Episode 41 - When Faith Feels Hard

We wrestle with rejection in evangelism, the cost of a serious walk with Jesus, and why comfort zones shrink our courage. We share how church family sustains us through grief, mission, and the daily grind of real discipleship.

• Tree Of Angels reflection and public grief
• Rejection when sharing the gospel
• Obedience over outcomes and patient hope
• God’s will versus easy Christianity
• Comfort zones and public witness
• Paul’s model of gritty faithfulness
• Worship emotions versus life in the Word
• Church hurt, perseverance, and joy
• Real church community beyond Sundays
• Parenting adult children with faith and love
• Be the church in daily relationships

If you're in Rockdale, Texas on a Sunday, please come out to the American Legion. You can Google it and find directions. We'll be there at 10 o'clock with coffee and donuts, and right now with Christmas cookies and fellowship. We'd love to talk to you. We'd love to host you, and then at 10:30, worship starts, and you won't be disappointed.

Transcript

Welcome And Sunday Invite

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters. One that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

All right, welcome into Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, Texas. I'm here. I'm Bill Whitmeyer, the host. I'm here as always with our pastor, Ken Ansel. Ken, how are we doing today?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Man, I'm really doing good.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Feeling good? Feeling good. See, I mean, you know, it was cold last week. It was in my realm. This week it's back to like in the low 70s, so it's closer to your realm than it is my realm. Yeah. That's what's really good. Yeah, it makes a lot of people feel good when the sun's out. So love it. Hey, we're Connect Church here in Rockdale, Texas. Um, this is episode 41. We're just moving along, getting closer to 52 for a whole year's worth. But um we are right here in Rockdale, Texas. If you're here in Rockdale on a Sundays, you're welcome to join us. We have coffee and refreshments and fellowship at 10, and then worship service starts at 10:30. We have a children's church, we have nursery, we have everything you need. Bring the family join us right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Christmas cookies. I love love that, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

I think my weekend is next weekend, but I'm pretty sure my wife has it confused. So you may get two weekends of Christmas cookie from the Whitmyers because uh she's I've heard the menu.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

She's got like three kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

I mean, unless that's changed, which is a good which is fine because it'll be good, but it means I gotta clean up more because I'm the only one that does dishes at my house.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, it's great. People have loved bringing them and and then people have enjoyed eating them.

Tree Of Angels And Grief

Rejection In Evangelism

SPEAKER_02 2:01

It's I've been really I've been good. I haven't touched any yet, but I haven't either, but but we'll see what happens. So anyway, today, you know, there were some things that um some events that we have right now. I don't know when you're listening to this podcast, it could be in March, it could be in July, but right now we're actually taping it in the middle of December of 2025. And so there's a lot of events like um, you know, we recently we had the Tree of Angels, which is a ceremony held mostly in Texas, actually, but it's where you put up uh ornaments on a big community Christmas tree for it was originally started for folks that were victims of crime, but it is spread into folks that are lost in the line of duty or folks that were lost in accidents as well. And so I was the speaker at that, and I had the chance to to talk to a lot of people, and and as I go about my day in my job, I I talk to a lot of people on a daily basis, and and you always try to approach things from a godly centered standpoint. And you know, we all want to when we share God with somebody, when we share our walk with Christ with somebody, we always want that um good feeling from accomplishing something, but it's not always there. And sometimes just like when you have grief in your life over losing somebody, you can have grief in those circumstances too. And it's it's sometimes difficult to deal with that, you know, and and and and and keep charging on. You know, I've uh I sit down and I think about it and and and and a lot of times when we're on our walk with Christ and we're we're um doing some sort of outreach and you and you get that rejection, and and that's what it that's what it feels like inside. It's a rejection. It brings upon that grief. And we have to remember, you know, there were times even when Christ uh especially Christ when he walked you know the the the Holy Lands preaching that people rejected him. They ran him out of town in certain places in his own hometown, yeah. Ran him out of town. Yeah. And in that time, you know, you know, three different places in the Bible, he cried out real pain that we all find. And yet still he kept going.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah. I think that rejection, if that's what we're gonna call it, is designed, right? Uh to we're tempted to quit. We're tempted to give up. We're we can't really reconcile. I think in a fleshly way, Lord, how am I doing your work and not seeing positive results? Is that am I tracking with you?

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

And and uh yeah, and I think about Paul, the apostle Paul of all people, man, he saw so much fruit and and yet suffered so much. And and what was the catalyst except for his love for the Lord and the calling that he was super serious about and and um uh what's the word I'd I'd use for that calling because we're all called uh to the same mission as the apostle Paul. I mean, he was an apostle, that's different, but but to seek and save those that are lost, to share the gospel, to sow gospel seeds and into wherever we are and wherever we go, I mean, he he just totally got that, and I'm not sure uh the average Christian gets that. And and and um yeah, so I think that's what stalls us out sometimes.

