A Fresh Wind | FRESH WIND Series | Pastor Brodie Kalaman

Hi, I'd like to welcome everyone from home or wherever you may be watching today.

Welcome to KCC Church at Home.

My name is Brody Callman, and I am the pastor here at Kelowna Christian Center.

And before we begin, if you'd like to take a moment, just share this feed with your friends, throw out a text message to some of your buddies and let them know that, hey, church is live.

We may not be able to physically connect in church, but we can gather together virtually and just begin to hear the word and hear the message and discuss it later or even online.

It's really important to be able to engage that way.

For those of you who are involved in our connect groups, they are still happening.

And you can go on our website, kcc.net, and see all the groups that are happening.

Some on Zoom, some are finding their ways outside right now.

And it's so important to just be able to rally together and have your community behind you in this season.

So if you're a teen, if you're a young woman, if you're married, if you're single, if you're a young adult, come on out to a Connect group.

We also want to thank all those of you who are faithfully continuing to give.

Boy, this makes a difference for us here at KCC.

We have the message going out each week, and for us to know that there are people who are supporting us in the background makes such a difference.

Also, we want to make you aware that our missionaries, we we don't want to forget about our missionaries.

They're still working hard in the field, some in Kenya, some in Mexico.

There are missionaries from all over the world right now who are serving out of KCC.

And we just want to continue to encourage you just to give to missions.

Keep missions on your heart.

What matters to God ought to matter to us, and I believe God cares about his message going out to those who need to hear it.

This week, we've launched a new series called Fresh Wind.

And this series is so on point for the season that we're in.

In fact, today is a special day for all believers around the world.

It is Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday.

And now some of you may be surprised because you didn't get a notification in your eye calendar, or you didn't uh see any marketing go out, or you haven't seen the big promotion for this Pentecost Sunday.

In fact, no one woke you up this morning and said, with a text that said, Hey, happy Pentecost, or sent you an emoji.

I don't even know if there is an emoji for Pentecost.

Maybe the guy who's got the two arms in the air.

That's the emoji for Pentecost or the praying hands.

But someone who's who's uh thinking about this, uh, in fact, even a lot of churches aren't seeing this, but this is such an incredible day.

It's a powerful day, it's a beautiful day, it's a celebration for all believers.

The fact that Jesus, that Jesus had had said that there would be a promise from the Father given to us, the Holy Spirit, and this was after he was crucified and risen from the dead, he said, It's better that I go.

I'm gonna send this helper, this advocate, this this one who's gonna strengthen you and counsel you so that you don't have to walk alone.

I'll be with you.

And that's what we're celebrating today, Pentecost.

So, regardless of where people may be in the world, we're gonna celebrate one of the greatest days today, Pentecost Sunday, launching off on this series Fresh Wind.

Now, it may not have been on your radar like it was on ours, but we're gonna talk about Acts chapter 2, from Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 4.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 2:1–4

And before I go into that scripture, I'm just gonna give you a little bit of a background as to what Pentecost actually means.

Pentecost simply means 50.

50.

And on a calendar or on a timeline, that 50 means 50 days from the day of Easter.

So if you were to backtrack 50 days, it would have been Easter Sunday.

Now we're on Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, and it was it's the beginning of this special moment.

So Acts chapter 2, verse 1 says this when the day of Pentecost, today, had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly a sound, like the blowing of a violent wind, came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:1

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

It was an incredible moment, a miraculous moment in this upper room.

There were 120 people gathered together, and the Holy Spirit visited them on that day.

Now, this message is really practical.

It's very relevant, it's very personal.

It's whether you're a CEO or a student in high school, uh, whether you're someone who's uh you know known Jesus for a day or known Jesus for a lifetime, this message is for you today.

This message is really a game changer.

It was a game changer in my life.

And for everyone who's listening, I want you to really dive deep into this moment of history that we celebrate and is still relevant today.

Now, similar to the followers of Jesus in Acts, uh, we may be gathering all in different locations, but we're gathering with a similar intent.

As people log online as they're watching right now, we're log, we're online and we're together because we believe that there's more to life than what we're experiencing now.

We're hungry, we're thirsty for life.

And if you're anyone like me, you're you're thinking about Sunday.

You're thinking about the day when you can come together and actually celebrate with other people who are hungry as well.

But each day you're woken up with this desire to know God and to make him known.

The Holy Spirit is this intangible force that came into the room where the 120 were gathered, and they were friends of Jesus, and they were they were waiting for this promise that Jesus said would come.

And this promise would result in power in every individual.

And this power means dunamis, it means dynamite, it it was disruptive power.

