Too Good To Be True | Blessing in Brokenness | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

Good morning, KCC.

We wanna welcome you to church today.

If you're out in the foyer, you can come on in and find a seat.

My name is Trisha Brewer.

I'm part of the leadership team here, and we just wanna welcome you.

We're so glad you came to church today.

We raved the ice and you made it.

Good on you.

Hey, I'm gonna invite you guys to stand on up with me today.

If you have kids in the house, we have an awesome program ready for them downstairs.

And we're gonna get ready to worship God and sing some songs together, okay?

And I'm just gonna pray right before we do.

God, I thank you that you can move in this place today.

God, we come to you with expected hearts looking for you to do what only you can do.

So we just set our eyes on you, we set our hearts on you, and we lift you up in this place and just look forward to you moving.

Come and have your way in Jesus' name.

Everybody said, Amen.

Let's worship together, alright.

I have heard a sound coming on the way, changing hearts and minds, healing brokenness.

I feel a generation breaking through despair.

I hear a generation, full of faith declar, and our soul will be out of the darkness, we will rise and for me, it's gloria since me, is Jesus.

All my hope is in him, is freedom, is healing right now, is hope and joy and love and peace and life.

I have seen a light like the break of dawn, giving my line in sight, letting a layman walk.

I see generation with resurrection life.

We are generation will be powered, and not so we will be out of the darkness, we will rise and go in for the Jesus all my horizon is bringing up feeling right now.

Oh my god, this is that high school.

Well praised with the light and proclaim the love Jesus, He is there for me, his glory is in me, is Jesus.

Oh my hope is in me, his freedom me, his healing right now.

He is hope and joy and love, peace and life.

Yes, you are Lord.

Oh, you are you are who you are.

It's uh yeah, this is in it and in all fail.

Seeing God never fails, will not fail me now.

You won't fail me now in the way.

Seeing God is never late, he's working all things out, you're working all things out.

Yes, I will lift you high in the knowing spotly, yes, I will bless your name.

Yes, I will sing for joy when my heart is heavy for my taste.

Yes, I will come.

I count on one fail.

Same God that never fails, will not fail me now.

You won't fail me now, no way.

Same God is never late, it's working all things out, you're working on visit, yes I will, let you hide the starting, yes, I will see for joy my heart is enemy Yes, I think Yes, I choose to pray glorify, glorify the name of all day Nothing can stand again, I choose to pray To glorify, glorify the name of all dead Nothing can stand again I choose to pray To glorify glorify the name of all dead Nothing can stand again I choose to do glorify the name of all Nothing can stand again well let's do I to holler well Yes I will be all days Oh yes I will presence of my enemy blood you share my This is how I find my battle It's a table that you prepared for me in the presence of my enemies It's your body and your blood you shed for me And this is how I fight my battles And I believe you overcome And I will lift my song Urage for all you do This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how In the valley I know the O with me And surely your goodness and your mercy follow me Still my wedding list are praise and Thanksgiving This is how I fight my battles Oh I let the lead Can I do God And I will live my start U race for all you do This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how This is hell This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I find my battles This is how Jesus Calling on your name is how I fight my battles Oh Jesus I call on your name I call on your name Jesus It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by you You you It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by Jesus It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by you This is how I fight my battle This is how I fight my battle This is how I fight my battle This is happening This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how Jesus come on my side Oh my victories in Jesus name My victories in Jesus Name My victories in Jesus name My victories in Jesus name We call you My victories in Jesus Day My victories in Jesus Day This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how this is hell This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how I fight my battles This is how It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by Jesus It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by you It may look like I'm surrounded that I'm surrounded by you Surrounded by you Come on.

Come on, wait.

Come on, everybody.

Yes, you will.

He's dead he will.

He's moving around, moving around, moving around.

Moving on hearts today, right now.

He's shifting around.

He's making the wrong things right.

Moving all around, moving all around.

So we wait.

