Pastor Brodie Kalamen | Flourishing in Community | September 14th, 2025

This week I had the opportunity to um maybe some people didn't know it, I didn't know it.

Uh we call on a hosted the Canadian Country Music Awards.

And uh how many of you knew that?

A few people, hey, in the room.

And uh I ended up I was uh part of an event that uh it closed, it was at a golf course, and uh at the end of it they had a number of people on uh the musicians there, country music artists, and and I really was uh like impressed of the skills and the and everything about but I'll tell you one thing Barstool confessions does not compare to how great is our God.

And the music and the ministry that happens when you're in the presence of God can be found nowhere else.

Everything else is an alternative, everything else is an imitation.

When you decide to put your heart and your attention and your focus on God, there is a transaction that happens in the heavenly realm that touch where heaven touches earth, and everyone in the world is trying to find what the secret to that that that formula is.

And I'll tell you this this morning: God is here, and if your heart is open, he will release heaven into your heart, and he will do a different, he will make a difference in your life, and God is here, and so I pray.

Let's just give the Lord one more shout of praise today.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Father, for your your presence in this place.

We are not, we are not uh neglecting or absent, uh minded of the of the reality and the manifestation of your presence here.

And how you've come, when you come into a place, you come to to make a difference in every life.

So today we posture ourselves to receive from you, Lord, and walk out changed by you today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Thank you, team.

I'm gonna take a moment today to uh discuss something that uh has been happening uh that happened earlier this week.

And uh many of you have probably encountered your social media feeds as well as uh conversations and work at work uh related to the events that have happened across the border that have impacted us in the world.

And the world was really shook.

How many of you were shook this week?

You were shook.

I woke up this morning thinking about the the events of this week.

And uh on on a whole lot of different levels.

Some people said, Well, you didn't post anything, you should probably post something.

I didn't know what to post because there were so many layers that are happening.

How many of you know that we don't deal with flesh and blood, but we deal with spiritual principalities and powers and rulers of wickedness in this world, but we serve a God, and there is a kingdom of darkness, and there is a kingdom of light.

And uh we've seen this like in terms of social reformers and civil leaders who have been attacked for their beliefs.

And some hesitate to talk about this.

And my father always taught me when there's an event in the world that's going on, we need to discuss it as a church.

We need to talk about it, and we need to not hide behind something, but we have to bring it to the light and bring it before God and go to his word and actually hear what God is saying about these issues.

And so we address these issues biblically, and I know we have a plan for today, but I just wanted to address this.

Solomon, the wisest uh man who is gifted in the scripture, gifted in the scripture with wisdom, he said that there's nothing new under the sun, that evil exists, and we can't be surprised.

We're not surprised when we hear that there is evil.

In fact, John 3.13, 1 John 3.13 says, uh, do not be surprised.

Actually, do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

If you experience, if you experience retaliation, if you experience words, if you experience activity and actions against you, don't be surprised.

Don't be shocked by this.

John 15, 18, 19 says that if the world hates you, understand this is Jesus' talking.

He says it hated me first.

And if you were of the world, it would love you as its own.

Instead, the world hates you because you are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of this world.

How many of you know that we're a part of a different world?

We're a part of a different place, we're a new creation, that this world isn't actually our home.

We're living in a different space.

When the church was birthed, Stephen, he he was he was reciting to the Sanhedrin the the justices and the judges and the religious of the day.

He was reciting to them the reality of the gospel.

And he says in Acts chapter 7, finally at one point, he says, Listen, you were a stiff-necked people.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

That's a really nice way of saying you're just stubborn, and you refuse to bend.

He said, You're stiff-necked, and there's nothing new under the sun.

Are you still are there still stiff-necked people today?

And are we still around stiff-necked people?

Maybe nudge the person beside you.

There are still people who are just like rigid and refusing to debate and counsel.

I love the fact that we we have opportunity to go to God and the Lord says and invites us, come and let's reason together.

We have a God who invites reason, a God who invites conversation and discussion and to not be afraid.