It made people who were very calm people bold, it made people who were silent loud, it made people who were weak strong, it made people who were ignorant, gave them knowledge.

This heaven on earth came in the form of the Holy Spirit into each individual, and the propulsion and the compulsion was to say, go into the world and actually make a difference.

Now that I'm with you, go and make a difference.

So they were moved, and these individuals who were in the upper room, many said, they're uneducated fishermen.

How can they do the things that they're doing?

They're turning the world upside down everywhere they go.

Can you imagine that?

A change in a life, a change in a family, a change in a city that came so suddenly.

I want that change.

They moved from like a survival mode mentality into an active mode.

An active mode where they were taking territory and sharing the gospel.

In fact, Peter said he began to share the message like he had before, but this time when he shared it, there was such boldness and confidence in him.

3,000 people came to know Christ.

Another time he shared 5,000 did.

The church began to grow exponentially because of this life-giving force, an intangible force, but a life-giving force nonetheless in the church.

And the church was built on this revelation, on this understanding that there is more.

There's more than what we see today.

There are times relevant in the moment that we're living in when we find ourselves actually living in the survival mode, stagnant, lifeless, calm, but not moving anywhere, comfortable.

And we all have this longing for more.

A longing to experience what I would call during this series a fresh wind in our sail.

Something that's fresh that's going to propel us quicker, faster, uh, with more with more energy into where we're supposed to be moving.

This was the result of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these Jesus followers.

It was an incredible moment.

I'd like to share with you today something that I found really interesting.

On the same track, I want to share with you about uh this place in the world called the doldrums.

Now, the doldrums are oftentimes what we hear from people to express their attitude, like, how are you feeling?

Oh, I'm in the doldrums.

I'm feeling down, I'm feeling depressed, I'm feeling quiet, I'm feeling still, I'm just feeling low.

And this place where you're like, I'm in the doldrums is such a real space for so many people.

But this this word doldrums is actually a really scientific term.

This term refers to a place in the world called the intertropical convergence zone.

Now that made me sound really smart, and I had to look at my nose for a moment, so I didn't mess it up.

But that's what it's called.

It's this intertropical convergence zone.

Uh it's a narrow strip of ocean about five degrees north of the equator and five degrees south of the equator.

Now, as the equator, the northern hemisphere is moving, moving at one direction, the southern hemisphere is moving in an opposite direction, at this place in the equator, it almost those two movements cancel out.

And that small sliver of space in the ocean, on the land is called the doldrums.

And this place of the doldrums is a place where there is no movement, no energy, no wind.

And this space was very dangerous.

Before there were motorized vehicles, if people drifted into the doldrums, they were stuck.

There was no movement out of the doldrums, unless it was physical labor, physical movement.

It was no movement out of that space.

And I like to talk to you today about this this danger of living in the doldrums.

Now, as we're staying at home and sheltering in place and trying to refrain from mass gatherings and social connections, uh, which I hope doesn't last too much longer, we can come to a place where we get become stuck in the doldrums.

In our lives or at home, or at work, or with family, or with marriage, or in our faith.

A place where it's stagnant, still, there's no movement.

And what does this look like?

It looks like from the from the first step, it looks like you just begin to fake, you begin to fake it.

You begin to uh fake living out your life the way it should be lived.

When people start asking you, like, how are you doing?

you say, Oh, I'm doing great, but really on the inside, you're depressed or you're down or you're miserable, and you're not really experiencing the life that you want in your relationships, in your marriage, in your family.

But there's this heaviness that's living in this place.

And the reason why we fake it is because we don't want other people to know what we're truly, honestly going through.

So we we kind of hide the fact, and if I can think about it this way, when you enter into the doldrums, you set up the sail and you're not moving, but everything looks good.

The sail is up, but there's no wind.

You're just sitting still and you're sitting there.

And we've become really good, I think, in our culture to actually pretend like we're okay and fake it, believing that, you know, I'm just gonna fake it till I make it.

Where we're not supposed to live that way.

God has more for us, but regardless of what God has for us, we still live in that space.

We just live in a place where we're faking it.

And we we don't want to seem like the odd one out, and we don't want to be the one who's who's just uh you know crying for help all the time.

So what we end up doing is just putting a bandage on a real injury.

And we don't really fix the injury, we just put a bandage on it, and that may work for a moment, but it doesn't work if for a long time, if you don't change that bandage, it'll become infected and it'll it'll cause even more danger to your body.

Jeremiah actually talked about this attitude of faking it.

He said it in chapter 6, verse 14, he says that they would dress the wound of the people as though it was not serious.

