Pastor Brodie Kalamen | What's Next? |April 11th, 2021

I'd like to welcome all those of you who are joining us online today from our campus church out in Lake Country and Kelowna.

To those who are watching from the mission field, we're so glad to have you joining with us today.

After Easter, we look forward to celebrating spring.

It really is that kickoff opportunity, and we'd like to share with you a fresh vision.

Fresh vision.

And this is where clarity comes in of what God has for you and for your family, for your life, for the church.

And we like to bring this clarity.

And clarity is so important to vision.

Vision is really simple, it is actually all about clarity.

It's so that you can actually see clearly what's in front of you, what you're moving into, the obstacles that you're going to approach, what steps you need to take.

We need to have this vision.

And in a world where everything is really complicated right now and it's really uncertain, vision is even that much more important.

So many things are not clear.

And one of the most important things that God gives us is a vision for our lives, for our family, for our church, for our future.

God gives us this vision because it brings stability, it brings confidence, it brings us clarity when we're moving forward.

I would like to see the step I'm taking before I take that step.

And God says He will become that light into our path for us so that we don't stumble, we don't fall, but we're confident in the steps that we're taking.

The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 18, that without vision, people perish.

And the New International Version said it this way: where there is no clear vision and revelation for your life, people will cast off restraint.

In other words, if you don't have a vision for your life, you won't think it matters.

And it does.

It matters a whole lot.

For some of you here today, this message is going to be a reminder to you that God has not just a plan for your life, but a wonderful plan for your life.

A plan that will bring you real fulfillment, real joy, real excitement when you sink your teeth in and you go all in.

So we're just going to get started today, and I'm going to follow up from our Easter service for all those who are joining, and we were able to invite to this service today.

Thank you for coming and enjoy it with us.

Now, literally, the Bible, God's word to us from cover to cover, shows how God has specific steps for us to take in our journey with Him.

And there are four things, particularly what God wants from you.

And we call them the four steps of the spiritual journey.

The first one is that God wants you to be in a relationship with Him.

Secondly, He wants you to settle the issues of your life and the issues particularly from the past.

Thirdly, He wants you to find out what your life is all about.

And lastly, He wants to take the gifts and the talents that He's placed in your life and allow and release you into the world and allow you to exercise those gifts to make an eternal difference in the world that you're living in.

So at KCC, we say it this way: and if you come into our lobby, you see a big board out in the lobby, and it says, we want each person who comes to KCC to know God, to find freedom, to discover their purpose, and to make an eternal difference.

And this is on the wall because we want everyone to know this.

So all of those points, all of those steps hinge on the first primary point, and that is to know God.

So that's where we're going to start with today.

We want everyone to know God.

Now, what does this mean?

Knowing God is more than knowing Him in your head, it's knowing Him intimately in your heart.

And it means having more than just a religious relationship or a religious experience with God.

It's about having a real relationship with Him.

And this first part is so important because all the other steps of the journey are built on this foundation that you know God.

And knowing God is that first leap of faith that we all have had to take.

And for some of you who are listening today, you may have not taken that leap quite yet.

We're going to give you an opportunity to do that at the end of this message.

But for many of you, you've taken that leap.

And it's such a great story that each person that I've heard who's taken that step has to share.

But 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 21 says this.

1 Timothy 6:21

Some people have missed the most important step in life.

They do not know God.

Knowing God is that first step, and we know how important a first step is.

The first step of a child, the first step into that job that you're taking, into that relationship you're pursuing.

The first, most important step in life is knowing God.

And we don't want to miss out on this most important step.

It's not only the most important step for your life, but it's the most important function for the church and for Kelowna Christian Center.

We want people to know God.

And as a church family, I think it's important that you know that we value that.

And so we value it through our giving, we value it through our serving.

We value it by the prayers that we pray.

We pray for people that they might know God.

We pray that we might know God in a deeper way.

Each week we're going to share this message so that people outside of the church walls will come to know God.

Knowing God is so important.

And we're compelled, we're compelled to share this message.

And we're compelled to share that Jesus is the way and the only way to God.