Cost Of A Serious Faith

SPEAKER_02 5:45

I I I agree, and and a lot of folks want that for lack of a better way to put it, that kumbaya feeling all the time. Sure. And the fact of the matter is we've talked about this many times, being a Christian is is tough. It it's hard, it demands a lot out of you. And a lot of folks want that reward without the other side. They want to go into that church building, come out feeling rejuvenated, ready to go for the rest of the week, and then want to go right back into doing whatever they want to do. There's there's there's God's will, there's free will, and so many people choose that free will. Yeah. And when we go to talk to people and and we try to instill God's will into them, and yet they choose that free will because that's that easy Christianity that they want versus the Christianity that that that God demands, really. You know, it it it's it's uh there is no easy way to receive grace. You know, it's not it's not I uh i i it's hard for me to to explain exactly other than just to say your walk has to be with Christ, not with the world. And there's so many folks that when you go to talk to them and you think you're making that breakthrough, and then the next night you see them back out there doing that thing that's so worldly, and that's where they want to be. Yeah, and it's and it's really difficult on on us as Christians, we feel like we're failures, yeah, like we're like we failed that, but yes, you know, there's that old saying, and I hate to use this, but it's it's the way it is. You can lead that horse to water, yeah, but you can't make them drink, and you can lead somebody to Christ, yeah, but you can't make them walk with Christ.

God’s Will Versus Easy Christianity

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yeah, they have to do that on their own. Yeah, that hurts. And I think that you know, weeping, God says weeping remains for the night. Joy comes in the morning, right? We do grieve, that's where you're where you started, and and and we may weep like Jesus looked down Jerusalem and said, Man, I just want to take you like a mother hand under my wings. And and but joy comes in the morning, so we move on and we get we get past it, right? Proverbs three tells us, you know, we lean not on our own understanding, right? But we trust the Lord. And uh, but yeah, that that hurt, if you want to call that church hurt, yeah, it's for real. It hurts us to see people uh walk away from God's perfect will and venture off into his permissive will. And I'm gonna sound biased when I say this, but when you talk about like, I mean, what I hear you talk about is like being a serious Christian. Yeah. And and uh and I if you know anybody listening take this in the same spirit, I mean it, but uh when I see pictures on our social media on the church, I see I see other churches, and this is gonna sound bad, but man, I hope no one takes it this way. I see other churches posting pictures of people uh with their hands up in the air, you know, which is great, right? That's good. We see that in scripture, it's fantastic. But ours, when I sometimes I look at ours, I'm like, Well, I see people with their Bibles open, like they're getting in the word, they're grinding it out, right? They're not not everybody with their hands up is looking for an emotional high. I don't mean that at all. I love the people that are demonstrative in their in their worship. I'm I'm not as free as they are. I w I'm too uptight, I'm too conservative, I'm too far right. But so I really appreciate those people, love it. Uh, but man, I I love it, right? We get in God's word. It's a you you just said it's hard, it's a grind. It's it's we we look at God's word and like, is this me? Does it you know it's like a mirror?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah, it's it's it's it is. I mean, you know, we we uh yeah, we come we come to our we come to our knees before God, and then we stand up and walk with friends that are as far away from God as they can be, but these are people that we've known our whole lives. And and and when I say we, I mean myself too. You know, I'm not I'm not above that, I'm not better than anybody else. And and it's hard to have those friends you had your whole life who are as far away from God as they can be. And even if they get up and go to church on Sunday, yeah, they're still as far away from God as they can be. But they've been our friends for our whole lives, yeah, and we don't want to give up on them. And and you know what? We're you don't have to give up on them, but are you really sharing Christ with them or are you just being friends with them just to stay friends with them?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

You know, I mean are we on mission with them? There you go.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Are we becoming like them? Yeah, and that staying on mission, like you said, it that's that's hard. That's hard for me at times, too, you know, and because you're gonna get those looks, you're gonna get those folks that are like, man, I I don't get where you're coming from. What happened to you? You used to be so cool, you know. What happened to you and and and now suddenly you're not cool because you're in a place in your life where you want to be on mission. And and and believe me, being on mission is not easy. It's not like I I think some people think that that they come to God and they get baptized and they join a church, and now they're in that place where they're you know their their feet don't even touch the ground. They're they're walking so happy and they're so free. And and and man, that's that's a that's a that's a good way to look at it, but that's not very realistic because you know the devil's out there. People are are in the world and they're gonna do what they do to knock you down, and and some of them maliciously, but a lot of them they're not malicious at all. They're just doing what the world does, and they make it look normal, they make it look regular, and and guess what? It is normal, but we've talked about this too. You wanna be normal and in the world or perceived to be weird and be with Christ. I'm gonna be weird.

