do is if you have questions over what we just read, I would encourage you to put it over in the comments. I'll do my best to try and answer those things. But I would love for you to share those questions that you have over this Bible verse with everyone so that we can answer that and we can kind of expand on it. So the first question that I have came from the very first verse, which was verse 17, and it said, provided that we suffer with Christ. Christ.
And so I was trying to figure out, what does that mean exactly? Because in verse 17 it says, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. And so as I was reading that, I'm trying to wrap my head around why is Paul saying that if we are heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, then there's a comma, provided that we suffer. So it is in addition to everything that he had just stated, but not just what he stated in verse 17. It's also a joining of everything that is written before that.
So everything that we went over last week, which was sanctification and following the Spirit Spirit and obeying what God calls us to do. So we have to combine what it is that we're reading with everything else as well. And so we have to understand what it is that Paul is trying to discuss in the topic of provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified. So what do you guys think on that Bible verse? What do you guys think that means?
Just reading within the context? If you have a study Bible, I would encourage you to look down at the bottom and see what it says. But let's grapple with this together. Let's figure it out together. What does it mean to suffer with Jesus in the context that it is written in?
In chapter eight and in the bulk of Romans that we have read so far. What is. What does that mean? What are yalls thoughts? Y' all got any thoughts?
Throw them in the comments. I'll give you all a second to compose some of your thoughts. What's up, Zeke? Zeke has joined us. He is over there.
We are up at the church this morning because we have had several people who needed shelter overnight, and now they have needed shelter during the day because it is bitterly cold outside. And so they are staying here at the church. And Zeke brought us up some supplies and he's gonna chill out with us for a little bit and hang out. But.
All right, I'm not seeing anybody's answers. Nobody knows what this might mean.
Oh, that's a good one. Link just said suffering is just a part of life. It just is what it is. Now, I would go even farther, right, because it said that we suffer with Him. Who is Him?
Jesus. It is Jesus. So if you're suffering with him, then, then what does that mean? And so let me, let me, let me explain on it a little bit. How many of you guys have ever gone to a gym because you felt like you needed to train, you needed to get your body into shape, you needed to lose that gut that you're carrying around, that tire that you got?
You might just feel like you want to be able to move a little bit better, you want to feel like you are a little bit more healthy? And so you go to the gym. And when you go to the gym, what normally happens, you go in and you work out and you train and you love it, right? No, probably not. Probably not.
You probably hate it. You probably don't necessarily enjoy it. I know that we've talked about running before. I am not a runner. When I start to run, when I start to run, my body rebels against me and it starts screaming at me through a pain in my side, and my legs get heavy and it starts to.
My brain starts to question every choice that I have ever made that led to this point and why it is that I'm making it run. But we go in and we work out. And some people might enjoy working out, but what happens afterwards? You get done working out, you get this dopamine effect where your body is filled with these endorphins and you feel good and you go home, and then you wake up the next morning and you can't get up out of bed, you can barely walk. You can't go up steps.
You feel just absolutely horrible.
That's suffering. That is suffering through training, through discipline, through doing something that you're not used to. So previously, last week, we talked about the process of sanctification. So let's bring that into verse 17. So the process of being more obedient and more disciplined brings with it struggle.
It brings with it growing pains. Because we have now been made aware of the sin that we have in our life and the things that we need to work on. And as we work on those things, we go through a period of suffering. We go through a period of training and discipline, and we wake up with spiritual soreness in that we are getting rid of those things in our life that no longer glorify God. And that temptation is a constant.
It is something that is going to constantly be in the back of your mind. It's going to constantly nag at you. The enemy is going to constantly try to break it back into your life. And it is a daily struggle. And that is a form of suffering.
It is a form of temptation. It is a form of trial. It is a form of going through the process of becoming more like Jesus. In fact, Scripture tells us that we are called to deny ourselves daily, to pick up our cross and to follow after him. That is difficult.
It is a struggle. And when we begin to make those changes in our life, what normally happens is we start to experience even minor persecution. In America, we don't experience major persecution persecution like many other areas, but we experience minor persecutions where people don't understand why we're acting differently. People don't understand why we are doing different things. And so they will begin to question us.
And then if we start to answer about spiritual things, there is a chance that they might poke fun at us. There's a chance that they might begin to treat us differently. There is a chance that they're not going to want to hang out with us anymore. Because if we are too good for the things that we used to do, then we might be too good for them. And so we might lose friends over it, we might lose relationships over it.
We could lose all kinds of things.
