Back to the Start | Part Two | 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.

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

Something about the presence of God.

Isn't that something while worship just lifts the heart?

The worship lifts the heart.

When we start to just declare the truth of the of who God is and what he's done for us, it just uh opens up our heart into thanksgiving and our attention gets removed, removed off of the things that are holding us down and places it on him who's lifting us up.

The Bible says that we all we've all experienced what it's like to be our feet in miry clay, stuck, stuck.

And uh what that means to actually get out of that clay, get get pulled up and get pulled out of that place where you're stuck.

How many of you have ever been stuck before?

You've been stuck.

I remember I remember being up in the in up hunting with my dad, and my dad's a bit of an explorer by heart.

And he's always got like this idea that over the next mountain or over the next ridge or over the next road, uh, there's always something on the other side.

And I remember one time he had to leave the next morning.

He had a flight that was leaving, and he thought he could push through this snow, snowstorm, and through the snow, and he literally the snow, we were driving, and of course he was driving, and of course, his land cruiser could do go through anything, right?

That was his thought.

And the snow's going over the roof, over our the hood, over the um the windshield, and over the back.

And we were going, going, going, and eventually, you know what happened?

We got stuck.

And it was quite a like you're just sitting there in the middle of the snow, and of course, he had pushed way farther than he probably should have gone.

And and we started to think, oh Lord, help us.

Like the panic started to set in, the shovels came out, and we started digging our way out.

And the moment that truck finally, at that one point in time, it finally caught traction, and we backed out, there was a huge weight of relief that just came off my heart.

I was like, we're gonna get out of here, I'm gonna survive.

Like, we're gonna find our way out.

When you're stuck in a place that's like you just don't know how to get out, and someone comes by and helps you, and together you guys get traction, that's such a great feeling.

That's such a great experience to have.

And that's what we get when we're at church on a Sunday morning.

You come in, you may be weighed down with all sorts of things from the week, uh financial pressures, health pressures, relational pressures that are holding you and keeping you stuck.

And our hope is that this worship, you when you get into the presence of God, you get lifted up above those things.

Amen?

Amen.

Uh, before we begin, I just want you to know that I believe as a church, we believe in engagement.

Would you say that with me?

Engagement.

That's right.

So this service really isn't about me, it's about us together.

It's about us together coming to church and and gathering as one body.

When someone beside you may be feeling weak, you can become that shoulder as strength.

When other people around you might be faltering, you can stand together with them and to actually move it forward.

And together, together we create an environment in the church.

An atmosphere for God to do miracles, an atmosphere for people to walk into the next week with another level of faith.

Together.

Together that happens.

And it might be the first time someone in this place, you know, encounters Jesus, it may be the first time.

It might be you might be in this place and you've encountered God 5,000 times.

The important part is that we come into this house to encounter God because there's nothing that these seats, the lights, the music, the great oration, or my speaking, can do, can do for you.

Really, honestly.

It's at the end of your life, you're not gonna remember all these messages, right?

All this word.

But right now, it's the presence of God that's gonna make a difference.

It's the engagement of the church together, supporting each other, because we're not in this alone, right?

We're in this together, we're moving forward together.

So uh I we encourage you to talk, to to actually, I have to remind you sometimes, because we're a Canadian church in Kelowna.

If you agree with something I'm saying, you have to say, I agree.

This, I agree, and or preach or whatever you need to do, or if you amen, that's right.

You just say it, speak it out, say that's good, or I believe it, agree.

Another way of engaging is I'm saying, take notes.

If you take your phone out now, people won't think you're texting or on Instagram or anything like that.

You'll you're ready to take notes, you're ready to engage and write these things down.

You have questions, engage with your questions, like write these questions down.

There's been this perspective in the church that the church is somehow afraid of your questions.

And I can tell you from first hand experience growing up in a pastor's home, uh on a third-generation pastor now with on both sides, we never had a problem asking questions.

