Thank you, Pastor Roger. Some of us have not met yet here in the room, so I just quickly want to introduce you to my amazing family. My wife, April, is absolutely incredible, and I am so thankful for her. We have been together for 11 years, seven years married, and I got two amazing little girls.

I never thought I was going to be a girl dad. I grew up with a brother and my parents just gave me balls and bats. So when we had girls, I had to really learn how to love dolls and dresses and glitter. Elsa is prevalent in our home. “Let it go, let it go.” We are singing that. I am so thankful for my beautiful family.

We have been attending Champion Center for 12 years now. As Pastor Roger mentioned, we get to serve as our Legacy Team directors. I get to serve as the Team Church executive director and most recently Bellevue location pastor. And we are having fun up in Bellevue. You can go ahead and grab your seat here this morning.

Before we dive into today’s message, I’d just be remiss if I didn’t take a moment and just honor our pastors, Pastor Kevin and Pastor Sheila Gerald. I am so thankful for their leadership in my life and my family’s life. I honestly have no idea where I’d be without them. I certainly wouldn’t be standing here with you. But I’m just so thankful for the opportunity that they’re giving me today to share with you this platform that they’ve stewarded and planted for over 40 years.

I get the opportunity to join you this morning for my very first time preaching from this platform. So we’re going to have fun. We’re going to enjoy it. We’re going to shake it out a little bit.

We are in our Summer Stories series. You enjoying the Summer Stories series? We are hearing from all of our location pastors. Pastor Sheila, she kicked us off with such a powerful message about hearing the voice of God. “What does age have to do with it?” Then Pastor Nicole, she shared such amazing insight on remembering what the Lord has done—those stones of remembrance. Pastor Jesse last week, man, he was cooking. That was such an incredible message and reminding us that we cannot win alone. Next week is Pastor Jonathan from DuPont. I just encourage you to make plans to be here. It’s going to be absolutely fire. He always brings such an incredible message.

But today I’d like to share for the next few moments about a story in the Old Testament about Abraham that may not be as well known to some of us. But before we do, we’re just gonna invite God into this moment. And we’re going to do it like PK does it. So you’re going to repeat after me:

“My heart is open. My mind is ready. Make me better, God, by your word. I believe it. I receive it. And I’ll never be the same again in Jesus’ name.”

Amen, amen, amen.

Well, hey, a few years ago, a Category 5 hurricane hit my professional life. We were a couple years into a thriving tech startup company whose mission was really to make the Bible easy to understand through very engaging videos. Think if Netflix and Peloton had a child that was focused on biblical content that would help you grow spiritually. What I mean by that is think about the vast deep library of content on Netflix and that personal coach that you just love so much on Peloton to help you achieve your fitness goals.

This was without a doubt the culmination of my life’s work to that point. The company, the user base—we were growing fast. We had an incredible team, plenty of money in the bank, momentum was on our side. Everything was great until it wasn’t.

Things went sideways pretty quickly with my business partner and I ended up walking away from that company entirely. I was absolutely devastated. I was hurt. I was angry. I was sad. I was extremely disappointed.

So I get it. I get what pain feels like. Betrayal, disappointment, hurt, having your dream ripped out of your hands. It took me a very long time to recover. A very, very long time to recover. But more importantly, I just didn’t even understand if God still had more for me. I mean, did I just miss everything and I’m just the rest of my life unknown, walking aimlessly around?

It took me so long to remember that God still had more for me. And friend, I am here to tell you this morning that he still has more for you.

Because if we’re honest—and we’re going to get honest today—if we’re honest, some of us walked into the room today at Bellevue, at Yakima, DuPont, online, here in Tacoma, and you’re carrying that weight. You’re confused. You got pain. You’re dealing with some hurt. You might be dealing with some bitterness, offense, sadness.

What happened to you was not fair. It shouldn’t have happened. And somewhere along the way of your journey, you may have just decided that this is how life is going to be.

Look, life is hard. I get it. But let me tell you this morning and give you another truth: God is good. Say it with me: “God is good.”

Look, Jesus said in his words, in his word, that you will have trouble. Not you might, not there’s a chance. Jesus said, “In this life, in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world.”

Jesus never promised us a pain-free life, but he did promise us that he will give us his presence in our pain.

And I really believe that I have a word from God today to simply encourage you and remind you that he has so much more ahead for you. So please, I’m just going to ask you, lean in this morning. Let God—let him breathe fresh life into places that might feel dried up in your life or maybe an area that you just feel completely defeated.

