Father's Day Service | Kelowna Christian Center

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center Podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

That was an excellent time of worship this morning.

Just love being in the presence of the Lord.

And today is Father's Day.

We are super excited to celebrate Father's.

If you're a father, put up your hand.

Yeah, I see there's lots of fathers.

Let's give them a cheer.

Well, that was yeah, that was good.

Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it.

I was uh reading something that Mother's Day is like the number fourth most celebrated holiday, and Father's Day is like number 23.

So just love on your dads this week.

And today, as you go through this, uh just the kids program has put together an excellent Father's Day uh video for us, so let's just watch that.

What is up, Amelia?

Oh my god, and Ryan.

Do you know what his other one is?

Yeah, what is it?

Oh my daddy!

It's his daddy, awesome, cool.

Do you know what his other name is?

Does he have another name?

Mark?

Mark.

Richard.

Richard.

Do you know what your daddy's name is?

No.

You never made him just call him dad.

That's totally fine.

What if I told you for your dad's name?

Would you believe it?

Oh, what's your mom's name?

You know your mom's name, but you don't know your dad.

Why is that?

Do you like your mom's better than you dad?

Tony, please.

What if something's super funny about your dad?

Maybe some people don't.

What is something super cool about your dad?

His ability to always make us laugh.

Is he good about that?

Stupid dad jokes.

Stupid dad jokes.

Can you give me an example of one?

Okay, so where does a b go to the bathroom?

Where?

On a BP station.

It's like the blood from the station.

I wouldn't even get that.

My bottom of what if we wake up the floaters on my own?

Right.

What kind of video games do we play?

My dela, Mario, and that's all.

That's all?

Sweet.

Okay.

Wow, so your dad's toothpull, hey.

Dang.

You raised up the stairs of your Oma.

So does your dad take the stairs at work?

He does, eh?

You think he's sometimes the elevates.

Oh, and sometimes the elevators you have big strong muscles.

They're bigger than yours.

Can you show me your muscles?

Ooh, and how much bigger are his things?

Way bigger.

He can probably lift 20 pounds.

Wow, he can probably lift 20 pounds.

He must be a strong man.

Yeah.

Can you give me the best impression of your dad for me?

Oh, oh, is that how he walks?

Like on a runway?

What's something really funny about your dad that maybe I don't know?

My name, my bike goes really fast.

Your bike goes really fast.

Sweetie, did your dad make it really fast for you?

It does go fast.

It just goes fast.

Oh, does he do?

What kind of diamond?

Kudo.

Keto.

Okay.

What's the keto diet?

But they're not really doing enough.

That's what you'd like.

Oh, ice cream.

No, he's not he's not really following the rules.

He dropped a heart one time?

That is beautiful.

Yeah, that is something that I like too about your dad.

Can I get an impression of how your dad walks?

We make fun of this all the time.

I don't like this.

Oh, that's really Wow, that's accurate.

Okay, yeah, do forward and back.

That's pretty good.

Can you say it really, really happily?

Can you try at least you're a little bit more happier?

You can! One more time.

Thank you, Judah.

Alright, Grayson.

Is there anything else?

One last thing you want to say when you got the chance.

I come like this happy.

Apparently they had to add out some edit out some of the actual video.

So if you'd like to see the uncensored videos later, how does your dad sleep?

How loud does he snore?

Really loud.

But we all have dads, we all know what it's like to have a dad.

And uh today, could we just give our dads a round of applause and just celebrate dads?

Um uh this morning, um I I think that you know when you go into a Father's Day message like this and you're thinking about fathers, I understand that the audience is made up of uh more than just fathers and an audience.

There's all sorts of people, but I believe that when men are strengthened and when fathers are stronger and made better, then families are stronger.

And when families are stronger, society becomes stronger, right?

So it's important to honor our dads, honor our moms and our dads.

Uh they dads do what dads do, and uh the other day, I know it's a daily grind.

I saw, you know, dads go out mowing lawns and fixing stuff around the house, and they work and they do all these things.

But the other day I was out watching my son Judah play soccer, and this is one of the dads from our church, son's on the same team, taking care of his son who's on the field playing soccer, having to entertain the girls who are on the sideline, so he let them paint him, they let them paint his nails, his toenails, and it kept them totally occupied.

Let me tell you, he has the most glittering toenails right now, and he may actually be here still helping out down.

Oh, there he is, Jeremy, right on.