They would say, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

And if we're honest with ourselves, are there times in our lives where we're just faking it?

Yeah, I'm a Christian.

Yes, I'm I'm I'm full of the Spirit of God, but it there's if you were really to look inside, you're like, is it really there?

Is really the heart of worship, is the really the intimacy and relationship we have with God and with the people He's placed in our lives, is it really there?

And we move from faking it to a place where we start putting off the fact that we're in this space like of the doldrums where there is no movement and there is no fresh wind.

And your brain starts to tell you, it'll be okay.

You'll be okay tomorrow.

Just put it off one more day.

If you put it off one more day, tomorrow you're gonna actually feel so much better.

Just put it off one more day and one more day and one more day.

And we believe this lie that time heals all wounds.

When time does not heal all wounds, it's only the Holy Spirit that will heal our wounds, heal our pain, heal our injury.

In fact, over time, if you've got a real injury, over time that wound will begin to fesser and get worse.

We need to stop putting it off.

In my life, I realized this the other day.

I hopped into my truck.

We have an SUV that we haul the kids around in, and I was driving, it was a really nice day outside, and I rolled down the window and I hit the brakes, and I began to hear this squealing sound.

And it's I'm not gonna do it over the microphone because you know what it sounds like.

And I thought, oh, there's probably just moisture in the in the tires and the brakes, and maybe I just need to like work it out a little bit.

And then the next day it got even louder, and there was this squealing sound, and it's when the caliper and the rotor are so worn down that they start to hit a point in the mechanics where they start to squeal, telling you that, hey, you better change your brakes.

And why?

Because these brakes are important.

If you want to stop the car, you better have brakes.

You better use them properly and take care of them.

And if you put them off for too long, if you put it off for too long, you're gonna drive one day and you're gonna hit the brakes, and your vehicle isn't gonna slow down at this pace that you had expected, and you're gonna put yourself in danger, your family in danger, you need to stop putting things off.

It's the warning that we have in our own spirit that says if the doldrums are there, if our life is feeling still and without energy and without wind and motivation, where is the where is the putting off, uh, where does that benefit us?

Stop and look at it and take it seriously.

The scripture says this in Hebrews 12, 15, it says, see to it that no one misses the grace of God.

There's a moment of grace where we realize, man, I've been putting this off.

I need to, I need to turn to the grace of God that is available for me every day, 24-7, 365 days a year, 366 days on a leap year, or 64.

This is, we need God every day.

And if you don't do that, a bitter root will begin to grow and cause trouble in your own heart.

And I know this right now we do some uh lawn work around the house, and I can pick up the little the little weeds with my fingers.

But when I let that weed grow and grow deep, then all of a sudden when I pull it out, it's gonna become more difficult for me to work in.

It's gonna create a mess around the other landscaping that I've planted.

Uh, we've got to deal with it quick, so don't put it off.

If you're in the doldrums, you've got to realize it, recognize it, stop faking it.

You're there.

Stop putting it off because the next step is that you begin to give up.

And we've been there, and I'm sure you've been there, where you come to a place where you're like, I just give up.

This is just too hard.

It takes too much energy.

I'm not interested.

I don't see a way out, I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I need help.

And without a fresh wind in our sail, in our heart, without a fresh wind blowing through the chambers of our soul, that we we end up just giving up.

And unfortunately, I've seen this in marriages where there were difficulties and there were challenges and the squealers came on and they said, warning, warning, warning.

And it came to the place where it was just too late.

And by the time people came into your office or came to get counseled, they'd already given up in their heart.

And the it's a hard place to actually reinstill life and energy and motivation back into a life that a heart that's already been calloused and seared and doesn't want to put energy into their relationship anymore.

I'm telling you today, don't give up.

Don't give up.

Go ahead and make that call to a connect group leader, make that call to someone who cares, a pastor, a friend.

Make that call to someone who's who's reaching out to you.

You know those people in your life.

Call us because it matters.

Job 17, verse 13 says this.

Job 17:13

When or where then is my hope?

Where then is my hope?

Who can see any hope for me?

Job knew this feeling.

He knew when when hope was feels low, you feel like just giving up.

And I know it's easy for me when I'm reaching out to someone else and they're needing hope.

I can pour it out on them.

But when it's me, it's hard for me to actually help me.

I've got all the answers for someone else, but sometimes it's difficult to have the answers for yourself.

And so you need to call on other people and draw in other people and say, where's the hope?

You need hope.

We've got you, we've got your back.

Don't give up.

Because if you give up, the next place you move to is dying.

