Easter Countdown | Part 2 | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center Podcast.

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

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How many of you enjoying the spring break?

This uh la spring season.

I'm glad to see some families who are away.

Some of them are coming back a little darker.

I see Ryan Dockrell there shining like the sun from Hawaii, and his family is back, and uh others that are back from the uh back from their holidays.

It's great to have everyone here.

Well, we're coming down to Easter.

Easter, it's the Easter countdown.

This is something that has been on my heart.

I like there are people who have their favorite holidays and their favorite times of the year to celebrate.

I love to celebrate Easter.

I think there's nothing better than celebrating the fact that we move from death to life.

Amen?

That's awesome that we move from like from carrying a weight of sin to being free because of something that we didn't even do.

Jesus did for us on our behalf.

There was nothing that I could have done to absolve myself from the weight of sin, but Jesus did it for me.

On that day, Jesus went to the cross, he paid the penalty for my sin.

He was buried and he went and he robbed hell of all the power that it could hold up against me forever, eternally.

He robbed hell and so that I could actually move free in my life and move free today.

And so today I walk in that freedom.

How many of you are walking in that same freedom today?

That's awesome.

So he is risen, and and uh this is our story, this is our message that we're sharing with the world today is that he is risen, and there is fresh hope, and there is fresh opportunity because of Jesus.

So we go out into the world, and this is the Easter countdown.

Number one, we go and we we take personal responsibility.

Last week we talked about this personal responsibility that each of us carry.

Uh someone wrote me on Facebook, uh, Norm Sawyer jotted a quick message while I, I think it was while I was preaching, perhaps.

So that's always fun when your phone goes off and you're like, you should add this to your message, right?

But he's saying shepherds don't bear sheep.

Sheep bear lambs.

It's the responsibility of the sheep to bear sheep, not the shepherd to bear sheep.

So it's our responsibility.

We don't weigh it on the the shoulders of the pastoral team, and we don't create a church culture or a church system that says, uh, pastoral team, you take care of reaching people for Jesus.

Hey, and you know what?

I've been, I've contributed to that negative culture.

I've said, you know, hey, young people, bring your friends to church.

Uh we're having this event, bring some, bring a neighbor, bring, bring someone from your family.

You bring people to the church, and we're saying, everyone bring them here so that I can do something.

I can speak, instead of saying, hey, you go and you share the message and make it less about preaching and more about you sharing the gospel with your community.

So the preaching is important.

The preaching of the message is important.

How many of you like the preaching?

That's right.

Amen.

We're an expressive church, right?

When you you like the preaching because there's the word of God does something in us.

But it's about sharing the gospel that we carry that responsibility ourselves.

Secondly, we build personal relationships.

We look to the world around us and we say, Lord, who have you brought our way that you've called us to to actually communicate and share my story, which is the third point, share our personal story with.

And then we go ahead and we make that personal invitation.

It's a personal, it's a personal process, it's a personal message, it's a personal responsibility that we take on ourselves.

So as we're approaching Easter, which is one of the times of the year that uh where people are open to the message of the gospel, but it's also a time where they're expecting and anticipating what is the church gonna do for Easter?

What is the message that's gonna be heralded around the world today at Easter?

And we're a part of that message.

So we take personal relationships and we look at our personal relationships, and this is where we're gonna land today, and this is a message that's been on my heart to share with you as a church.

Um, I'll have you know that as I prepare these messages, oftentimes these messages that I prepare aren't just messages for uh for you, they're messages that apply to me as well.

And the element is I have to go through it before you go through it.

God takes me through this process to help lead you through this process.

So we're gonna open up in prayer before we begin.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word.

We thank you for the message today.

Lord, we believe that you're here to speak to us through your through the scripture and through uh through your oracle today, and we ask that as we hear the message, Lord, not only would our minds be open, but our hearts would be open to receive it as well.

Lord, to be able to transform us and move us forward, Lord, to live more like you.

