What does faith sound like when life hurts and God seems silent?

In Week 4 of our series through the Book of Job, Pastor Stephen Walker explores the biblical practice of lament. Job’s grief is not polished or easy, but it is honest—and he continues bringing that honesty before God.

Lament is not the absence of faith. It is faith bringing its pain to God and remaining with Him.

In this message, we learn that:

• Faith tells the truth about what hurts. • Lament turns pain into prayer. • Lament helps faith remain.

Our feelings are real, but they do not always reveal the complete story of what God is doing. Biblical faith does not require us to pretend that we are okay. We can grieve, ask difficult questions, and pray honestly while continuing to trust God’s character and sovereignty.

Lament may not immediately change what we are going through, but it helps us remain with God while what we are going through changes us.

MAIN SCRIPTURES Job 2:13 Job 3:1, 20–23 Psalm 13:1–3 Matthew 27:46 Hebrews 4:16 Romans 5:3–4 James 5:11

BIG IDEA Lament is not the absence of faith; it is faith bringing its pain to God and remaining with Him.

MEMORY SPINE Faith tells the truth about what hurts. Lament turns pain into prayer. Lament helps faith remain.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Tell God the truth about what hurts. You do not have to hide your pain or pretend that everything is okay. Your experience is real, even when your understanding of what God is doing is incomplete.
2. Turn your pain into prayer. Do not allow pain to turn you away from God. Bring your questions, confusion, grief, and disappointment directly to Him. Ask God to help, comfort, strengthen, deliver, and give you grace.
3. Keep coming back to God. The evidence of faith is not that you never cry, question, or become tired. Sometimes the evidence of faith is simply that you keep coming back to God.

When you cannot understand what God is doing, keep bringing what you are feeling to the God you know.

ABOUT THE REMNANT CHURCH The Remnant Church exists to help people know Jesus and find family. We are united in faith, preparing for Christ’s return.

Visit us online: https://therem.church

Week 3 of our Job series

Join us for week 2 of our new series on the book of Job

Christ is not returning for a collection of disconnected individuals—He is returning for one united Bride. In week two of our Kingdom Culture: Ready for the Groom series, we discover that Kingdom culture cannot be built or sustained alone. God designed His Church to be a community where our faith grows together, our strength carries one another, and our shared faith prepares us to endure whatever pressure comes.

Key Themes

• United faith grows together. Healthy faith should never remain where it began. God designed our faith to deepen within a Christ-centered community where believers strengthen, encourage, and love one another.
• Faith grows where love flows. Growing faith should produce increasing love. Our love for one another becomes visible evidence that our faith in Christ is actually working.
• United faith carries one another. Everyone's faith will not be strong at the same time. When someone becomes weak, the Church has a responsibility to bring its strength into their struggle—not criticize, expose, or abandon them.
• When faith gets weak, we stand in the gap. Sometimes carrying someone means praying with them, fasting with them, reminding them of God's Word, correcting them in love, and refusing to let them disappear unnoticed.
• Community prepares us for pressure. We cannot wait until midnight to build the faith we will need in the prison. Praying, worshiping, studying, fasting, and serving together today prepare us to remain faithful when difficulty comes tomorrow.
• United faith endures together. Pressure does not create our faith—it reveals what we have been building. God uses endurance to develop character, deepen community, and produce hope within His people.

Key Scripture

2 Thessalonians 1:3–4 Romans 15:1–2 Acts 16:25

Takeaway

We need God to build the house, and we need one another to stand in it.

Kingdom culture is formed when believers refuse to grow, struggle, or suffer alone. We grow together. We carry one another. And when pressure comes, we endure together.

Faith grows where love flows. When faith gets weak, we stand in the gap. Faith built together does not break under pressure

The Church is not simply waiting for Christ's return—we are being prepared for it. In the opening message of our Kingdom Culture series, we discover that Christ is not a distant Bridegroom waiting for His Bride to get ready. He is actively preparing His Church through His love, His Word, and His sanctifying work. Kingdom culture is not something we manufacture—it is something Christ produces in His people as He prepares His Bride for presentation.

Key Themes

• Christ prepares His Bride through love. Before the Church can reflect Christ's love, it must first receive His love. The love of Christ is intentional, consistent, and sacrificial, becoming the pattern for how believers love one another.
• The Word shapes Kingdom culture. Christ sanctifies His Church through His Word. Scripture doesn't merely inform us—it corrects us, conforms us, and sets us apart as His people.
• Submission produces sanctification. Spiritual maturity is directly connected to our willingness to submit to Christ and His Word. What we resist may be the very thing Christ is using to prepare us.
• Holiness distinguishes the Bride. The Church becomes beautiful not by looking like the world, but by looking more like Christ. Kingdom culture is marked by holiness, obedience, and faithfulness.
• Christ alone prepares and presents His Church. The Bride belongs to Christ alone. He is both the One who prepares His Church and the One who will one day present her to Himself without spot or wrinkle.