I've seen a couple of comments come up here, and they're really good. I want to touch on these. So Veronica said, you. You kind of take on the burdens of the Lord. That's a good one.
Adam says, we must walk this earth like Jesus, live for God as he did, and we will enter the kingdom of God glorified. Question mark. That's what it sounds like to me. And then Amber said, but you feel better about yourself in the end. And all of those are great references.
They're great answers. They're really good comments about this scripture. And we do. We take on the burdens of the Lord. We take on the desires of the Lord.
We take on the things that he is trying to do. And when we go through those things, we suffer a little bit. This morning I suffered a little bit in trying to get up to the church. I had to scrape snow off of my vehicle to be able to get here. My windshield wipers were frozen to the windshield and I had to get ice off of them.
And my hands were frozen by the time I got in the truck. And then I'm here today at the church, and I'm going to be here all day hanging out with people, people of the community and helping provide things that they need. And this is a form of inconvenience, right? I could be at home. I could be sitting on the couch.
I could be drinking hot chocolate and hanging out with my family and being there. But today God has called me to do something else.
It's just a way of life. As a believer of God, we have to know that we are going to experience suffering. We're going to experience difficulties. And what verse 17 is talking about is experiencing suffering in the pursuit of him, in the service of Him. And so we just have to understand that just because we believe in Jesus and follow after Jesus, that things aren't going to be sunshine and rainbows.
You're going to go through struggles. You're going to go through periods of time where people don't like you, where people speak ill of you. In fact, I shared a poem just the other day, and there have been posts about me, and they're not Nice. And people are upset about some things that I have chosen to do is a pastor of this church that they might not fully understand. And we couldn't come to some type of compromise.
But even as a pastor, those things hurt.
It doesn't make you feel good knowing that somebody is upset with you. But I know that at the end of the day, in the grand scheme of things, my desire is to follow after God and to do what he has called me to do. And so I am going to go through those things. And at the end of the day, I'm going to know that I'm not alone, that God is with me, that Jesus is with me.
And so as we continue. Right, that's just one verse, right? We are going through this quickly, but that's just one verse. But the rest of it speaks to what we just discussed. So in verse 18, it says, For I consider that the suffering of this present time.
The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And that is not to make light of the suffering that you might have experienced in life.
There is suffering that is unimaginable. The suffering of losing a child, the suffering of going through a debilitating illness, of going through cancer treatments, the pain and suffering of losing a loved one, the pain and suffering of just life itself, of illness, of injury, of all kinds of things. You look at the world right now, and we see an overwhelming amount of suffering that is happening. We see an overwhelming amount of suffering that's happening here in the United States. And I'm not one who gets overly political about things, but we see suffering that is occurring through the hands of things like the ice raids that are happening right now for.
Those who are having to go into cities and bring people out. And there was just another shooting that occurred where an individual lost his life. And there will be people that jump in on. On both sides. There are going to be people who jump in and say, well, it was justified, or it wasn't justified, or it was this or it was that.
But the truth of the matter is, it's a loss of life. It was the loss of a son, of a brother, of a father, it's a loss of a mother, a loss of a sister, a loss of a daughter. It's a loss of children. It's a loss no matter what.
And it brings with it suffering that we're going to experience in this life. And your suffering is going to be different than my suffering. But what I do know is that what Paul is writing here in verse 18 is not a way to make light of your suffering. It's not to make light of those who have passed away in your life. It's not to make light of anything that you've gone through, but it is to give you a peace and a hope.
In saying, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that we will receive. And it will be revealed to us when we are in the presence of God. Because here's the thing. As believers, we do not suffer that loss and we do not go through that suffering for nothing. Because when we enter into the presence of God at the end of our days, we regain the things that we have lost.
We regain the people that we have lost. We regain glory. We regain our new bodies. We gain so much more in the presence of God than what we experience here on earth. Veronica just posted.
The overall good outweighs the bad, mainly because of Jesus. And that is 100% true. And what we experience in this life cannot be compared to all of the incredible things that we receive whenever we enter into the presence of God. And I know that that's difficult to see when we're in the midst of that suffering. You can't go up to someone who just lost someone and say, oh, well, glory to God for later days.
That's not what they want to hear. And that's not something that is necessarily going to help them in that moment.
But it is something that we can come to terms with as we grieve. This verse is not to say you can't grieve that which you have lost or that which you are suffering in. That is not what it is saying. Because Paul goes forward as we move through this, and he explains that creation is subject to futility and it has been groaning in subtle suffering because of our separation from God and because we have been away from his presence and his working in our life and within creation, and that all those things will be changed and all those things will be rectified when we are in his presence. And it says, for in this hope, this is verse 24, we are saved.
