Pastor Brodie Kalamen | Analog Faith in a Digital World | July 5th, 2026

All right.

What a great time of worship, hey?

Great time of worship.

You know, it makes a difference when you're in a in a company of people who love to worship.

It makes a difference when you're with people who are uh willing to give up a sacrifice of praise.

It's not that I'm saying your voice is like sounds like a sacrifice.

It's just like it's like a sacrifice of praise.

That means you're just you offer up something despite other people.

It's like David who who went before the Lord, he worshiped before the Lord, and he didn't care.

He he said, I'll become even more undignified.

If it means that I get the attention and I and I can demonstrate my love and my my uh worship for God, he says, I become even more undignified than this.

And uh I'm just so grateful to be in a company of people who love to worship, love the word of God, and love the presence of Jesus.

I always live in a a bit of a tense place as uh as a pastor and leader.

Uh oftentimes leadership is about being on the front and leading the way and being uh having a vision and having people follow you, and the other part of it is about getting out of the way.

And when you come into worship in a place like that, it's not about me, and it's not about my vision, and it's not about this being my house and my place, it's about God's will and God's way, and about Brody stepping backwards and letting God's spirit and his presence uh uh actually move.

And our job is to cultivate that space and cultivate that place of worship and cultivate that environment where the Lord is honored in this place, and uh each of us, the church, as the church, are are representing that and and building together.

Now, I I'm not sure if I I didn't see them.

I know they came in this week, uh, but um Matt and Opal, are you here today?

Matt and Opal, uh they're they're here.

Oh, would you stand up?

They're uh oh Opal's here.

Matt's out in the lobby.

That's right.

Now they're he'll be here in a minute.

They're missionaries that have come to uh church today, and uh, I'm just so grateful that you guys are are here.

We're gonna be hearing from them in the next little while, but uh you'll be able to see them.

There he is, Matt.

Hey, Matt! There he is.

Welcome, welcome.

I should have waited till you were here.

Did you bring your whole family with you?

The whole family's here.

All right, we're so glad that you guys are here with us again.

Umseas, visiting Kelona in the summer.

It's a good place to come.

Um, we are continuing to build the series called Building the Church, Advancing the Kingdom, uh, sharing on this series.

And everything in this series actually starts from one sentence that Jesus spoke to one of the fishermen while he was sharing on a hillside, and he said, This, I tell you that you are Peter, and I just love Peter.

On this rock, Peter, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Amen.

We are part of an overcoming church.

There is nothing that is better for a community, better for a family, better for a nation, better for the world, than to have the church expressed in its full, its full glory.

The scripture says, may his kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And I hope that when you're even in a place of worship like this this morning, that you actually get a taste of what heaven is like.

When the church is singing together, can you imagine all of heaven singing together holy, holy, holy?

Just together, a congregation of saints.

Like I just we like we don't even use the word saint too often today, but to realize that you are clean and clear and righteous and before God and welcomed and approved and identified, and God sees you and He says, You are a saint, and there's a congregation of saints that are singing together and shouting together and worshiping together what is in heaven on the earth.

So I want to sit on this one word that we've been talking about related to the church, and that's to build it.

That the church is built, and that word is a constructive word.

When you're building something, it implies that there's material, there's labor, that there's proximity, that you're working and strategizing and collaborating together to build something of effect.

And so we're intentionally building the church together.

It's not about one person, it's about where two or more are gathered together in his name.

That's where he is, and that's where the vision flows from.

And this primary message today is that you cannot build the church from a distance.

And you can't build from behind a screen, and you can't build something where you're not in proximity.

It's like uh a father or a mother or a spouse.

Uh you can't just function with a title.

You actually have to be there.

You can't parent over text, you can't parent over video.

Even from the very beginning, there was proximity.

As soon as the baby's delivered, what do they do?

They take that baby and they lay it on the chest of the mother.

Skin-to-skin contact.

As soon as, like, even at the end of life, there's a point where you're you're sitting with someone and your hand is in their hand.