In Jesus' name.

Everyone agreed?

Said amen.

Amen.

Um, relationships, personal relationships and are just that.

They're they're relationships that God places in your life that you otherwise wouldn't have.

I believe that when God wants to bless you, he sends people around you.

He wants to create, and in this room today, there are personal social networks, relationships that if you were to look at the reach of them, it would be astounding.

Each of us, each has a circle, each of us has a reach, and there are people that you can connect with that I would never be able to connect with.

There are people that God has brought into your world to reach.

Now, I'm open now, and I again, like I said, I'm thinking about this message throughout the week.

I'm prepping myself throughout the week.

Lord, who are you bringing my way?

Who are you bringing into my world?

Who are you, who do you have that you've placed on my heart as a passion for?

And uh earlier this week I was uh moving to a meeting, had a little bit of time, and I thought, you know what?

I'm gonna stop by Princess Auto, I'm gonna change out my windshield wiper blades, I'm gonna change out this burnt-out headlight, uh headlamp I had in my car.

And I rolled in in my Toyota Camry.

And uh this Camry, it's been a faithful car.

And uh this guy, I go in, I buy the items, and I'm just making the changes in the parking lot at Princess Auto.

And this fellow sitting on the back of his tailgate, you know, just watching me work on the vehicle.

And I don't know how long he had been sitting there.

It looked like he was having dinner.

He may have even lived in the back of the vehicle.

I don't know, but he he just that became his world right there.

And I'm I've got a time schedule, so I thought, you know, I'm gonna, if I'm gonna start this job, I'm just gonna get it done before I move on to my next meeting.

And he starts conversation with me.

And of course, I'm like working, and he's talking to me.

That's a really nice car you got there.

I'm like, yeah, it's great.

My grandparents gave it to me.

It's free, it's wonderful.

I'm blessed, too blessed to be stressed with this Camry.

It'll never break down, right?

It's Toyota, and uh he's like, that's a beautiful car.

Nice color.

I'm like, yeah, baby blue is great.

It's wonderful.

He's like, that's a nice color.

Yeah, you know, these cars will go forever.

I'm like, I'm hoping not.

Like uh, like it's only got 170,000 kilometers or something on this car, and he's like, it's great, man, that's a great, it'll run forever.

All the taxi drivers drive this car, and I just wanted him to be quiet.

I just want them to be quiet.

And in the back of my mind, I'm listening to my message that I just prepared.

Brody, it's your job to establish personal relationships.

And I'm like, oh God, you would have me bring me this guy of all people, please.

And he just starts talking and talking about this car.

And I just said, Yeah, it's a great car, it'll run forever.

How many kilometers?

All these, looking in the engine, I'm thinking, I gotta go.

And I just finally said, Okay, Lord, you brought them to me.

And then he stops and he says, You're married, right?

I'm like, Yeah, he goes, Good thing, because you'll never pick up chicks with this car.

Oh.

That is someone that you have given someone at KCC the ministry of reaching.

My heart got immediately hardened to him.

But there are people in life that you will reach out to, people in your family, your neighborhood, perhaps even your tribe.

I I think of the Ukrainian families in the church here who have this huge community.

I think of my uh my friend the Francis's, you know, the native community and the First Nations people.

And I think about the communities that are in the world today that I wouldn't be able to reach into, but you can.

You can reach into those worlds.

And I'm not called to connect with all people, but I can connect with the ones that God has called me to connect with.

It's my challenge, it's my responsibility.

It's it's God's purpose in me to reach into that world.

And so I'm reaching into that place to bring those people who are far from God, bring them that one step closer.

And it might be the people that you're connected with in terms of your like archery groups, and and I know that there are people in the church here who are involved in mechanics, and they've got a language that you will reach the people in that world.

That I just don't have that same language.

That's why God has called you to be a minister.

Turn to your neighbor and say, you've been called to be a minister.

