Pastor Brodie Kalamen | When Souls Matter | November 2nd, 2025

I know that uh whenever I see the kids or the teens leave, I'm like, oh man, can we just take them home and just pray for them?

Father, we just thank you for this next generation.

We thank you for these young people that are in our church, Lord.

And we believe, Father, that you're gonna imprint, Lord, your word and your future onto their hearts and their souls and their mind, Father, so that, Lord, as we continue to build forward and set the vision and set the pace, Father, it would not just be a ceiling for them, but Lord, it would become their next platform.

Lord, as we build for the future in Kelowna and in this community, Lord, we just bless them today.

Bless Pastor Malachi, bless the leaders, Lord, for a new mission, Lord, and a new vision, Lord, for each and every one of them.

May there be a life-changing moment for them where they're at today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

How many of you would like to experience life-changing moments over waffles and uh breakfast club?

I think we should have a breakfast club here on a Sunday, and the kids can leave, and we just eat breakfast and have the word, right?

That that would be a reversal for sure.

Well, uh, compassion for our city.

So we're part of uh this legacy service uh today.

We're gonna be focusing on that first lane that was mentioned by Pastor Brian on local and national.

And I just want to welcome everyone to our giving season.

How many of you love to give?

One of our values here at KCC is uh generosity that uh we live to give and we give to live.

We sow forward, we sow into our future.

We take the seed that's been given to us and continue to plant it forward because we believe that uh God's got a purpose for each and every one of us, and that's to uh not to hold on to things, but to be open-handed in our giving of it to others, to see where that could come or where that would lead.

Every leader, every person, I believe, carries a deep desire to build something that actually outlives them.

We want to build something that outlives us, whether you're young, whether you're older, we want to make a difference in some place with some people for some unique purpose.

And it's not about ego, it's not about building our own name, but it's about leaving something behind and leaving a legacy.

It's why we so desperately wanted the Blue Jays to win last night.

The Lord knew what we were gonna be talking about, gave us this opportunity to really take it to heart.

We felt something last night.

How many of you watched the game?

Oh, yeah.

You felt 30 years ago there was a moment of time, and you didn't want to let that, you wanted to be re remember that moment.

You wanted to carry that moment because you felt like the legacy of the past isn't good enough.

We need to pursue this new event, we need to pursue this new championship, we need to establish a title now.

When we see a legacy moment slip away, it's a grief that we experience.

Whether you look at an individual who's got great purpose and promise, and they don't pursue it, it's probably one of the greatest heartbreaks of a teacher.

And even though baseball is a simple sport where grown men hit little balls with wooden sticks and run around bases, a diamond, how much more are we affected when we're talking about a life that is lived?

How much more impressive and important is it when you're talking about a life that's lived?

Legacy is what remains when our name fades, when the spotlight moves on, and when the work we started is actually carried by others.

And since we can't take anything with us when we're gone, our challenge is to die empty, not holding on to things, because we can't deliver the wisdom, we can't deliver forgiveness, we can't deliver grace, we can't deliver the resource once we're gone.

We can't do that from the grave.

But what we can today is empty our life into the world and pour our seed, pour our care, pour our interest into the world today.

And I understand like the cool thing today in a lot of places in the world is really this whole startup culture, this entrepreneurial ego that says, hey, I'm gonna start something and fast it's gonna become like successful, and it'll become that one-hit wonder that kind of like hits it out of the park.

I'm not gonna use that any more baseball analogy.

That's the last one because it just brings up grief.

But you're gonna where someone just hits that startup idea that just like in a moment of time their life is changed.

Six months ago I was fighting for an income, and now I'm flying in my own private jet.

You know, this is the idea of the culture that life can change in a moment where, in fact, a legacy, a true legacy, requires time, commitment, consistency, obedience, surrender, time, patience to wait.

Legacy is not built in a moment of emotion.

Every great move of God didn't start in an emotion, in an emotional moment.

It was carried with a burden.

A burden.

Which is unique because the scripture says all of our burdens we need to put upon God.

Like throw your cares, throw your concerns, throw your anxieties on God, which I fully understand.

But do you know that God gives you a burden, a holy burden, to care for your children, for your community, a passion for people.

That burden turns into a vision.