There's something about proximity when we're building together.

Proximity and care matter.

And you can't do that behind a screen, you can't do that from a distance, you can't do that alone.

And this week I want to answer that question.

What does it actually look like to build the church when the world is doing everything it can to move us away from just showing up?

And I just want to applaud you all today for showing up.

I want to give you a hand today.

Come on, guys.

Let's rally together for one another because there are a lot of there are a lot of activities today that are happening where people just don't leave the house and they don't show up.

They want to work from home, they want to stay home, they want to be entertained at home, they want to eat at home.

Everything is like in an isolated spot.

But the church, the fact that you get up and get moving and come together, it matters.

It matters to be here, it matters to be in a common unity of faith, a community of faith, demonstrating belief and and and and reaching out to God one and one and another together.

So I I look at this, and so it's so important to me that we're actually living together in a in proximity, in a place together.

I want to look at this portion of scripture, and I want you just to picture this.

Uh, this moment in scripture, and I love the Bible because it really has so many adventurous uh stories and like scenes that in my mind, I'm sure, are different than they are in your mind.

But when I get to heaven, I want to just look back at the reels, reels of history, and actually the reels of the scripture, and actually see what was happening in this moment.

But a scene from scripture where fire actually came from heaven.

That in itself I'd love to see.

In front of everybody on a soaking wet altar, and this altar where people had been praying for like on a separate altar, they'd been praying for hours, and 450 prophets of Baal had been screaming to silence, to nothing.

The fact Elijah actually said it was the first area.

I love to see this trash talk.

You know, you guys saw the Sophie Cunningham meme that came out this week where she just says like pointing her finger.

I just I just love that.

I just think it would be Elijah just looking over right now and just pointing and being like, Where is he?

Where's this God of Baal?

He literally says, perhaps he's on the toilet.

Perhaps he's gone on vacation.

Perhaps he's a little deaf, he's a little aged, and you just have to scream a little louder.

And 450 people are dancing around this altar, waiting, challenging the God of Israel with their own sacrifice, cutting themselves, screaming, sacrificing until they're so exhausted they fall over.

And Elijah's like, All right, bring me some water.

Pours it over the altar until literally streams of water are falling off the altar, calls out fire from heaven, fire comes down, and the scripture says it licks up the water that had been flowing from the altar.

Not only did it consume everything on the altar, but it licked up the water that was off the altar too.

And it's one man, Elijah, who's just sitting there mocking.

And I watched that and I thought, like, I love that spirit.

I've have you had enough?

Have you tried your way long enough?

Have you striven enough?

And then you know that I've got something greater, I've got something for you.

And so this story really is like what a great Sunday that would have been.

It's just like an incredible moment in a generation of for Elijah, for prophetic ministry, what a moment of validation for him, and and yet, 24 hours afterwards, this same man is sitting under what they called a broom tree in the wilderness, and he's alone, and he's asking God to take his life.

Can you believe that?

A moment where God demonstrates literal fire from heaven.

Afterwards, he goes to a mountain, he says, You know, you've had drought.

What do you see?

A man says, I see nothing, go look again.

I see the cloud the size of a man's fist, it's really small.

I see another one, and Elijah's like, rain is coming.

Sure enough, rain comes down and the drought is stopped.

And the scripture says he starts running back, and the and God picks him up on the wind, and he runs faster than the chariot, passing the king's chariot.

So it's like there's a moment here of pretty like epic proportion.

And 24 hours later, after a woman named Jezebel says, Go get him, I want him dead, he runs away.

And the next thing you know you hear him saying 24 hours later, is I've had enough.

I want to die.

And he was burned out, he was isolated, he was done after the the championship event, the win of his life.

And I just need you to hold this thought for a second because I think we look back in time and we think, you know, that was a moment back then, but the fact and reality is it happens even today.

It's uh a story that we hear from actually a lot of people, and we have people in the room who've experienced this, we've had people in our city who've experienced it, all churches, all over the world.

