Living Legacy | Part Three | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

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This is great.

Next week is our Christmas service.

I'm excited to be sharing that, uh sharing on that living legacy, the legacy of Jesus.

Do you know that his life, 2,000 years later, is still leaving and making a difference in people's lives today.

2,000 years later, his life is still making a difference in people's lives today.

And so I'm just inviting you to take that opportunity to invite people to church.

December 20, uh next, December 23rd, 10 a.m.

We've got a great service planned, and uh you're gonna enjoy it.

People you bring are gonna enjoy it, it's gonna be a great experience for church.

Um and it's just great to be.

I'm just so grateful.

You know, I was grateful to have Moana with us today.

No one no one mentioned anything right away, but I was I like looking up there and I was like, this is awesome to have her here with us this morning leading worship.

She's coming from Australia, she's going to Bible school there.

And I know that every time you leave, there's like a hope associated with that journey.

And uh we're glad that she's uh come back for a little bit to celebrate Christmas.

But you know, when she left, it was Christmas, and when you got to Australia, because of the time zone, it was kind of like their winter season, their cold season.

And then she came back during the cold season.

So she's had three winter seasons in one year.

So we need to give her some prayer afterwards.

But every time you go away and you get on a plane, you go to a destination, many of you are thinking about somewhere hot.

You think of a destination somewhere where you're going, there's some anticipation associated with that destination.

Um, very rarely do you see people who are going on that trip.

Uh, get on, like get ready without that anticipation.

And the sermon titled this morning is we're gonna talk about that anticipation.

It's called the thrill of hope.

That's what we've titled this message today: The Thrill of Hope.

There's an expectation, there's a thrill associated with the hope that we have in Christ.

Because without Christ, there's no way that we can complete or fulfill the purpose that God has placed in our lives.

We need Christ in us, we need that hope inside of us, allowing us to look forward into that future where we have that legacy established.

He's in He's He's placed it in us, He's imparted it, is part of our DNA.

We have a purpose to complete, we have a purpose to fulfill.

And this time of the year it is a difficult time for a lot of people.

Statistically, more people lose their life over this season through self-harm and because than all the other months combined over this season.

Because during this part of the season, uh challenges aren't more, but they're more magnified.

The challenges aren't greater, they're just more magnified at this time of the year.

They're thinking about family and the challenges in relationships and finance and comparison and all the associations with the season uh leaves people to a place where they look, they they feel down, they feel depressed, they feel heavy.

And the answer to that heaviness is the hope that we have.

The answer to that heaviness is the is the hope that we have in Christ.

And um this year we actually have opportunity, and it's one of our greatest events for our Rutland Community Food Center, is we get take the opportunity to actually give out food and give out hampers full of food to people in the immediate Rutland community.

And you'll see some images on the screen here.

Thank you for all the volunteers who are part of this process.

Uh packing boxes, those who go shopping, those who hold turkeys, we give out turkeys and hams, and we only have enough room on site for like half the turkeys or hams.

So people's freezers in the in the congregation are used to like store those turkeys and hams.

And we bring them all together.

And this year we served 130 families, and we they were lined up downstairs all the way up to the front.

We served them food, and the log went through five big pots of chili and pastries and cakes and every coffee.

We gave boxes away that allow for meals for the whole over the Christmas holidays, multiple meals, and man, were they ever blessed.

For those who were registered, we took care of them, and those who were unregistered for our hampers, we took care of them, and I'm serious.

Hundreds of families were affected and benefited because of your generosity in this church.

Amen.

It's totally true.

You can't outgive God.

You can't outgive God, and I want to tell you at the end of that night last Tuesday, our pantry was just empty.

We had given everything away, down to the last box.

We closed the doors, you know, we it was the end of the night, and one last person came in and we gave that box away and we were done, completely done.

And that next morning, like we were all exhausted as a team, we'd worked really hard, and I got a phone call first thing in the morning.

Hey, we'd like to come over and bring a donation by from one of the local companies in our community.

And I was like, sure, you know, like come on by.

And they brought a U-Haul truck loaded with food.

And all the food they had gone to Costco, loaded it up, and we took all that food, probably Malcolm.

How many do you think?