You're a minister.

We've got 300 ministers in the house today.

We haven't got one minister in the church.

We've got 300 ministers that are in this place.

I remember a time that I went to Spring Valley Middle School to act as a coach.

And I was coaching the uh volleyball teams, the basketball teams, and I, you know, you walk into these places and you feel like a dinosaur, right?

You feel like, oh man, do I fit in?

This is just not my world.

And I remember pushing through that space and saying, No, I believe God, you've called me into this space.

And at that point in time, I started reaching out to the grade nines of that school.

And by the end of the year, I was I had a list of all their names, and I was praying for each one every day.

Had my phone, had it in a notepad, I go through their names, and by the end of the year, I wrote them all a card.

And you know, there's something that happens when you pray for someone, God gives you insight into that person.

And I began to write each of them cards, and each of those cards was a prophetic mandate over their life.

And I remember there were tears, and kids were just responding to the message that I had just shared over a simple card, just saying, just encouraging them into the next part of their life.

Even today, I still have students that are connecting with me that were part of those simple teams.

God brings you into people's lives.

Let me read you today from Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Paul begins to share, and he shares in the first few script, first three verses that I'm just gonna land on.

He says, This, I speak the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying.

My conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.

I have great sorrow, unceasing anguish in my heart.

I could wish myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.

He was talking about this great sorrow, this unceasing anguish that he carries.

Great sorrow, unceasing anguish.

And it made me think when the last time I actually wept for the people, had sorrow, had anguish in my heart for the people that God had brought into my world.

It really made me think about it.

Who am I reaching into?

Where am I reaching into?

Into whose life am I so connected that my heart, my emotion, my heart is connected to them.

I've got when they feel sorrow, I feel sorrow.

When they feel anguish, I feel anguish.

When I feel a consideration where their eternity is, I feel it.

I own it.

It's in me, it's on me.

And I get it, our lives are busy and and our lives are full of so many things that we do, our holidays and and what other people have and what we have, and fixing our cars and going about our life and taking care of our needs, but I really need to be reminded of the heart of God for people.

That it really is what pleases God that matters.

It's not about me in this life.

It's not about what makes Brody happy, it's what pleases God.

It's what really matters.

That's why the church is not about me.

When I come to church on Sunday, it's not about me.

It's about pleasing God.

So I don't come because I feel like it.

I come because I'm honoring God.

I'm honoring God in my worship and the word.

I bring my gift.

I assemble as part of the church because together we're better.

And so I get up and I move and I show up and I sit down and I take a seat and I connect with the body because I it's not about me, it's about what pleases God.

And what pleases God is is demonstrated in one of Jesus' parables where he's talked about the nine, the hundred sheep, and the shepherd lost one.

So he left the 99 to look for that one sheep that was lost.

And I think about that one sheep, I go, God, you're saying that you'd be willing to leave the other 99 to go after the one because everyone matters.

Everyone matters, every soul matters, and you want everyone to be a part of your family.

The family of God does not leave others out.

It embraces the community, it embraces the world.

And so I look at this and I think about Jesus, and I think about the same sorrow that Paul had, where he had great anguish and great sorrow, and I think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the scripture says he literally was weeping to the place where he was, it was like drops of blood were coming off of him.

The sweat was there, the because he was willing to lay his life down for other people.

He knew it was going to be torturous, he knew it was going to be painful, he knew it was going to be something that he could remove himself from the agony of.

So how do you get that heart?

How do you have the heart like Jesus had?

Have the heart that Paul had.

Well, I believe it starts in prayer.

I believe that the only way you can reset your heart and move your heart forward, it needs to happen in the place of prayer.

And when you step into a conversation with God and you begin to talk to God, all of a sudden the things that matter to God begin to matter to you.

And what matters to God are people.

It doesn't matter to God what car you drive.

98 Toyota Camry, it doesn't matter.

It matters to me.