It's it's really an isolate where people have isolated and they've separated themselves even after knowing the goodness of God and the reality of God, and this is a is a reminder that we are, even though we're in a great community and we're in great society, we're actually living in a lonely place, and loneliness is actually at an epidemic level.

A lot of people feel alone, and this isn't in spite of the digital world, but it's because of it.

They actually feel that they're they're living in a space where they're connected, where connection isn't really relationship, and followers aren't friends, and and likes aren't really people connecting with you, or conversation, or communication, or connection.

And Elijah, in reality, was not a weak spiritual man.

He was he had he had all those demonstrations of what had actually happened, and yet he succumbed to the the fact that he was alone, and uh and he said he sat in the desert, and this is what he said he said, I've had enough, I'm the only one left.

And the fact is, if it can happen to him, it can happen to us.

And you cannot build a church from a place far away under a broom tree by yourself.

You cannot advance the kingdom from a place where you're alone and disconnected.

That's not how the church is built, and that's not how the kingdom of God advances.

It was never God's intention from the very beginning, it was not his intention.

He said you need to multiply, grow, develop communities, develop stations where you're building the church until you've got to this place where there's the city of God.

You're building a city whose ruler and king is the Lord.

It's this place.

So today I want to make the case that the most counter-cultural, most powerful, most kingdom-advancing thing you can do in a digital age, because that's what we're living in right now.

We literally sent AI to space.

We're living in a digital age, and the most countercultural thing you can do is to actually show up in person for real with one another.

And what people need today is not the newest iPhone, they need you.

They need you.

So my first point today is that isolation is the enemy of advancement.

In Canada, it's a statistic today.

Um, in Canada, nearly uh one in two men feel that they're alone.

One in two, and if they live alone, it goes to 73% of men actually feel alone.

It's the primary driver and and leader that that where men actually begin to establish connections through superficial channels like pornography.

Pornography actually attracts uh men by leveraging their loneliness.

Looks at them and says, Who have you got?

Who have you got that's gonna reach out to you?

Who have you got that's gonna connect to you?

And then provides a superficial option.

And we would when we look at the life of Elijah, we realize he didn't stumble into isolation, he actually ran into isolation.

And one thread of his life, and this is what he did.

He went not only a day into the wilderness, he ran for a day into the wilderness.

And then he ran for 40 more days into a mountain.

41 days of running.

It's significant where you actually move out of that place of cover, move from that place of connection and community to advance to isolation.

And the move wasn't uh or was progressive, it didn't just happen one at one moment, it happened day after day after day after day.

And so here's what um what the culture says about this is that culture actually praises isolation and they praise it as rest, and they praise it as something that is uh I'm just stepping back for a while.

I'm just stepping away for a little bit.

I'm just taking a sabbatical, I'm just taking a moment where I'm gonna be on my own.

And by doing that, it's like it's under the window of wisdom or through the lens of wisdom that I'm going to actually step away from the church for a bit and just find myself, step away from community and just reflect.

And all of this language that sounds really flowery and very like new age.

Wow, that sounds very advanced, actually is intentionally there to remove you and separate you from the church.

Because every individual who isolates themselves is one less individual who's actually building the church.

And the enemy doesn't have to actually destroy the church if he can remove the builders from the church.

Elijah actually was in isolation, and I'm sure he told the story every day he was running.

I'm gonna just run away, I'm gonna I'm going to retreat through advanced, advanced retreat, however you want to propose it, because for my life, for the good of the community.

And then he started saying, Well, it's because I'm alone, and it's because there's nobody with me.

And he rehearsed the story until it actually became his story.

He said, I'm the only one left, everyone has abandoned the covenant except me.

I'm alone, it's over.

And little did he know that that wasn't even the truth.

God actually spoke to him and would tell him that there are 700 or 7,000 in Israel who would never bow their knee to Baal and would have stood with him on that day had he stood.

