Pastor Brodie Kalamen | Lost in Translation | April 18th, 2021

Welcome to KCC Church Online.

So glad to have you joining with us.

Thank you for joining us from our Lake Country campus.

Thank you for joining us from your home, wherever, wherever you may be, if it's on one of our churches on the mission field, we're so glad to have you with us today.

Now, I'm passionate about the church.

I continue to grow in my passion about the church.

The more I learn about the church, the more I am impressed and excited about where the church is going.

And I just believe that that same spirit needs to rest in all of us.

It was in Jesus.

Jesus was passionate about the church.

In fact, he said, Matthew 16, 18, he said, I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And what I love about that scripture is how personal he made that declaration.

He said, It's my church, and I'm going to build it, and I'm going to invest myself into the church.

And the church is going to make an eternal difference in its community, in the people that are connected to it, in the world at large.

We believe the church is there to make a difference.

And so all of us need to make that message personal.

We're building the church, we're joining together.

This isn't just a routine.

This isn't just a good habit.

This is something that we're a part of that makes a difference.

So Ephesians actually says that it's the manifest wisdom of God that gets communicated through the church, that God is going to use it to tear down barriers.

Any of the barriers that we see in the world today, God is going to use the church to be a part at tearing down those barriers.

So it's great you joined us today.

Great you're a part of the church.

I believe in this season, God is just setting the church up.

And we're not getting set back, we're being set up for where God wants to take us.

So we've launched a new series.

This is after Easter and after our what's next message.

For all those who have kind of onboarded to the church, we're starting this new series and we've entitled it Lost in Translation.

And we're going to address some of the elements of our faith, some of the elements that have been lost over time, lost through culture, lost through media, but are still so vibrantly important to our faith.

And if we're going to focus on personal growth and if we're going to focus on spiritual growth, then we need to address these areas.

We can't just skip over parts of our faith because they are either uncomfortable or they're either they've either been misconstrued by people in the world or the media online.

We want to address the valuable parts of our faith and ensure that we're actually imbibing these values, imbibing this message that Jesus shared to help us grow.

So we believe the church should be enjoyed and not just simply endured.

And you can enjoy, you can enjoy your relationship with God.

And it's so important that we enjoy our relationship with Him.

And we believe we can be passionate about the church.

And we believe we can be passionate about coming to church.

We believe that there's the church is a powerful church.

And we believe that even though we're in this virtual distance between people here, we believe God can minister healing.

Where you are at, God can reach you, God can transform you.

God can can make a difference in your life, even in this space right now.

But we do believe that the church and the message of this gospel has power.

So our model here at KCC, and this is on Sunday mornings, is generally to cast out a big net, reach as many people as possible with our message.

But oftentimes, if you want to grow deeper, it's going to require a personal discipline, a personal decision to go ahead and dig a little deeper.

And oftentimes that means gathering people around you, people that trust you, that you trust, people who you know, people who care about you, people who may know a little bit more and be able to see blind spots in your life to help you grow.

And what I'd like to do today is take us a little deeper.

And some of these messages are going to take us deeper into the word, take us deeper into a personal place.

And I'm inviting you all just not to shrink back, but to step in and to step up and to actually lean into this message because this message makes a difference.

And we've been separated for a long time here in British Columbia, and we've been separated physically, but this message allows us to gather together.

And especially if you're continuing in our connect groups, phone calls, and messages to each other, and Zoom meetings and virtual meetings, we can continue to grow together.

So the message today that I'd like to share with you is simply called the tree of life.

And we're going to start from the very beginning.

I'd like to talk to you about the choices that God puts in front of you that might not be as clear as you thought in your mind.

As we oftentimes drift into a way of thinking or a viewpoint or perspective in life that comes naturally to us, either because of our environment or where we were raised or how we were raised.

And we develop a brand of our faith, a brand of Christianity.

And this brand of Christianity propagates a way we uh live, a lifestyle that we live out our faith.

And it may not be as different as you think.

In terms of it's there's slight subtle similarities to the way you you express your faith and the way God intended for us to express our faith.

I had an example uh a number of years ago, like 20 plus years ago, I made a decision to step out and invite one of my friends to church.

And he had never been at church.

He was simply unchurched.

And I'd been going to university at the time, and so I said, Hey, why don't you come to church with me?

And I grown up in the church, front row.

Uh I sat on, you know, went to two services on Sundays and slept under the seats on Sunday evenings during the prayer meetings.

This was a life that was familiar to me.

But when I invited him to church, he he came to the to the front doors.