So we wait.

So we wait on him.

He's the faithful one.

The good God, the good King, the Great Lord.

So we wait, we wait, we're going to wait for the Come with you, Holy.

Every mountains where you hide.

Oh how scale the valleys.

Oh how long chase weavers lose things to where they rise.

Get the rush, grace the sand from the source of life.

Neither more than cry.

I soon starving.

You're just not that hard to find you on the mountain.

I will praise you in the bounce to away.

I'll praise you in the balance of the day.

Yes, you are.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for your grace.

Your mercy.

Amen.

Your grace.

Your great grace.

Your great love.

Your great mercy.

We reach out now and receive more of that grace.

More of that mercy.

God, just extend your hand out.

Like a child looking to his father.

Expecting.

Father, we thank you that we don't have to come in vain.

We don't have to come in fear.

We come confidently because we're your children.

We're your children, and you always have the Father's heart toward us.

You know, Paul wrote to the Galatians, he said they were struggling with a performance mentality, with trying to live up to certain standards and obligations.

And it kind of gotten off track a little bit about what their Christianity, what their relationship was.

And Paul said, it's not about those rules or those regulations or those laws.

He said God has said because you are sons, because you are children.

And so today, this morning, don't worry about how to pray or what to pray.

Just let that let that spirit of his son that is within you and cry out to the Father through you.

Abba, just say that to yourself.

Abba, the Father, Daddy, dear Father.

Come on, let's pray to God.

Abba, the Father.

Daddy, Father, we thank you.

Abba, Father, we come because you've given us the spirit of your son.

And so we call upon that spirit within us that you put within us.

That spirit within us.

That is the spirit of a child.

That is the spirit of a son.

It's the spirit of a daughter.

It's the spirit of one who is in the family.

And we have that heart cry this morning.

So all over the room, Father, we pray for those in this room and those outside this room, those of our family members.

We just lift them up to you in the name of Jesus.

So many hurts and struggles and heartaches.

We thank you that there's a heart cry of the Son of God within us.

Crying out, Father God, Father God, Father God.

We thank you.

We thank you.

The Father will never abandon his children.

The Father will never neglect his children.

Like he's a committed father.

Father, thank you.

You're so committed.

And when we're not committed, you're committed.

Even when we go astray, you never go astray.

You never look away from us.

And we thank you for that, Father.

I pray for every person in the room that we would get a revelation of that heart of God that is so intensely in love with his children.

So intensely in love that he will do whatever it takes to get us into that place of blessing, into that place of security.

Amen.

Anybody here need security?

You do need security.

You know, security is elusive outside of the Lord.

It's elusive.

You can have financial security and be gone just like that.

Right?

But we have this we have security.

Aren't you glad?

Go ahead and shake hands with someone, tell them you you're you're shaking hands with a secure person here somewhere.

Uh it's wonderful because you come in with this uh immediate uh expectation, but also a sense of question like, Lord, where are you going to move today?

Where are you gonna move right now?

And the second service sometimes is like, well, God, you're gonna do the same as you did in the first.

This uh this temptation to kind of like roll with it the way um the way you would have uh you know God, what you did at the beginning, you're gonna continue to do.

But I find in the first service I'm just humbled before God.

Okay?

When you come before God, how many of you come before God and you just humble yourself and say, Lord, have your way in this place today?

And so when you come before Him, you you come before Him, I quiet my heart, I quiet my spirit, and I say, Lord, it's not my will that gets done in this place.

Lord, may your will get done in this place, because I don't know who's in this place today.

Um I know that I can see faces and I know people, uh, I know names and stories, but I don't know what people are going through internally.

And I just believe that today the Lord's going to do something in your heart to help move you forward in your faith as you get a greater revelation of who he is.

So if this is your first time with us, we're glad that you're here joining us today.

Uh Casey C here, we believe everyone is on a spiritual journey.

And uh there are others who've been on this journey for a long, long, long, long time.