There was never a time when a question was like, you just be quiet, you just keep that to yourself.

That's not that's not meant for now.

There may have been a timing issue, like for me to be asking questions, but the issue was all the question was never rejected.

And it makes a it is a challenge when your your own dad, like his life messages, be ready to give an answer to every man who asks you a question.

So many a car ride, many a holiday was spent with me asking questions, almost to the point of annoyance.

Like I ask a lot of questions.

And so I encourage you as a as a church, engage not just vocally, not just by taking notes, but engage with questions.

If you have real questions, write them down and send them to Brian.

He'll answer them, or Malachi, or my wife.

My wife has the answer to everything, right?

So, but engage with your small group leaders, engage with your connect groups, engage with uh your pastoral team.

We're not afraid of questions.

This whole culture today, the culture of today has a lot of questions.

And they've got a lot of questions because of the way the church has expressed itself and the diversity of the church today, that they want to know where the church stands.

And I'm gonna tell you today, we don't stand on our own on our own opinion, our own perspective.

We're gonna go right to the word and we're gonna interpret the scripture by uh with the witness of the Holy Spirit, as best we know how to trust God that He'll lead us into truth.

Amen.

That's the Spirit, the Spirit of God leads us into all truth, teaches us truth, counsels us towards truth.

So if you have a question, ask your questions.

Timing is everything, not now, write them down, but we would be happy to uh be able to uh to answer those questions because we're better when we grow together, and I believe it.

Um, we're on the second leg of this journey uh from into 2019 on the on moving into the new year, and I just want to re-establish my hope is that we reestablish and re uh concrete uh some of the foundational factors of our faith.

Uh last week we talked about the importance of knowing God, and today I want to talk about finding freedom.

Finding freedom.

Let me start by saying this when someone meets Jesus for the first time, and the Bible says when you meet Jesus, there's an immediate transaction that happens, there's an immediate result.

The Bible says you go from the old into the new, you become a new creation immediately.

The fact that we we move towards Christ, we make a decision to follow Christ, it can happen right away.

The old becomes new.

The Bible says, knock and the door will be what?

Open.

Seek and you will find.

It's not a process, it's not something that takes time for it to occur for you to know God.

Knowing God happens immediately.

Salvation is free, salvation comes right away.

The scripture says, today is the day of salvation.

Do you know that the word salvation literally means rescue?

Rescue.

So for a rescue to occur, it can't happen over time.

Like if a lifeguard was sitting on the edge of the pool and saw someone drowning, and they have on their like life, rescue, team, whatever it may be, lifeguard, and he's watching.

He's not gonna wait to rescue because the time will come where you're gonna, that person's gonna eventually expire in that situation.

But the rescue happens immediately.

The rescue, salvation happens now.

Today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day of salvation.

So the scripture says, hey, if you need to run somewhere, run unto me.

If you need to call on the name of Jesus, call on the name of Jesus.

Call on my name today, and you'll find refuge for your soul.

You'll find salvation for your soul.

Salvation happens immediately.

Now, often what happens is that even though you've been made new, you've been passed from old to new, you realize that there's no longer any more condemnation for you.

You've passed from the old to the new, just like Jesus with the woman who was, they brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.

And she, even though she was caught in the act of adultery, Jesus called out those people who were accusing her until the very end where he said, Woman, where are your accusers?

They're not here anymore.

Who are those people around you that are condemning you?

There's nobody here anymore, any longer around you.

Now go and sin no more.

Go now and stop sinning.

Salvation was immediate, but the process of actually going to that place, like there's no condemnation, there's no one here to condemn you.

Even Jesus said, I don't condemn you.

I'm not going to condemn you.

But you have to go and you have to sin no more.

Now, the challenge is that we have these hang-ups, these habits, these uh these hurts that kind of continue with us, and it takes us time to find freedom from them.

I gave my life to Jesus when I was five, seven, nine, eleven multiple times, yesterday, today, like literally this morning.