I greeted him at the front, and I was so surprised because he came with literally a suit.

And it was more than a suit.

I don't know where he got it, but it was like a tuxedo.

He had a cumber bun.

If you know what a cumber bun is, it you may have to look it up for some of those of you who are listening today.

But a cumber bun and a bow tie, and we're not talking about the like really edgy, in-style little bow ties that people wear today.

I'm talking about a bow tie, a big bow tie.

And he came in and he thought he was significantly overdressed for our church community.

Like I'm I'm dressed casual, I'm dressed uh comfortable.

Uh, but he came in over the top.

Something you go to, like a wedding at the day in the day.

And uh he came in and I had I made him feel comfortable.

It didn't change anything.

He we joked about it, and he took the jacket off and the bow tie off, and he just enjoyed the service.

But there was an idea that he had that he needed to come to church and that God was only going to accept him if he came, and the people of the church were only going to accept him, if he came dressed a certain way, if he gave out a certain impression.

And we laugh about it today, but at that point in time, that was a critical piece of his perspective on church that was defining whether or not he takes that first step coming through those front doors.

Christianity has a branding problem.

And there are two different approaches that I'd like to talk to you about today, and one of them is a healthy approach, and the other is an unhealthy approach, and it's not related to a denomination, it's just related to a worldview or a perspective, and it will it, depending upon that perspective, will uh decide whether or not you love it or you hate it.

So, what had happened?

Many people bought into a wrong approach.

And the question for you today is what approach are you buying into?

Uh, what is going to be your approach to God?

What is going to be your filter?

What is going to be your worldview?

What is going to be your mindset as you're trying to go after God?

And my personal belief is that uh everyone is on a journey to find God.

And everyone is on a journey to fill that void that's in their heart.

And you can even say, well, what about the atheists?

No, they're not on that journey.

I even believe atheists are on that journey.

I believe they're on that journey because they were created in the image of God.

And as people are created in the image of God, there is a uh a vacancy in their heart, and there is a part of them that is reaching out to find that missing piece.

And the only place it will be found is in God.

So, what will your approach be?

I'm gonna share with you a little bit of theology.

Uh, we're gonna go to the scripture, we're gonna dig a little deeper in this first story, or second story in the Bible.

Uh, the first story is the story of creation, and uh as many people have read the scripture, I'm sure you all know that you know God created the earth and he created man and he created woman, and I believe today that that's your first story too, that you have been created.

But the second story is a story that I believe is your story too, and it's there on purpose, and uh, and it's a story that God uses a picture that was literal and teaches us a lesson.

So I'm gonna read it in Genesis chapter 2, verse 8 and 9.

Genesis 2:8

It says, Now the Lord God planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed.

And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

And I just want to tell you today that that is the way God intended for us to live.

He gave us good things, things that are pleasing to us, please things that will uh be good in our heart, good for our soul, good for our spirit, things that we can enjoy.

But in the middle of the garden was the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There were two trees.

And this is where oftentimes we get a little lost in translation, in that many people see the trees as a God tree and a sin tree.

And we look back at our little cartoon Bibles, and we see Eve holding an apple, and she took a bite out of this apple, and we don't, and we think of it that God tree or sin tree, and and it's not like that.

There was no apple, there was no God tree and sentry, there was a tree of life, and there was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And and if you notice, it was the knowledge of even good things, and there was a tree that had even good things on it, and things that in your life you might even think that you're pursuing that are good, but aren't the things that God wants you to pursue.

They aren't life-giving.

And we're gonna talk about this distinction today because it makes a difference in our life.

So God said, you can literally eat from any tree.

Go in the garden, enjoy it, uh, tend it, enjoy the place that I put you.

And the word eat means literally to consume, to digest, and allow it to become your worldview.

He said, eat from these trees.

They're really good for you, they'll bring life to you, but don't eat from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Because if you do, if you eat of it, you're going to die.

You're going to live your life and realize, man, I hate God.

I'm good, there's going to be a barrier placed up and a mindset and a view of God that you just begin to despise.

And it's not like a physical death when God talks about this death.

It means like there's a spiritual death.

You won't approach God the way you need to approach God in order for there to be life to experience that life.

So, in other words, you'll say, Man, I hate, I hate this, this, I hate God, I hate other Christians, I hate the community that I'm in.

Everything I see is awful.

Everything I see doesn't line up the way I feel it should line up, and you'll just throw in the towel and give up.

So, of course, in this next story, chapter 3, enters the devil.