Church Hurt And Perseverance

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah. Yeah. They they make sin look normal and righteousness look weird, and and so we're gonna look weird because Jesus, you know, while he was popular and famous, uh they didn't put him hang excuse me, they didn't hang him on a tree because, you know, he won the Prom King uh prize. Yeah, I I uh man.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

I mean I g I guess the the thing is is it it it is is it's okay to feel weird if that's what what you want to call it. It's o it's okay to be there and then and and and it's understandable and it's understandable to to talk to somebody about God, have them reject that, and then you feel bad, you feel like a failure, or or or maybe you feel embarrassed by it now because now here's this friend, you've talked to them about God, they don't accept it, and now are they gonna look at you crossways from now on? Yeah, and and you know what? It it's okay. That's where you get back on your knees and and and you pray for that strength to be able to handle that situation. I I can't do it by myself. I I have to have God with me to be able to do things like that. And and and all too often when we feel that failure, when we feel that rejection inside, you're doing the right thing. That failure, that rejection, that feeling, that's the world trying to come in on you and say, see, you're wrong. And that's that's when you need God the most. That's when you need to pray the most. That's when you need to get in the Bible the most and and and find those words that are going to help you. Um, and and all too often, a lot of Christians, when they get to that point, it's kind of scary and they fall back to what they know, which is what they learned before they came to God, and they and they fall away, or they go back somewhere that they that provides them that easy Christianity, that hey, come here, we're gonna sing some songs, we're gonna love on you, we're gonna send you back out in the world, and you'll be all right, and in comfort zone. Yeah, staying in that comfort zone.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, and I and I think you know, one of the great things God's given us as Christians is the church, and the church is messy, the church is not perfect because we're not perfect, and then when a bunch of imperfect people come together, what do you got? You know, you kind of have a hot mess. But one of the great things is is we we come in out of the world and we have Christian friends through our church family, and and we're encouraged, right? We're encouraged to go back out. You know, we get to share, share our burdens. Uh people encourage us to to get back in the saddle and go back out and and face that um that scary world, you know, we're we're Christ is rejected, therefore we're rejected. Jesus said they hated me, they're gonna hate you. And we I don't know, it's like we really don't believe that. Like maybe those are some red letters where like, I don't think he meant that. Like, why would they hate me? I'm cool, I'm good looking, you know. I mean, I got some fluff.

Worship Emotions Versus Life In The Word

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Uh when you get out of that comfort zone, it it it we are taught from a young age when you get out of that comfort zone, find your way back into that comfort zone. And the fact of the matter is that as a Christian, you think back to where Jesus was and where the where the apostles were and all the disciples that followed him, there was no comfort zone. There was no comfortable place that they were in. Yeah, and and and if that's what you're looking for, you know, outside your comfort zone should be where you live as a Christian. You have to be outside of that comfort zone, and and all too many folks, they'll get out of it for a while, and it and it and it can be hard. It can be. But I mean, think about like you said earlier, about Paul. I don't think he was ever in a comfort zone. You know, I mean since the Damascus Road, yeah. Yeah, he was stoned, he was blinded, he was put in prison, not once, but twice. I mean, just so much there was no comfort zone for Paul, and yet all he did was represent God and say, this is the way, this is the truth, this is the light, follow Jesus, and that's where you need to be. And and that's what each is uh of us should do, and that takes us out of a natural comfort zone and puts us in a zone that the Jesus zone, yeah, where none of us are comfortable in, but it's where we should be. You know, it it it's it's um it's a very real place. And I mean we've talked about this before too. It's the simple things from praying for your meal in public in a big, busy public place, being with four or five other people in your business community and stopping them before a business lunch and saying, gentlemen, I need to pray before I eat, I I gotta thank God for this food. Yeah, those that that may be outside of your comfort zone, but that's exactly where you need to be. Yeah. And and guess what? If some of those guys don't like that or or they give you a hard time about that, and that puts you even more in that rejected area, yeah. It's okay. Rejoice. Worry about those folks. Worry about where you need to be with God.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah. James says, rejoice in in those seasons. It makes me think when you talk about the comfort zone in Paul, I'm like, wow, I mean, maybe that's why we see his love for the churches, right? The letters that he writes. He's like, this is my tribe because he was not welcomed in Judaism any longer after his conversion, and how much, you know, and and really the church rejected him in a lot of ways, but I mean, he loved them as his brothers and sisters, and we need that family. Again, God is so good to give us that family. Like we, I don't think we value church enough.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah.