I I make a decision to follow Christ, but just because I made that decision to follow Christ when I was five years of age doesn't mean that I stop dealing, I don't any longer deal with hangups.

My wife calls them out of me all the time.

It's really good.

I'm glad the Lord brought the Holy Spirit to live with me.

It's like she's but I dealt with it from, and you know what?

Some of it, I I did it willingly.

My hangups were like, I was a pirate, like a digital pirate.

I used to download TV shows, movies, music, and even though the things that don't do this, I grew up with the internet.

I thought the internet was free, so everything on it should be free, right?

I had this idea.

Well, I grew up in an orchard.

My sister laughs.

So I think that when you're driving down the street, if you're driving by an orchard and you reach your hand out the window and you grab an apple, that's not a problem because I grew up near an orchard.

And my wife's like, Brody, that's stealing.

And I'm, I get it.

But I've got hang ups, I've got challenges, and I need to find freedom in this process.

So I actually have to stop, talk to, or I find friends who actually have orchards.

I can drive by their place, right?

And take their stuff.

Maybe.

Is that allowed?

Can you just write it to the pastor's card?

I per I allow Pastor Brody to take or never mind.

Just it's just some kind of contract that we could have written up.

But the Hebrew people, the people in Scripture, were a great example of this.

They'd been in Egypt.

They had been uh they had been uh literally put in a place where they were a whole culture of people who were enslaved.

And God delivered them out of Egypt.

It was like an incredible journey how they got out of Egypt.

There were ten plagues, he brought Moses, the deliverer, to a place where at the Red Sea, they were literally traveling with the riches of Egypt behind them.

Uh they could say up to a million people at that point.

They get to the Red Sea, and at the Red Sea, they open up the, God opens up the sea, everyone gets across, and as the enemy's coming after them, the sea collapses on them, swallows up their enemy.

It's a great example of what salvation is.

On the other side of the sea, a million people are celebrating the fact that they have been rescued.

It was amazing.

The Bible talks about Miriam, as Miriam did with the tambourine.

Back, she was whatever they did with the tambourine, I'm not quite sure how it worked, but people were dancing, people were celebrating, they were singing in the joy of their salvation.

It was an awesome, awesome, awesome experience.

They knew it, they were saved, they were rescued, they were wealthy, they were on the other side, they were separated from their enemy.

They were the enemy got swallowed up in the sea.

They were excited, right?

They're dancing, celebrating the whole bit.

A little while later, however, the scripture talks about them complaining and murmuring because they're on their way to the promised land, and that didn't quite come as immediate.

So they start grumbling and complaining, and listen to what their language is.

Oh, for Egypt.

Oh, for the leaks of Egypt.

There was something about leaks.

I don't know.

I never got that.

But they wanted the food, the meat, the bread, the delicacies of Egypt, and so quickly they forgot about the hey, make bricks with no straw.

The murder, the the whipping, the double time of work, the slavery.

And the challenge is this is that you could take them out of Egypt, but they didn't get Egypt out of them.

They weren't separated from Egypt in their heart.

They had been removed.

The reality was they were no longer in Egypt.

But Egypt was still there in their heart.

We need to get this right.

If we don't get this right, we move from salvation, we experience salvation, but we can't move from salvation into freedom.

There's so many people, I believe, who've made a decision to follow Christ.

They've experienced salvation.

It was true, it was genuine, it was real, authentic, it was raw.

They experienced salvation, but they have yet to experience freedom.

They're still caught with all the bad habits, the hurts, the hangups that are in their life.

And they need to move forward.

And what happens is if we don't get this, we start trying to live our life in such a way that we try and earn this freedom on our own.

We don't find it in Christ.

And so I try and find freedom in the fact that I'm approved if I do good things.

Well, how many of you know that that's just another prison?

It's a prison of my own performance.

If I perform, then I'll be loved.

Instead of finding that foundational sense of approval from God in him.

So here's my point today, and what I want to talk to you about.