And the third story of the Bible, and I believe that's our story as well.

The first story being God created you.

The second story, he gives you a choice between life and the knowledge of good and evil.

And the third story is this story where you encounter an enemy.

And this enemy comes to make and help you make the wrong choice.

And you have to realize that there is a spiritual adversary.

There's someone who doesn't want you to make the right choice.

In this battle of the choice was this serpent.

And the serpent came, and the scripture says he was the craftiest of all the animals.

And he was chapter 3, verse 1 says this.

And he said to the woman, this, remember, he's crafty.

Did God really say, There's a question, you must not eat from the tree, this tr any tree in the garden?

And it's interesting how the devil operated.

He'll always cause you to question God's word, because if he can cause you to question God's word, he can get you to doubt God's word.

If he can get you to doubt God's word, he can divide you from God Himself.

And there's this confusion that enters into the heart.

And this is what had happened with Eve when she encountered this crafty serpent.

And it's what it happens with us in life as we're facing these two choices: life, the knowledge of the truth of good and evil.

What choice will you make?

Can you will you uh make the choice that God has told you to choose, or will you choose make your own choice?

And you notice how um this doubt entered into uh Eve.

And doubt is this this very important uh part of the process is that it's not a sin to doubt.

It's not a sin to have doubts, uh, but it's a sin to uh to feed that doubt and allow that doubt to divide you, and allow that doubt to create mis distrust between you and the one who loves you.

And it'd just be like that doubt.

If I begin to doubt my wife and I begin to doubt her love for me, it can divide me in my relationship with him until a point where I'm just divorced from her.

And so I have to go back and restore the doubt.

And I have to go, why am I doubting?

Am I hungry?

Am I angry?

Am I lonely?

Am I tired?

I don't want to live in a space of doubt.

I want to be reassured.

And that's why we always come to God when we fellowship together.

We want to walk in worship with God and allow God to remove our doubt so that we can walk in faith, trusting in who he is and what he's done, so that we can move forward.

And I don't want to drift, but we have this enemy that's saying, drift, drift.

And our enemy wants to keep us from making this right choice.

And he'll always say, Did God really say that?

And the woman said, Well, God did say we can eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden, but instead of the only one we were supposed to avoid was the one that was at the center.

And the devil's a liar.

And Jesus even said, Beware of him.

And he'll come in and he's the accuser of the brethren.

And he's come to rob, kill, steal, destroy from you the life that he's intended for you.

But it's God who brings life and life eternal.

So anything the enemy wants to do, he's doing to rob you of life.

And he he went to Eve and he said in verse 4 and 5 of Genesis chapter 3, you won't die.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Certainly you won't die.

Come on, Eve.

And the serpent said to her, God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God and you'll know good and evil.

And I don't believe he uh you know he tried to sell her on the evil side, he said, you know, go ahead and eat from the tree and you'll become evil.

Instead, he appealed to her good side, said you you want to be a good girl, right?

Go ahead.

If you do this, you'll actually become like him, and you'll know good and evil, and you'll be like him.

And he seduced her and he manipulated her, and he he twisted her words and confused her until the point where she decided to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then pass it on to her husband, uh uh Adam, and they they lost that relationship with God.

He was appealing to her desire for godliness, and he wasn't appealing to her desire for sin.

And that's why a lot of people in their desire to be godly often miss out.

And Genesis chapter 3, verse 6 and 7 says, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom, she took it, she ate it, she gave some to her husband who was with her, he ate it, and then the eyes of both of them were opened.

Genesis 3:6

They realized that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The response that you're living from the wrong tree is that number one, you lose your innocence, you all of a sudden your eyes are open to what you've done, and then you walk in shame.

And that's why they sewed fig leaves together and they covered themselves and and they were ashamed for what they did.

And so I want to share with you today this distinction between the tree of life, where God says you can live from it, you can you can live in it, you can be blessed by it, and the distinction between the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And I find that sometimes we we find ourselves swinging from tree to tree, and we find ourselves doing things but out of the wrong intent.

The first distinction is from the tree of good and evil is that if you're eating from it, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're convinced that you're always going to have to do more.

More.

And this is a distinction from people living from that tree.

There's always a more.

You've got to do more.

Even though you're religious, even though you think you're religious, um, you begin to compare, you begin to compete, you begin to operate from the place of more.

How much have you memorized from the Bible?

How well are you keeping the rules?

There's always more.

More.

And the idea that you do more is this conclusion that if you do more, you'll become more godly.

You'll become more like God.

And you see people who are living from that place of performance.