Now, hope that is seen is not hope. So we haven't seen this. We just know it from our scripture. We know it from the Spirit that dwells within us. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in patience.
And that's what we're waiting for. And it says likewise, the Spirit helps in our weakness. We have to understand that we are not going through these things Alone. But we are going through these things with the help of the Spirit that dwells inside of us, and it is interceding on our behalf. So what does that mean?
So in the rest of the verse, it says, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. When we're in the midst of suffering, it is difficult to pray. It is difficult to pray for the things that we ought to pray for. It's difficult to go to God at times and it seems says, but the Spirit himself intercedes. So it speaks for us.
It speaks to God for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts, which is God, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. So we know that at the end of days, all things work together for good.
But we have to think about that. It works together for good for whom? It works together for the good of God and His purpose, which ultimately works for our good as well. But while you're going through that time of suffering, it's hard to see and know that what God is doing is for our good and for the good of his purpose.
So Christy Suttle says, everything will be complete because of our belief in Jesus. God's perfect plan will be revealed. What we do now is we live life in faith. We might not see everything come to fruition. The one thing I think about when I think about this is I think about Abraham, right?
Abraham was promised by God that through him he would be the father of nations, that through him God would bless all of creation. Now think about that, right? Did Abraham see any of those things happen in his lifetime? No. Did he experience suffering because of his choice to follow after God?
Did he experience suffering of life? Did he experience the suffering of persecution? Did he experience suffering from difficulty? Yeah. Did he experience suffering from poor choices?
Yeah. He experienced all of those things that are in life.
Yet through Abraham's faithfulness, we see the fruit of God's plan. Because it is through Abraham and his offspring that Israel is established as the people of God. They are established as his people, and they become devoted to God. Now it is also through his offspring that we witness the falling away of the nation of Israel from following God. And they go into an overwhelming amount of suffering.
And then God redeems the them and reconciles with them. And it is through that nation that we receive Jesus.
And it is through the suffering of Jesus that we experience eternal life. And then it is through the suffering of the apostles that we have the creation of the church as we know it today.
And so there are some things that God is doing in our life that we won't fully understand.
The inner workings of. We won't understand the plan or the things that God is doing in our lives that will change the the future generations of our family and our children and their children and in their community within the church. We won't see the impact of all of those things in our lifetime. All we can do is be faithful in knowing that God is with us and that in all things, in all things, they work out for the good of those who love him and follow after Him.
One of the questions that I put out here to the side is, how can we endure this? How can we endure this life? How can we endure the sufferings? And the answer that I put out to the side is through the help of the Spirit. So I don't know where you're at in your life.
I don't know where you're at in your suffering. But what I do know is that you're not alone. And whether you're in the bottom of the valley or you're in the highest peak of the mountain, I know that God is with you. And I also know that God has surrounded you with people to be in that moment with you as well. So you're not alone in the suffering of this world.
We've talked about it several times. We are made to be in community with one another. We are made to help one another, to be with one another. The story of Job is a good example of this passage. God is faithful to us, and so we are called to be faithful to Him.
We are called to continue to pursue after Him. We are called to have hope and peace and patience and faith in knowing that God is in control and that God is doing something through that suffering. Whether it is making us aware of things that we need to work on in our life through our poor choices, or whether it is perseverance that we are receiving in Romans, chapter 5. I believe it is verse 3. In fact, I'll just go ahead and flip over to verse five real quick.
It is. It's in verse three. It says, not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance. So maybe it's that we're going through suffering in order to receive endurance, right? And then it follows along and it says, and endurance produces character.
Maybe God is trying to Produce our character. Maybe God is trying to produce who we are. And character produces is hope. Maybe he's trying to create in us hope for that which God has prepared for us. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
So what is the purpose of suffering?
What is the purpose of suffering in our life? I feel like that's the question that most of us have when we're going through that period of suffering.
And the answer is there are multiple things. Sometimes suffering is just life. It just is what it is. There might not be a rhyme or reason that we know.
There might not be an answer necessarily that we will be able to see in our lives today. It might be something that we have to learn when we're in the presence of God, where God reveals those things to us. We might not ever get the answer of why are we going through cancer? Why are we sick? Why did we lose this person?
Why did we lose that person? Why? Why are we going through this? Why are we struggling through this? We might not ever find that answer.