If anyone is here going into 2019 and you've got these hurts, these habits, these hangups, and you don't think that you can become free.

I'm here to tell you that God's plan for you is that you can find and experience freedom.

That's we need more than that.

You can find and experience freedom.

Say it for the person sitting next to you.

You can find and experience freedom.

Say it for someone else.

Like, people need to know that they're not caught, they're not stuck.

Another year being stuck, another year doing the same thing over and over and just experiencing the same result.

You can find and experience freedom this year.

It's a part of our inheritance to find freedom.

Not just salvation, but freedom.

Luke talks about Jesus' ministry.

Jesus was in the desert.

He comes out of the desert into a place where he's ministering into the church.

And the first scripture he pulls out is this he says, The Spirit of the Lord is on me to proclaim good news to the poor.

Now, listen to the language here.

To announce freedom to captives, opening of prisons to them that are bound, and to proclaim and announce the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of liberty, the year of freedom.

Three points in Jesus' main message that announce what his intention is: to bring you freedom, to proclaim liberty, and to open prisons to those who are bound.

Do you think God wants you to be free?

Do you think God's intention is that you find freedom?

Yes, I 100% yes.

You say yes to God for freedom.

Any step towards freedom is a step towards God.

God leads us in the place of freedom.

Don't let anything else hang you up, keep you down.

Move and chase after that freedom because freedom comes from Christ.

Now the world, however, would have you believe this about the church.

Oh man, church, don't go to church.

They want to oppress you at church.

They want to keep you down.

They want to imprison you at church.

The mentality and the perversion of the truth is that the enemy, our enemy, is trying to create fake news to the world that the church is all about oppression.

When God's message, do you think that the enemy would try and pervert the message of the gospel?

Every day he's working at it.

It is about good news, the world says it's bad news.

It's about freedom.

The world says it's about the world.

In terms of the language out there, is that church is about containing and restricting and constricting the person and the individual.

I'm telling you today, you've got to reject that.

It's all about liberty, it's all about freedom.

It's all about saying yes to the things of God.

I have freedom today to drive all across Canada.

I can go the whole way.

If I stay in my lane, God says, Hey, I want to give you free access.

Go anywhere you want to go, but stay in the lane and you'll be safe.

Now, if I Start driving on the other side of the lane on the road.

How far do you think I'll get?

And you blame God.

Oh God, why can't I just move forward?

Stay in the lane.

And there's freedom for you.

There's freedom for you in that lane.

Go for it.

Go hard.

Go, go, like put the pedal down, but don't speed, right?

That would be a fault.

That's another one we can add to the list, right?

Like we look at this all through the world.

The grip of money, the world says, oh, the church is only after your money.

The Bible says it's like a seed.

If you hold on to it, it's not going to grow.

Sow it, throw it in the ground, plant it.

Let that seed grow into something that's big.

That too often, if you give it away, you won't have enough.

The scripture says, give, and more will come back to you.

Like there's this language that we can't listen to the world's message on this.

Stick to the truth.

Stick to this.

Now Acts 10, 38 says this: God anointed Jesus.

And this anointing is on you and I.

God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power.

And he went around doing good, healing those who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.

Jesus' whole ministry was to destroy the works of the devil.

And our job, too, is to lead and chase and follow that freedom.

So, how and why do things get in the way of our freedom?

Because how many of you want freedom?

I do, yes, we all know it.

We want that freedom.

So, why do those things get in the way?

Well, the Bible talks about something, and really I'm I'm jam- I'm sorry if I'm talking fast today, but I've got a like when you talk about finding freedom, it's a big issue.

It's not like an immediate thing.

Like you can have a whole weekend and talk about these things.

I'm just jamming it into like 20 more minutes.

But I'm going to tell you right now, there are things called there are there are things called strongholds, the Bible talks about.

A stronghold.

Now, what is a stronghold?

The stronghold is anything that exalts itself in our minds, pretending to be bigger and more powerful than God.