They're living from that position of doing more.

And the tree of life, though, says the opposite.

It says you can receive the fact that Jesus did it all.

And that you don't have to do anything more.

And you don't have to do anything more to receive salvation.

In fact, it's a free gift of God to receive it.

And that's why Jesus battled so much with the Pharisees.

Now, it wasn't that they were bad people.

They were actually trying to do good by keeping the laws, by keeping the rules.

They memorized the scripture, books and books and books of the Bible, raised since they were little children to keep the laws, to keep the rules, to do what they felt was right, to do good.

But in doing good, they missed it all.

And Jesus even said to them, He said, You're diligently studying the scripture, you're diligently doing what you think you're supposed to do to try and be smart, but you're missing the way to eternal life.

Because you're missing the one who's standing right in front of you.

You're missing the point.

And that's what he said about the Pharisees, and it's still a lot of the spirit and the brand of Christianity today that says, hey, if we do more, then God will love us more and God will be impressed with us more.

And that's living from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not from the tree of life.

If you're living from the tree of life, you can walk free.

You can walk in freedom.

And that's where we want to be walking from.

We want to be living from that tree of life where we just lean in on a relationship with God and experience that freedom.

Secondly, God, there's this view from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God is always mad.

God is always looking out, and he's got a pointed finger after you, and that you need to get God's approval because if you don't get his approval, he's going to be angry with you.

And again, it's a performance-based response to God.

And we see this mad God, and people are walking the streets every day, and they're scared at points of actually coming into a church because they think if I come to the church, you know what's going to happen?

A lightning bolt's going to come down and hit me.

I'm going to fry.

I can't go to church.

Look what I've done.

I remember I would ask people again in university, hey, why don't you come to church?

And I remember Thursday Thursdays were Thirsty Thursdays at the university pub.

And on Fridays, of course, class people were a little slow to get to class.

And they'd sit down and you'd want to make an invitation, hey, why don't you come out this weekend?

Why don't you come to church this weekend?

And they're just living off the memories of the night before, and they're like, no way, I can't get to church.

You know, no one would like me.

God doesn't like me.

I'm just committed to this life that I have to live right now.

And I had to work at overcoming this view where people are living from that tree, always seeing that God is angry.

And I think about that, and I think how disappointing that is, that they see a faceless, emotionless God that's massive, sitting on a throne in heaven, waiting to throw a lightning bolt.

Instead of finding that there's a God from the tree of life, you realize that there's a God who loves you and cares for you.

And the scripture says that even though you were still a sinner, Jesus came.

God sent his son to die for you.

And it wasn't the kind of scenario that, hey, when Jesus is laying on the cross and they've got a hammer in the air and a nail on his hand, he's like, oh, hold on one minute.

You know, will they love me?

No, he went through it.

He endured the cross because he looked at the sinner.

He looked at those who had lost their way, those who were living in mud, stuck in the mud.

And he knew that this was the only way to pull them out and put their feet on solid ground.

He knew it was they were caught in quicksand, and he knew that this was the way to rescue people.

There was a joy that was set before him.

And when you live from the tree of life, you're living from that place of joy.

Thirdly, you have a focus on the external.

When you're living from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're thinking about the external, not the internal.

And you need to put on the right clothes, use the right words, go to the right places, hang out with the right people.

Everything is about the external.

And it is the distinction between the Old Testament before Jesus and the New Testament was that in the Old Testament, the Bible says that it was an external law.

They had the commandments were written on tablets of stone.

But in the New Testament, Jesus said, I'm going to write my commandments on the heart.

It's going to be in you.

It's going to be a part of you.

And you're not going to have to look at, you know, I'm going to use fishermen.

I'm going to use tax collectors.

I'm going to use people who are uneducated.

I'm going to use people who may not have it all together, but I'm going to use you because I value you.

And it's about what was inside, not what was on the outside.

Christians can sometimes be mean Christians.

And I've, like I said, I've grown up in the church and I've met a lot of people who are just validate people based on an external impression.

I remember, you know, people having to remove their hat and people coming from the outside coming in and they're smelling like smoke, or they've been doing the things that they were doing over the weekend, and they stagger into the church, and some people, you know, throw in a scowl and just having to affirm people that, hey, you belong here.

This is a place for you.

And you're welcome to be here.

And it's important that we pursue that approach to God.

We don't operate out of duty.

And if you operate out of duty, going to church, you'll just hate it.

Having to get up every Sunday, having to go to church, having to be with people, having to connect in small groups, having to do all these things, you'll hate it.