Sometimes bless him, Lord.

Princess Otto guy.

Bless him.

But one of the few times I read in scripture where Jesus actually wept, where he was moved with compassion, is the Bible says he was standing and he looked over the crowd.

He said, They're like sheep without a shepherd.

They're lost.

And he said, This is the first thing you need to do.

You need to pray.

Pray.

Pray because the fields are white unto harvest.

And he's saying, Pray that the Lord sends out harvesters who will go out into the field and collect those who are lost.

The harvest is ripe.

Just go out and get them.

Pray for harvest hands.

Pray for these harvesters.

And sometimes I need help to pray.

Sometimes I need to be aware of eternal lostness in people.

Jesus said, I look over them and they're lost.

Do you know that you and I in the church, we believe in the lostness of people?

We actually believe that there's an eternity where people can be separated from God.

Eternally separated from God.

We believe that here.

And yet sometimes we act as if we don't really believe it.

Because if we really believed it, we would be going out spending any effort, any put ourselves in any uncomfortable place to be able to reach as many as we can for those people.

It means me sticking it out with a Princess Auto guy instead of driving away.

Honestly.

How easy is it to push someone away?

How easy is it for you just to turn your face?

Like, I read with my kids these simple children's stories, and they just talk to me all the time.

Like, the basics, the good Samaritan, I'm too important.

I've got things to do.

I'm too busy.

I don't want to be un I don't want to be unclean.

I don't want to touch something that's dirty.

And yet the Samaritan stopped and he actually helped the man.

So who did the right thing?

Not the priest, not the perfect, not the businessman, even though they were great people, it was the one who actually did something about it that made the difference.

So know the lostness.

My wife is better at that than me.

She hears a notice of like someone who's lost, and she like thinks about it.

Like in life.

Like someone's missing.

She she's like wakes up in the next morning, checks.

Did they find that person?

I could care less sometimes.

Honestly, I like I don't think about it.

My wife is thinking about it.

Brody, they haven't found that person yet.

I'm like, well, I Natalie, this is kind of like putting a damper on the morning.

Like, well, I'm lost.

The person's lost, Brody.

Does that matter to you?

And I'm like, yeah, it should, shouldn't it?

If I was lost, I'd hope someone was looking for me.

I need to reset my life by committing to the local church.

Listen, it's so simple.

If you're not committed to the local church, there is no way you're going to invite someone else to commit to the local church.

You're not going to tell someone else to value something that you don't value.

So when you demonstrate, I don't value the local church, I don't value showing up, I don't value lending my talent and my serving in my place of capability.

If you don't show that, then other people won't write, you won't call someone else to do it.

It would be hypocritical of you, so you're not going to do it and demonstrate your hypocrisy.

I'm not going to tell someone else to eat clean if I'm not willing to eat clean.

Why would I tell someone else to do something that I'm not doing myself?

The Bible says that if you want to be blessed, if you want to flourish, the Bible says those people who are rooted in the house of God, who have roots that go deep in the house of God, they flourish in the courts of God.

It's where you are planted is where you'll bear fruit.

Where you're planted is where you'll flourish.

Where you're planted is where you'll grow.

Where you're planted, there's none of this.

And this is a problem in Kelowna.

Oh, uproot, move to somewhere else, plant there, uproot, move somewhere else, plant there, and you can see this system in Kelowna.

And I've been here 35 years, and I've been in ministry here over 20 years.

I've watched as people bounce between church to church to church, and where you're planted is where you'll flourish.

What happens with a lot of families, unfortunately, and I'm just being honest with you, they get up and they move, and they get up and they move and they move around, and you know who they who loses?

The children.

Their family.

They give up all the equity that was in the soil of the place where they were planted.

They get uprooted and they lose all that equity.

And then they get planted somewhere else and they they try and bond, and it just doesn't happen.

And I understand sometimes it's uncomfortable to be in a place where people get to know you.