And there are those of us who've just been have just uh been on this journey for a short while, or perhaps this is even your first time at church.

Uh we believe the first step for everyone is to stop and just and come to a realization that you know who God is for yourself, and you have that realization of who God is for you, not the God of your parents or your grandparents or your friends or your culture that you're living in or just what should be textbook or what should be expected of you, but you actually come to know God for yourself, and that's a really important place to be because all of us are going to be responsible for how we approach God ourselves.

We can't come on the coattails of someone else, and so we come to a place where we know God for ourselves, and that's what like that's my prayer for my children.

That they would know God for themselves, that I could instruct them that they would have a personal relationship with God on their own, they would know him for him, and after we come, we know God.

We believe that God moves us from a place of knowledge about him to a place where we begin to find our freedom.

Our freedom that comes in knowing him and knowing what he's done for us and knowing what he's set us free from.

We know that we're saved, but some of us are carrying on those with those uh habits or hang-ups, and we just bring them along with us, and God wants to set us free so that we can continue in living our life, living our purpose, and make a difference in the world today.

So this series that we're on right now, too good to be true, is all about knowing God.

All about knowing God.

We believe we need to take some time and just dive deep into knowing who He is.

So for this uh morning, the uh the topic I'm gonna be speaking on today, is I wanted to be able to draw our attention to the fact that God wants to bless you, amen.

But some of that blessing and some of that purpose of his blessing is gonna come through the space of brokenness, and we've been thinking about it today.

We may not have used the word broken, but we've used words like valleys, and everyone likes talking about the high places and the the the mountaintops, but there's also the valleys, and God brings us through both men, he brings us through valleys, he moves us to the mountaintops, but I wanted to share with you today that it may be to be true moment that God loves working with the broken, God loves working with the broken.

In fact, he came for the broken to rescue the broken, to keep us in a place of blessing, but that blessing comes through a series of brokenness.

And so to take opportunity in the broken places of your lives to actually come through it and realize the blessing in the in that space.

So I'm gonna read from Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Sorry, Luke chapter 18, I'm gonna bring some context to the idea of brokenness, and then we'll move on to the passage of scripture in Mark chapter uh says, where I'd like to show an example of how Jesus used brokenness to bring blessing.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

How many of you believe that God can use the broken to bring blessing?

God can use broken to bring blessing.

So Luke chapter 18 is this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

It says this in verse 9.

It says that some were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else.

Jesus told the parable.

I could just stop there for a moment because the times really haven't changed, have they?

People are still confident in their own righteousness, they still are proud, they still look up, and they're looking down on others, and perhaps they're using their pride or their their the pride is based on like a confidence that they have, and perhaps the size of their bank account, or their position, or their employment, or their title.

They're looking at uh different ways of of actually seeing their own righteousness.

I'm right because I've done certain things or I've I've operated a certain way, and they begin to compare one person to another, and that's defined their uh goodness or their rightness with God.

But what I love about this is that Jesus actually stops and he confronts the spirit, and this spirit needs to be confronted, a spirit of pride that where people walk heavy, they walk haughty, they walk upright, and they they think that their rightness is based on their own good deeds.

So Jesus stops for a moment and he tells them a story, he confronts his pride, he puts a value on humility and brokenness.

Went up to the temple to pray, one of them a Pharisees.

He just says it right out, like just they're one of them.

I'm talking about you, but right here in this crowd, you're the Pharisee, and the other a tax collector, and everyone's boo, boo.

Because the tax collectors were Jews that were working for the Romans, collecting taxes for the Romans.

And he says, the Pharisee stood by himself and he prayed.

He said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people.

What a wonderful prayer.

Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector points him out.

Can you imagine that?

I fast twice a week.

I give my tithe.

Amen.

But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He wouldn't even look up to heaven.

Head down, he beats his breast and says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Very simple story.

Jesus often didn't share complicated conversations with other people.