This message is so important because so many people are trying to find salvation on their own.

They're trying to find it in their own efforts and in their own work.

And we are there to share with them that it's only through Jesus.

Jesus did all the work, especially the week right now after Easter.

We're just reminded of it so vividly that there was nothing that we could have done to save ourselves from the weight of sin.

But Jesus came and did the work for us.

And so we lean on him completely.

We lean on Jesus.

Acts chapter 12, verse 14 says, salvation is found in no one else.

Acts 12:14

No one else, for there's no other name under heaven or earth given to mankind by which we must be saved.

In that it's the name of Jesus, only through Jesus.

And that's why we spend our time right now, even in these very challenging cultural situations that we're in, we're spending our time pushing the message out, pressing others that they might to hear the message so that they can know this message.

If it's people who are far from God, or if it's people who have been in the church for many years, we need to encourage that relationship.

And so in this environment, we're doing it by creating interactive approaches for you as parents, for you with your kids in teaching and providing resources and tools to be instructors in your home.

We're providing junior and senior youth services for grade six through 12 each week so that they might come to know God.

And we have support groups and small groups where we're supporting and building campuses outside of Kelowna, the city of Kelowna, where supporting missionaries so that others might come to know God.

And even as you're listening right now through a virtual experience, an online experience, this message is going all over the world so that people can come to know God.

If you've never given your life to Christ, like I said earlier, we're going to give that opportunity because that first step of knowing God is the basis of every other step that we're going to take.

Now, many of you have made that decision to follow Christ.

And some of you have made that decision in the most recent weeks or months, perhaps even last week you made that decision.

And I should let you know that that next step in your journey is to go public with your faith.

And the way we go public with our faith is we do what Jesus did.

We follow the example of Jesus, and that is through water baptism.

And baptism demonstrates that change that occurs in your life.

And baptisms are some of my most celebrated services in terms of KCC that in my memory that I can remember, when we see people go in as the old under the water, and they come up as new, and the excitement and the declaration from their heart of what Jesus has done, and as we hear their story, it just makes a difference for everyone hearing.

1 Peter chapter 3, 21 says, in baptism, we show that we've been saved from death by the resurrection of Christ.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

And it's baptism is not because we need our bodies washed.

Baptism is so that our soul, our heart is turned towards God and it's declared, hey, I'm I'm releasing that filth, I'm releasing that garbage, and I'm telling the world I'm going to walk as someone different.

If your heart has already been transformed by God, it's important that the world knows about this.

And so we encourage everybody to go and get baptized.

Now, in this COVID-19 reality, in this environment that we're in right now, baptisms look a little different here at KCC.

And so we're inviting you to book an appointment and have a baptism by appointment.

It's pretty exciting with a few of your family and friends, and we're going to work together with some of our campus, our campus leaders, or some of our pastors here to actually arrange a time for you and them to go and be baptized.

And the good news is the lake is warming up as we approach summer and it's going to be an exciting opportunity for all of you.

So we've got a website on our on kcc.net.

We'd like you to go visit the website and put your name down if you're interested in being baptized.

We want to celebrate with you and help you take that next step.

Now, if you have given your life to God and you know God and it's time to take that next step in your spiritual journey, that next step is to find freedom.

Now, what does it mean to find freedom?

Freedom from what?

And I just believe that everybody has habits, hangups, bad experiences and mistakes that are continually being carried by an individual.

And God wants us to let go of the past, and we do that by laying it at the foot of the cross and moving forward in this new beginning.

But it takes a process.

There's a process that it takes, and here is what we do understand is that when you gave your life to Jesus, your spirit became made new.

You became a new person.

Your sins were washed away.

You were forgiven of your sins.

But then, and we call that salvation.

But the next step is sanctification.

And that's where God takes the broken parts of your past and He puts you back together and He moves you forward.

Now, salvation happens by faith in a moment of time.

As soon as you announce Jesus is my Lord, and today, that day that you announce that is that becomes the day of your salvation.

And that moment happens, but sanctification happens over time.