Before we get into today’s text, let’s have a little fun. So if you grew up in church or Sunday school at any point in your life, you might know this. If you’re not and you’re new to this thing we call faith, just kind of bob your head a little bit. You’ll fit in, I promise. But sing this with me if you remember this:

“Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. So let’s just praise the Lord. Right on.”

Okay, you guys know this really well. We sing about this blessing that was in Abraham’s life, that promise that he received from God that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Love that promise. Anybody want some of that?

What if I told you that his story did not start in that promise? It actually started in pain.

The title of my message today is **From Pain to Promise**. From pain to promise.

So let’s jump into today’s summer story. It’s found in Genesis 11. If you have your Bibles, we’re going to go to Genesis 11, starting at verse 27. If you got your device, go ahead and open up your Bible app. We’re going to look at this portion of scripture, Genesis 11:27 through 32. And it tells us the story of Terah. Terah’s our main character today, who is Abraham’s father. Okay?

Terah sets out from—Terah sets out from Tacoma. Terah sets out from Yakima. Terah sets out from Bellevue, from DuPont, from online. They set out from a place that they were living toward Canaan. Canaan represents the promised land with his family. But they stop in a place called Haran, and Terah never leaves.

So let’s pick it up in verse 27. Genesis 11, verse 27:

“This is the account of Terah’s family line. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” He’s got three sons. Terah’s got three sons. “And Haran became the father of Lot.”

Verse 28: “Haran died”—key point, remember this point—”Haran died in the land of his birth while his father Terah was still alive.”

Let’s jump down to verse 31: “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram. And together they set out from Ur to go to the promise in Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.”

Verse 32: “Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.”

Everybody say, “Died in Haran.” Hopefully you got your coffee in you. Hopefully you got your thinking cap on. But we got to clarify a couple things in the story real quick because I’m coming at you with a lot of different names.

So we’re going to see a family tree real quick to help us identify Terah’s family line. So on the left side, you’re going to see Terah. He is our father. You see his three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Okay. Haran had a son, Lot. We know Lot very well. We read a lot about him. So freeze that frame on the left.

Now, we have places. We’re going to talk about places today. Okay. Bottom right—that’s where they’re living. That’s Tacoma. That’s Bellevue. That’s Yakima. That’s DuPont. That’s where you’re watching from. That’s Ur. They want to go to the promise in Canaan, but they go north to a place called Haran. Haran is a city. Haran is a location. That is where they settled. Okay?

So Haran wasn’t just a city in today’s story. It also was the name of Terah’s son who died. Catch that.

Okay. So picture this: Terah is on a journey with his family towards the promise of God. We all love that. We come out of the starting gate, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But he stops in the very place that reminds him of pain—the death of his son.

Let me tell you this: Terah didn’t just lose his son. He lost his will to move forward.

And before I go any further, let me just be clear. I am not minimizing the pain of losing a child. I am fully convinced that there is no greater pain on planet Earth. In fact, there is not even a word in the English language for a parent who loses a child. If you lose a spouse, you’re a widow. If you lose your parents, you’re an orphan. But for a parent who loses a child, there is no word for it because that pain is so deep that language fails to describe it.

I lost a cousin when I was 12 and it was unbelievably disappointing and hurtful. So I understand how devastating it can be to lose a child. So if that’s you today, I see you. God sees you. He knows that pain. After all, he lost his son too.

And for others in the room today or watching us online, that Haran is a place of pain for you. The city of disappointment. It may be different. It may be a failed business, a divorce, a relationship that ended abruptly, a bankruptcy, a rejection letter from that university that you wanted to go to so bad, a bad diagnosis from the doctor that you were not expecting. Gen Z, maybe it’s that person that you’re interested in and they left your text message on read. The nerve.

You had a vision for how life was going to go and it didn’t happen that way.

Please hear me this morning. Please hear me today. Don’t do what Terah did and die in Haran. Tell your neighbor, “Don’t die in Haran.”

Don’t let your place of pain become your permanent address like it was for Terah. Pain’s going to visit all of us in this life. Remember, Jesus told us, “In this life you will have trouble.” The question is, will you build a house there or will you keep moving forward?

Today I simply just want to share three ways, three principles, three hacks, three things—whatever you want to call them—just three things that help me move beyond my pain to experience God’s promises on the other side of my Haran.