Jesus dealt with, he dealt with conversations even if they were in the middle of the night, as he did with Nicodemus, who came, didn't even want to be associated with Jesus, but went to Jesus in that time because he had questions, and we've got to be willing to discuss the hard things and talk about things that are real to our heart.

And he says, your hearts and your ears are still like cold.

You're just like your ancestors, you resist the Holy Spirit.

And there was e the when was there even a pro was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?

They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and now you've betrayed and murdered him, speaking of Jesus, refusing to obey him.

And the scripture says that when the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth.

I don't even know what that looks like, but it's like gnashing their teeth, and Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven.

He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

He said, I see heaven is open.

What do you say?

Heaven is open, heaven is open, the Son of Man is standing at the right hand of God, and they covered their ears, and they yelled at the top of their voices, and then they rushed him.

They dragged him out of the city and they began to stone him.

Meanwhile, witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Everyone, for those of you here in this room who may not know, Saul became converted himself and became Paul, and who became the primary writer of the New Testament.

And while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

He fell on his knees, cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And when he had said this, he died.

He fell asleep.

Persecution will come to the church.

Persecution will come to believers.

Don't be surprised if you experience all kinds of hate and persecution.

Don't be surprised if you're speaking the truth and you're speaking what is righteous, that you're going to have wicked people speak against you.

Don't be surprised that if you're speaking of something that is going to bring life, that you're going to have those who want to create death speak against you.

For Jesus came to give life and life abundant, but the enemy comes to rob, kill, steal, and destroy.

We have an enemy.

To consider the fact that our faith and our life is going to be without persecution or combat or a spirit or contradiction, it's going to be there.

But the fact of this is, and the reality is, is that when persecution is launched against the church, God takes things that were meant for evil and he turns them for good.

Amen.

God takes things that were meant for evil and turns them for good.

And the church, and that point of time, the church, after hearing of Stephen's, uh Stephen's death and the the obstinence of the Sanhedrin and the people, the judges and the people of that day, and the way they responded to truth, they scattered.

And the scripture says in Acts chapter 8, they scattered, scattered, and they broke out all over Jerusalem.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

They spread out to Judea, Samaria.

They buried Stephen, they mourned deeply for him.

And Saul, the young man who they put the coats at the bottom of his feet as they killed Stephen, Saul began to destroy the church.

It's the scripture says he was seething after the church, going for permission to drag the men and the women who followed Christ out of their homes and into prison.

They resisted to kill them.

And those who were scattered began to preach the gospel.

Wherever they went, Philip went to Samaria.

And they all paid close attention to what he said.

With shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

And there was great joy in the city.

The persecution led to salvation, and salvation led to transformation.

And it went from persecuted and enslaved to free and full of joy.

When I see what's happening in the world right now, the outcome is not going to be, it's not going to be what the enemy anticipates.

The enemy anticipates covering and squashing and quenching, but all it does is like with a brush fire, you stomp on it and it spreads everywhere else.

And the more you try and put it out, how many of you have been there as a kid, started something, and you're like, help! The more I work at trying to squash it, the more it grows.

Because the church is a victorious, overcoming church.

It's pressing against the gates of hell.

And the scripture says in Matthew, Matthew, it says, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence against it.

And it's the violent who take it by force.

As in the days of John the Baptist, who was persecuted and pressed, it didn't matter where he went, people came to get baptized.

They went to the desert, they went to find him.

They look for him because there's a desperation in culture.

And the only solution and culture is Christ.

And all this was happening, and of course, the church started breaking off into smaller and smaller groups, scattered across the the scattered across the um the geography of that area.

And they got together and they said, What should we do?

And this is what they prayed, and I have this scripture on the screen.

They had two, there's two lines they came together for.

Acts chapter 4, verse 29 to 31, and this has been my word for this time, and the word that I felt God led me to share for you is that they prayed this.

Acts 4:29–31

They said, Lord, consider their threats.

How many of you know it's okay to pray and say, Lord, consider what people are saying against me?

Consider it.

Lord, you've got this.

Bookmark this.

This is an issue.

This is an issue, what they're trying to do.

And enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Stretch out your hand to heal.

Perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

That is the prayer.