If you'd like to see some toenails later, yes, there's still, I think they paint the toe.

It's toenail polish, but I think it's just toe polish because when I look like frostbite.

Yeah, it's awesome.

It looks like frostbite.

That's funny.

Um so there are some great dads and in our church, and I'm so appreciative to be surrounded by such great men.

Uh, this week was an important week for Canadians.

You know what I'm talking about?

Uh this is the the Raptors are the the Raptors are the tr the Canadian champions.

In the heart of God 24 years ago, a basketball team was called out to bring back our national sport.

Do you know the Canadians invented basketball?

And it's coming back prophetically.

It's coming back, it's coming back here.

The the what is this what is their their trophy called?

Do they have a name for the trophy?

What's it called?

It is coming back, that's right.

And uh it's wonderful.

So it's been a good, it's a oh, like we lost our hockey cup, but we gained the basketball trophy.

And so that's what we're gonna we're gonna keep believing for.

Canada's gonna become basketball driven.

Right on.

Speak it.

Hold on to it, right?

For next year.

We're all gonna be praying for the Raptors.

As we approach summer coming up, uh, as I know that a lot of things are winding down for families, school's winding down, and and uh weather's coming.

It's just really nice out there, and I know uh it's attractive out there, and I know that people are taking holidays and they're traveling, and I know that there's so much opportunity, especially in this region of Kelowna, where it's known for its recreation.

We're the Miami of the North.

This is like we are on a beach, we're living on a beach, and this is a beautiful place to live.

And uh I always want to remind the church, and because I have to be reminded, okay, to keep first things first and to put the first things, make the first things the first things.

And I'm always reminded of uh Psalm 27, 4, where it says this it says, This one thing I ask, David said, This only do I seek.

I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord, to seek him in his temple.

And sometimes I think we can step back from this.

But the Bible says, better is one day in the house of the Lord than a thousand elsewhere.

It's so important for us to not get distracted by by other things, by making other things first.

You remember, and I I understand people love to travel and people love to go and they love to camp, and that's all great.

But I'm just asking, when you're here in Kelowna, when you're here at home and you've got opportunity, you come into the house of God.

You come into the house of God, you gaze on the beauty of the Lord, you you seek God first, you put him first.

It's important because this is where we spend our time, this is where we place our value, this is where we find ourselves.

This is this church isn't a corporation, it's not a someone owns this place.

This place belongs to the Lord.

And it belongs to you to come in and make prayer requests and make uh like press in in this place.

Come to know Jesus in a deeper way this summer.

That would be my heart for you.

Come in and be hungry and be thirsty.

And when you come to church on a Sunday morning, come prayed up and come ready to give of yourself for something that's great.

Amen?

Amen.

Together we're gonna do great things this year.

Uh, there's value to being here today, there's value by fellowshipping together.

And it's a relationship with God is so important when you're a part of the community.

But I like to talk to you today about what happens when you're doing everything kind of by the book.

Okay, you're putting God first, you're making the first thing the first thing.

You're dwelling in the house of the Lord, you're you're gazing on his beauty, you're putting him first.

And all those things happen, and you still find yourself off course.

You still find yourself pulled into a place where you didn't intend to be.

I remember one time I was uh I was swimming with some of my friends, we were in the ocean, and we were snorkeling, so you're you're underwater, and you've got your snorkel, and and you're just swimming, you're chasing fish, and you're just having a good time.

I remember I was with all my buddies, and we're all underwater, and we're just making signals to each other, etc.

And at one point, we picked our head out of the water, and we didn't realize that the undertow that you couldn't see when you were looking from the beach, you didn't see it.

But underneath there was something pulling you out.

And I realized at one point that we were being pulled out, and all of a sudden the beach looked like a long ways away.

We were down shore, I could see where my wife and the family were, and and all the kids were on the beach, and I just I got a hold of my friends and we're like, we gotta turn around and we gotta swim back from where we came from because our heads were down, we were underwater, we were being pulled by the current.

And sometimes in our life we're doing everything that we think to do, it's right, but we get pulled off.

We end up in in dangerous territory in unknown waters, and we need to know how to find our way back.

Great men and women find themselves experiencing these pressures, these challenges in their life.

Just because you ex you experience it doesn't make you any less.

We all experience pressure, we all experience what it's like to be under the pressure.

And the only way to overcome these pressure is by finding strength in those times.

Finding strength to overcome, finding strength to be victorious when everything else is squeezing you in.