So if you’re taking notes, which I hope you’re doing, **point number one: Pain has a purpose.** Say it with me: “Pain has a purpose.”

James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy”—lost me already? But “consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials or pain of many kinds. Because you know it’s the testing of your faith that produces perseverance.”

Pain will either paralyze you or prepare you for what God has ahead.

Let me give you a real-life example of someone who turned unimaginable pain into something that was absolutely incredible for purpose. Some of you, you may remember the name Bethany Hamilton. She was a rising surfing star from Hawaii, one of the very best in the world. But at 13 years old, she was attacked by a tiger shark while surfing. She lost her left arm in the attack.

By every natural measure, her surfing career should have ended. I mean, how do you surf without an arm? But Bethany, she didn’t let that pain write the final chapter of her story. Just 26 days later after that shark attack, Bethany was back in the water. Not only did she learn to surf again, she went on to compete professionally and inspire millions through her story.

She even said this. Listen to what she said: “I might not have seen it then, but God was using my pain for something bigger.” Come on, church. That’s the power of purpose. It helps you see there is promise beyond your pain.

God didn’t cause that shark attack, no. But he certainly used it. He used it to give Bethany a platform to show what faith looks like in the face of tragedy, to bring hope to people who are facing their own battles like you and like me. But pain doesn’t get the last word—God does. And if you think that he can use her pain, he can use yours too.

Let’s quickly just look at the life of Joseph in the Old Testament. Genesis 50, we know it well. He was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown into prison—some pain. But years later, Joseph looked in the eyes of his brothers and said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” That immense amount of pain that he experienced, the very thing that positioned him for promise.

So let me ask you today: What pain have you experienced that God wants to use for something bigger?

Say it with me: “My pain has a purpose.”

You will never move beyond Haran if you don’t come to the conclusion that there is pain in your purpose. Pain in your purpose.

**Point two, if you’re taking notes: Get off the treadmill of pain.** Get off the treadmill of pain. And you all in Tacoma were wondering, why did we have this treadmill up here? It is now going to make sense.

Verse 32 of our story, it tells us that Terah settled in Haran. Terah settled in Haran. He settled in the place of pain.

Look at this treadmill real quick. Going to just turn it up a little bit faster. Don’t want to make any of you awkward so I won’t start running and get out of breath. But look at this treadmill. This treadmill, it represents how many of us deal with pain. The temptation is to replay all the mental and emotional ties that we have to something that’s painful that really doesn’t take us anywhere.

On this treadmill. Going a little fast. Going to turn it down a little bit.

On this treadmill of pain, you’re moving. You might be sweating. You’re doing something. But you’re not going anywhere. You’re stuck in the exact same spot.

This is what Terah did. This is what he did when he settled in Haran. He never got off this treadmill of pain. He thought he was moving forward. He thought he was making progress in life. He thought he was going to Canaan. But the truth is he was still in his Haran. He was still in that heartbreak. He was still in that betrayal. He was still in that disappointment.

You know, the thing about the treadmill is, on the treadmill of pain, you’re moving, but you’re not moving forward.

Right now with our almost two-year-old, Mia Grace, we’re in the boo-boo phase. So every parent, you kind of know that phase where everything’s a boo-boo. “I got a boo-boo. Boo-boo. I got a boo-boo. I got a boo-boo.” Well, 99 times out of 100, there’s no cut. There’s no real boo-boo. It’s just a word that she’s learning how to say. “She got a boo-boo.”

Every once in a while, there’s an actual cut and we go to apply ointment and maybe put a Band-Aid on it because it’s an actual boo-boo. But the thing about that boo-boo is, in order for it to heal, you can’t pick at it. We know what’s going to happen. That’s going to make it worse. That’s going to delay the healing process. We all know this.

But yet every day we wake up and we get back on this treadmill of pain and pick at the emotional pain. You hit the same game film. You replay that divorce, that rejection letter, that thing they said about you, that opportunity that you lost, that season that didn’t go your way.

Friend, I’m here to tell you that moving forward is hard, but staying stuck is just as hard. Choose your hard.

Haran in the story—Haran in our story today—it was a physical place, but the issue wasn’t the city. There’s nothing wrong with the city itself. The issues were the emotions that Terah allowed to be in the driver’s seat of his life. His emotions to Haran, his emotions to his pain, are what were in charge of him. He was allowing himself to be controlled and limited by something he was supposed to work through and be healed from.