Probably 10 buggies load, probably maybe more of food, and they restocked our whole shelves in our pantry.

So we gave it all away, and by the next morning, it was full again.

You cannot give God.

Isn't that wonderful?

That I believe that's just a lesson for for someone in the house today, where we hold on to things so tight, we think if we give it away, we won't get anything in return.

And God's just saying, give, give, give, live to give, give to live, live with that generous spirit, and I'll be the generous one, will give back to you.

The Lord will give back to you, pressed down, shaking together, running over.

The Lord will give back to us.

So that's the heart that God has for us in this in during this time of the year.

It's a huge place, but we realize that the people who are lined up, this time of the year is uh is a challenging year for a lot of families.

We don't always get to see it in the church, but it's a reality for a lot of folks.

And uh in fact, if I believe that God does everything on purpose and He intentionally put the most beautiful day of the year and the beautiful, most beautiful gift that we'd receive in Jesus in a setting that's the darkest time of history.

2,000 years ago, politically it was dark.

Uh Mary and Joseph were going through a relationally dark point of time.

You know, she she was pregnant and it's considered unwell like it not uh Joseph's child at that point, and as the angel had had come and said, you know, Mary, you're gonna have a child, and it's gonna be God's son.

Come to the earth.

So relationally there was conflict.

Uh financially, they came to a place in a city in a in a place where they had to go traveling on a donkey, and they can't even find a room.

They're sitting, they're in a stable, they're in a place that's even the shepherds, the Bible says that they began watching their, they were watching their sheep at night.

They were running the night shift there.

And this picture of Jesus' uh origin, his birth, his entrance into the world is a dark time in history.

And it's no wonder that we celebrate, I don't believe that Jesus was actually born December 25th, but it's the moment in time where we celebrate in the darkest time in history.

It's a time with our lights are the lowest, it gets darkest the earliest.

At that moment in time, we celebrate this great light that comes into the world.

We celebrate this great hope that comes into the world.

And the shepherds that were at night watching their sheep, the angels, when they came, they said to them, they brought this message and they said, I know what you're going through.

Don't be afraid.

I bring you good news.

Would you say that with me?

Good news.

Good tidings, good hope for all people.

Say, all people.

That means you and I, we have a hope in this season.

You hear what I'm saying?

You have a hope.

Turn to your neighbors, tell them, you have a hope.

You have a hope.

That's right.

I want to remind you that in the darkest time, there is a light that shines.

In the darkest moment, and you may be looking forward into your life, looking forward into your future, and you don't have a hope.

You don't see the light.

You may be looking at your life in the space where you're in right now and look ahead and go, man, politically it's dark.

Like in terms of the life and the place where we live, financially, it's dark.

My kids need braces.

We just had the dryer breakdown.

And that's just my life, right?

Like these are things that are just dark.

I need new, my vehicle's breaking down.

It's dark.

Relationally, there may be conflict and offense and breakdown.

In that moment, God's lesson here is that He brings light into darkness.

That's the message of Christmas.

And you might say, well, Brody, this is kind of a dark message for Christmas.

You should be more positive.

Like, this is good, right?

And I am.

I'm positive.

You're gonna need this message for your future and for your hope.

We need this message.

So, what do you do when things around you look dark?

Where do you go when things around you look dark?

And unfortunately, during these seasons, you can't make things just like snap your fingers and make things stop and change.

And you can't just flip a switch and things just all work out.

But we can anchor ourselves to something.

And we can choose where we anchor ourselves.

So when things are shifting around us, when things are swaying and disruptive and chaotic, and you're trying to stay this path towards the legacy that God's called you to live, and you're moving in that direction, you have two choices.

You can anchor yourself to something that's stable, or you can just move with the flow and just move with the where life takes you.

And too often people just choose to move with the waves, just move with the chaos, and in doing that, nothing is ever resolved in life.

You just move from one point of chaos to another point of chaos.

Instead, today I want to talk to you about anchoring yourself to a hope, a hope in Christ.

Hope, the Bible says, is the anchor for our soul.

Would you say hope is the anchor?

Hope is the anchor.

Hebrews 6.19 says this.

It says, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul.

It is firm, it is secure.

The hope that we have is an anchor for our soul.