Key Scripture

Ephesians 5:25–27

Takeaway

The Christian life is not about preparing ourselves for Christ—it is about submitting to the work Christ is doing within us.

As we receive His love, submit to His Word, and embrace His sanctifying work, we become the Church He is preparing to present to Himself.

Kingdom culture prepares for presentation.

Episode Notes

Grow Up: Increase | Growing Into Christlikeness

Spiritual maturity is never an end in itself—it is meant to produce increase. As disciples of Jesus, God calls us to continually grow in wisdom, faith, love, and obedience so that our lives bear fruit for His glory. True increase is not measured by popularity or possessions, but by becoming more like Christ and influencing others to do the same.

Key Themes

• Godly commitment produces godly increase. Lasting spiritual growth begins with a life fully committed to Christ. As we remain faithful, God matures us and produces fruit that brings Him glory.
• Maturity always results in fruitfulness. A disciple who abides in Christ will naturally increase in wisdom, faith, love, obedience, and spiritual effectiveness.
• Healthy disciples multiply healthy disciples. As our faith and love grow, our service to others grows as well. Mature believers strengthen the Body of Christ and help others mature alongside them.
• Obedience is the pathway to growth. Jesus Himself grew in wisdom and learned obedience through what He suffered. Spiritual maturity is cultivated by consistently choosing God's will over our own.
• Increase is about becoming, not accumulating. God's desire is not merely to increase what we have, but to increase who we are. He is forming Christ's character within us.
• Abiding precedes increase. Fruitfulness is never manufactured through human effort. It is the result of remaining connected to Christ, the true Vine.

Key Scripture

1 Samuel 2:18, 21, 26 1 Samuel 3:19 John 15:4–8 2 Thessalonians 1:3 Ephesians 4:12–16 Luke 2:40, 49, 52 Hebrews 5:7–9

Takeaway

God's goal is not simply that you would know more—it is that you would become more like Christ.

As you remain committed to growing in wisdom, faith, love, and obedience, God produces the increase that impacts both your life and the lives of those around you.

Godly commitment leads to maturity. Maturity produces godliness. And godliness results in lasting increase.

The Remnant Church Podcast Notes

Grow Up: Get Off the Bottle

Main Scripture

Hebrews 5:11–14

Main Idea

Milk is where spiritual growth begins, but God never intended for us to remain spiritual infants.

At The Remnant Church, we do not want to simply know church language. We want the Word of God to change how we live.

Key thought: You can know the language of faith and still lack the appetite of maturity.

1. Are We Growing or Just Attending?

The believers in Hebrews had been walking with God long enough to be further along, but they still needed basic teaching.

Time in church does not automatically produce maturity.

Discussion

• What is the difference between attending church and growing spiritually?
• Based on how long we have followed Jesus, should we be further along?
• What should begin changing in the life of a mature believer?

Key thought: Truth applied over time produces maturity.

2. Dull Hearing

The writer says they had become “dull of hearing.”

They heard truth, but they were not responding to it.

Discussion

• What does dull hearing look like?
• Can someone hear good preaching every week and still remain immature?
• What has God already spoken that we have not obeyed?

Key thought: When your hearing becomes dull, your growth becomes delayed.

3. Milk Versus Solid Food

Milk represents the basic truths of faith:

• Jesus loves me.
• Jesus died for me.
• Jesus forgave me.
• Jesus saved me.

Solid food means learning to obey when it is difficult, forgive when hurt, remain faithful under pressure, and apply Scripture to everyday life.

Discussion

• What is the difference between spiritual milk and solid food?
• Why do believers often prefer inspiration over correction?
• Can Christian content replace personal Bible study and obedience?

Key thought: What sustained your infancy will starve your future.

4. Maturity Requires Practice

Hebrews 5:14 says mature believers train their discernment through constant practice.

Maturity develops through repeated obedience.

Discussion

• Why does maturity require practice?
• What spiritual habits strengthen discernment?
• What truth do we already know but need to begin practicing?

Key thought: Maturity is not proven by what you know, but by how consistently the Word shapes your response.

Remnant Church Connection

Our mission is:

Know Jesus. Find Family.

Knowing Jesus must lead to transformation.

Finding family means becoming part of a church where people are discipled, corrected, encouraged, and strengthened.

Church Reflection

• Are we creating a church people can attend, or a family where people can mature?
• How can mature believers help disciple newer believers?
• Are we becoming disciples who can help make other disciples?

Weekly Challenge

Identify one area where you already know what God’s Word says but have not consistently obeyed it.

Do not only learn something new this week.

Practice something you already know.

Closing Takeaway

Milk is where we begin, but maturity is where God is calling us.

Real maturity is being trained by the truth until your life begins to look like Jesus.