And we we love it for the first bit, you know, the social network, the social impression, everything's perfect, everything's good.

But then after people get to know you, you're like, whoa, this is getting a little uncomfortable.

Let's pick up and go.

Let's move.

You need to commit.

Commit.

I'll I'll live.

I'll I'll I'll grow here.

I'll flourish here.

This is the place where I'll demonstrate, I'll see God move in this place.

I'm gonna show up every day, every Sunday for the sake of assembling together, because people are gonna rely on me to be here.

They're gonna come because they'll know I'm here.

So they're gonna demonstrate that.

Uh we also need to carry this incredible love.

And it's incredible love because I don't know if you really read that scripture.

Maybe we can go back to it, uh that one scripture in Romans, but if you read this like we just read it, but if you really read this scripture, the passage Paul wrote here, you'll struggle with this.

And to be honest, I struggle with it a lot.

Paul said this, he said, let me read it.

I speak the truth in Christ, I'm not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.

I have great sorrow, great unceasing anguish in my heart.

I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, for the people of Israel.

And I look at this and I think, Paul, you did not actually just say that.

You wish that you could be cut off from Christ for the sake of someone else?

Like, I love Anthony.

I really do.

But man, for me to give up my eternal salvation so Anthony, so it's secured that Anthony gets to heaven?

That's a big step.

And so I thought about, I'm like, well, surely, like, would I be able to, would I be willing to give up my the place where I'm at right now for the sake of Princess Otto guy?

Paul, come on, you really didn't mean that, did you?

You you don't really mean you would count yourself cursed, cut off from Christ for the sake of Israel's, your people in Israel.

And he says this.

Now, read the first few verses here, or the first few verse.

It says, I speak the truth, I am not lying, the Holy Spirit witnesses with my conscience.

Three times he actually verifies what he's saying here.

He's saying, No, honestly, honestly, I'm I speak the truth, I'm not lying.

The Holy Spirit witnesses with me, guarantees what I'm saying.

I would count, I have unceasing anguish.

I have terror, I have struggled with this every day.

I'm carrying it.

And I love people.

But do I love people like that?

Everything in us says, no way.

You can't do that.

But Paul carried this, and he says, I think about it when I'm I'm driving, when I'm having breakfast, and I think about it when I'm on my way to church, I think about it when I'm grabbing a coffee, I think about it when I'm in the middle of a business meeting, I think about it when I'm thinking about my children, I think about when I'm thinking of other people's children.

I'm thinking about it all the time.

I go to bed, I lay my head down, I'm thinking of people that they might know Christ.

They might know Christ.

They might know Christ.

And you look at his lifestyle, and it's it must be true.

Like you read in 2 Corinthians 11, it says, he was shipwrecked for that sake, he was imprisoned, he was stoned, he was whipped beyond the legal lit, illegal limit of whipping someone.

He was whipped that many times that they'd had they'd hold back on the last whip because it would be illegal.

They whipped him that much, he was left for dead, he was left uh you know, robbed, he was left wherever he went, in the country he wasn't safe, in the city he wasn't safe, he went all these places for people to win people, to relate and to bond and to connect with people.

So it didn't matter when he was in prison.

You know what was happening in prison?

People put him in prison.

So he's in prison with Timothy.

Guess what?

He reaches the jailers and all the other prisoners in the community there, leads them to a knowledge of Christ.

I'm gonna I'm not gonna move from prison because you're far from God, and I'm gonna help you find God.

And then he looks at a place where he's he's trapped on an island, and I that's one of the greatest stories.

I love reading it in scripture.

He's a prisoner, shipwrecked, lands on this island, and leads people, like leads the tribes on that island to Christ.

No matter where he's going, he's leading people.

Where every relationship, whether it was of his own volition or without, he was leading people to Christ.

Even and so much so that when he left, people were just weeping that he was gone.

Do I have that love for people?