He shared just a simple story.

And this is the lesson in the story.

Is I tell you this this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be what?

Exalted.

Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

God is attracted to the humble of heart.

God is attracted to the broken.

God is attracted to those who come low and come small.

And God is attracted to those who acknowledge their pain, acknowledge their guilt, acknowledge their way.

They lead with brokenness.

In fact, Psalm 51 says this my sacrifice to you, O God, is a broken spirit.

This is what I offer to God.

A broken spirit.

This is my sacrifice.

I'm a broken heart.

I come to you with a broken and a contrite, an honest heart.

And the Bible says that that type of person, God will not despise them.

God will not reject them.

Amen.

When you come to God with that as your sacrifice, and so many of us, I think, in our mind, we think, well, we're gonna approach God with our intellect.

We're gonna approach God with all the things I've done.

But the Bible says the sacrifice that God wants from us is a broken and a contrite heart.

Because God is close to the brokenhearted.

We live in a culture that experiences the pain and actually the fear of rejection.

So to hear this and to realize that God is not afraid of your pain.

God is not afraid of your rejection.

God is not going to reject you when you come to him with your limp.

The Bible says it's a it's uh a heart that we carry, and we all approach him that way.

Each and every one of us have approached him from a broken place.

We're living in a culture today that's experienced brokenness on so many different places, in marriages, in homes, personally.

We live in a broken world, whether it's race rejection, gender rejection, religious rejection, everyone has had the opportunity to experience rejection in one way or another.

And it's a part of the human need to want to be accepted.

So when we realize that we can go to God broken and he won't reject us, but he'll accept us, there's uh thank you.

Each time we approach him, we can approach him with our brokenness, and he doesn't run from us, he embraces us.

It's almost too good to be true that God loves the brokenhearted, that God loves the broken.

Let me tell you today: if there's one thing that you can walk home with, if you're broken, approaching God with your brokenness, you won't experience the rejection that you expect.

The scripture brings hope and life to me because it speaks of the heart of God.

It's an honest place when God wants us to be honest with Him.

The honest, the contrite heart, the honest heart that says, like one of God, the the man who was after God's own heart, David, he wrote some pretty sad Psalms.

Lord, I'm lost.

Lord, I'm feeling it.

It was emotional, it was it was it was exhaustive.

And he, God says, This is the kind of heart I love.

The heart that's honest before me.

The heart that doesn't perform, but the heart that is just honest.

I see the Pharisee performing, doing every religious duty, performing, following every rule.

But I see the tax collector broken, head down, not even supposed to be in the synagogue, not even supposed to be in the church at that time.

He was rejected even by the church, and yet he came in and he said, Lord, forgive me, accept me.

I'm a sinner, have mercy on me.

That's the prayer that we have.

Lord, have mercy on me.

And the Bible says, He went home with mercy.

Amen.

He went home with mercy, and we all walk into this place in need of mercy.

And the Bible says, if you come to him and you confess your sin and you're honest with him with your heart, he'll be close to you and he'll say, You're you're you're welcome.

Come on in.

I'll accept you.

There should be something that brings hope to someone here today.

Amen.

How many of you were broken?

Once I was broken, but you made my whole heart, you brought me full, you made me, you made me whole again.

This brings that brings hope to me.

KCC is a church that embraces broken people.

You know why?

It embraced you, it embraced your neighbor.

Turn to your neighbor and say, God embraces broken people.

Come on.

That's right.

This is why the church exists.

The church exists because we live in a broken world.

And Jesus came because of broken people.

I I don't know if you like hospitals.

The hands are everywhere.

I see that hand, I see that hand.

I do, I literally drove by the hospital the other day with my wife, and I'm like, thank goodness we don't have to be there today.

Like, thank goodness I've spent enough time in hospitals either visiting or being a patient in that hospital, I just don't like them.

I don't like the hospital.