My question to you: What is your Haran? What pain are you still reliving? What emotions are you allowing to limit you? How long have you been replaying that story over and over and over and over again in your head?

Friend, it is time to step off the treadmill of pain. We need to sometimes—we just need to go and unplug the emotional connection that we have to our Haran and work through some of those negative emotions. Otherwise, they will control you. They will limit you. And the promises that God has for you will be hindered.

So tell your neighbor, “Get off the treadmill of pain. Get off the treadmill of pain.”

**Point three: Move towards the promise.** Point three, move towards the promise.

Just right after we found out that Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran, we flip over to Genesis 12. So it’s just right after that. And here’s what Genesis 12:1-3 says. This is the Lord speaking to Abram. He says:

“Go from your country, your people, to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”

I counted six “I wills.” “I will curse those and all peoples on planet earth will be blessed through you.”

That’s the promise. “I will bless you beyond your wildest dreams, Abram. But you got to do something. You got to move on from Haran. Move on from Haran.”

In this promise that we read—”I will, I will, I will, I will, I will”—six times, God is going to do all the heavy lifting in your life, friends. But your job, Abram’s job, it was to make a move, to move on from Haran, to leave that emotional tie to the pain so that he’s not held back by anything that would keep him from experiencing God’s promises in his life.

Terah was stuck. Abraham stayed unstuck. Terah was stuck. Abraham stayed unstuck. Here’s how.

Let’s look at Hebrews 11:8. This is the Hall of Faith chapter. It says, “By faith, Abraham obeyed and went.” By faith, Abraham obeyed and went, even though he didn’t know where he was going.

Friend, faith and obedience are the two things that unlock the door to promise. Faith and obedience.

Look, I mentioned in the beginning of my message that a few years ago I left my role at an unusually successful tech company to start something brand new. We had this idea to create the world’s first video devotional app that would bring people closer to God and help them grow spiritually. I started the company with one of my best friends and one who I had built successful businesses with for a very long time. We invested a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of energy into this brand new company.

I would jump on a plane every other week and travel to a different state, leave my family to oversee all the filmings and lead this growing team. I was pouring my heart, my soul into this company. We were making a positive impact. We were making such a difference.

Then about two years in, my co-founder gave me an ultimatum: Uproot my family and move to another state or leave the company entirely.

I knew—I knew in my knower. I just knew. I knew that if we moved away from where we were planted and our church family, this house, something would break. I knew I wouldn’t be able to disconnect from work because, well, I’m a bit of a workaholic. So I kind of knew how this story was going to end. I struggle with that.

So after much prayer and countless sleepless nights and seeking wise counsel from family and mentors and pastors, we made the incredibly difficult decision to move on from that company. We walked away with absolutely nothing. Nada. No company, no rights, no ROI. I had no backup plan. I had no plan B. My identity was shaken to the core and I felt like a complete failure. I had a big L right on my forehead.

We like to say it around here when we’re down to nothing that God is up to something. And deep down I had faith that this decision to move on was what God was asking of me to do. And so I did the unthinkable. I chose to simply have faith and obey.

By putting my faith in God and obeying him, it helped me stay focused on where I was going. And I was going towards the promises of God.

Now, there are times—hear me—there are times when a physical move is needed. Perhaps you’re in an abusive relationship or, I don’t know, those roommates that you’re around, you just need to start to get out. They’re pulling you down. Bad company corrupts. Sure, there are instances when a physical move is needed, but get wise counsel when considering making a physical move. Because for me, this move on from Haran, for me, it wasn’t about moving physically. It was all about moving on mentally and emotionally.

I had to emotionally move on from the Haran to move towards the promises of God. And some of you here in the room today, some of you at Bellevue, some of you at Yakima, some of you at DuPont, some of you watching online, that is exactly where you are today. You do not need to move cities. You do not need to change churches, careers, relationships, or even spouses. You need to stay planted where you are, but you do need to get off the treadmill that has been keeping you tied to your Haran because God wants what’s best for you.

Sometimes we go through pain to get to the promised land, but God wants us to be healed from that hole so that we can live our best life, our fruitful life.

Let me challenge you today: Make a move towards the promise. And that means moving mentally and emotionally away from your Haran.

I want to give you a very practical tool that our pastor came up with and you can find it in *Mind Monsters*. It’s the FAITH acronym. This helped me tremendously disconnect my emotional connection to my pain.