And Elijah didn't know that, and he wasn't challenged because he was alone.

There was no one there to correct them, no one there to discipline, no one there to realign him, no one there to shake him and go.

You reconnect here with your purpose and God's plan for your life and reconnect with your your proper perspective.

You're not alone.

The scripture is very clear.

It says, when one person pity the man who goes out by himself, because if he falls, there's no one there to pick him up.

And we all know that, it makes sense, but thank God if you're walking with someone, that if you fall, there's someone there who can actually help you.

When you're alone, you are in trouble.

And my challenge to you today is we're talking about building the church, advancing the kingdom, is you cannot do this from isolation.

If we're called to be builders, we're called to advance, we need to do it in community.

And we've got a world that's pushing us into a place of isolation.

And we need to be aware of it because the culture is gonna say it's good for you.

In fact, it's better for you.

And we have to suggest.

Something different.

Isolation doesn't separate you from people, it separates you from the truth about people.

Eventually, the truth, like Elijah experienced, that he said, I'm alone, and not realizing there were 7,000 that were actually with him, was a reality.

We had a situation over COVID where COVID was very much about separation and isolation, and particularly in our organization, where we have a school and a church, and we were the school had its own structures, and the church had its structures, and we weren't supposed to kind of even cross floors.

It was really a weird season of time.

And at that time, we were moving students from the school to the church.

And so we ended up, we said, hey, we're going to move these kids from like between the school to the church.

We should uh get a sidewalk, and through the sidewalk between the church and the school, we're gonna paint this really brightly colored sidewalk.

Lots of colors, color it so that the kids are fun, it's bright when cars are moving, they see the sidewalk, they slow down at the sidewalk.

Makes a lot of sense.

But in isolation, all of a sudden I start getting emails.

Why do you have a rainbow-colored sidewalk outside?

And what happens is isolation distorts truth.

All of a sudden things start being questioned.

I'm like, what is a sidewalk?

It's a bright sidewalk, and so that kids can walk back and forth.

You know, I watch them from my office and they stay in line, they're not walking into traffic.

And the rainbows are a rainbow.

So like make it a colorful sidewalk.

But all of a sudden, the criticism, what's happened to Pastor Brody?

Is there something has he gone blah blah blah?

And I was like, I didn't even want to bring it up today, this message, because I was just like, I just dealt with it.

And it's like still resident in people.

Mmm, skeptical of Brody.

Why?

Because of isolation.

Because there was a season where you were behind a mask and they couldn't have conversation and we couldn't have discussions and we couldn't celebrate certain things.

So we have to be careful that we don't move in that place of isolation because it begins to divide.

It's the enemy's way of dividing and conquering people.

The gates, the gates of hell don't need to attack a church that's already divided, already isolated, already in retreat.

And in reality, isolation is uh not just a neutral approach, it's actually a defeat.

When you operate from a place of neutrality, it's actually you're preparing for defeat.

So we want to make sure that we're not moving from isolation.

Every person who retreats into a place of digital distance is the one less person that's building the church.

And so Jesus said he would build his church.

He can't build it with people who are living in caves like Elijah was.

So he went to Elijah, and God asks Elijah a question, and he asks it twice, just in case Elijah didn't hear the first time, because you know how you are.

I'm talking about you.

You are, we don't want to hear it the first time.

Perhaps I misheard.

I didn't quite hear you.

I said it twice.

He said this in chapter uh 19, verse 9.

He says, What are you doing here, Elijah?

Like, what what what are you doing here?

You know you're not supposed to be here.

Why are you here?

And this wasn't done in anger, and it wasn't done because he hated Elijah, or it wasn't done, but it was done in love, but it was done with like urgency.

Don't you know that you've got a mission to accomplish?

Don't you know that every time you're sitting alone in this cave, that it's giving Jezebel one more day to build a case against me again?

And spinning a story about what actually happened on that day when fire came from heaven and rain came back, and the drought is over, and you can't like, what are you doing here?