And that's where faith comes in. That's where we have to have faith that no matter what, that God is doing something in us. Maybe we're going through suffering because we made terrible choices to learn from something. Amber just posted. Maybe we're going through suffering because we made terrible choices.
Or maybe they weren't terrible choices. Maybe they were just questionable choices or stupid choices.
Maybe they were because we were immature in something. And God is bringing about maturity or growth or character or perseverance. Maybe God is allowing us to go through those things to learn from. Unfortunately, we are dumb sometimes, and it takes multiple, multiple, multiple times for us to learn something. And unfortunately, we have to suffer those consequences.
So maybe we're going through a time of suffering because of the choices that we've made.
Or maybe it's because we need to grow. Maybe it's because Veronica just posted. Maybe we need to go through refinement. What is refining? Well, if you go.
So I'm about to release my book that I'm really excited about, and it's called the Church of Me. And in the book, I talk about two different processes. And one of the processes is the process of. Oh, my gosh, I wish I could think of it off the top of my head. I might look it up real quick.
Okay, I'm gonna look it up because I want to make sure that I say it correctly and I give it correctly. So it is. It is the process of kintsugi. And this process is a Japanese art. And it is in this art that they take a bowl or an item and what they do is they put it back together.
But what they do is they inlay gold inside of that imperfection and they bring it all back together, and they put it all back together. Inside of my book, I talk about this process and about how the process of God is different because God doesn't want to pick up our pieces and glue us back together. No, God's interest is to melt those things down, to bring out the impurities and to refine us, which is why Scripture talks about refining over and over and over again. When it talks about the process of God forming us and shaping us, it's because he melts us down, pulls out the impurities, and then makes us anew. And that's what happens through the refinement of gold, silver, precious metals.
That is the process of purifying those things. And in order to purify those things, you have to go through extreme heat and pressure, which I don't know about you, but that sounds like suffering to me. Sounds like suffering to me. And so we go through that refinement process. Maybe there's something that we need to work on that God is refining us through and that we need to bring out of our lives and make it so that those are no longer a part of who we are.
And so that is a process that God allows us to go through in order to become who he has called us to be. And so suffering can play multiple different roles. But I also want to touch base on this. Without suffering, you cannot experience relief. You can't experience joy, you can't experience hope, you can't experience peace.
Because if you don't know what it is to struggle, then you'll never appreciate when you don't. And so you have to go through those things in life.
Ooh, that's a good one. That Andrea just posted. If you're asking what you did to deserve the subject, you should also ask what you did to deserve salvation, which is nothing, but Jesus freely gave it to you free for us, not for Him. Without human suffering, how would we know how to rely on God? Man, she's reading my mind.
She is reading my mind. He's got really big hands. But you wouldn't know that without suffering closer to God. On your knees, man.
That's all great stuff. And so I feel like we have just got to remember those things when we experience suffering, remember that it's not for nothing.
I also want you to remember this, that there are times in your life that you experience suffering that has absolutely nothing to do with what you have done.
Unfortunately, the suffering that you experience in life might have to do with the choices of what someone else has done. And I find that most often, those are the most difficult things to deal with, because it is through the actions of someone else that you are going through struggles and difficulty and pain.
And that's hard. But again, I also know that even in those things, God is working in you and through those situations to build something inside of you, to build a testimony, to build a story, to build an opportunity for you to share the goodness of God in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of that struggle.
But please know and understand that no matter what, you are not alone.
The only time that you are alone is when you choose to seclude yourself from the presence of God. And through the secluding yourself from the presence of others, God is never going to force you to be around Him. He's never going to force you to be in his presence. He's never going to force you to sit with him or to be with Him.
But he's always there, available for whenever you need him. And so are the people in your life. They are there and available. Find them, be around them. You don't have to be alone.
In the midst of suffering, we are called to share each other's burdens.
So that's Romans 8 verses, Verses 17 through 28 before I close out. And Adam, I'm glad that this has helped you and that this is touched your life today, this morning.
Oh, that's good, Doreen. If we are suffering because of someone else's actions, doesn't forgiveness build strength in us? I want to add as well. Right? Man, that's good.
That is good. Forgiveness does have a way of being a building block in our life as well. Well, that's good. All right, before I sign off, I don't want to sign off too quickly. Y' all have any questions the that y' all had that I can answer?
Do you have anything that I can I can do for you guys? I'll stay on for the next few minutes and give everybody a chance to post if they have a question. So I guess other than that, y' all get to just stare at my ugly mug.