Anything in our mind that pretends or has a case to being bigger and more powerful than God.

We read about this in Corinthians.

It says this, that we live in the world, we don't wage war in the world the way the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments and every pretension.

That's everything that's pretending.

Pretending to be bigger than God.

You know there's nothing bigger than God.

There's nothing stronger than the name of Jesus.

Cancer is a pretension.

It's bigger, it pretends to be bigger.

And we just don't give it a voice in KCC.

We just don't give it a voice over Sean's life.

We don't give it a voice in this in our church's life.

We give the voice that the name of Jesus supersedes that voice.

It's a pretension, it's a stronghold.

And so it's there to pull down anyone who has knowledge of God.

So that these are the weapons we have.

And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Now, the reality is this: I can preach a message today.

I can preach and we can hear truth.

And we can hear the truth and have knowledge of the truth, but that truth won't move from here, knowledge, to here, experience.

We can have this knowledge because there's a stronghold.

And that stronghold oftentimes is you're oblivious to.

You're not aware of.

And that's why the scripture says there's an important point, part of who we are, is that we have community around us.

The community around us helps us see our blind spots.

That's why I love my wife.

My wife is, she's good at seeing blind spots.

Like I joke about it, but I'll tell you, she says things sometimes I didn't even think about.

And I see a whole new perspective, and the lights come on for me.

I give her credit too, and credit's due, right?

She just sees it and I'm like, you're so right.

I actually think she should preach a lot more than what she does.

But she's like, I'm gonna hear about that later.

But I believe it.

She's got real wisdom.

And uh, but there's a place where truth comes, and the truth needs to go deep into who we are.

We need to see, hear, understand what God has to say about us.

So the scripture says that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.

So, how do we grab every thought?

We take strongholds captive by grabbing every thought.

We grab every thought, and oftentimes they're just lies that we believe because they come where we're just oblivious to believing, and we hear it in the media, we watch it on TV, we watch it and see it on the internet, we start building frameworks and ideas.

And the Bible says this, it talks about the stronghold and a strong man.

But the way the scripture talks about a strong man is this he says, when a strong man comes to your property, he has severe superior weapons, and the but a stronger man comes and beats him at his own game.

And the Bible's saying this that you might have a strong man, but Jesus is that stronger man, and he can come and and and remove that other strong man.

So let me talk for a few more minutes about these points here.

What happens when we allow strongholds in your life?

And this might allow you to help you identify these strongholds, these areas in your life that you just didn't know about.

Number one, you become a prisoner and you become locked like decep like a decep you you become deceived.

It becomes like a deception.

I think of it like this you ever see like those bars in a jail, and you see the bars in a jail, but you don't realize that they're just pretzel sticks that are coated in metallic coloring.

It's just like they're easy to break apart, but you don't think that they are.

You get trapped in this idea of thinking that something is bigger.

Uh, I was talking to our team this week, and they were we were talking about how you train these big, massive elephants.

And these elephants, what they do when the elephant is young, they take a chain and they drive, they shackle the elephant's leg to this chain, and they drive an anchor point in the center of a room.

This elephant works at trying to remove himself from that shackle, and he does he can't pull that shackle out because he's young, it's a young elephant, can't pull that shackle out.

So he becomes used to the fact that he has that shackle on.

And later on, as the elephant begins to grow, they they change the shackle to a rope.

And that and the elephant doesn't even try to pull that rope out of the anchor on the ground because he had been shackled before and he thought, you know, I was restricted before, I'll always be restricted.

And later on, all they have to do is just wrap a cord around that elephant's ankle.

And that elephant won't pass a certain perimeter because it thinks that it's still trapped.

Now, the elephant is the largest animal on land, and that elephant, if it wanted to, could go anywhere it wanted to go, could pull out any anchor point that it wanted to pull out, but it doesn't because it's trapped in its own mind.

And there are things in our lives, I think, that we think are so like, I don't think I could ever get through this.