It becomes a vision and it turns into a plan.

And that plan is carried by people and to the point that people actually deliver upon that burden.

They like it moves them in a moment of time.

So you can't build this legacy by yourself.

You need other people along with you to live it out.

One more baseball analogy.

It wasn't just one player on the team that carried the team to that World Series game.

It was a combination of people in offices and people on the field, off the field, specialists in all different degrees, to be able to build the team that would ensure that they could get to that point that they were in.

We don't go it alone.

It's for our children, it's for the next generation, and we build together.

And this is the this is the important weight that the work that you as a church carry is that as leaders, we can have a vision.

And but you carry the pace for that vision.

How many of you know that you might be in a family scenario and the and the family's like, hey, where do you want to go on holidays this year?

And the family's like, well, we really want to go to Disneyland, and then you calculate the cost, and you're like, okay, if everybody works together, we can go to Disneyland in this time frame.

If everybody pulls together, but if no one wants to do the work to be able to get to that vision, then it's gonna take a longer amount of time to actually see it accomplished.

So you as a congregation, you and I, we set the vision, or we might set the vision, but you set the pace to where that vision would be accomplished.

Jesus announced this great legacy statement in the book of John.

He says this, truly, truly, I love it when in the scripture where something is repeated, he's like trying to like put a finger on it.

He's like, I'm just being fully, fully honest with you right now.

The one who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also.

And greater works than these he will do, because I'm going to the Father.

And this statement is to assume that you and I should be building on the foundation of those who went before us.

The lives that they led are not to be our ceiling, but to be our platform.

I remember KCC from its early beginning, its early origin, uh, where the first service was at the uh OK Corral.

Because bars are generally free on Sunday morning.

So it's a great place if you're looking for a place to start a church.

Bars are a good place to start.

And it started there and then it moved from there facility-wise, it moved from there, it moved to where Planet Laser is.

Anyone know where Planet Laser is?

Been there recently?

No, not everyone.

But Planet Laser, it went to Planet Laser and we grew out of that location and we ended up saying, Lord, we need a place for ourselves.

And the church came behind the vision and said, we're going to uh continue to purchase property, continue to uh build uh help support new church plants, and we helped others succeed before and find facility before we did.

And then the opportunity came up for this property here, and the Lord actually granted us the ability to purchase this ground and then structure it in such a way that it fell within our budget, and now we're here because of that.

It doesn't happen because of what do you know that the people who initiated that that development, uh many of those have passed away.

But you are here, and I am here because of many of those who have passed away.

And there's no way we can say thanks, there's no way we can um you know recognize them in person.

I can we can tell, but we can tell the story, but they were instrumental in their place, in their support, and now it comes down to the weight of the burden is on us.

Saying, Lord, what are you calling us to do today?

So, where does this legacy begin?

And in my view, legacy starts in the home.

You need to look at your own home and say, Father, I've got my kids, I've got my future.

Lord, what are you calling me to be able to do in my home from this place in Kelowna?

And then you look at your neighborhood and you look at who God has brought around you and the people that you're connecting with on a regular basis, and your circle begins to grow.

And then you look at your community, your city, Kelowna.

And how many of you love Kelowna?

I love Kelowna.

And I say, Lord, you've called me to this city, you've placed me here, and you've placed me in.

I believe it's one of the best places on in the world to be, because God has called me here.

For me, this is where I'm to be.

And it drives you from this city to the places to the nation.

And in this place, it takes work, it takes labor.

God calls you to a city, he calls you to labor in that city.

So you don't just live in it, you don't just occupy space, but instead, we're actually called to deliver on a mandate to actually help the city grow in its purpose.

In our city are many, many souls.

We have a lot of people who fallen in love with our city because it's a destination place.

They love our beaches, they love the climate, they love the agriculture, they love the community, they love the food, they love the shopping.

Well, not so much, but they love the they love the space, the incubators, they love the opportunity that's here.

But it's less about how the community serves us and more about how we are called to serve our community.

And as a spiritual imperative, we're here.

God puts you here, he plants you in a place, he establishes your boundary here, and he's saying, he calls to you, he says, I've got something for you in your city to accomplish in your city.

And it begins with having love for the people that God has already placed directly in front of us.