But um I remember a time when my daughter was at the energyplex doing something on the on the parallel bars, and she landed, and her arm went kind of like a the like an S.

She was like, What is this?

And her face went white, and she we were like, Natalie calls me, what should I do?

Take her to the hospital.

And when I got to the hospital and I met her at the hospital, we were sitting with other broken people, and it didn't feel weird being there.

Because there are other broken people there, because when you're broken, you go to the hospital.

And church ought to be a place that's comfortable for you to come with your brokenness.

You come with your sickness, you come with your mental space, like your thoughts that are all scattered and chaotic, and you come in and your views of life and your own identity, and you come broken.

And it's okay.

And that's the message today is that the broke to be broken is to be okay.

To be broken is to be, is that's okay.

That um actually like the hospital will actually send a vehicle to your house to bring you there.

The church, it's literally like they'll give you service to the hospital.

The same goes for us here.

It's like we you're welcome.

Come on in.

The door's open.

We don't have an emergency, we should have an emergency entrance.

That'd be kind of cool.

But when you come into this place, when others come into this place, brokenness isn't always something that's visible.

It may be hidden to us, but it's not a surprise to God.

When you come in with brokenness, you can hide it from other people.

You can come in with your smile, and you can come in with your, you know, proud, walking in, driving in, you know, you you've got everything in order, but inside you're still broken.

And when you come into God, it you feel like, Lord, are you gonna respond to me?

Are you gonna accept me?

And and there comes a place where when you pass through the doors of this place, you gotta sh you gotta throw all those things down.

Lay it all down.

Come to God with an honest and a contrite heart.

When you approach him, approach him honestly.

I love the the disciples, and I'm just reminded of the way the disciples came to Jesus.

Jesus, they were uneducated, they were, they, they didn't have the highest caliber of job in the at of the day, they were fishermen, and they were a little bit of the misfits of society, they were found on the beaches, they just kind of worked when they could work and made money as they could make money, but they they were abrasive, they were crude, they were they were the roughness.

But Jesus said to them, Come and follow me.

Come walk in the dust of the rabbi, follow me, and I will make you, then I will make you.

See, we think we gotta go to God perfect, and then then he'll make us even more perfect.

Like it doesn't make sense.

But we go to God, he says, Come follow me, and I will make you something.

I'll make you a fisher of men.

And so we go to God first with our brokenness and our and our rough edges, and we say, Lord, help me, help move, help me move forward.

I I was looking at Mark chapter 6 this week, and I was looking at this element of brokenness because the Bible says the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

If you want to be close to God, don't waste your brokenness.

Use your brokenness to get close.

And uh Mark 6 is this great story where people go directly from a miracle into a storm.

The disciples go from a miracle into a storm, and it's the story about Jesus actually feeding the 5,000, and he approaches those 5,000 and uh he's speaking to them, and they're just so hungry for his word.

And the Bible says, you know, man shouldn't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and they're just hungry for his word over and above their lunch.

And it comes to a place where they're saying, five thousand men, the Bible says, are just famished.

They're hungry.

And the and the disciples say, we should send them away.

And Jesus says, No, no, no, I can feed them, I can take care of them, I can feed their heart, and I can feed their belly.

Like I can do both.

And so he begins to ask, he says, one question, he says, What do you have?

And sometimes that's what we look at in our own lives, and we say, and the Lord says, Well, what do you have?

And the writer says, You know, out of 5,000 men, and ironically, they don't mention the women or the children, it was the child that comes up and says, I have five loaves and two fish.

See, the people that man doesn't count, God counts.

The people that man dismisses, God pays attention to.

And he says, and so you might even be broken, and you just might be walking into a room and going, No one sees me, God sees you.

You might walk into a place and say, Well, no, I'm not impressive.

God sees what how you're impressive.

God sees how he can use you.

And he walks into the space, and and the first place is this child that no one even counted comes in and says, I've got five loaves and two fish, and all the disciples are saying, That's not enough.