So, this message title today I'd like to share with you.

If you're taking notes, and I hope you are, studies say 98% of people who take notes go to heaven.

That's what it says.

So, but the title of this sermon is called You Got This.

You got this.

Turn to your neighbor and tell them, you've got this.

You got this, you got this, you got this.

You really gotta know that in your heart.

You got this.

It's gonna be okay.

You got this.

When you're under pressure, you got this.

It's gonna be okay.

Don't give up, don't retreat, don't pull back, don't recede.

Like, don't give up anything, but press in because you've got this.

I believe God's purpose and call for family, God's purpose and call for people is that we move forward and that we advance the kingdom.

We're not part of a retreating church.

We're the church that takes on the gates of hell.

The gates of hell can't prevail against this church.

We're built on a rock.

Amen?

We're not built on the sand.

The sand pulls away everything.

When the pressure and the and the storms come, which the Bible says they come to both people, the just and the unjust.

But when it comes to you, the Bible says the one whose house is built on a rock is what the stands.

And we want to be the church that's established on that rock and that that faith and that confidence in Jesus, where we say, we're not gonna give up, we're not gonna allow anything to take out our foundation.

So let me read to you from 1 Samuel chapter 30.

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

It starts off as a story with of David.

And David and his men reached Zikleg.

Zikleg was David's home.

Zikleg was uh the name Zikleg actually means under pressure.

It means a place that's measured, that has pressure on it.

It's been pressured.

So David is living in this place where he's going to experience pressure.

And on the so the men reached Zikleg, they're coming back from battle.

David and his 600 mighty men coming back from battle to Zikleg, their home.

Now their enemy had raided the Negev and Zikleg, they attacked Zikleg, and this is what they did to Zikleg.

They burned it.

And it taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old.

They killed none of them, but carried them off as if they were the loot.

When David and his men reached Zikleg, they found it destroyed by fire, their wives, their sons, their daughters taken captive.

So David and his men did what anyone would do.

When if faced with this kind of tragedy, man, my enemy has my family, my enemy has my daughter, my home is dead, my home's been burned, my kids have been kidnapped, my wives, many of them, are gone.

All of them, which is another conversation we may want to have after service, but but they're gone.

Where do you go when this happens?

Where do you go when the largest tragedy you can experience happens?

Well, verse 6 says David was greatly distressed, and the whole community was weeping, and they were weeping aloud until they had nothing left to weep.

And they thought, his men thought about stoning him.

Each one of his men were bitter in spirit, angry, upset, because they too lost their sons and daughters.

But David found strength in the Lord.

His God.

David called and he called for what they called an ephod.

And it was where you would hold on to this.

It was like a chess plate, and you just ask God questions.

And his questions were, should we pursue them?

And God said, Go ahead, pursue them.

And he says, I'll give them all back to you.

None of them will be hurt.

And the Bible says that when they went after the enemy, they actually found out where they were.

They fought from that.

The men were so upset, so angry, that they fought from night of one day, all through the night, all through the morning the next day, into the evening of the next day.

And they took everything, not one piece of uh uh that was taken from their home was not found back and returned.

All their sons, all their daughters, all their wives, everyone came back home.

Amen?

That's a that's just like a whisper to me of God's restoration, restorative capacity.

But I believe that we have to be able to move forward in times of pressure.

Move forward, and it's unordinary to do this.

We want to react, but God's teaching us a different way here.

When we're under pressure, where do you find your strength?

Father, we thank you today for your word.

Your word's here to encourage us, build us, uh, strengthen us, make us more mature in our faith so that we can walk, Lord, in a greater spirit of authority.

And so today, Lord, we welcome your word.

Welcome it to transform us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So you've got this.

You've got this.

Doesn't matter what you're facing, you've got this.

I don't know what every person in this room every ch is facing, every challenge you may be facing.

It may be your children, it may be uh finance, it may be health, it may be uh environment at work, but you've got this.

You can move through.

The strength that we find, the Bible talks about it, it's the joy of the Lord.

It becomes your strength.

This joy, this capacity to be encouraged and to find strength in times of pressure.

God, uh David wrote this about in the Psalms about God's position when it comes to pressure.

And God, God's position is Psalms 2.

The Bible says he's seated on a throne and he looks down on his creation and he finds kings and queens plotting against him.

He finds nations conspiring against him, he finds people banding together against him, he finds the whole world railing and threatening him.