You die.

And for some people, it's tragic.

It's a physical death.

They just don't want to live anymore.

And I the the news we're hearing today about the statistics in California and in even in our British Columbia of the amount of people who have taken their lives during the season, it's tragic.

And we don't Ever want to get to that place where the doldrums work us into a place where we're not moving, we're not engaged in any way, we're stagnant and still because we've got so much more to live for.

And some people it may not result in a physical death, it's just an emotional death.

They just become zombies.

Other people to moral death.

They say, you know what, I'm just gonna live for today, live for my pleasure, live for the moment.

I'm gonna live at that place.

And we do not want to see you give up that and go into that place where you have spirit, where you entertain spiritual death and say, I'm not interested anymore in church and the the church community and in God and in his purpose for my life and knowing my creator.

I don't want you to be in that place.

Listen, uh I will give you some encouragement here, is that you're not alone if you felt that way.

In fact, Paul, the author of almost two-thirds of the Bible, the Holy Bible, Paul wrote two-thirds of that New Testament.

He said this at one point in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8 and 9.

2 Corinthians 1:8

He says, We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even our life.

Indeed, in our hearts we felt sentenced to death.

Paul understood what it was like to feel dead on the inside.

And what we need is what Paul needed.

And what we need to do is what we saw Paul do.

And he needed that fresh wind, he needed that breath of fresh air to invigorate and strengthen him in the inner man.

And I don't want any of us to be stuck in the doldrums.

As a pastor, that's what I guard our church over.

I guard our staff over, our teens over, our young adults over, our children over.

We don't want to get stuck in that place.

We don't want our marriages to be stuck in that place.

I don't want your finances or your business to get stuck in that place.

I know that each of us has got a greater calling and God has more purpose for us in our life.

So I'm asking you, allow us to have this few weeks with you.

This few weeks before the summer takeoff, a few weeks where we still have time to sit back at our home with ourselves and our thoughts, and to practice something fresh.

Allow a fresh wind to fill your sail.

Allow a fresh wind to enter into your home, into your family, into your heart, into your into your business, into your everyday activity.

I want you to think of at least one area in your life where you need this fresh wind experience.

Because we need to move out of the doldrums and make sure we're not even drifting close to that five degrees on the equator.

We want to stay clear of it.

We want to get into where the headwinds are or the trade winds are, where we can we can launch the sail and just and allow us to just move fast and move forward.

I believe all this comes back to this day that we're living in today.

This promise in the book of Luke, Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people.

And he says to them, Listen, I know you're hungry.

I can see it.

I know you're stuck in the doldrums.

But I'm telling you right now, I've got the answer.

And Jesus is saying, go and wait in Jerusalem.

Wait there.

And it's going to be a little while.

This Pentecost was 50 days from the day he from Easter Sunday.

It was a little bit of time, but he's saying, go ahead and wait, because I've got a promise for you.

My Father is sending his Holy Spirit.

And this Holy Spirit is going to fill you and blow out the cobwebs in your heart.

Blow out the cobwebs in your thoughts and in your mind.

And it's going to be a fresh wind in your own heart.

And this he's going to move you into out of the doldrums, into that place where you can take on life and experience it.

So he says this in Luke chapter 24, he says, he he he talked about this promise of the Father.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

And this promise would come with a power from on high, from heaven.

And while he was there, he just began to bless them.

And as he was blessing them, the Bible says he ascended and he and he ascended to heaven.

And I just want to say today, God left blessing us.

Jesus left blessing us.

And when you see him again, he's going to continue to be blessing you.

There's an eternal blessing for you, for your family.

Don't think that this is the end.

God has more for us.

So this 50 days, we wait.

We think about it.

We wait.

We're anticipating.

What will this look like, this fresh wind?

And I want to tell you a few things about what to anticipate, what to expect, because and what to hope for.

Number one, let's look at what happened here.

It says the Holy Spirit came suddenly.

Suddenly.

And I know all of us like to know what to expect in our future, and we know what when to expect it.

But God's now makes a difference.

And suddenly, the Bible says, suddenly he came.

The Holy Spirit came into a home.

And I don't know what you've been doing for the last little while.

You may feel like you're in that space, but I'm going to encourage you right now, you just position yourselves to wait.

Position yourself to wait on the Holy Spirit, call on him, anticipate him, hope for him, and suddenly, in a moment of time, things can change around you.

The Bible says that they were ready.

They were in the temple every day praising God.

They filled their atmosphere, their environment with praise.

They were ready to be filled.

And when that day came, it came suddenly.

I think about it like a jack in the box.