Two sentences.

Father, Father, consider their threats.

Consider what they're saying.

Consider what they're doing.

And now, Lord, grant us boldness to speak.

Speak loud when there's gonna be people who are gonna keep you quiet and try and hush you up.

And don't wear your Jesus' king shirt.

That might be a problem.

Wear it proud.

Wear it proud.

Announce that Jesus is my Savior.

He saved me.

He's righteous.

Stand up for truth.

Stand up for what is right.

And let the church grow on the standard of righteousness, on the foundation of Christ.

Without Christ as our foundation, this is nothing.

This place is nothing.

Without Christ as our foundation, our songs are empty.

I've heard it.

I've heard the best of the best, and the songs just lay flat.

Come to church and you hear God in the presence, God in our midst.

Angels worship along with the church.

There's a wonder in the church.

Makes you wonder what's going on here.

I love it.

What is it?

And enable your people, enable, stretch out your hand, Lord, so that we can become your hand.

Heal, perform signs, wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

They prayed their prayer meeting was two lines long.

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was what?

Shaken.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they went out and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Father, we pray today.

Would you just agree with me in your heart today, in this moment, we will not be quiet.

We will stand and we will stand in boldness because of what you have done in our lives.

And Father, today, would you cement and solidify, Lord, what your spirit in us and Lord, that we would not see the world in fear, but we would see the world with faith.

That your through you, Father, people can be healed, people can walk in healing, people can experience life, people can be set free, cities can be filled with joy, and that things that were meant for evil will be turned around for good.

And we honor you today, Father.

We acknowledge you as the worker that works behind the scene.

We may not know what you're doing in the process, but Father, everything you do turns out for good.

Everything you do comes out for restoration and return to your glory.

And so, Father, today we acknowledge you and we give you praise.

And we stand in faith, Lord, knowing that we aren't alone, but that we're with that you're with us in the middle of it all.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I had to get that out today.

I had to get that out and build your faith because it's important that we walk today with a united spirit that says, you know, the church has always been under persecution.

If you haven't experienced it, I don't know where you've been.

But your faith, if you if you speak up, your faith will be under put under the microscope and will be put into pressure.

But you walk with God and and He will take those things and truth will always prevail.

Amen.

Today we're all we're uh speaking on the importance of God's house, not just being a big house, but like in the book of Acts, how the church moved from being like a big place like a place that was centered in Jerusalem.

5,000 people came to Christ one day, believed in Jesus, another 3,000 the next day.

The church began to grow so big and it was located, centralized in Jerusalem.

It needed to grow out to the different areas.

And the Holy Spirit came upon people and they got sent out and they started small churches everywhere they went.

The small church was really important.

A big church will inspire us, but small church, the place where you meet in small groups and in small communities, will transform you.

Jesus did both.

Connected to the 12.

One he called the one he loves the most, like John the beloved.

There's a little favoritism there.

But it's like he was like so close to John.

Early church met in big temple courts, big gatherings, but also met in met in homes.

Both are essential.

Would you say both are essential?

Yeah.

We need the big church for moments like this.

We need big church, but we also need the community.

We need smaller gatherings.

So Jesus modeled this.

Big church shows the greatness of God.

Small church shows the nearness of God.

Jesus modeled small church.

He didn't just speak to crowds.

It was in small locations where he spoke to people.

I think of it like a like a fire, a campfire.

You know, you can pull, if you want to diminish the campfire, you pull the coals out of that campfire and you spread them apart.

But when the coals are put together, all of a sudden they generate an exponential effect, an exponential heat.

So staying together is important.

Small church, it builds strong roots.

Encouragement, prayer, flourishing, like connecting with people on a personal level is so important to building strong roots.

I look at sports teams and I think, man, it's great to have like a great team made up of individual players, but what makes a difference is how those players interact with each other.

They say the power of a good sports team is in the locker room.

How they gel, how they connect, how they communicate, how they know one another and begin to work together.

Every big move of God will start small.

What do you say, small?

A lot of people don't like that word because the whole culture is saying, get bigger, grow bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger.

And the fact is that God will grow in you from a small place.