And the Bible says God sits in confidence and he laughs at the at the people that are.

Insulting at him and conspiring against him.

Because he understands what pressure is, and the confidence he has is in who he is and what he's capable of doing.

So the pressures in life don't just disappear.

In fact, Jesus said, don't be surprised.

In this world, you'll find troubles.

You'll find pressure.

It'll come to you.

So be reminded what you need to do and to do what David did.

I find this scripture, though, in one sense, it's very, oh man, so such a blessing to read.

Man, David, in the time of the greatest tragedy of his life, presumably at that point, he encouraged himself in the Lord, and then there's a period, full stop.

And I'm like, God, could you just expand on that a little bit more?

Like, how did he do it?

How did he encourage himself in the Lord?

How did he find courage in God in tough times so that I can do it?

Because I'm a man.

I like like simple instructions, right?

A, B, C, D, 1 plus 1 equals 2.

Like it makes sense to me, I'll do it.

But I don't see how David actually encouraged himself in the Lord here.

So I went back into David's story, his writings and Psalms.

And one of his Psalms he writes out is Psalms 121.

And he says this: he says, My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel won't sleep or slumber.

It's God.

He says, Where does my help come from?

The mountains?

He says, No, my help comes from the one who made the mountains.

Shade on my right hand, who protects me from my right and from my left, who doesn't sleep, who's always watching over me.

You see, David had to learn confidence.

He needed to learn how to encourage himself in who God was and bring it into his now, his present.

And if it's one of the challenges I could have for everyone in this room, but men today, I would say learn the discipline of encouraging yourself.

Don't look at your wife to encourage you.

Don't wake up and expect your wife will just, you're gonna do great.

The Lord is good, he's gonna help you through the day.

Every challenge, you're gonna have the answer.

Every obstacle, you're gonna have strength to overcome it.

It's just, it may not happen.

It may, you know, with in some of your families.

But you might not get it, though.

But you need to know how to encourage yourself in the Lord.

When no one else is there, how do you rally your spirit?

Is it easy?

Is it quick?

Are you capable?

Is it fresh?

Is it right away?

Is it immediate in your heart?

Or do you have to dig it up and think about it?

Or are you ready when the time comes to encourage yourself in the Lord?

I love what David did.

He had to live this as a practice.

He walked in encouraging himself in the Lord.

He went when the lion and the bear came, he's he just reminded Saul at times, you know, I'm he just encouraged himself.

I'm I got this.

You know that Goliath, one time a lion came, I took him out.

One time a bear came, I took him out.

I can take out Goliath, I can do it.

He encouraged himself in the Lord even in those moments, even when he went before Goliath.

He stepped back from Goliath.

And Goliath is challenging him and insulting him, and you're a dog, and I'm gonna feed you to the birds and to the animals.

I'm gonna do all these things to you.

And David's like, watch your tongue.

Oh, I love it when he does it.

He encourages himself in the Lord.

Watch yourself, you uncircumcised Philistine.

He's like, he just calls them out.

I love it.

Like, you haven't got the covenant with God.

I have the covenant with God.

What are you talking about?

I'm capable here.

I'm the one who's got the shade on the right hand and who watches me on the left.

And watch out.

I am gonna knock you out and I'm gonna cut off your head.

And everyone's like, with what, David?

Like all the soldiers, like, what?

You've got like a sling and a sharp rock, maybe a smooth rock, not even a sharp one.

Like he found five smooth stones.

He had nothing.

And he's telling Goliath, I'm gonna take your own sword and take off your head.

When I was a kid, the my I loved David and Goliath, and I remember reading this one like cartoon Bible, and it showed Goliath, like the Bible was really graphic.

He David, a young man, cuts off his head and lifts it up.

I'm thinking, oh, that's so gross.

That's my favorite story.

But he did it.

He used Goliath's own sword.

He came after Goliath, he encouraged himself in that moment.

I know what encouragement is like.

My dad, one time at men's camp at Kettle Valley, there's a big bridge, a trestle over a river.

And people were jumping off the trestle into the river.

And my dad was down below when I was about 10 years of age.

And I'm looking down at this river running underneath this bridge.

It's probably like to me, it was like a hundred feet high.

It probably was only like 40 feet or so.

It was still pretty high.

And I'm looking down, and my dad's down below yelling up at me, encouragement.

You're gonna die.

No, don't do it.

No, he he's yelling at me.

He's like, come on, jump, you can do it.