I don't think I could ever overcome it.

And the Bible says you can overcome it.

This can be your year of freedom.

This could be your year of breakthrough.

This could be your year to move forward in what God has called you to be.

Amen?

To complete your purpose and to do what God has called you in your heart.

Secondly, stronghold, steal your focus.

Oftentimes, our conversation becomes all about that thing that's keeping us down.

We're just looking at it, looking at it, looking at it, instead of looking at the one who can rescue us from that chain.

And we need to put our attention on things above and not on things on the earth.

When we allow strongholds to get a hold of us, we feel controlled.

It's this realm of addiction where someone will actually identify with the stronghold.

I am an alcoholic.

No, the Bible says you are a child of God.

You are free, you are a new creation.

You have been washed clean.

These new identification, we don't identify with our controls.

We identify with what God has called us and who God has called us to be.

When we have strongholds in our life, they they can absorb our emotional energy.

And we put our focus on it.

And the more we focus on it, the more we feel depressed, and the more we feel depressed, the more we feel down.

It just pulls us into that hole.

And when we allow strongholds to get a hold of us, it distracts us from our purpose.

All we're thinking about is the thing that's holding us back.

We're not thinking about what God has called us to do forward.

God's called you to make a difference.

God's called you to make a difference, to find your purpose.

And He's anointed you, He's given you a gift and a talent and an ability to move forward in your purpose.

Lastly, when you allow strongholds to get a hold of you, it robs you of the life that God intended for you, abundant life.

The enemy comes to rob, kill, steal, and destroy, but God came that you would have life and life more abundantly.

Amen?

It's an abundant life.

So how do we become free today?

I'm gonna close with these three points.

Number one, you need to take back your thought life.

The battle starts up here.

The battle starts here.

What are you thinking about?

What are you dwelling on?

What's your heart?

What's in your heart?

What's in a man's thoughts?

That's what's in his heart.

It's it's it's this space of uh, it's the space where God begins to speak to you.

Where and what are you thinking about?

You can enter into this really passively.

You you can enter into this space without even thinking.

Just emotion, uh, weather, uh feelings, friends, and their experiences can pull you into this place where your emotional or your thought life is out of order.

We can't allow stuff to pull us out of the order that God intended for us.

There's a lot of distractions in life, a lot of things that will keep you from your purpose, keep you from your freedom, and we need to first take place of our thought life.

What is in your thoughts that's out of order?

What's your thoughts that are in order?

And that's why we come to church because we help each other stay aligned.

Okay, we're gonna stay fixed.

Remember, that's the prize, not that.

The prize is what matters to God is souls, not money, not fame, not what car I drive.

What matters to God is what?

People.

His mission is people and helping them find their freedom.

Okay, realign, realign.

It's constant adjustment and realignment.

So Romans 8 says this you need to have a mind that's fixed on the Spirit of God.

If you think about fleshly things, you'll feed the flesh.

But if you fix your thoughts on the spirit, you'll be able you'll build spiritual thoughts.

That's why we're doing 21 days of prayer.

Some of you are doing 21 days of prayer and fasting.

I think that's wonderful.

Some people fasting on social media, some people are just uh fasting a meal.

They're they're they're making a decision to focus and to recalibrate on God.

And so how we think is very important.

So we so we give our thoughts to God.

We have to re reestablish, take back our thought life.

Number two, we need to identify any lies.

This is often what takes a little bit of time and process.

And and it may be as simple as you just sitting down with a friend for coffee one day and saying, Hey, are there any lies?

Like, I'm gonna talk to you about some things.

What do you what do you what do you see?

Where is this out of order?

And actually process.

It could be as simple as that.

It might require you to actually get some deeper counsel and get people around you actually working with you, talk it through with your spouse, talk, but there are people who have believe lies financially.

There are people who believe lies regarding their health, lies regarding relationships, lies regarding God.

And and we have to actually identify those lies.