Love for our neighborhoods, love for our city.

Jesus didn't just pass through communities, blind, he didn't just walk through.

Instead, he stopped and he saw the people, and he saw the community represented by those people.

Matthew 9 is going to be our text today, out of verse 36 to 38.

I'm just gonna read it and then break down a little bit of this verse.

But he says, This when Jesus, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

This passage is less about a mission than a vision.

And when I say a vision, I don't mean like a strategic plan.

I mean like what Jesus saw.

And we're engaged in multiple ways and extensions of this church into our community, um, organizations that are reaching people and they're wonderful.

But the fact is, if we're not connected to the city from our heart, then all the work we do and all the desire, like interests in the city is going to be driven by an ability to like strive out of our own will.

But if God places in you a heart for your city and a heart for the souls of this community, then it's God's power and God's energy and God's ability in you that will and his grace in you that will empower you to do things in this community.

I can't be the one up here going, okay, everyone, get to work, get to work.

How many of you enjoy that when you got work, work, work, work, work, versus being called to work because of a motivation in you that comes from something greater than just the work.

It's motivated because God has placed a desire in you, an interest in you for something greater, to partner with Him.

The first point here today, when we look at that scripture, is we need to see Jesus saw.

Would you say saw?

He saw the crowds.

He didn't just see faces, he saw souls.

And I'm guilty at looking at Kelowna at times and seeing just the proverbial traffic, all the issues.

How's Kelowna?

It's grown.

What's grown?

The traffic, this and that, and this.

How many of you have heard the traffic?

It's always about the traffic, right?

The traffic, but Jesus saw different.

When Jesus saw the people, he was moved with compassion for them.

His heart was moved.

He saw potential in the people.

And we see the city, we see the mess of the city.

We see people are missing things, we see them as Jesus said in that scripture there, that they are like people harassed and helpless.

That means they're literally like tossed around, tossed about, they're not able to get a foothold on their life.

And I can say that honestly, through our connection with multiple city serving areas and institutions in our city, they're finding that that issue is happening with multiple people, not just those who are on the street, but those who own homes and those who are neighbors and those who are living like the middle class, higher class lifestyle.

Everyone is being tossed back and forth.

They're lost without Christ.

They have no direction, no safety, no belonging.

And Jesus, when he looked over Jerusalem, his city, he was moved with compassion and he saw the people.

And that's where legacy starts.

It starts as a burden.

And I know in life, sometimes we just like to live life like this.

If I don't see it, you ever see that remember those kids when they're hiding, playing hide and go seek?

Like if if you can't, if I can't see you, you can't see me.

And I it's it's best if I just keep my eyes closed because if I open my eyes and actually see, then it'll change me.

It'll affect me.

And legacy starts with a burden.

And ache can you that what you see, you don't want to continue seeing.

God, I see this and I can't pass by it anymore.

God, I can't keep hearing the same news.

God, I can't keep feeling the concerns that I empathize with with the people that are there.

Something needs to change.

And you want to build a life that outlives you.

It begins by asking God to open your eyes again.

And you have to start feeling something again.

Taking eyes off of just yourself.

Like we live in a very self-centered culture that's head down, like you'll you you'll see people who used to be able to talk to people.

I when I drive by a bus and I look, everyone's got their head in their phone.

You notice that?

Go to a mall, everyone's got their head down in a food court, no one's connecting with anyone else.

No one wants to see.

But Jesus said he looked, he saw, he connected with something, and it became a burden for him.

Legacy begins with that burden.

Engaging your heart, connecting with your heart.

And it has to begin to break your heart.

And the truth is, until we see it, we won't do anything about it.

What you see will determine what you do.

And that's the challenge.

Is we have to ask God, God, would you open my eyes to see?

Would you open my eyes to feel?

Would you open my like would I can I see the way you see?

It's the reason why I interrupted worship today.

Is it's just too important that when the the scripture said God inhabits the praises of his people, that God inhabits like God is here when his people are praising and you're in a moment of praise, see it.

Engage with it.

God, you're here.

So I'm gonna draw on you for healing.

I'm gonna draw on you for peace.

I'm gonna draw on you for joy.

I'm gonna draw on you for strength.

Like, see it.