And how many of you have been in that place where you're broken or you're just broke and you haven't got enough?

And you come to that place and you say, I haven't got enough, Lord.

And the Lord says, You've got enough.

See, when you begin to be grateful and you begin to recognize what you have and be thankful for what you have, and you put it in the hands of the master, he can do things with it that you can't do.

And so he gives him the the the food, he gives him his bread, he gives him his lo his fish, and and the Lord takes it, and the Lord says, I'm gonna I'm gonna give thanks for the not enough.

When's the last time you gave thanks for not enough?

I don't have enough.

Thank you, Lord, for the not enough.

Thank you, Lord, that I've got this limp.

It's not enough.

I can't run, I can just walk.

Thank you, Lord, for the not enough.

Thank you, Lord, you're gonna make me whole.

Thank you for this broken place.

When was the last time you thanked the Lord for brokenness?

And you come before him and he goes, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

If you want to know the Lord, you gotta get close to the broken.

Be close to that being broken space.

So when you become grateful for what he's done for you, the little becomes much.

And Jesus breaks the loaves and he blessed it.

And the Bible says it didn't duplicate, he just blessed it, and it was still five loaves and two fish.

But then he broke it, and as he broke it, it began to multiply.

He began to break it and it began to multiply, and it wasn't until that breaking process that it actually began to be a blessing.

I want to encourage you that those of you who are experiencing brokenness right now, that which refuses to be broken refuses to be blessed.

It's in the breaking of life that produces the blessings of life.

And you might look back and this is a spiritual law.

This is knowing God.

If you want to know God, you have to know what it's like to suffer.

Know what it's like to be broken.

Know what it's like to thank the Lord in your broken places.

He brings you close.

So we break it.

We break.

And it's in the breaking that there's blessing.

It's in the breaking that there's blessing, and it's not there to destroy you.

God doesn't break you to destroy you.

He breaks you to bless you.

He breaks you to reveal a perspective of himself that you wouldn't otherwise have experienced had you not been broken.

And all of us can look back at our lives and we can go back to that place in time where we say, I remember when I was broken.

But did the Lord bring you through?

Did the Lord give you more than enough?

Did he take your not enough and give you more than enough?

And the Bible says this it says that after he began to break it, he just separated the people in the 50s and hundreds and he fed began to feed them all.

There was a miracle in the multiplication.

From the breaking came blessing.

And as he began to bless, the Bible says there were twelve baskets left over.

The more than enough came out of the not enough.

And I believe he wants you to look back at those places and those times in your life where you've actually been broken before.

And you might be sitting back in that place and saying, Lord, where where what was the purpose of this breaking?

What was the purpose in this space?

And just look back at those times where the Lord began to bless you.

Would you just stand with me this morning?

Stand your feet and just let's just bow our heads.

And with every head bowed and eye closed, just take a moment before the Lord.

And just begin to say, thank you for breaking me.

Thank you for those broken places.

And just allow the Lord to bring a picture into your own heart, into your own mind of a time in your life, perhaps where you were broken.

And where the Lord came and he took something that was broken and he made it new.

He makes all things new.

And Father, we just thank you this morning for your presence with us.

We thank you, Lord, that as we approach you, Lord, we can approach you with honesty, we can approach you with heart, with a heartfelt, just expression.

If it's a hurt, if it's an anger, if it's a if it's just uh an exhaustion, and we're just exhausted out of our own efforts and out of our own work.

If that if you're just alone and if you've just been experiencing that sense of like lostness, you don't know where you're going in this place, I believe the Lord wants to take that place right now and convert a broken place into a blessing space.

And so, Father, today we open up our hearts to you to receive from you today.

And if there's anyone in this room today who's never experienced Christ and never you've been walking your life through life, and you've been you've been chasing after uh what might bring satisfaction, and you've you've kind of built up a mental resume that says, yes, I've kept the rules and I've done everything right, and I'm a good person based on my efforts, and you're you're you're standing strong, you're standing proud.