But when you realize that you truly are loved and that God loves you, and it becomes an internal transformation, then you get to come.

You get to be involved.

You get to give.

We give to missions because we realize, hey, God has done so much in us, we need others to experience this as well.

It becomes an internal transformation that happens in our lives.

So we want to move from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we want to move to a tree and live in this tree of life.

And sometimes we drift into that space and we need to move out of it and move forward.

So how do we do that?

How do we live from the tree of life?

Number one, and three points here.

Number one, you fall in love with Jesus.

Fall in love with Jesus.

And I know that's easy to say, and you may say, oh, that's not a simple process, but uh when you start to realize what Jesus has done, and you start to welcome the free gift of a relationship with the Father and a relationship with Jesus, and you start to engage in prayer and engage in fellowship, you start to develop that relationship and that and you start to experience that love that is like a refreshing, a refreshment.

It comes and refreshes your soul, and that love is there for us, and you start to realize that he's your friend and you can talk to him every day.

And and um when you say when you when you see that you you or when I say that, you don't have to shirk or back away.

Instead, you be can begin to step in.

And I grew up, you know, when I remember hearing if you the the scripture verse says, if you love me, you'll obey me.

And what I used to think is, hey, God is God is looking like if I if I'm to watch, if I'm obedient, then then He'll love me.

I gotta keep the rules, I gotta keep all this stuff.

And and what I've come to realize later on in life is that Jesus was actually saying, hey, if you love me, it will just flow out of you.

Obedience will come out of you.

You'll do what I command, you'll obey my commandments, you'll do it out of a nature in you that's authentic.

You won't want to do anything else.

You'll just you'll just do what's right because you love what's right.

And you begin to think and feel and love the way God intended us for love to love.

Like I don't, I don't cheat on my wife because the the it said in the Ten Commandments, I you should not commit adultery.

No, I've developed a relationship with my wife, and then I don't want anyone else other than my wife.

I don't want a relationship with anyone as close as I want that relationship with my wife because I think she's pretty awesome, and I want to stay with her, and I want to be with her, and I want to share my life with her.

That's the the joy in that.

Fall in love with Jesus, and you'll live from that tree of life.

Number two, you respond to all sin with life.

You're gonna sin, and others are gonna sin, and you're gonna fall into that other tree, and your response is gonna have to uh be the um response that you have uh will determine which tree you're actually living in.

And so when you sin or when you see other people sin, how are you responding?

Are you responding like Jesus responded?

Like, what would Jesus do in this situation?

Would he tell that person, stay down, like he said to the woman who was caught in adultery, stay down.

You need to deal with the punishment for what you did, and it's gonna be difficult, and you're gonna experience pain and isolation and perhaps even death.

He said those things.

No, he didn't.

He said, after he without saying a word, the the first words he said was was get up.

Where are your accusers?

I don't accuse you.

Now get up and don't sin anymore.

Don't go back to that way of life, don't go back to that place.

God wasn't Jesus wasn't pointing his finger at her, he wasn't wagging his his finger at her.

He said, He said, Don't go back to that way of life.

I I'm not gonna accuse you.

I want you to stand up and just don't go back, repent where you were and start making a different choice to live your life differently.

Now, did she need healing?

Did she need perhaps some people around her to help her make those choices for her future?

Definitely, I'm sure of it.

But at that moment of time, he didn't respond that way.

And it's the truth here at KCC that we want to respond with truth, and especially as we enter into this next uh season that the culture has been shifted into right now, we're gonna stand on truth and we're gonna stand on God's word, and we're not going to back off one bit.

But when we approach people, we're gonna approach with an invitation of grace.

Because if there's an invitation of grace and and we invite people to be free, then the truth will actually set them free.

And so that grace goes first, and then we walk like Jesus, who is full of grace and truth, offering grace and offering truth, but we extend a hand and an invitation of grace.

Lastly, we guard our heart from going back.

And what's incredible about these two trees in the garden is that they were side by side.

There's a tree of life, and there's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And there are times in our life where I just I find myself drifting, and I find myself thinking about life and things that I used to enjoy, things that I used to find pleasure in, things that I used to be excited about.

Now I start to feel the weight and the burden and the agony of having to do, and I realize that I'm drawing from the wrong tree, and I realize I've drifted to a different tree where I'm trying to live from performance, I'm trying to live from approval from others and not from God.

And so I want to live from that tree of life.

C.S.

Lewis said it this way: He said, human history is the long, terrible story of a man trying to find something other than God to make him happy.