Don't just keep singing the song.

And let the moment pass you by.

Don't just keep singing and and and miss out that God is in the room.

See it.

Sometimes I say God, just like you notice how he would get the attention of some people in the scripture when you read about it.

Lightning came into a room.

Like the first in the book of Acts, chapter two, what happened?

Like it was a loud noise accompanied by fire on the top of people's heads.

Like he was like, I'm gonna make this as obvious as I can.

I am in the room.

All the windows are shut, and there's like a storm breezing through, and fire on the roof, and a loud noise.

You'd be like, okay.

What are you trying to say, God?

Like you're here.

Sometimes I wish God would just do that in this place, but it requires faith to see.

So you ask for God to give you eyes to see what others don't see.

Give us eyes of faith, eyes of revelation, eyes that will see what others cannot see.

God, you're in the room.

Don't let this moment pass you by.

Draw on God, draw on him now.

So Jesus saw and he calls on us to see.

And then he was moved with compassion and compassion.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion upon them.

He felt that compassion and that compassion was real.

And he didn't just have a like he didn't see the crowd and come up with like a five-point plan.

He didn't see the crowd and be like, oh, I gotta post this.

He didn't do that.

He saw the crowds and he allowed what he saw to impact his heart.

I think it's so important where people go on missions, they can't, and they go to places in the world where you can't not see.

Everywhere you go, you see it.

The need, the emptiness, the lostness.

You just gotta put yourself in the center of it and be like, I see it.

I see it.

And it moves your heart with something.

The Greek word for compassion, and I know compassion is such a hallmarky movie or word that I know that Pastor Brian loves those movies, so it's just like the next movie compassion for Pastor Brian.

The Greek word for compassion sounds like a Greek sneeze.

It's like spluction, snommy.

It's like I don't even know how to say it.

If anyone can do it, I'll give you a coffee out there in the lobby there.

But it means to be moved in the inward part, to feel it in your guts.

He felt it in his guts.

He was moved with compassion.

He felt it.

He allowed it to move from here to here.

And it wasn't pity, it was a passion that moved him to action.

Some of you have felt that gut motivation before.

If I keep working this job, it's just gonna keep, I'm just gonna keep running into a wall, and you feel that gut response.

It's just like, I gotta move, I gotta act, I gotta, I gotta do something new, do something different.

Some of you have made huge moves, even moving to Klona.

It's like it just didn't come easy, but you knew it was in your gut.

You needed to move to act.

That's what compassion does.

It moves you to action.

And it's too easy to just shut your eyes and not see, and therefore you don't have to act.

But once you allow God to open your eyes to see, you're called to act.

And this movement is not strategic, it's not political, it's not about optics.

How many of you know, like our world loves the optics?

I'm gonna put out a statement and I'm gonna do an acknowledgement, and I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna wave a flag.

All these acknowledgments, all these optics don't make a difference.

Compassion that moves you to truly act makes the difference.

Compassion is not weakness, it's a drink to those who see and refuse to give up and refuse to stop and decide to continue, to make a difference.

And it was with that compassion that it moved Jesus to heal, move Jesus to forgive, move Jesus to lead, move Jesus to weep over a city, move Jesus to feed the crowds.

He saw them and he was moved to action.

And that movement is the same movement that moves us.

And when I look at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is literally sweating like drops of blood.

Like he's he's in anguish over this decision to have to go to the cross.

And he's moved to action to actually go to the cross, not for just those who he could see, but Jesus is with his vision, he not just saw those that were present in that time, he saw you and I today.

A vision that went beyond just one generation, but what went to uh went to multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple generations.

And it moved him to to do everything that he could to actually see people get saved.

Compassion is not what Jesus felt, it's what drove everything he did.

And I know that that compassion looks different for different people.

Compassion might move you to to weep.

Some here, compassion moves you to build a business.

Some it moves you to build something.

I think of Noah.

Noah was called by God to build an ark in the middle of a desert.

It's the first meme, I'm pretty sure of it.

It's like, look at this guy building an ark for something called rain.

We're not quite sure what that means, but it'll float.

I don't, I have no idea what that would have looked like.

But but for um Noah, he stayed the course and he remained obedient, radically obedient to something he didn't even understand fully, but he did that because he wanted to see people get saved.