Don't laugh at me, Zeke. You're supposed to say no, man. You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
Oh, God. I feel kind of bad that Zeke laughed at me saying that I had an ugly mug. It makes me feel so bad about myself. That's what Amy's job is to tell you. You know what she told me?
That I was handsome this morning as I walked up, walked out. So you know what? You're right. You're right. That's all that matters.
I got. I got an angry face. I don't know what I got an angry face for. Maybe somebody hit it by accident. My body's also trying to get a laughing face.
Maybe. I don't know. I have been known to get a couple of angry faces in my time. Three things that I've said. So who knows?
Who knows?
Keep Zeke away from the tea.
What? I don't know, Amber. Why should I keep Zeke away from the tea? Oh, my gosh. Oh, there a story there.
Zeke as well as your son, but no one was throwing a football, and it definitely can knock the Amber sweetie out of her hand. Oh, dang. Okay, okay. Yeah, of course we can pray, Christy. I don't.
I don't want to send you guys out. Let me pray for you guys, and then if y' all have anything y' all can, y' all can keep adding them on here, but let me pray for you guys. Father God, I thank you for this opportunity that we can come together and worship and glorify you even in the midst of this snowstorm in West Texas. Father God, I just ask that you would keep everybody warm and safe. And above all that, I just ask that your holy spirit would move in each and every one of us, that you would help us to grow and realize that even in the moments of our suffering and struggle, that you are still moving in us and shaping us and forming us into who you want us to be, which is to be more like your son, to be more like Jesus in this world.
Because this world could use a lot more of Jesus than anything else right now. So, Father God, help us to be that light, to be the salt, to be your image bearers, to be the imago DEI in this world. It's in your holy name that I pray. Amen.
Story time. Okay, so quick story on the tea is that Zeke was throwing a football and knocked Amber's tea out of her hands because he's a jerk. It's more. So your son was throwing football. Oh, throwing shade at my son now.
Oh, man. Saying it was Nolan's fault. Go ahead, ask. Amber saved Nolan from the wrath of Amber. Oh, I remember you telling me that story now.
I remember you telling me that story now.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, thank you all for joining me this morning.
All right, we're gonna give it maybe about two more, and we'll give it another minute. Here we go. Snowstorm. This is nothing compared to living in Washington. That's why I don't live in Washington, Doreen.
I live in West Texas for a very specific reason. And I put up with the wind because we don't get snow. And yet here we are. That's why they hired someone from Buffalo. That's why we hired somebody from Buffalo.
That's right.
I put up with the 104 degree weather. I don't need it snowing. If I needed it snowing, I'd live in Denver.
They got some really good mountains there. I am a snowboarder. I love snowboarding.
And to be real honest, that's just where I've been to go snowboarding. I know there are other great areas, but, man, I gotta drive a long ways to go get that.
So normally I stick around the southern end of Colorado and the northern end of New Mexico. And although it's been a couple of years since I've been snowboarding, I would love to go back.
Dorian is laughing so hard right now.
Denver snow melts pretty quickly. Yeah, sometimes.
I mean, you would know. You lived in that area for much longer than. I mean, I've lived in West Texas all my life.
She was from Buffalo, but also lived in Alaska. Yeah. Yeah.
Are you a. Are you a skier or snowboarder? That's how I get half my concussions. So I'm stopped. That's why I've stopped.
That just means you're no good 100%.
I will say I am fairly confident in my snowboarding skills. I'm significantly more confident about snowboarding than I am about skiing. But I have only skied once, and it was fine. We went up with a great group of people. We used to go in youth group a lot.
And so as a youth pastor, I started taking groups. So I'd go just about every year to go snowboarding, and only going once a year makes it difficult to get good those things. But it took me several years of going once a year, and finally I can go down the hill, no problem. I can go toe side, I can go hillside. I can s it all the way down.
I can go fast. Now, the only thing that I have not tried because I'm not a dummy and I'm a lot older to be trying this mess is to do things like jump.
So I'm not. I'm not one that goes out there and does like jumps and, you know, rails and things of that nature. That's not me. I'm really great at going in a straight line really fast.
If there's a jump in that straight line, I'm hitting it and I'm gonna die. Just stuck for the consequences. Yep.
All right. I think that's about it. We've only got about eight people on, so we'll see you guys later. Y' all stay warm, stay inside. Unless you're, you know, going out playing in the snow.
I guess if that's your gig. Not my gig. I'm gonna be staying inside. So we'll see y' all later. Stay safe.
Say bye, Zeke.