And we do that.

We search and search and search for people for something that will make us happy.

And I believe, and I believe that that third story in the scripture is your story.

The first story, God created you.

The second story, he gives you a choice.

Choose this day who you will serve.

Will you choose life?

Will you choose death?

Will you choose the tree of life?

Will you choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Will you run on your own and just try and do it on your own?

And in and I'm saying to us today, I'm saying to KC C, I'm saying to all you who are listening, choose life.

Choose life today.

Uh we're in a season right now where there's a lot of there's a lot of challenge.

And I make phone calls each week to our church community and I meet with other people from our community.

And one of the uh incredible um base base points of concern right now is the issue of freedom.

Is the issue of personal freedom, religious freedom, uh the parent, the ability to parent your children, the ability to teach your children, the ability to raise families and the ability to travel, the freedom to move, the freedom to express your own thought, the freedom of your own conscience, conscience.

All these freedoms are being challenged right now.

And and if you're not careful, you begin to look to your own to your own objective.

You go to the other tree and you say, I'm just gonna press in, I'm gonna push, and I'm gonna argue, and I'm gonna contend, and I'm gonna comment, and I'm gonna fight back through my own will.

And I believe God's challenging us at KCC, and and I just extend this challenge to you is to live your life from the tree of life and just focus on going deep with God.

Focus on relating to him, focus on being finding your ministry from him, being ministered to from him.

Don't go to Facebook, don't go to Instagram, don't go to the news channels or the media, wherever you go.

Just allow the word of God to refresh you.

There was a Gallup poll last 2020, and it said that everybody, their mental health depreciated.

And it didn't matter where you were from, uh, it didn't matter what political parties you were a part of, what um age bracket you were, what demographic you were came from, what your history was, what your um, it didn't matter any of those things.

Any of those dynamics didn't change.

There was only one group of people who their mental health uh increased, and that were people who had a relationship, a regular, uh persistent relationship with Jesus Christ.

And they were people of faith, and they were people who gathered together, they connected together despite the situation, despite health orders, despite they they found ways to connect, they found ways to encourage themselves in their faith.

And um they found out, and we don't have to like we knew this from the beginning because we know that he who has a son has life.

And because we have the son, we have life.

So we live from that tree of life.

And I'm challenging you today, live from the tree of life.

Don't be, don't be manipulated, don't be deceived, don't be tricked by the enemy.

That there's another way that will produce life.

Just live from our relationship with Jesus and live in the freedom that He gives us.

So if you're listening today and you're saying, I've been living from that place, I'm gonna pray with you, and I just want you to embrace this message today, make it personal, make it for your family, make it uh a milestone in your home today that I'm gonna make a change.

So would you bow your heads with me?

Would you pray along with me?

And let's pray together.

Father, I thank you for everyone who's listening, and I thank you that you've given us a choice.

You didn't uh you didn't pressure one or the other, you just said you've got a choice.

Choose life.

I encourage you, choose life.

And so today, Father, we choose from this tree of life.

We choose to live from this place of life, and we ask that uh our hearts would become refreshed with your with your word that we would return back to you, we would return to our first love, we would reject uh any of our own um ambitions and plans and external uh attempts to try and find life, but we would so we would so deeply connect with you.

And Father, we just I ask for each one, listening, that they would experience your presence in their home, in their space, that they would come to know you in a in a deeper and brighter way, even in this moment, that their eyes would become full, and that uh any of the deception, the scales from their eyes would fall off, and that they would see the life that you've presented in front of them.

And we reject the enemy's plan over the lives of our people that would be robbing, killing, stealing, destroying.

Anyone who may be uh listening today, if they've been walking in that walk, Lord, set them free in the name of Jesus.

Set them free to experience all you have for them.

We ask in Jesus' name.

And for anyone here today who may be listening and you want to take that first step on this journey of faith, would you just acknowledge Jesus right now and place your hand on your heart if you've never done that before and you want to welcome him into your life to start that journey?

Would you do that and just pray this prayer along with me?

Jesus, I thank you for laying your life down for me.

I thank you for paying the penalty for my sins and giving me a fresh start.

I accept you today as my Lord, my savior.

I believe that you died, that you also rose again, and now you you've given me the power over death and the power over uh over sin, and you've given me a new life, and I receive it today, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you today.

Thank you for joining us online.

Go ahead and share this message and join with us in the comments and share on our connection cards.

We want to be able to hear from you.

If you made a decision today, or if you're taking that next step, we want to be a part of it.

God bless you.