And I'm like, I had to encourage myself.

You know, they can say whatever they want to say, but you've you're the one who's got to move, right?

And I'm like, oh, and I'm just like, people are waiting behind you, and you all know what it's like to be on a high board when you were a kid.

Like you're looking down, it's like tunnel vision, it's like way down there, and I can see the water going underneath me, and it's points, it was clear, and I could see rocks down below, and there's fish swimming.

I'm like, I'm not jumping down there.

My mom would never let me do this, but my dad is like, do it! Come on, you can do it.

I'll give you five bucks, I'll get you a new fishing rod, but you have to do it in three, two, and I was like, ah! It was that one step, you know, where you just, you know, you pass the point of no return, and you just leaned in that little bit too much, and you're like, I'm going.

And I remember I remember wearing a life jacket.

The worst thing.

You hit the water in a life jacket, and your arms just go like right through the life jacket.

But I remember that encouragement.

You needed that.

And sometimes, man, we need people in our life who are able to encourage us.

Jesus says, in this world you'll have troubles, but be of good cheer.

You're not alone.

You've got a spirit inside of you.

Encourage.

You get a spirit that's in Christ and it's courage to you.

And that courage is going to lift you out and take you beyond what you need to accomplish.

You have two choices when you're in a place of pressure, a place of challenge.

You have two choices to challenge or to run.

And our tendency is to actually ignore the pressure, be in a state of denial.

Like I was looking at uh the illustration of this ostrich.

And ostriches are pretty amazing.

I still I should have figured this out between surfaces.

I don't know if it's a bird or a mammal, like it's massive.

I think it's a bird.

Is it an ostrich a bird?

Someone Google something for me, okay?

I got it now.

I'm lost.

But uh this bird, this massive bird, which is really quite strong and quite like solid, like they're big animals.

And uh this bird, though, has eyes that are super like the size of cue balls.

That their brain is so small that even though these majestic birds are just can run super fast, they can just motor.

When a predator starts chasing them, the bird just takes off, the ostrich takes off and runs in a full circle.

Right back to the predator.

We'll run around, the predator will run, stop, and the bird will right back to where the predator is.

When they first discovered them, the first one who discovered them, he he wrote about them, these birds, these majestic birds, that when you spook them, they just put their head in a thicket.

And they think that if you can't see them, then they're safe.

And they just lay there.

You've heard the expression like where they put their head in the sand and they just bury their head like, oh, thank goodness I'm safe now.

They would just go and club them, right?

These birds were so wonderful, they have the capacity, but they would operate out of a reaction.

And their natural reaction is just to run in a circle instead of stopping like David did and say, okay, how do I actually take that next step to move on?

How do I not use what I see with my big cue ball eyes as danger and think, get overwhelmed by the devastation?

Your city's burned, your kids are gone, your wives are gone, your all your stuff is gone, and everyone wants to kill you.

How are you not overwhelmed?

Stop.

Gaze on the beauty of God.

Take a breath and start to encourage yourself.

The worst thing, like it's the hardest time to do it, is when you're in that situation.

Okay, God.

You're gonna come through.

Things are gonna be okay.

We're gonna make it.

We're gonna be okay.

Lord, you're with us.

No weapon formed against us will prosper.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Right on.

Come on.

I'm not alone.

You're we're with me.

You're the shade on my right hand.

Your angels encompass around me.

You're like a shield before me.

Your name's a strong tower.

I can run into it.

I'm gonna be okay.

And you run into the name of the Lord.

And the Bible says that he went into that place, and when he walked out, he walked out confident.

And no one stoned him and no one killed him, and he recovered all that was taken.

So this happens in our life, and Paul, Paul was the same way.

In the middle of being in prison, in the middle of a prison cell in Rome, he's speaking encouragement to the church.

Hey, let your joy be like my joy in here.

He's not in like the four seasons.

This is like prison, third world prison.

And he's sitting in the prison writing letters.

Hey, isn't this wonderful?

We get to celebrate our trials and our troubles.

Find your joy, make it complete.

Find it, make it complete like me.

Philippians says it this way: he says, if you have any encouragement, if you want encouragement, remember he's writing this, from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, make my joy complete by being like-minded, return to the same love, have one spirit, one mind, walk in humility, recognize all that God has done for us, encourage yourself.

That's why Paul, when he went to prison, people got saved.

People came to know Jesus because they're like, how is he doing that?