Time is your friend.

You'll walk out of the church saved, but that process is going to take time for you to be sanctified.

Now, the way we do this in our church here is we do it primarily through our connect groups.

And our connect groups happen regularly.

And they're a support group, they're small groups that connect with each other, and they're a place where you can support and pray for each other and help each other grow in and through relationships.

And some right now are in person and some are virtual, some are just over the phone.

And this is where the big church, big church becomes a small church.

And it's in this small church where relationships grow and they develop.

And it's the reason why some people come to a church and they come with another individual and they say, Man, you know everyone in this church.

And it's the reason is because a lot of them were involved in small groups.

And that is where true growth happens in relationships, in authentic relationships.

And we encourage every person in the church to be a part of a connect group, be a part of a small church.

That's what makes the difference when you're going through difficulties, you're going through challenges, you're wrestling with that old nature, and God is slowly working on putting you together again, then at that point, that's when you have people around you supporting you and helping you.

Through the beginning of this COVID-19 uh epidemic, uh, there was, you know, the first announcement that there ought to be social distancing, and we hear that all the time.

But social distancing was really the wrong term.

In times of difficulty, what we need are people around us.

What we need are relationships.

What we need are people who are committed to supporting us through difficult times.

I wish they would have called it physical distancing because uh we didn't need to always be together, but we need social connection.

There are a lot of people today who feel isolated, feel distant, and we need to help people come back together.

It's going to be one of the huge obstacles when every when the wave passes through and uh life begins to return the way it should, then we need to be drawing people back together, creating that social connection because people are hungry for it right now.

The Bible says in James 5, 16, it says, in these small groups, we confess our sins to each other and we pray for each other, and in that place we're healed.

So we know that salvation gives us forgiveness, but our confession and our prayer and and that con salvation comes from God, but the confession and the prayer and the healing comes through people.

So we need people to be in our life.

And and God designed us for this social connection.

He designed us to sharpen one another, he designed us to support one another and pray for one another.

And so we have uh created an online uh portal called kccgroups.ca.

And on this site, you'll be able to find different groups that you can support right now, and it's changing constantly because of the new public health orders, so it looks different uh now than it did six months ago, than it did three months ago.

And but we're still asking the church to continually sharpen each other, continue connecting with each other.

Uh, we encourage you to go on walks, be on a patio, uh, give each other phone calls, join virtually, do whatever you need to do to be able to support one another and help each other grow because all of us, the most important part of our life right now is taking those steps in our spiritual journey.

And for many people, it's finding freedom, and it's only going to happen through community.

So do that today.

Go visit the site, go make some phone calls if you need to make those phone calls and uh be a part of a group.

One of the most important groups is actually our freedom group.

And I think everybody ought to be taking that freedom group.

And because we can't be taking it right now as a community, we're actually going to be doing our next series entitled Lost in Translation.

And we're going to be focusing on the fact that there is an enemy, and we have obstacles that are spiritual that are placed in front of us, not by God, but by an enemy.

And we need to recognize and realize how to overcome those obstacles and move forward in our faith.

So we're actually going to be taking the church through this freedom journey.

It's uh going to be a real experience, and I'm excited about it.

So let's review.

We start by knowing God and we move forward into finding freedom.

And this is where the vision actually becomes really exciting as when we discover our individual purpose.

Notice how I said an individual purpose because I believe that God has made you unique and he has a purpose for you that's individual to you, that makes you different than each and every person.

God has given you gifts, talents, and abilities that He's called and placed in you for a purpose.

So this is good news.

It's good news.

God has this unique and personal call on your life.

So this isn't an option for you to discover it.

This is critical.

This is essential for you.

And it's a big part of who you are, and it's a big part of understanding why you were created, answering the why for your life.

And so it's critical for you to find it.

I believe at the end of it, when you discover your purpose, is where you find your greatest fulfillment.

You find that sweet spot of life that no one ever has to call you.

You're up, you're on point, because you're living from that point of purpose.

So Acts chapter 20, verse 24 says this.