Go communicate, go back.

So God chose, second point here is that God chose presence to actually build.

And what I mean by this is that, and here's what I love about God's God's response to Elijah.

Because if I was God and I just noticed my superstar, my captain, my guy that I just sent fire from heaven for, and just put him on the wind and made it like woof, he's gone.

If I would have seen that, I probably would have been a little chapped with him.

I've been to basketball games, I've seen players give up halfway through a game, and I'm screaming from the stands.

I'm not even the coach.

I can't sit with my wife during games.

She sits in one corner, I sit on another corner.

It's true.

I my ribs can't take it.

She's jabbing me and quiet.

And I'm like, I gotta tell these guys, like, smart up.

Game's not over yet.

Yesterday they won by one point.

It was pretty, it was a pretty good on a tournament.

They came back 14 down in a game, and uh my son scored the last point.

That was kind of cool.

Yeah.

But what I like about his response to Elijah is that he didn't give him a vision, he didn't give him a dream, he didn't give him something like a word from God, he didn't give him like a painting on a wall or anything like that.

He actually God sent something more important, he sent physical presence to him.

That now I'm talking about like this message here is like how we experience God in a digital age, and how do you have an analog faith?

Because I do think, you know what's coming back right now?

Like home phones for kids, like so and they think it's amazing.

They hold the phone like a speaker, though, they don't know to like to put it to their ear, they just hold it out like that.

Where they can, and parents are giving their kids like uh like what we used to have, like a wall with like all these numbers, and you can like dial like grandma and dial your friends, and you sit on your bed and you've got the cord that goes to the wall.

They think it's so vintage, and it is, but it's a new thing.

I'll tell you, getting to phones is I'm sure their stock will go up somehow if you can find one.

Disposable cameras, those are like they're hard to come by right now, but they they're in demand.

Um, God sent his physical presence to him.

In 1 Kings chapter 19, it says, All at once an angel touched him.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

You should say, touch.

You can't do that in a digital place.

Touch, he touched him, he said to him, What?

Get up and eat.

Get exercising, stand up, stretch, and hear some food.

You notice how God like isn't like gonna give him like a four-point sermon for 45 minutes and an hour long?

He's like, no, Elijah, what you need here is a touch, and you need to get up, you need to eat, and then you need to rest.

And after that, I'm gonna touch you, I'm gonna get you to get up again, I'm gonna feed you, give you something to drink, and get you to rest again.

Why?

Because I know that you've got a journey that you've got to get back to.

You've got a place to go, and you're gonna have to be able to see that.

I love the last portion of this scripture here.

It says, get up and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

In other words, the angel knew, hey, it's just too bad you ran for 41 days because you got 41 days to go back.

There's a whole lesson to learn from that.

Turn around at one.

Turn around at two.

The farther you go, the farther it is to get back.

But he understood his limitations.

He says, You got 41 days, and you got to go back.

And I know you need the energy.

So he touched him, he gave him food, he gave him water, he gave him rest.

God saw Elijah's limitations, he said, I've got this for you.

And then God begins to speak to him, and I'm and I just want to share this point here because this is an epic part of the story, is that God begins to speak to Elijah, and at the and he sends them into the mouth of the cave where he's staying.

He sends them in the cave, and and the Bible says God sent a wind.

A wind came, and it tore apart the landscape.

So I can only imagine this.

I wanted so badly to take this scripture and put it into AI, like some video in AI, like and have it just generate a scene from what this would look like, but I don't want to get disappointed.

And uh I was just like, oh, I want to see like what would this wind have looked like that would that tore apart the landscape and split the rocks?

Like, can you imagine like an epic moment of like power?

And it's like, whoa, that's but the Bible says God wasn't in it, he wasn't in that moment.

Well, that sounds pretty intense.

What about the next piece?

Then God sent, he sent uh like uh an earthquake, and the mountains shook, but God wasn't in the earthquake, and then God sent fire, and he wasn't even in the fire.