Action matters.

And that movement, so he Jesus saw, he was moved by compassion, and then he said, Hey, there have got to be laborers, people ready to labor.

If you're gonna act, he said, What do you need to do?

What if what did he want to mobilize?

And he this is what he said.

He said, I need you to stop, I need to see, you need to see, you need to be moved with that compassion, and then that moves to prayer.

You gotta pray.

And for those of you in the room who uh hear that and think, man, that's not very climactic.

It's like to pray, that's what God calls us to do, absolutely to pray.

To pray, and it's it I it hurts me because I'm a doer, I'm like a high D doer.

I I like things to get done, I like to see movement, I like to see mobilization, I like to see strategy take place, I like to see all these things happen, and yet for me to stop and actually pray is actually a discipline.

But Jesus said, I need you to, when you see that happen and it moves you on the inside, you need to stop and you need to pray.

And pray, prayer isn't uh passive, it's partnership with God because Jesus said it's the Lord, pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send out harvesters into the harvest field, He would send out people to go and see people get saved.

How many of you know someone who doesn't know Christ?

How many of you know more than five people who don't know Christ?

You know, we have uh we have tens of thousands of people in Kelowna who have not yet heard the gospel.

And Jesus is saying, you need to see them, you need to be moved by them, and then you need to pray.

Pray for the laborers to go into the part to go into the field.

And for for those of you who are those doers, um, this may sound like work, but it requires you to be connected with your heart.

And the reason for it is that sometimes if we try and do something just out of activity, just out of like um out of discipline, we'll lose the fire.

But if God births something, if you pray and God puts a fire inside of you, then it will fuel the labor that you do, it'll fuel the work that you do.

For years I used to coach volleyball and basketball at a middle school, uh, grade nines.

And each time I would start with a new group and I would serve the coaches there, I would write down all the names of the students just so I could remember all their names.

And I would write the names down, and then what I would do is I would uh begin to pray for these students by name.

And do you know that as you start to pray for them, your heart gets moved for those people?

And the next time you see them, you're not just calling them out by their name, but there's something that's associated with it, like you've earned that place in prayer with them, and you've actually connected your heart to them in prayer that it's something of life is in you that when you connect to them, it it makes a difference.

Prayer matters, and it starts with prayer, and to be honest, like it took me even time this week.

I'm like, I know I've got a I've gotta preach a message this Sunday, and I've got to preach a message about Kelowna.

And to be honest, I've been struggling because I look at our council, I look at our leadership, I look at the city, and I've grew born and raised here.

Anyone else born and raised in Kelowna?

A few of you have seen Kelowna in better places.

You look at your nation.

How many of you are challenged and frustrated with the nation where the nation is going?

Join the crowd, right?

And that how that like it's a challenging place to be in.

But I needed to be moved, so you know what I had to do?

I had to go and I had to see.

I had to get my feet on the ground, so I actually started walking, I started moving, I started connecting.

I Pastor Brian and I went up to Knox Mountain and I looked over the city and I connected with the city again.

This is my city.

Began to pray over the city, went downtown, prayed over the business.

I had to reconnect because I can't lead into places that I don't love, and I don't feel that love for it.

And I had to keep moving until my heart was moved, and then as I saw, my heart was moved, and out of my heart I began to pray.

And that prayer moved me to action, to write, to build something, to like I needed to have this in me.

I love Kelowna.

I love my city.

I love, I I wanna, I want to live my life out here.

And I want to do, I want to make an impact on anyone who who's in this in this in this community.

I want them to know the love of God.

I want them to know the good news of the gospel.

I want them to know that their life, they can become a new creation in Christ, and that the old is gone and a new can come.

I want them to know that they can have a new approach to life that isn't held back and chained back by by fear and shame, but they can experience freedom and truth.

It's the only way that they can connect to their God, connect to their creator, and actually make a difference.

But before you do that, you need to pray.

And you need to work, you need to put yourself out there.

Lastly, I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up.

Legacy isn't just about what you build, it's about what you become.

You think that by building legacy, by doing something that's legacy-minded or carrying a legacy, um, it'll just change the world.

But the fact is, it changes you.