Acts 20:24

Paul's uh saying, I consider my life worthless, my life worth nothing to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me.

He understood the task, he understood the purpose God had given him.

And so what's Paul saying?

He's saying, you're never going to find out what it's like to live life fulfilled until you discover the purpose that God has given you in your life.

And when you discover it, it can't derail you.

And it won't do life won't derail you and hurt you the way it does with so many people.

I've watched as people have experienced uh challenges and obstacles and and have experienced times where I would have considered them traumatic, but they've pushed through uh large obstacles because of the call and the purpose that God has placed in their life and allowed them to do it with a smile on their face.

Go and serve in places that I would uh no one would want to go to.

They've gone to places that people have uh experienced or experiences that people have had that I would never have wanted to experience, that they experienced on purpose because God called them to it and they were able to go through it.

So we can't live since.

Someone else's purpose.

We need to live the purpose that God has given you individually.

If God hadn't called me to be in the place where some people are at, I would blow up.

But where God calls you, He and He anoints you to go to that location or to that place or through that space, then God will give you the strength to do it.

So 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 to 18 says, We don't lose heart.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

We don't lose heart.

Though outwardly we're wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day.

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but is what is on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Now Paul had these issues.

Paul's saying this, but he had issues.

He had the Roman government, the Jewish religious councils and governments after him.

He experienced shipwreck and physical harm.

He was robbed.

Imprisoned.

He was put in all these places, and yet you did not hear from him complaining because he was focused on something larger.

He was focused on the calling that God had placed on his life.

And so when you discover this purpose, and it's going to require some digging, and it's going to require some searching, and it's going to require some assistance and some people around you to help you discover it.

And when you discover it, you'll be able to go through wherever you need to go through.

The good news is you have a purpose.

You may not know your purpose, but you can find it.

And you can discover it.

God has given it to you.

And so at KCC, we encourage everyone to find their purpose and live from that point of purpose.

And so we've had a program running called Next Steps.

And this Next Steps program helps you understand who we are at KCC, but also helps you discover your gifts and your talents and discover your unique style of leadership.

And then we point you in the right direction and we release you to go and minister.

And now I can't wait for in-person gatherings.

And so what we've done is we've actually put tools on our website that will help jumpstart this process for you in your life.

If you feel you're at this step, we want to help you.

And so we've put some assessment tools on online for your benefit, and we're encouraging everyone to go in and feed back to us your results so that we can help celebrate with you what God has placed in you.

I get so excited about that part as I start to realize the individual gifts and the individual parts of the body that God has put in our congregation and our members and how together we can make a difference.

I get excited about that.

So we're on this journey, knowing God, finding freedom, discovering our purpose, so that we can do the most important thing in our life, and that is make an eternal difference for the people who are around us.

And this is our purpose.

John chapter 15, chapter 8, starting or chapter 15, verse 8, says this This is to my Father's glory that you would bear much fruit, proving yourself to be my disciples.

John 15 · chapter mention

He's saying, Go ahead, bear fruit.

Be the type of person who takes their gift, puts it in the ground, and allows it to grow and be a blessing to people around you.

It's not as much of a command that God gives us as He's saying, this is a recipe for you to find joy.

Now you and I are both smart enough to know that joy doesn't come with Uber amount of money in the Uber's amount of money in the bank or lots of material possessions or physical pleasures.

It doesn't come from those things.

Joy, true joy, comes when you're living a life of purpose and you're making a difference.

You can have great physical health.

You can have your garage full of the nicest things, but if you're not living from that point of purpose, you're living empty.

And we know that that's the truth.

Proverbs 11 verse 25 says, a generous person will prosper, and whoever refreshes others, they will become refreshed.

Proverbs 11:25

What happens is when we take our gifts and we take our fruit, we give to others, the return back to us will be a blessing to us.

And we can't forget that as we give, it gets given back.

It makes a difference to those people who serve.

They're making a difference in people's lives every day.

Every day becomes a serve day for someone who realizes the fulfillment through service.

And so at KCC, we love it when we're together and we see our greeters at the door and people in the parking lot.