**F – Focus on the positive.** F, focus on the positive. This is some of the stuff that I told Troy. I said, “Look, Troy, you have breath in your lungs. You have a healthy body, a roof over your head, some savings to sustain you and your family, a great Christian counselor, a family who loves you, friends who are on your team, a great church.” Hey, I got to affirm myself. “I’m not a failure. I’m not a failure. I’m not a failure. I’m not a failure. I am called. I am chosen. I have purpose. God is writing my story.” And this is just a chapter. It’s not the end of the book. I’m not a failure.

**I – Imagine God doing something good.** Hey, God parts the waters. He brings dead things back to life. So if I start dreaming again, how can I serve at Team Church? How can I help Champion Center? How can I lean into Legacy Team? How can I use my corporate skills to move God’s house forward?

**T – Trust God in everything.** Not some things, everything. God is the one, after all, who opened every door for me professionally, every door for you professionally. If he did it then, he can do it again. And this didn’t catch him by surprise. He hasn’t abandoned me. After all, he is the author and the finisher of my faith. So I’m going to continue to trust in him.

**H – Hope for the best.** I reminded myself that there is still more to come. The best is still yet to come in my life. God is for me. And while I can only see maybe A to B, A to B, God sees all the way from A to Z.

Now, I am walking in that promise. Team Church, Champion—I’m standing here sharing my story with you. This house, if you would have told me in my Haran when I was emotionally and mentally connected to my pain that I would be standing up here and sharing this story with you, I would have thought you were absolutely crazy. But if God did it for me, friend, he can do it for you.

And I can tell you, I can tell you the promises are so much better than the pain.

So let me leave you with this this morning: Terah died in Haran, surrounded by what could have been. Abraham moved forward and stepped into what could be—the promise. Same valley, same family, same loss, very different outcomes.

You know, we applaud Abraham for moving on, but the real key is how he processed his pain. If he had processed it like his father Terah, he would have stayed stuck in Haran as well. The difference was not the pain. It was the response to the pain. And when you process it in faith, you don’t just survive, you heal. You move forward. You inherit God’s promise in your life. In your life. In your life.

So what will be the ending of your story? Don’t live the rest of your life expending emotional energy tied to this treadmill of pain. God has so much more for you. But you have to make a move, friend. And you have to let God be God.

From pain to promise. That’s the journey. That’s the invitation. Friend, it is time for you to make a move.

If this message has resonated with you here in Tacoma, online, Yakima, DuPont, Bellevue, I just want to take a moment and pray over you. Every location, if you would say, “Troy, I am ready to move beyond my pain. I’ve been stuck in Haran for far too long, and I don’t want to stay there anymore,” just going to ask you, can you just put your hand on your heart? That hand on your heart. It says this. It says, “I’m ready to pass through my pain. I’m ready to heal. I’m ready to not allow negative emotions to be in the driver’s seat of my life. I am ready to move on from Haran.”

Let me pray over you.

Father, I thank you for every person who’s saying, “I’m ready to get off the treadmill of pain and move forward to the promise.” Father, for every heart that’s been carrying hurt, I speak your healing power over them right now. Give them strength to take that next step. Remind them of the promises that you’ve placed on the other side of their Haran. I ask you to restore their joy, restore their courage, help them dream yet again. I ask you to fill them with fresh faith and renewed obedience. I believe this moment right now, it is a turning point in their journey from pain to promise, in Jesus’ name. Amen, amen, amen.

If you walked into one of our locations today or watching online and you say, “Yeah, I got some pain. I got some emotional and mental associations to pain and disappointment in my life,” and that first prayer was for me, there’s also a second prayer that I would like—in case you walked in today and you’re not in a right relationship with Jesus. If you were to enter into eternity tomorrow, you’re not sure where you would end up, I would love to lead you in a prayer this morning. It’s a prayer of new beginnings.

So I’m just going to ask you just to slip up your hand, a sign of, “You know what? I want to know this Jesus that you’re talking about. I want to get into a closer relationship with him.” Across all of our locations here in Tacoma, I’m just going to ask you to slip your hand up and say this prayer after me.

Say:

“Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Forgive me of all my sins and come into my life. I boldly declare today you are the leader and the Lord of my life and I won’t ever be the same again, in Jesus’ name.”

Amen, amen.

Church, can we welcome them to the family of God?