He will grow into you small and small experiences in small places.

Revival, in fact, never really started in cathedrals.

In fact, the first revival in Acts started in an upper room.

So don't underestimate living room ministry, upper room ministry, coffee, coffee bar ministry, out in the park ministry.

When you're just like a few of us are gathering together, what could happen with this?

Well, God uses living rooms.

God uses your kitchen table.

God uses you over a Zoom call with a handful of your people, looking eyeball to eyeball, checking in on one another.

God uses you.

So how do you do this?

How do you create these connections and what does a connect group look like?

So I'm going to take just a few minutes just to share.

Number one, we create community.

Would you say that?

Create community.

Create community.

We belong together.

We belong together.

Connect groups are uh and exist to create community at KCC.

They're our launching pad.

And so it's a a good way to define community is really the people that you're doing life with.

And we've had an adage over the years that said it's like we no one should do life alone.

We weren't created to be alone.

In fact, when God made man, he said it's good for man to not be alone.

We just imagine what happens when man is alone.

It's like, mom's coming home.

What were you doing?

All these things that happen when people are alone, that's when um that's when you just begin to distance yourself.

But being together in community is important.

It's important, the scripture says, because the people that you associate with, the people that you surround yourself with, will dictate the person that you're going to become.

And that's the truth.

You surround yourself with good people, the Bible says bad company will corrupt good morals.

Good company will lift you up, pull you up.

So surround yourself with good company.

And so we settle in our hearts every day that we're gonna do life together.

And we're gonna find that community, that connect group where we're going to do life together.

Connect group is where I have always lived my life.

I've always been a huge advocate of Kinect Group ministry.

It's not something I set up, it's not something I go to, it's a place where my faith becomes better, my life is better, my marriage gets better, my relationships get better when I'm connected to other people.

Commitment tends to last better when you're in a connect group.

When you're committed, there's accountability and there's a sense of like I'm not alone, I'm not going through life alone.

I've got people I can bounce things off of, people who know me, and I know them, and it allows me to get deeper and grow deeper in my faith.

Where really uh there comes a point where in my life, at times I've thought to myself, you know, I've kind of gotten uh, what is it, Eeyore, you know, from Winnie the Pooh, like, uh, nobody likes me, kind of like I'm all by myself and no one's there around me.

And you kind of get into that self-loathing point, and you start to make these insane thoughts or these insane thoughts come to mind, like I can do life alone.

I don't need other people.

Who else said that?

Just me?

I don't need anyone else, I'm okay by myself.

I'm I'm fine, and you know when you're saying that you're not fine.

I'm fine.

You sound fine, but you're not fine, and you find that place in your life where you have to adjust, and where else in the world can you be a part of building a community of people where the store where you where stories occur and life occurs in just in community that actually benefit you as an individual?

This last week um I was hiking, and I hike every week with a group of entrepreneurs that go to the top of Knox Mountain, and we just get it's a way for me to just to connect with the community, build relationships, and just hear stories.

And I get to the top of the hill, and one of the guys is there just sharing his story, and he talked about, you know, as part of his ministry, he loves to go to a uh go to a location and he he's telling everybody how he was a he's a barber, and so he sits someone in the chair and he begins to pray for them, and it's called Prayer in the Chair.

And I'm thinking, man, this guy's so cool.

Like, what's he doing?

He's got tattoos, you know, up his neck and like everywhere, and I'm like I'm like, this is kind of cool.

So I I go up to him afterwards, he's like, Pastor Brody.

And I was like, hey, he was at church on that Sunday, and uh he's telling me about my message, and I'm like, Yeah, that's awesome! And I'm thinking to myself, I know you, but I don't like how do you know so much about me?

And I find out he's like, Hey, I just got a text message from a guy uh from your church, just an encouraging word.

He just he showed me the text message, just built me up, and then another guy in my in our church sent him a message about like during a really rough time of his life in January where he was considering relapse and just said, Hey, I need a haircut, I need a haircut.

And the guy was he goes, I tried to ghost him so many times, but he just kept on going, I need a haircut, need a haircut until finally he said, Hey, what's going on?