And lastly, replace those lies with the truth.

It's very, very simple.

I I don't want to overcomplicate this.

I I just want to help you say, take your thoughts captive, identify them.

What are lies, what are not, what are from God and what is not from God, and then replace those lies with the truth.

Because the scripture says if you know the truth and you you commit to that truth, the truth will set you free.

Amen?

Amen.

Uh I'm just gonna take a moment here because I believe the Holy Spirit, He He's here not just to help us learn, but help us bring to light things that are in the dark parts of our heart.

They're not dark because they're evil, they're dark because they're just unknown.

They're like areas that maybe we haven't spent time allowing the Holy Spirit to flash a light into that corner and just scan.

And God's job and his intent is not to condemn you.

He doesn't condemn.

But he's gonna speak to you, he's gonna help align you and say, ah, this is out of order for your benefit, so that you can benefit the pace of your life.

You don't have to go slow.

You say, hey, I'm in the right lane.

Pedal to the metal, let's go.

And you can just go fast because you know that you're in that lane that God has told you to be in.

And you know that you're safe.

So would you do this for a moment?

Would you just bow your heads with me?

And I'm just gonna invite the Holy Spirit to shine a light into our hearts today.

Father, we acknowledge today that you do want us free.

We acknowledge today, Lord, that you want us to find freedom.

And we acknowledge today that we all need it.

We're not arrogant, we're not, we come before you humbly, knowing that there are areas in our life that you want us to be better at, to become better.

And so today, Father, we lean on you.

We lean on Holy Spirit, we lean on the light of truth to come and shine in our hearts today.

Shine in our hearts and expose areas of that may be unknown, that you would help us to align.

Lord, expose any lies that we've been believing and bring truth, Lord.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

For those who are here today who don't think you're strong enough, who believe the lie that you're restricted somehow in your ability.

Father, today I say all things are possible.

For those who believe all things are possible, to those who believe there's no restriction in your ability, Lord, to move us forward and your desire to move us into a place where we know what true love is, we know what true life is, we know what true joy is, and we can walk free from any prison.

So, Father, we just soften our hearts right now, we quiet our hearts, and we invite your Holy Spirit to come at this moment and shine in our hearts.

Thank you, Lord.

Come, Holy Spirit, Lord, we want we invite you to walk with us, to work with us, Lord, to walk us and help direct us step by step into the freedom that you have called us to.

And Father, today, as every eye is closed and every head is bowed, Father, I just I just want to invite anyone in this room tonight who has never had the opportunity to encounter Jesus for themselves and to not encounter the freedom particularly, but encounter the salvation, rescue.

And I'm gonna say today that the day is today and the time is now, and if in your heart today you're saying, I want to know Jesus, then Jesus is available for you today.

And if you're listening to my voice and you're you're you may be listening online, you may be listening in this room today, I want you to know that you can call on the name of Jesus and you will find salvation.

You will find salvation now, and then he will direct you and work with you to move you to find that complete freedom that you were intended for.

And so, if we're in this room today, if there's anyone here today who has never experienced Jesus, a relationship with Jesus, and would like to today, I'm just gonna invite you just to be really bold, just to raise a hand.

And I'm gonna lead the congregation in a prayer, but just to raise a hand today.

Is anyone here today for the first time?

I see that hand.

Is anyone here for the first time today, just decide I want to make a decision to follow Jesus?

I see that hand.

I see that hand.

You can put your hands down.

Father, today, I thank you, Lord, for those whose hearts have turned towards you and the decision to actually make you there, there, have that relationship with you.

And Father, today, as we just pray this prayer, I pray that there be a special just relationship forged and formed at this moment.

So would the congregation just pray along with me?

Heavenly Father, today is my day, a new beginning today.

I want to know you and I want to be known by you.

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

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

I choose to follow you, and I receive your love, and this my new beginning.

I turn from my sin.

I trust in you.

Thank you for making me new.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Would you give them a round of applause?

Amen.