We see our coffee support teams and our children's workers and those who are helping in our toddlers and baby rooms, all the way to our sound people and our music teams and those who work in administration throughout the week and are and uh do our behind-the-scenes recording and editing, which we value so much today.

You know what?

When everybody is working together in our outreach teams and in our serve teams, it makes a difference.

This last week we had a thousand door hangers that were pulled, were available to give out to our community.

And uh some families took hundreds of door hangers uh with uh information inside of the door hangers and candy and gifts and invitations to our Easter service.

And uh when I went to my mother-in-law's house for Easter uh dinner, she said, you know what, someone actually came by my door from KCC.

Now she's attended KCC for years, but she even received an invitation as someone from our church walked up and down her street and invited people to church on that Sunday.

It makes a difference.

And we want to provide opportunities for you to make a difference.

Every day can become a serve day, and we know that this makes a difference when we look at our life in the light of eternity.

We want to take advantage of every moment that we have right now.

Now I'm hoping you're inspired today by this message because it's not complicated.

It's it's this four pieces where we know God.

We find our relationship with God.

It's not based on the relationship we had through somebody else or someone online or our own parents, but we have come to know God personally.

We find freedom and we let go of the garbage of the past and we move on into our hope that we have and we find and discover our purpose, our individual purpose, so that we can find fulfillment in making an eternal difference in the lives of other people.

So one day, and I know it's probably gonna be sooner than later, our Father is gonna come from heaven and he's gonna look into our eyes and he's gonna say, he's gonna say, Well done, my good and faithful son, well done, you did it.

Enter into your inheritance.

And I want him to look at me and say, I placed everything that I could have placed in you, everything you needed.

I gave it to you so that you can make a difference, and you did it.

You did it.

You didn't spend your time wasted, but you spent your time giving from what I placed in you.

And I want the pleasure of the Father to be upon me when I'm living from my purpose, living from that sweet spot, and I want that just the same for each and every one of you listening today.

So, as I mentioned earlier in the message, if you're far from God and you're looking at this spiritual journey and it's become simplified for you, and it's not as complex as maybe the media has made it out to be.

And you don't know God, and perhaps you've even been feeling lost, I want to invite you to this relationship, this first step that you would know God, and you would know Jesus.

He becomes the doorway to the Father, and no one can get to the Father except they come through him.

And we're gonna get to have that opportunity right now.

Jesus gave you his life, and what that means for you and I is that he calls for that same type of response from you and I.

And so, as we are reminded from Easter how Jesus gave his life for us, he laid down his life for us, we want to lay our life down for him.

We want to say, you can have it.

You can have all the garbage, all the pain, all the shame, all the blaming that I've lived my life using to get to this point.

You can have it all.

You can have my sin.

I'm gonna lay it all down, and you give me what you can.

And what the Lord gives us is eternal life and a joy and a peace and a purpose for our life that is incredible.

So, this prayer of salvation, I'm gonna pray it.

I'm gonna read it here, and then you can pray along with me.

Uh, I invite you to do that today.

Father, thank you for sending your son Jesus for paying for my sin.

I realize today that I need you, and I can't live my life without you.

Forgive me from going my own way.

Forgive me of my sin.

And today I change my direction and I repent and I give my life to you.

I invite you, Jesus, to be the Lord of my life.

I believe that you are the Son of God and that you were crucified and you were buried and you rose again.

And today I trust in you in the name of Jesus.

Thank you for salvation, thank you for relationship.

Amen.

God bless you.

If you have taken any step today and you want to move forward in your faith, if it was the first step of salvation, it happened immediately for you.

If it's the next step of finding freedom and you want to join a connect group or find a place where you can just join virtually, even online, are looking for a way to connect, if you're looking to be baptized or or uh deciding today that you want to discover your purpose and you need help to manage those resources, please reach out to us today.

Reach out to us through the website, reach out to us from our office phone as 250-762-9559, or email us at kcc at kcc.net.

We want to provide as many opportunities for you to connect.

God bless you.

We love you.

Have a great week.