How many of you have an anchor today?

An anchor in Christ.

We sing the song today, we sing the about this message, but this message will mean nothing unless our hope is anchored in Him.

Or else we're just floating by our emotion.

Our feelings take us wherever the direction of the life takes us, the the direction it goes.

We just move with it instead of being anchored to Christ and being secure in His direction for our life.

Hope is a confident expectation on something that's not shifting.

It's solid.

Most people misunderstand hope.

And for too many people, they see it as uh like a wishful thought.

Like, I hope it doesn't snow today.

I hope my team wins the game tonight.

I hope they it's like this wishful thought, but it's not wishful thinking.

The Bible actually talks about hope is something that's absolute.

Something that belie in as a believer we can actually possess.

We can hold on to a hope.

A hope in our soul.

It's something that the world can't take from you.

It's something that your job, your employer, your uh the economy can't take from you.

It is something that you hold on to internally.

So how do we get it?

I'm glad you asked.

I'm glad I'm I'm so glad you asked.

Today I'm gonna talk to you about hope and how to find that source of hope.

Starting in Romans, it says this I pray that God, who is the source of our hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace.

So if we have to find that joy, if we want to find that place of joy and peace, we need to know where the source of our hope is found.

And because we trust Him, and then the Bible says, when you do that, you'll overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

There's some people who walk around with like almost like an optimism.

Aren't they great?

Those people?

They're great to be around.

They're really difficult to be around when you're the one who's kind of negative.

When you're the one who's kind of worn down, and you walk in, and it's always, you know, you're in the the one in the in the medical chair, and someone comes to you and say, it's gonna be all right.

We're gonna pray, we're gonna believe, we're gonna cast our care on God, we're gonna place our hope in him.

You're like, yeah, it's easy for you to say, I'm the one who's challenged right here.

Hope comes, hope comes when you place your confidence in him.

Hope is in that place.

Uh I I I'm I'm an optimistic person.

It's just my nature.

I I don't like I see the holes sometimes, but I I like the cheese.

I get excited about the cheese.

I'm like, yeah, the cheese is great.

It's like, well, look at the holes.

I know that there are some people who just see the holes.

I love, I see the opportunity, and I believe God has given us this perspective that's saying, listen, no matter how dark, there can be light, there's hope.

So how are we gonna find it?

And if you have your notes out today, I'm gonna give you five words that are going to move you to towards finding hope.

So you'll find hope, number one, in God's presence.

You'll find hope in his presence.

Uh, I've come to the conclusion that God's presence is better than the answer to my problem.

His presence is more important to me than the answers to my problem.

I I'm my dad wasn't really like a handy person.

He he he does a lot of work, he's a hard worker, but he's never like mechanically inclined or like you know, type uh around fixing things around the house.

But my other my father-in-law is really like hands-on.

And I can call my father-in-law and say, Hey, I'm having a problem with my plumbing, and he could give me the answer to my plumbing situation, or he can say, Hey, I'm coming over, and I'll be like, Thank you.

Your presence is more important than the answer to my problem.

Having someone who's there with you, present with you, is important.

A mechanic can tell you the problem that's going on in your vehicle, but having a mechanic there who says, I know how to fix it right now, and I'll work and teach and guide you along the way, the presence of that individual is more important than the than the answer to your problem.

The greatest commodity in the world that you can have is the presence of God.

The presence of God is the best thing that you can have in chaotic or disrupted times.

You may not know what in the world is going on, but when you've got God by your side, it'll be okay.

When you've got his presence, you've got hope.

Oh, the plumbing will get taken care of.

Why?

Because I've got the master plumber here.

The mechanic, oh, this will get fixed because I've got the master mechanic here.

Whatever it is, this relationship, we'll get through this.

Why?

Because I've got the master relationship restorer right here, the reconciler right now with me.

I've got the healer here with me.

I've got the provider here with me.

His presence is important.

His presence brings hope to our heart.

His presence is there.

David said it like this: He says, My soul finds rest in God.

How many of you like rest?

He finds rest in God because my hope is in him.

If you want hope, you want re you want rest.

Place your hope in his presence, his presence with us.

I love the the visual in Isaiah.