And then the scriptures talk about the sound of silence, which is so odd.

Like, you know what happens when all the power goes out in your house, and all of a sudden you're like you realize it's quiet.

And the scripture says that in that moment there was a whisper, and God was in the silence, and this is a pattern, it's how God is always built.

He began to whisper to Elijah, and I thought about Genesis and how God walked with, like he walked with Adam in the garden.

He connected with Adam, the way he spoke to Elijah, that whisper, Elijah.

It was a still small voice.

And before the church, before like buildings, before programs, before even sin entered the world, God's first method of connection was a simple walk.

He wants to walk with you.

He wants to talk to you, he wants to connect with you.

I heard of uh there was a marriage, um, they were struggling.

I've gone to all these different uh counselors, and I have no problem with counselors, but oftentimes they try and diagnose, diagnose, diagnose, figure out books and studies.

I I went to university for a few years and studied psychology and studied different uh patterns and of ways of people like think and they they uh just to repair mindsets and all these different ideas, and these this couple was going like spending thousands of dollars to try and fix their relationship.

And one day they thought, we'll just every day we're just gonna walk together.

So after dinner, they got their shoes on and they went for a 10-minute walk.

And the first 10-minute walk was really tense, you know, just one person's walking ahead, the other person's walking behind.

Come on up.

They didn't know how to walk together.

I'm I'm a bad walker with my wife.

Like, I don't, I always have to walk and stop, walk and stop.

Like, because you gotta learn how to walk with someone.

But over time, that 10 minutes became a walking together moment.

And after time, that time spent together, they began to share with one another and talk to one another, and then that time turned into more time together.

Then the 10 minutes, then it looked to anticipating the walk together.

And can you believe that a walk healed their relationship?

Because it wasn't about a formula, it was about connection together, walking together.

When I look at the central story of human history, John 1.14 says this the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

That Jesus just didn't look from afar, but he came to be with us.

He came to live with us, he came to experience life with us, he showed up.

God didn't just send a memo or send a vision or send another earthquake or fire or flood.

He actually came and he showed up.

He moved into our neighborhood.

And what I like about Jesus is he touched the leper, he healed the sick, he sat with the kids, he sat with his disciples, he connected with them, he had breakfast together.

Do you know that there's a power in breakfast?

Honestly, it's not gonna be a new app that you download that sends a notification to your phone that's gonna help you.

Find someone that you can learn from and just have breakfast together and grow from points of discipleship.

God's first point of language was uh wasn't information, it was his presence.

I'm gonna invite the team to come up just as I close, it'll be another 20 minutes or so.

I've mentioned how the culture is coming back.

Uh the culture is coming back.

You may not know this, many people don't see it, but like when I watch FIFA and I'm watching the people connect together, there's a spiritual shift.

There's a community that's shifting, there's a change that's happening in the world, there's a resurgence for like uh you know, trading cards, there's a resurgence to towards you know that marathons now are probably one of the highest, highest uh adopted uh like activities in terms of large groups.

Marathons.

Why?

Because people are running together.

You know what it's like to try and run alone?

Doesn't work.

You run together.

God has a purpose for it.

Genesis began in a garden, the kingdom ends in a city.

It always started with community.

The intent was always community, and the church, it's not like the world.

It's there are a lot of things that are like fast dopamine hits.

Instagram, scrolling, hits, hits, hits, dopamine.

The church has always been a slow, you know, a slow hit.

It's like working out.

You don't see the results in one day or in one minute or in one second.

It takes time.

And the more you invest, the more you build into the church, the more you invest into the kingdom, the more you'll actually receive from God.

So the point of the church, the point of the church, and the method for building the church hasn't changed.

It's still the same way.

God says, Jesus said he would build his church, and he would do it through you and I.

Hebrews chapter 10 says this, and maybe this is something we can all meditate on this week.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Let us consider how we may spur one another towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some of us are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.