Uh, Pastor Brian and I were walking up the Knox Mountain, and I I have the privilege, I take early mornings, I kind of go up there with a bunch of guys, and this time along, I was like, Pastor Brian, come on up.

Let's go up Knox Mountain, grab a coffee, and we'll just walk the mountain.

And I'll tell you, the first time I walked that mountain, I I grew up here in Kelowna.

Like I said, I'd never walked Knox Mountain before.

I drove.

Who would ever walk the mountain?

There was like a road that you could drive to the top.

I grew up in the middle of an orchard, like in orchard areas.

I wouldn't even get a bike.

My parents never bought me a bike.

I had a motorbike.

I wanted to get from point A to point B.

Why pedal?

Like, I the ultimate in like traveling and distance and movement was never like hiking.

And when I was hiking up this mountain with Pastor Brian, it is hard catching your breath, and and you think, but you you know what?

You're you're kind of getting frustrated and angry at the mountain, right?

And the fact is the mountain doesn't change.

The only thing that's changes has got to be you.

My body needed to change.

My breath needed to change.

My strength, my endurance.

I couldn't ask, I couldn't move, I could get mad at the mountain all I wanted.

Frustrated, yelling at it, why don't you level out a little bit?

It's like the mountain doesn't make the like you don't make the mountain, it's the mountain that makes you.

And you get better the more you attack it.

Well, this is what happens with legacy.

You might have something in front of you that is challenging, something in front of you that's hard, something in front of you that's like a burden, and it's and it'll only be a burden until you realize, Lord, will you help me so that I can be the solution to this burden that the world is carrying?

Help me and begin to pray and begin to ask God to be able to see, like this world, this city, this nation is not going to be changed unless we change.

And it starts with each and every one of us.

Would you stand with me please?

Jesus looked over his city, and I just love how he, it was such an endearing message.

He looked over Jerusalem and He said this, how I long, how I long to gather you under my wings, like a hen gathers its chicks.

How I long to hold you close, how I long to see you safe, how I long to protect you, how I long to comfort you, how I long to keep you close, how I long for you.

And when he looked over Jerusalem, his own hometown, he began to pray that prayer.

It wasn't like upset and angry and calling it down.

Instead, he was saying, I'm going to believe for something better in this city.

Believe for something better.

And locally, like we're doing what we're we're doing.

We've got programs in the city, we've got areas that you as a church have always been so supportive of.

We've got the Metro, we've got Okanagan Valley Pregnancy Care Center, we got Freedom's Door, they're supporting Recovery of Men, Teen Challenge, Boys and Girls Club.

We serve our own community by uh providing happers during Christmas and supporting uh single-parent families.

We're doing all these things, but it's part of the legacy of the church.

But how many of you know that God's called us to more?

We've got tens of thousands of people who need Christ, who need to hear the gospel.

And so we as a church need to see again.

We need to open our eyes.

We look at our nation.

And this year, like I've just struggled over the last few years.

Lord, well, how have you called us nationally?

And the Lord's called us, began to call us Ministers Network of Canada, asked us, they've got over a thousand pastors in their network.

They said, would you be the would you be the central hub church and and lead for the like ministering to the churches within the Okanagan and the North?

How many of you love the north?

Prince George, Quinnell, Williams Lake, Tap Lake, Nimpo Lake.

I like all the lakes.

Just bring a rod.

And it's like, can you do that?

Well, Lord, would you open up my heart and give us compassion for the north of Canada?

Give us compassion for the north.

Team Church, they said, would you help us with Team Church?

Like, we're an organization.

We come into Canada.

We believe that if we can help build healthy teams, we can build healthy churches.

I said, so how do we build strong teams and churches that build strong churches?

He said, Can you help us?

And we said, yes, we'll help.

These are areas where we can actually help nationally.

But it's not gonna make a difference if we're doing it out of our own will.

It's gotta be the Lord.

It's gotta be moved by the Lord.

Would you just close your eyes for a moment and allow the Lord to just begin to move you this morning?

Father, would you move us?

Even as our eyes are closed, would you cause us to see?

See our city.

See the people walking down the streets.

See the lostness.

See those who are helpless and harassed.

See those who are walking without a shepherd.