Where people would weep for me on a beach, knowing that I'm leaving.

When I leave, they just don't want to go.

They just want to hold on to you.

I think there's so much more to loving people that we have yet to connect with.

We need to grow in, we need to trust God to help us.

Corinthians says this.

It says, I'm free and I belong to no one, but yet Paul says this.

I've been made myself a slave to everyone to win as many as I can.

To the Jew, I became a Jew.

To the Greek, I became a Greek.

To I've become all things to all people, to win as many as possible.

You know what's unfortunate about this verse is that in today's church culture, they take this verse to give them a license to sin.

Oh, the Bible says I can be here and do that because I just want to be this to reach these people.

And it absolves them of any type of responsibility.

But in fact, Paul was saying, listen, for the sake of the gospel, I made relationships, I made connections with people that were rich and deep.

And it didn't matter.

I didn't let my race come into the place, I didn't let my position came in.

To the businessman, I became a businessman.

To the poorer, I became poorer.

Like I kept, I reached so that as many people as I could reach, I could reach.

And as we count down to Easter today, I think about it and I think, Lord, how many, who do you want me to reach?

Who do you want me to take on not only personal responsibility, but develop a personal relationship with?

That's not about a person becoming a project.

It's like realizing that that person is important to God.

And because they're important to God, they become important to me.

That Father, would I have that that anguish and that sorrow to reach people?

Because without it, without it, what do I have?

People matter.

And I I just I know that this takes, it takes a process, and it takes like the Lord birthing something in our hearts, and and I know that it takes, may even take time, but I'm saying open your heart.

Open your heart to the Lord to say, Lord, just change me, move in me, challenge me, create in me something.

If it's a hardness, soften me up.

Lord, I want to see people the way you see people.

I want to reach people the way you want people to be reached.

Because when I get to heaven, I want there to be a group of people there saying, Hey, I came to know Christ because of you.

I came to know Christ because of you.

Amen.

Would you just bow your heads with me for a moment?

Father, we just thank you this morning for the heart that was in Jesus.

Thank you for the for the dedication that He had to reach me.

Thank you, Lord.

And that's why I worship, that's why I praise, that's why I give you thanks today, because I couldn't do it on my own.

I couldn't reach, I couldn't, I couldn't reach the Father.

But Jesus, you made a way to the Father.

And because of you, Jesus, I can boldly come and I can boldly become part of the family of God.

And Father, today I just I thank you for your son.

Thank you for Jesus.

Would you just say thank you to Jesus if that's you and that's in your heart?

Thank you for reaching me, for not overlooking me, for taking me into your heart and caring enough for me to send someone to speak to me about the gospel, about this message.

Thank you, Lord.

If you're with me today and you're hearing this message and you're saying, Pastor, I I know that there's a greater way.

I know that there's someone, a father in heaven.

I know there's someone who loves me and cares for me greater than I even do myself.

And and I want to know that person.

I want to know the one who would lay his life down for me.

I want to know the one who would give me a second chance, even though I've blown it and blown it and blown it and blown it.

I want to know the one who will give me opportunity to start fresh and become new again.

I'd like to lead you in a prayer of salvation.

And this prayer, it's just a simple prayer, but it has powerful impact.

The fact that when you pray this prayer, the Bible says you move from a place of death and you move into a place of life where before you were far from God, now you can be near to God.

And so today, if you're with me and you saying, I just want to pray that prayer.

I'm going to lead you in this prayer, and I'm just going to ask the congregation to just pray along with me for the sake of those who may be praying it today for the first time.

Would you just pray this together?

Heavenly Father, today is a day of new beginning.

I want to know you.

I want to know the love that you have for me.

I believe in Jesus Christ.

I believe He saved the world.

And right now, I give you my life from this day forward.

I choose to follow you.

I receive your love and this new beginning.

I turn from my sin and I follow you with all my heart.

Make me a new person.

Give me a new heart.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.