And it he he engaged with him.

And then Norm sees him at the gym.

And if you know Norm, Norm's gonna like whip you into shape and kind of like help you find freedom and point you to Christ.

He says, and I'm telling you right now, I came to church, I love it, I'm I'm my life is turning around, I want to be a part of the church, and I'll tell you this: it all happened without me.

It was you reaching someone I barely knew.

But God used you to build community, to reach out, community reaching out to other people and making a difference in another person's life.

And I think it's so cool when I hear these stories of God doing all these things, gathering, community matters.

One of the guys in our church over the summer, he had a few, he had a few uh events at his house, and he just called it a meeting.

And it was just, I'll have a lot of meat there.

You can come.

And guys are super simple.

Girls, it would have to be tablecloths, candles, events, Facebook.

He he just sent out a text, meeting.

There will be meat.

And people like, I'm there.

And it's just like a gathering occurred, and a handful of guys just connected and sat around the table and just met together.

Connect groups are important.

Community is important.

You need to create community, and it means you have to step out sometimes and either put your community out there or look at your life and say, Who am I doing life with?

And gather together and solidify that for that purpose.

The reality is as we get larger, our church has to get smaller.

We have to grow smaller, we have to grow into smaller community.

That's where we're gonna find growth.

Acts 2.46 says every day they met together in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes, they ate together with glad and sincere hearts.

Acts 5.42, day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching, proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

Acts 2.20.

You know that I've not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you public and from house to house.

Home ministry is a really important ministry to be a part of.

I know why some people like big church.

Because you go into church, grab a coffee.

Hi, how are you?

Good, good, nice shoes.

And you look good, great, good week.

And then after service, as soon as the bell rings, you're out the door into your car.

And oh, I did my church thing, but you haven't built community, and you haven't built connection, and I'm challenging you on this because when the world moves, we need to be connected to one another, knowing each other.

Am I a part of a creating a healthy community?

Am I a part of a healthy community?

Real community isn't what you're doing, but who you're doing it with.

And that's the that's the the power of community.

When you're creating community, you create a crowd.

We should be contributing to the crowd.

Attending service on a Sunday is is wonderful.

It's important.

And in the middle of it all, I've seen some people swing the pendulum and they're like, Well, I'm now gonna be a part of a house church, and we're just gonna live in community with my few people and my little my my little uh group.

But the Bible says in Hebrews 4 24, let us consider how we may spur one another on towards good works.

And he says, How do we do this?

How do we spur one another towards good works by not giving up meeting together?

Verse 25, as some are in the habit of doing.

How do you spur one another to good works?

You gather together in a community, a big church, and you get challenged and you get spurred.

How many of you know what a spur is?

Come on, you can do a good thing.

Come on, you can do good.

Good works.

You get spurred on in the habit, but you encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching.

It's very, very important.

It's not up for debate.

Be a part of big church, create a community, create that crowd, be a part of the group that's like spurring each other on to do good things.

Thirdly, you create context.

Context.

Without context, a church can be very confusing.

In connect groups, you learn how to fill in the gaps.

Guys come to Kinnect groups sometimes to my Kinect group, and they've got questions.

You turn graves into gardens.

What does that mean?

Let's talk about it.

What does it mean?

Sounds very poetic.

What's this all about, the blood of the Lamb?

Kind of strange.

But if you don't have context, you're gonna be confused.

And for many of us who've grown in the church, we understand what it means.

And we pass over it really quickly, and we're like, man, God takes graves.

Even the martyr, the Bible says his the blood will speak up.

And at the end of the day, there'll be a crown.

You try and put them down, and God gives you a crown.

There's power in the grave.

God turns dead things and makes them alive again.

He takes dead lives and dead stories and your mess.

And he gives you a message and a testimony.

God is a good God.

You don't have to be afraid of bringing him your grave.

All I got is bones.

Nothing good.

I can work with that.

God says, I can work with that.

But I've got nothing perfect.

That's where I like to start.

That's perfect, don't you know?

I turned graves into gardens, and now you know.

Because there's context.