We know what's going to happen, but we keep winding it, but we don't know exactly when it's going to spring.

And we know, and I'm going to tell you today, there's fresh life for you, there's fresh wind for you.

So don't give up, don't give up and allow it to just surprise you.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit came and he came in violently.

And this isn't like clubs and uh you know uh fists, he came in violently, like a like a blast of air that just bursts into a room.

And I'm gonna tell you today that when that wind finally catches your sail, it's gonna launch you forward, it's gonna move you out.

And what took so much energy in the beginning on your own effort, all you need is that breath from God to move you forward.

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit, it comes from heaven.

He comes from heaven.

Heaven is the place where we receive this message.

Heaven is the place where we have this blessing.

It's not by my strength, it's not by my ability, it's not something that the earth can give, because the earth gives things that are temporal, but God gives things that are eternal.

Eternal.

So when the Holy Spirit comes, it's not going to be something the world can take away.

The Holy Spirit comes into your life, into your heart, when He it's it's when He reinvigorates you and gives life to you, it's something that is eternal.

And when the Holy Spirit comes, he fills the house.

He fills the house.

Every man, every child, woman, every child, young and old, the Bible says the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.

All people will receive this Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit, because God wants all of us to be moving forward.

So when we know when God blesses us, it's pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

It is God's blessing for us.

And he, this is why Jesus said, It's better that I go, because I've got the Holy Spirit promised for you to receive.

And that's why we anticipate it, we wait for it.

And today we just remember it.

We say we honor Him.

Holy Spirit, come in our lives, fill our lives, give us a breath of fresh air, fill our lungs, fill our sail, move us forward into your the purpose that you've called us to.

And lastly, the Holy Spirit came when they were sitting.

I just like to position myself.

And I'm just gonna say, even if you're at home today, you might be in your vehicle, you might be listening, you know, while you're traveling or just laying in your bed with your headphones in.

I just want you to say today, I just want you to know it doesn't matter where you are, God can meet you where you're at.

And the Holy Spirit was promised for you.

As a believer, the Holy Spirit was promised for you, and it was while they were sitting, they weren't doing anything spectacular.

They were sitting and waiting and positioning themselves.

And I'm gonna tell you this today, it's a choice.

And the Bible says, if you have a choice, choose life, choose to embrace this gift of God to us today.

This is a gift of Pentecost.

This is Pentecost Sunday.

This is the day that power, heaven came to earth, heaven came into my heart, his spirit alive in me, where deep calls on to deep in my spirit.

I began to know myself, know him, know others, know my purpose in such an incredible way.

God wants us to be known by him, God wants us to know him, and that's where my call, my prayer is for you today, that you would not look to the external for salvation, but you would say, Lord, what have you got for me already?

And Lord, let me feed it, let me wait on you, let me trust in you, let me hunger for you, let me thirst for you, and Lord, fill every every chamber of my heart, breathe the fresh air, let me open the windows of the house and allow the fresh air to flow through.

A new beginning.

I believe as we're coming into June 1st, as the world reopens, God's going to open our hearts and open our lives into a new reality.

A new reality.

I believe God's got spectacular, supernatural, miraculous things for the church to accomplish this year.

And I'm believing for that.

So if you're here today and you're listening, and you're saying, I need God's peace, and I need God's love, and I need God's mercy, and I want his spirit in me.

And I'd like to invite you to bow your head with me and just pray along with me.

And wherever you're at, just agree and recite this and speak it into your own heart, into your own life.

Would you do that with me this morning?

Father, we thank you today for your Holy Spirit.

We thank you that you move us out of the doldrums of life into a place where we can move forward, move fast.

And today we welcome Holy Spirit to breathe in our lives, to breathe in our hearts, to open up our thoughts and open up our our imagination and open up our spirit to embrace everything you have for us.

Give us the boldness, give us the energy, give us the power that you had have have given freely to us.

Lord, allow us to just take it and hold it and embrace it and receive everything you want in this moment for us.

In Jesus' name.

And if you've never received Christ before, I just want to lead you in this prayer.

Just say, I accept you, Jesus, as my personal Lord and Savior.

Forgive me of my sin.

Cleanse me, wash me clean.

I believe that you paid every penalty that was against me on the cross so that I could have new life.

I welcome you as my Savior today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So for the next few weeks, if you prayed that prayer, you're on the start of this journey.

There isn't anything else you have to do.

But I want to meet with you each week and I want to move us forward.

Move us into the place where God is calling us to, into these trade winds.

Until then, God bless you.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you all the peace you need in this season.

In Jesus' name, Amen.