And the Lord wants to say, you just gotta come to me honest.

You just gotta come to me with that that contrite heart.

Because I know that there's a lack of fulfillment there, and there's a the effort will not get you far.

So, Father, today I just lift up everyone in this room who's who's who's carried the weight of the world and is trying to hold it up on their own.

And Father, I just ask that you would just begin to support and strengthen and show grace in their place of weakness.

Lord, in their weakness, would you be strong for each one?

Lord, as we move forward in our faith and we begin to uh we begin to draw on you, Father, that you would begin to bless us together in the name of Jesus.

We thank you for all that you've done.

We thank you how you're you love us and care for us.

And we ask, Lord, today for that heartbeat of heaven, Lord.

And we we invite you to come and take our not enough and take our sense of being discounted.

And Lord, making us count.

And Lord, we thank you that you will take us and you'll lead us farther than we could go on our own.

In the name of Jesus, we thank you, Lord.

We thank you, we bless you, Lord.

We bless you.

In our weakness, you become strong.

In our weakness, you become our strength.

In our insecurity, you become our security.

We thank you, Father, for loving us and caring for us today in Jesus' name.

Would you just sing along with us today?

I will praise you on the mountain.

I will praise you when the mountains in my way.

You're the sun where my feet are.

But if you're new here this morning, first of all, we just want to welcome you.

I hope that you've captured the heart of our church this morning, that it's actually for people and it's for you.

So whatever you walked in with this morning, you're welcome here and you belong.

And I hope you know that there's support literally sitting all around you.

So we don't want you to walk out and feel the same way you walked in.

You got people to the left, to the right of you that would love to stand with you, believe with you.

If there was something in Pastor Brody's message this morning that resonated with you, we're gonna have a prayer team and they'll be here.

But I also want to challenge you one step further.

Because sometimes I think it's easier to go to a stranger at the front that we don't know that doesn't know us, so that if they like get terrified by what we said, we didn't know them anyways.

But it's a little bit harder to say to the person sitting next to me that I came with that maybe I need some prayer this morning, and maybe I'm that broken person, and maybe I'm that struggling person.

So can I encourage you this morning?

There's people here that want to believe for God to move in your life, and there's people here that are already are believing for whatever you're going through, for wherever you're at, that are gonna love you there.

So, can we take just one step further this morning and maybe risk vulnerability?

That's that big V-word that we don't like.

That means I need to expose myself a little to say, I need some people to stand in this with me.

I need some people to get around me because I'm that broken person this morning, and we just want to believe.

So, can I encourage you, don't leave here if that's you.

Come to the front, find some people, let's pray with each other.

Guys, if you're doing good, can you look out for your friends that aren't?

And let's pray and believe that God is gonna move and actually put what Prat Sterbrody said into practice that broken people are welcome here, and we're glad you're here.

If you're broken, we're glad.

Because we're gonna stand with you, we're gonna get around you and support you.

Amen.

All right, we really are getting ready for our tithes and offerings, but I just wanted to throw that in.

In Mark 4, I was looking at it this morning and it says, List listen carefully to what I say and be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world on your own.

Giving, not getting is the way.

Generosity begets generosity, and stinginess impoverishes.

And I was thinking about that this morning actually, as I was getting my coffee.

Because now, if you've noticed there's a tip option that always comes up all the time, I don't understand.

Every store has it.

And I had this like dilemma in my soul that I was like, I'm paying for a 250 coffee and you're asking for a tip.

And then I remembered, these people probably know I'm going to church.

Like, I'm not dressed like I'm going to the gym.

And I said, Man, I have such an opportunity right now to represent Christians, to represent I'm going to church and I'm a generous person, and I want to start to live like I believe, generosity begets generosity.

Because when we're talking about tithes, we're not just talking about a simple thing we're asking you to do.

God's after so much more than a simple task.