So, in other words, it's not just a digression, it's a progression of connection.

Put roots down, put roots down in the house of God, prosper in the house of the Lord, put your roots down in this place, connect your roots to other people, connect with the gifts and the talents and the benefits of one another.

There are people in this room who have the answers that you have to your problems.

Connect with one another, solve each other's solutions, support one another, lean on one another.

And it's better when we do this together because that is the purpose of the church.

That's how we build the church.

And as we build the church, we advance the kingdom and push against, push against the digital age of like, and I love technology and it has its purpose and it has its tool, but push against it for in favor of connection with one another.

Connection with one another.

So that means like make it, send an email uh to someone, make a phone call, uh, arrange to have a coffee, connect, like don't use your summer to create distance, use your summer to create connection, and actually develop that connection and build that community in a deeper and more wholesome way.

And by doing so, the church will grow and and you yourself will transform.

Your community will transform.

You can start today by coming to our newcomers' break lunch.

If you're new to the church and you haven't got someone to connect to, we welcome you to come and connect.

I always think new people connect with new people.

It's a great way to start, and uh we can uh grow together.

Would you stand with me?

Just as we're standing, the last point of that story, just to close the loop with Elijah, is that God spoke to Elijah in 1 Kings 19.

He said this.

He says, Go back to where you came, and I will bring you to Elisha.

Elijah, Elisha, it gets a little confusing.

But Elijah was sent.

God knew what Elisha needed.

Elijah needed, and he needed someone with him that God will actually bring you to community, God will bring you to connection.

You may say, Well, I don't know, there's no one around, there's no one here for me.

I'm alone.

Like, don't just go to God.

Say, Lord, would you bring the right person?

Would you direct me to the right person for me in my life, and me and my future that I can grow together with?

Because your life will be changed by the company you keep.

And that company you keep, allow God to bring them to you for your for that purpose of benefiting you.

Let's bow our heads.

Father, we thank you today that uh we're not alone, that you're here.

Not only are you here with us, but you brought a community together.

And Lord, this is more than just a gathering, this is the church.

And this is the church where we stand arm in arm with each other and we support one another.

I want to thank you, Father, for those in this room today who are.

Who are celebrating victories because of a community.

I want to thank you, Father, for those in this room who have uh who have put down roots and have become pillars of faith that allow others to like connect to and can grow together with.

I want to thank you, Lord, for the young in this church and the older in this church who have been here for a time in a season and have weathered storms and have wisdom.

And I want to thank you, Father, that uh we're not alone and that our with the wisdom for our life and for our future is here.

What we need is here because you are here and you've brought this community together.

And Lord, we just want to give you thanks today, and we want to honor you today.

If you're in the room today and you've never experienced number one, that that sense of family because you yourself have never understood the father.

And the scripture says that the only way to the father is through Jesus.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one can come to the Father except they come through Jesus.

And in order to accept Jesus, there needs to be a recognition of sin, there needs to be a recognition of salvation.

And that Jesus Himself had made a way that we could not make.

Anyone here?

I see that hand, I see that hand, I see that hand.

Anyone else in this room today?

I see that hand.

Good.

Let's pray together, church.

Father, I thank you for your son.

I accept today the free gift of salvation.

I believe today that Jesus was on the cross carrying my sin and waiting for me to accept him as my Lord and Savior.

I confess today that I am a sinner in need of a savior, and I repent today and accept that gift of salvation.

I welcome you into my heart, into my life, and thank you for bringing me into the family.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give the Lord a round of applause.

We're going to just uh close today's service as we've got uh the newcomers lunch.

Um we're gonna have a uh time of prayer at the front here.

If you uh need any prayer today, we've got a community of people who are would love to pray with you and stand with you.

Uh if you're um if you're prepared to come to the newcomer's lunch, just give us a few minutes and uh we'll get the kids collected and then uh the food will be downstairs for everyone else.

God bless you.

Have a great weekend, spend time together, live analog life in a digital space.

God bless you.