The other day I looked out the window last Sunday, and I see my neighbor in the middle of a rainstorm without shoes on, riding his bike, his electric bike in circles, with a phone on his ear.

And I'm watching and I'm thinking, what is wrong with this psycho outside?

He's kind of like he looks like a crazy person.

And I walk out there, I'm like, hey, are you okay?

Because I'm taking a scene from his life, which was quite comical, and I'm like, what's wrong?

He goes, my four-year-old and my wife are missing.

And all of a sudden, the story makes sense.

I got context to what he's saying.

So he's on the phone with people as he's like considering, do I ride after them down the street?

But what if they come home?

What if there's no one home?

And he's betwixt, and he's caught in here.

His four-year-old had just taken off down the street, and his wife was trying to catch up with them, and they ended up way down the street.

He didn't know where they were, and it just rainstorm, and they can't he can't find, and he was just he was caught.

A scene becomes their story.

If you only get one part of the church, if you only experience one piece of the church, you won't know the full story.

And so the church needs to use kinetic groups and use ministry to bring context and clarity to remove confusion and help people to grow.

It creates character.

Charisma gets the attention of man, but character gets the attention of God.

We're not building a relevant, cool church with lights and music and smoke and all the cool stuff.

We want to be cool.

It's awesome when you're cool, but I want to make a difference in the world.

And I want the fear of God to be here, and the presence of God to be here, and the spirit of God to be here, and I want the signs of God here.

So in the middle of it all, I want character.

Not surface, but character.

And so the scripture says in Proverbs 17, 17, iron sharpens iron, just like one person sharpens another person.

And so in our culture, there's a lot of surface conversations.

Those, how are you?

How's it going?

Surface conversations.

And the reality is we have to learn to ask different questions.

Have the trust.

And counselors say it takes three whys to get to the real issue.

How are you feeling?

Not too good.

Why?

Well, I was up late last night.

Why?

Well, I was watching Netflix.

Why?

Because I'm zoned out because I hate my life.

It's like, okay, let's get to the let's get deep.

But it requires a little bit of surface work.

And it's friction.

Because God wants, God has a purpose, and the purpose of friction is to get you sharper, and the purpose of you being sharper is so that you become a better, you more useful tool in his belt.

You get better.

So we want to be productive in our life.

Friction makes you lose some of the things that uh it will hinder your productivity.

And people don't like friction.

They lose, you lose stuff when you get sharpened.

Sometimes you lose sleep.

You lose your own like interest.

Like, well, I don't want to get up early to go to church on Sunday.

I give it up.

Give up my sleep, give up my time, give up my energy.

I'm friction, that's friction, that's sharpening me and making me better and making me more productive and making me a stronger person.

So that friction is there on purpose.

And the purpose of it is actually get you to become stronger and sharper in your life.

And I need to be sharp.

My family needs me sharp.

My my friends need me sharp.

I need to be there for them when the time comes and I get that 3 a.m.

phone call, I'm sharp.

Because, hey, I haven't just been binging out on Netflix, I've been in the Word because I got up and I've studied and I got to know Jesus and I've learned to hear his voice.

That when you need a word from God, I can say, Lord, would you give me a word from my friend?

And the Lord gives it to me because I know his voice.

That's the power of iron sharpening iron.

We challenge one another.

Iron sharpens iron just like one person sharpens another person.

We need people in our life to do that.

It's great to have my wife as my friction person, but I really need Bruce.

And I need Brian and I need friends who are there who will, with a tender, loving, hey, what are you doing?

Moment to sharpen me and make me better.

That's God.

I've got a few uh groups of uh just in closing here, and I'm gonna invite the team to come up.

We've got a base of small groups, but I want you to be a part of a small group.

I want everyone here to be a part of a small group.

Our goal is that every individual here becomes a part of a connect group where you're you're cre you're there's character being formed in you, there's that sense of confidence that's happening in you, all those things are coming to life in you.

And uh there's community, there's connection, all those things are happening in you.

And so I just want to share just a few of them here before we close.

If you go have a website, uh access to the web, kccgroups.ca, or part of our KCC website, there's an area there called Kinnect Groups.