It doesn't mean just the unhoused.

It doesn't mean just the poor, but see every individual, Lord, those who have with resource, those without resource, every individual who doesn't know you, Father, may they place an imprint on our heart, in our life, Lord, to be worth reaching out to, to be worth having compassion for.

Lord, we say today that we love our city of Kelowna.

We love the city of Kelowna.

And we desire, Father, to be moved and to be able to see the city, Lord, the way you see the city.

To see it in its potential, to see it, even though it has issues, Father, to see the see it as full of people who are full of sons and daughters, prodigals of some, prodigals and some.

And Lord, today, would you just give us your heart?

You're like the great shepherd.

And Father, I believe that when Jesus saw the city, he was reminded, Lord, that you're the one who would leave the 99 to follow the one.

You would go out.

And you would reach out and you would chase down and you would protect and you would guard and you would carry home, Lord, anyone who's lost.

Father, would you move us for our city?

Move us, Lord, for those men who are recovering at freedom's door.

Move us in compassion, Lord, for those young ladies who are who are uh who are experiencing that the result of an unplanned pregnancy, Father, and for the teams that are helping support them, for the young men and young girl and boys who are taking care of by uh the boys and girls club, Lord, for those who are dealing with addiction at teen and men's challenge.

Father, would you come and support?

Would you come and carry?

Would you come and help us, Lord, to be able to pray and believe and work and act and labor, Lord, for our city's sake.

Today, Father, we take our eyes off ourselves and we lift up our eyes to you.

We lift up to our eyes for help, Lord, to be able to think, Lord, about the future of our city and to take responsibility and take authority in the authority that you've given us, Lord, to be able to minister to our city today.

I pray, Lord, that same prayer that Jesus, you prayed, that you would gather the people together, that you would pull them together, that you would secure them, that you would keep them safe, that you would comfort, that you would secure each individual, men and women, young and old, every nationality represented in this great community, Lord, you would draw them close in the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus.

If you're here today, and you're just you're not quite connected, but you're feeling that pull, you're feeling that compassion.

I'm just inviting each and every person here today to just take a moment and just remember.

Think about someone, think about a neighbor, think about someone that you know who doesn't know Christ.

And just hold them in front of your mind, hold them in your heart today, and now just begin to pray for them.

Would you do that as a church?

Just begin to pray together.

Pray for each and every one.

Pray for them by name, lift them up before the Lord and begin to be moved the way Jesus is moved.

And just take a moment.

I just challenge you to pray.

For those who are teachers, you've got students, just pray.

Pray for your school.

For those of you who are in neighborhoods, just pray.

Pray for your neighbors, pray for your street, pray for multiple streets, pray for students, pray for your school.

University students, pray for your university, pray, pray, pray, pray.

Pray for our local, pray for our national, pray for this place, and pray that people come to know Christ.

Pray that hearts would be open.

Pray that, Lord, your kindness, your grace, your mercy would be greater and understood than any of the shame or guilt that they may be experiencing in Jesus' name.

And if you're here today and you've never received Christ yourself, and you would like to be introduced to Jesus, the one who took away the sins of the world upon himself, who went to the cross for you and made a way for you.

When in all your work you couldn't accomplish salvation and a new heart, Jesus made a way for you to receive a brand new heart and to set you up for a future in eternity.

If you're here today, I don't want to go any moment uh any further without a moment to just acknowledge you and together as a church, we'll just pray together.

Is there anyone here today?

Just raise your hand really high if you would like to receive Christ today.

This invitation is going to you.

Is there anyone here today?

Amen.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to worship you.

We thank you for this opportunity to acknowledge you in this church today and to be moved by the things that move you.

And we ask, Lord, today that you just continue to carry on your work in our hearts, adjust us to your way in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm gonna pray for you one last time, bless you, I'm gonna release you.

For families, parents, you can go and grab your kids downstairs, pray for them, thank the teachers.

We're also gonna have a prayer team up front.

If you need prayer today, additional prayer, we'd like to have our team uh pray with you, as well as we have communion off to our right, and you're welcome to take communion.

Let me just pray.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and may his face shine upon you.

May he be gracious to you, lift up his countenance over you that you may know him and know his peace.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Have a great rest of your Sunday.