Grow Up: Transformational Thinking | Romans 8:5–8

Spiritual maturity begins in the mind. In the second message of our Grow Up series, we discover that the battle between the flesh and the Spirit is first won or lost by what we choose to think about. Paul reminds us that transformation doesn't happen accidentally—it happens when we intentionally set our minds on the things of God. The fruit of our lives will always reveal the focus of our minds.

Key Themes

• The fruit of your life reveals the focus of your mind. Our actions are the overflow of our thoughts. What we consistently dwell on will eventually shape who we become.
• Transformation requires intentional thinking. God does not force us to think like Christ. We must intentionally set our minds on the things of the Spirit through the continual renewal of our minds.
• Whatever you practice in your mind will eventually show up in your life. Sinful habits begin as sinful thought patterns. Likewise, spiritual maturity is cultivated by consistently practicing godly thinking.
• The flesh and the Spirit are always at war. Every believer experiences a daily battle between fleshly desires and the leading of the Holy Spirit. The direction of our minds determines which one gains influence.
• Renewed minds produce spiritual discernment. When our minds are transformed by God's Word, we begin to recognize His will, walk with greater clarity, and avoid spiritual wandering.
• The evidence of maturity is spiritual fruit. A mind set on the Spirit produces a life marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Key Scripture

Romans 8:5–8 Romans 12:2 Galatians 5:16–25

Takeaway

The Christian life is not transformed by good intentions but by renewed thinking.

Every day you are setting your mind on something. The question is: Is it feeding your flesh or forming you into the image of Christ?

What you consistently practice in your mind will eventually become the fruit of your life.

Grow Up: Childish | 1 Corinthians 13:11

As followers of Christ, faith was never meant to remain stagnant. The goal of the Christian life is maturity. In the opening message of our Grow Up series, we are challenged to examine the areas where spiritual immaturity is keeping us from becoming the believers God has called us to be. Paul reminds us that childishness is not simply about age—it is revealed in the way we think, reason, and respond. True spiritual growth begins when Christ transforms the way we think.

Key Themes

• The call of every believer is maturity. A mature believer is one who endures, remains faithful through testing, and continues fighting the good fight of faith until Christ returns.
• You cannot mature in Christ while reasoning without Christ. Spiritual maturity begins with allowing Christ and His Word to become the foundation of how we think, process information, and make decisions.
• Childish behavior begins in the mind. Paul teaches that childishness is not simply external behavior—it begins in flawed reasoning that has not been submitted to Christ.
• Exposure shapes spiritual development. What we continually feed ourselves eventually shapes how we think, how we reason, and ultimately how we live. What we expose ourselves to can either strengthen maturity or stunt spiritual growth.
• The mind must be intentionally renewed. Transformation does not happen accidentally. Walking in the Spirit requires intentionally rejecting the patterns of the flesh and allowing Christ to renew the mind.
• What feeds your flesh will fight your maturity. We cannot continue entertaining worldly desires while expecting spiritual growth. What we consistently feed will eventually shape what we become.

Key Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:11 1 Corinthians 14:20 Romans 8:5 Galatians 5:19

Takeaway

Spiritual maturity does not happen by accident—it happens when we intentionally allow Christ to transform the way we think.

If we continue feeding childish desires, we will continue producing immature faith.

What feeds your flesh will fight your maturity.

On this Father’s Day message, we are reminded of a truth we often overlook: even Jesus needed His Father. In one of the darkest moments of His earthly life, standing in the Garden of Gethsemane with the weight of the cross before Him, Jesus teaches us what true dependence looks like. In our heaviest moments, we do not run from God—we run to Him. And through Christ, we now have access to cry out the same words Jesus cried: Abba, Father.

Key Themes

• Heavy moments need holy access. When life becomes overwhelming, faith is not pretending the burden does not exist—it is knowing exactly where to run when the weight becomes too heavy to carry.
• Abba speaks to intimacy, trust, and closeness. Jesus did not casually call God “Father.” In His deepest agony, He cried Abba—revealing the intimacy every believer now has access to through Him.
• Jesus modeled dependence on the Father. In Gethsemane, Jesus showed us that true strength is found not in self-preservation, but in surrender to the will of the Father.
• The cross gave us access to adoption. What Jesus modeled in the garden, He made possible through His death, burial, and resurrection. Through Christ, we are no longer strangers—we are sons and daughters.
• You are covered because you are His. Because of adoption through Jesus, believers do not approach God as outsiders hoping He will listen. We come boldly knowing our Father covers, protects, sustains, and provides for His children.

Key Scripture

Mark 14:32–36 Galatians 4:4–7

Takeaway

The greatest gift of the cross was not simply forgiveness—it was access.

Because of Jesus, we no longer stand before God as abandoned people trying to earn His attention. We stand as sons and daughters with full access to cry out: Abba, Father.

Life may feel heavy, the storm may rage, the garden may feel dark… but if you belong to Christ, you are covered because you are His.