But here's a few of the groups that are on the list.

We've got a 25 plus Kinnect group, and let's hear it for the 25 plus Kinnect group.

Yeah.

Look at those handsome and beautiful people there.

You be look at that beard.

That's a beautiful beard.

Rest in peace.

Rest in peace.

It's gone.

Let's take a moment of silence for the beard.

One of the guys in our youth group, he shaved his beard and for a Santa, like uh what do you call it, a hidden Santa or Secret Santa situation?

He actually framed his beard into a into a frame and gave it a Secret Santa.

It's still hanging up in the youth office if you want to see it, so it's there.

We have evening ladies group.

Let's hear it for the evening ladies group.

Yeah, we got foundations class.

Foundations class is just coming along strong.

We got Bruce and Brian.

Brian, your head is just poking over that.

We need to.

We got KCC men's group.

KCC men's group with Rob.

Come on, let's hear from Rob.

And we got a new group that's starting La Mesa Comunidad Latina.

That's Espanol.

For all of you, it means the table.

And isn't that beautiful?

The table.

So I assume there's gonna be some food in there.

Is that right, Josh?

Yes, there will be some food.

Ladies' Bible study in the mornings.

Let's hear it for Katie.

Thank you, Katie.

Ladies, uh, let's get to know God.

Uh, let's hear.

Oh, yes, that's so great.

Legacy Luncheon, 55 Plus.

Let's hear it from 55 Plusers.

Men's Business and Entrepreneur.

That's look at that handsome guy up there.

We we got Mumwok.

Let's hear the for the Mumwak.

Uh, we got pickleball.

I'm seeing back there.

Pickleball with Justin.

Come on, Justin.

Prayer and Bible study group.

This one is just crushing.

Let's go.

Prayer and Bible study group.

Soup for Metro.

What a great ministry to serve our city.

And then wholehearted parenting, whole-hearted parenting with Daniel and with the Keith family.

That's awesome.

So we've got, you know, he's too tall.

Is he almost like off the screen there?

Um, we've got great groups.

This is just our base.

If you've got a group that you'd like to start, we're welcoming you to start a group.

If you haven't got a group to start and you want to join, come join one of these groups.

We want to see everybody in a group.

Everyone needs someone.

We don't do life alone.

Amen.

Will you stand with me today?

Father, we thank you for your word.

Thank you for your word.

Father, you create community in us.

It started with you first.

It was your desire to be in our heart.

Create a community, create context in our life.

You put people around us to help us.

You've given us a crowd so that we don't feel alone, and where we can be challenged and spurred on to do good works.

And you create that character in our life that will help us move forward sharper and better as we grow.

And Lord, we thank you for everybody here today.

If you're here today, and I know the service has had lots of points, but in the middle of it all, you're just sensing God has been pulling on your heart.

I do not want to let a moment go by where it doesn't, there isn't an opportunity for you to accept this free gift of salvation that comes through Jesus.

Amen.

If you're here today, you haven't received Jesus, and you're feeling in your heart today, every head bow and eyes closed between you and God, and that's you, and you're saying, I want to receive Jesus Christ.

I want to turn from my sin.

I want to turn from darkness, turn to light, find that freedom that is proven to set others free and can set me free.

The blood of Jesus that that breaks his blood, broke the chains, and provides freedom and life eternal for you.

The only way to the Father is through Jesus.

He's the way, the truth, and the life.

You want to receive Him today to your life and start and begin that relationship with Him today.

Would you just raise your hand?

Anyone here today?

Raise your hand nice and tall.

I see that hand.

I see it.

Anyone else here today?

We've got a few in the room today.

Amen.

Would you just pray along with me, everybody together?

Say, I accept the free gift of salvation.

I believe, Jesus, that you died on the cross, and I confess today that you are my Lord.

I ask for forgiveness of my sin.

And I trust today that a new life will be birthed in me, making me a new person, giving me a new heart, giving me a new mind, and experience full salvation.

Thank you for that gift.

I receive your grace.

I receive your mercy in Jesus' name.

And let's all celebrate together for those who made that commitment today.

Amen.