He you remember the one time he was in the darkest core prison, chains, chained feet, chained hands, and he starts singing songs of thanksgiving.

Well, I thank you, Lord, that you are my savior.

You know, like it's like you bring times of refreshing to my soul.

It's like, come on.

He's singing until it just like the chains broke off.

This is not a game.

This is how you survive.

This joy isn't how you get rid of the trouble, it's how you pursue, how you get through trouble, how you it enables you and empowers you that in your trouble, God is there for you with joy if you would stop and encourage yourself in the Lord.

Strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Lord, you're with me, you're for me.

Come on, we can do this.

You can do this.

Like, it's not overwhelming, you can do this.

So this is what moves us, and we need to make the choice to rejoice.

It's choosing to rejoice.

Choosing to rejoice, it means your words, your actions, your activity in trouble.

You choose to smile.

Even though some dads are really grumpy, and I've been there where I just like down and just like, oh boy.

Wives are like nudging their husbands.

Oh, I think you the Lord's speaking to you right now.

I feel it.

But you know, there's the grumpiness, and it's down, it's like, what have we got to live for?

And it's like, no, you make a choice to rejoice, choose to come back to joy, choose strength.

So I want to talk to you just the fathers for a little bit, but and take this all together.

That dads, you matter.

And I don't know if dads realize how much they matter.

Uh secular studies, uh, children who are involved with their father, have fathers who are involved in their families, they're less likely to drop out of school, they engage in in um, they're less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors.

They they don't break the law, they're more likely to have higher IQs, they're they pursue healthy relationships.

Their daughters don't battle with depression.

Their daughters have their relationships with food, relationships with their identity are healthy and strong.

Now, I don't want to disqualify mothers today, but there's something powerful about a father.

There's something powerful about a father.

And and this isn't, this doesn't happen with mothers.

This happens with fathers.

When fathers speak into the life of a child, there's a difference that's made.

And the greatest gift you can do as a father, dad, is to actually show your kids to Christ.

Show them the way to have a relationship with God.

Demonstrate that, showcase that.

The father, if he goes to church, uh there's a study done, 66 to 70 percent of the children, like the fathers who regularly attend church, 66 to 70 percent of their children will continue to go to church.

If they see it's a value with their dad, they will then continue.

Uh, if you want a surefire way to guarantee that your kids will drift from God, stop coming to church.

It's really as simple as that.

You want to make sure that your kids stay on track and stay committed in the house of God, you get to church.

You come to church, you continue to be and remain faithful.

Don't skip church.

You have influence in your family's life.

If a child comes to Christ, the the uh the is the first person in the household.

So if a child is the first person in the house to come to Christ, the probability is three and a half percent that the rest of the family will come to Christ.

It's pretty great.

It's it's important for us to reach children with the with the gospel because when they come to Christ, the probability is three and a half percent of the families, their whole family will come to know Christ.

If the mother comes to know Christ is the first person in her household to come to know Christ, the probability of her family coming to Christ goes up exponentially, it goes up to 17%.

So if the mother comes to know Christ, the probability is 17% of the families will come to know Christ as well.

If dad is the first person in the household, if the father is the first person in the household to receive Christ, the probability of their family coming to know Christ, 93%.

Men, you matter.

Dads, you matter.

You we need dads to take hold of the gospel, take hold of the message and run with it.

Because when dads serve Christ, their families serve Christ.

When dads make a decision to follow, the household makes a decision to follow.

So we need strong dads and strong men who become dads and uncles and grandfathers to continue to hold this, hold this way.

Father, we thank you today for your message, your word, Lord, today, to rejoice and to make the choice of rejoicing.

And today, Father, we choose you.

We choose you first.

We make the first thing the first thing.

To spend our days in your house, to dwell in your temple, to gaze on your beauty.

And Lord, today, we pray for the men in the house.

The men here today, Lord, that you would fire them up.

Lord, you would teach them how to encourage themselves every day.

Whether they're coming off the bed sheet, off the pillow, their head comes off the pillow, if they're in their vehicle, if they're in their job, sitting on their chair, wherever there may be, if the student is sitting in this classroom, Lord, I pray for an encouraging spirit that they would find their courage and their strength in you, that they would be better because of you and what you have for them.

We ask this in the name of Jesus.

We thank you, Holy Spirit, for your presence with us and the beauty of who you are.

You're wonderful, you're awesome, you're there for us all the time.

And we thank you today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Thank you for listening.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.