He's actually after your heart.

So when we're talking about tithes, it's not about just coming every week, it's about, oh, I want to be generous.

I want to live a generous life.

I want to believe that generosity begets generosity and see like what would happen if KCC became known as the generous church.

Man, KCC, we love those people.

They're so generous.

Wherever they go, generosity follows them.

Have you heard what's happening in KCC?

They became generous people, and now so many things are happening.

God's opening doors for KCC, God's moving territors for KCC, man, my barisa wants to come to church.

Why?

Because I'm generous.

Like, what if that became our story?

That wherever we went, there was a good reputation.

Because I don't know, I'm gonna let you in on a secret, but the service industry doesn't actually love Sundays.

Because sometimes Christians become known as those people that are stingy and want to hold back.

But as Pastor Burdy's saying, we're thankful for everything we've got.

God's given us everything, so I'm gonna live generous so that you actually see that God is in my life because He's providing for me.

So as we're getting ready for ties this morning, I just want to encourage you to think about that.

And I know so many of you live like that, but how can we just start to really live generous?

To say money is not what's controlling me.

I'm not gonna live to the advice that the world says and how to get ahead.

I'm actually gonna switch and just go a different direction and see what happens as I just choose to live a generous life.

Amen?

We're gonna invite the ushers up at this time.

God, I thank you for everything that you've given to us, to everything that you've given to this church.

God, we just want to take a moment to say we're so thankful.

We have so much and we have it because of you.

And I pray, God, that you would just take us one level up, that you would level us up in our generosity and our giving, God, to have a heart that's fully generous for you, that's generous everywhere we go, God, that we would become known as a generous people, as a generous church, God, and that we would see just incredible doors that you would open as we live generously.

In Jesus' name, everybody said, Amen.

Okay, we have next steps going on.

Next steps in the next service at 11 o'clock.

If you have not joined yet, it's an awesome time.

I was bringing some friends up last week and I was like, I just want to stay.

Like it's so fun.

You get to know not only the heart about the church, but about yourself.

You get to grow.

I know some people were like, man, I wish I took this years ago.

Like I didn't even know half this stuff.

It's literally for everyone.

So we want to encourage you.

If you've never checked it out, just check out Next Steps.

It's right upstairs, next service at 11 o'clock.

We also want to remind you that we have connect groups going on.

So if you are wherever you are in your life, the biggest way to get one step ahead to get through this stuff is to surround yourself with people.

I was thinking as Pastor Birdie was talking, like, man, I'm so thankful for the people that have surrounded me in this church.

Because I wouldn't have actually made it at times in my life if I didn't have people.

And sometimes that looked like me showing up to a connect group, sitting on a couch, being like, my life's falling apart and I don't know what to do, and having people surround me.

So I want to encourage you, if you're not in a connect group, can you just join one and just check it out?

There's a table at the back, look at it, find a connect group you can get a part of and just test it out.

Maybe you've never wanted to because that's intimidating, and maybe you're like, I'm an introvert.

Find an introvert group.

Like, go sit on someone where they're all a little uncomfortable except the one talking.

Like, there's literally a place for you and a place for everyone.

So join the connect group.

Get yourself surrounded because we are doing life together.

Lastly, there's a Battle for Canada event going on February 18th to 20th.

It's at Prospera Place, which is crazy because it's a Christian event.

You can get tickets.

There's a bunch of information, and it's available on battleforcanada.com.

So if you haven't heard about it or you'd like to know more, go to the website.

It's listed right there.

And on that note, we're gonna invite up Pastor Brody.

Would you give him a hand?

Alright, would you stand with me and let me just bless you and pray for you before you go into your uh gorgeous sunny Sunday?

Father, pray for our church today.

May you bless some and take care of them.

May you lead them along the way.

And would you cause them to prosper their hand to prosper in everything they touch and wherever they go?

Lord, open up doors of favor and relationships and business and finance and family and fun.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.