Friends, Influence, And Staying On Mission

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Uh, you know, I don't we don't have a lot of uh extended family anymore uh that w we go see in the holidays and things. And man, I miss that, you know, when you you'd go home to mom and dad's, and mom, you know, even old and married, mom would still make your favorite dessert, you know. Like I miss, you know, going and just getting to hang out and leave my dishes in the sink. And I don't know who's coming behind me, but they're gonna take care of it. And and you know, like that's like that's what we get from not really the dirty dish thing, but you know, we get from our church. We people get us. Yeah, they go, oh, you too. Yeah, I had the same thing this week, and you know, and I got this. Oh man, you too. And let's pray, you know, let's let's grab shoulders and let's pray for one another and and and then let's follow up with each other during the week. You talk a lot about that, yeah, and and encourage one another because, like you said, it is rough out there, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

It's this morning. You you sent out something this morning, and and so I was sitting in the dentist chair, and I sent a picture of me in the dentist chair, just like purple bib on you know, my status right now, you know, and and and those are the things maybe that's not what you always share with your with your church family, but you share those day-to-day trials, those day-to-day items. And if you're in a church that's a church, as per the Bible, you share those things with your church family. That's what it's about, is that community of that that is your church, that's your church body that cares about you in all those different ways. And it's not just about going to a building where you know uh we raised the roof with our music and everything. It's about it, was God there. Yeah, but but but was God there. I know a lot of churches where they have a great music program and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

That was kind of my point, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

But God isn't there, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Yeah, and I think I think those pictures of You can the dentist chair, but I think just knowing that that oh man, we're we're going through the same stuff, whether it's a bad tooth or you know, family situation or you know, parenting's tough. Even you know, I I it's tougher. I think being a parent of adult children is harder than than you know, at eight you just tell them to brush your teeth and go to bed and they do it, you know. But at twenty-eight, they don't, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Well you always think that that magic marker, eighteen or twenty-two or whatever it is. But guess what? At 35, yeah, you're still their parent.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah. And you still have a responsibility to to coach them up and influence them. And yeah, I mean, I can just yeah, think of some stuff like, yeah, my son-in-law, I'm like, dude, really?

SPEAKER_02 20:44

And and in our church, we have that, you know, not just our church, I mean church wherever you go to church, you have that responsibility on Sunday, but that that same responsibility to love and to pray for those folks is their Monday, it's their Tuesday, it's their Wednesday, every day of the week. To, you know, you if you're in a church right now, and the only time you interact with those people at church is when you when you're there on Sunday, or maybe you're in a Bible study, or maybe it's a Wednesday youth group or something like that. If that's the only time you're interacting with those people in your church, you need to look at what your church community really looks like. Because as somebody who's part of that church, if you're gonna be part of that church, you should be part of those people's lives because that's what the church is. It's the people. You need to be a part of those people's lives every day of the week, checking in with them every day, having conversations. You want and and I realize you have friends outside of your church, and and there's nothing wrong with that, but they also need to know that this is who you are, and and this is who you're gonna be, and you may enjoy that other stuff, but that other stuff is other stuff, it's like God's stuff.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Yeah. Let me give the last word. No, just go to church, be the church. There you go. All right. I didn't make that up, by the way, but it's good.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

It's good. I think it's your turn.

Embracing “Weird” Righteousness

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Is it? Okay. Dear Lord, we thank you for this wonderful day, and we thank you for this opportunity to spread your word, to spread your love, and to spread what it is to be a member of your church, to be a member of a family, and to love other folks, and to understand that as we walk this walk with you, that there are going to be times where we feel rejected, where we feel like we have failed you. And sometimes it it it has nothing to do with what we have done, but it's it has to do with the world. And so I pray that as folks walk with you and they carry on their lives as a Christ-centered person, I hope that you and I pray that you would strengthen them to be able to do the things that you need them to do, and to allow you to work through them, whether they are rejected or accepted, loved or hated, but to know that you are there with them in everything they do. Father, we thank you for all the gifts in our lives and for everything that you do for us, for it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

All right. Well, that was episode 41. I want to thank everybody from look for listening. If you're, like I said earlier, if you're in Rockdale, Texas on a Sunday, please come out to the American Legion. You can Google it and find directions. We'll be there at 10 o'clock with coffee and donuts, and right now with Christmas cookies and fellowship. We'd love to talk to you. We'd love to host you, and then at 10:30, worship starts, and you won't be disappointed. So we hope to see everybody, and if not, we'll be right back here every week on Thursdays. God bless you.