He talks about those people that wait on the Lord, their strength will be renewed.

They'll soar on wings like eagles, they'll run and not grow weary, they'll walk and not faint.

It's a great scripture talking about those people who have their hope in their low in the Lord.

But a lot of people when they they read this, they kind of see it poetically.

When it's more than just a poetic version here.

This scripture is really intentional.

Eagles, like all birds fly, right?

Except maybe penguins, but that's debatable, right?

Penguin, is it really a bird?

And but uh it's intentional.

But there are birds that fly, and then there are birds that soar.

And the scripture here is talking about those people who put their hope in the Lord, they'll rise up with wings like eagles.

An eagle is different than every other bird.

Every other bird moves through animation, moves through its own effort, its own ability to flap harder and move as hard as it can.

An eagle is different.

An eagle goes up to a high point and just sits there.

And if you've ever seen these pictures of these eagles, they just open their wings wide and they wait for the current, the thermal current, that comes from the ground and comes to lift them up.

And then all they do is they just let go from their perch where they're at, and the wind just picks them up.

Very few times you see an eagle just flapping away.

An eagle just moves by the wind that's under its wings.

This is the difference.

Those who hope in the Lord don't have to make their own moves.

They can just open their wings, allow the presence of God to fill their wings, and allow them to lift themselves up above the challenges and the chaos in the life.

We lift ourselves up.

Because of Christ.

Christ, the hope, comes underneath us and moves us to a place where we move into our legacy, move into the opportunities that God has moved us into.

We move forward with Him.

Number two, you'll find hope when you find His promise.

Yes, there are P's, words, P's, it's the preacher's disease, okay?

They're all going to be with P.

So there it is.

Breaking it early.

I'm talking to you though about His promise as reading the Scripture.

If you read the Scripture, if you have the Scripture read to you, but if you are in a place where you're challenged and looking forward in your life and you're like, what do I do?

I don't even have the energy to talk to God.

Let God's word talk to you.

Let his word talk to you.

Don't try and put the energy into talking to God.

If you're finding that difficult, let his word talk to you.

And some of us have gotten away from the fact that our hope can be connected to his promise.

Psalms again, David, in a real difficult time in his life.

He said this: he says, My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have placed my hope in your word.

I place my hope in your word.

And this is when you let his presence fill you up and you let his promises lift you up.

And his promises are powerful.

I remember in our life, uh Natalie was pregnant with our second child.

She was working full-time at the time, and she was just putting in her full 40 hours a week.

And we were both like just working really hard.

We had our first child, Evangeline, as just the baby at that time.

And uh we were glad that she was pregnant, but there was a complication in the pregnancy, and it resulted in some medical needs and attention that needed to happen, and it was questionable whether or not we'd be able to keep have the baby and continue to keep the baby.

And I remember she was on uh bed rest at the doctors that we had had to drive her out to Vernon.

They had told her, listen, she needs to be on bed rest for a significant amount of time.

And they said, we've got to wait, we've got to wait.

And I remember being at that place where I was just discouraged.

I was heavy.

I wanted, we wanted, we had had a plan for this child, we wanted this child.

We we we want I wanted Natalie to be healthy, I wanted our life to go forward, and I just went back to God's word and I went to two scriptures.

And listen how these scriptures still today they resonate in my heart.

It says this one of the scriptures, Psalm 27, says, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

I will see his goodness.

I remember driving down the back roads from my house.

I remember driving through the orchards, coming down to work, and I would just be repeating this word.

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

And then another scripture came into my heart and it said, For I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.

And I just began to repeat this over my son, my unborn son.

And I began to say, Lord, he shall not die, but he shall live, and he will complete the works that you've placed in him.

In the land of the living, he will do his work.

And I remember his word just became a refresher to my soul, gave me hope.

In those moments, it's better to have that hope.

It's better to have that promise in your heart.

So during these times, during this season, place your hope not only in his presence, let his presence fill you up and let his promises lift you up into the place where God has called you to go.

Amen?

Amen.

Thirdly, you'll find hope in God's process.

In his process.

This is the most unexpected source of hope.

One you probably don't like the most, or you'll like the least.

The process of God, the fact that God has a purpose for your pain.

And that you can you can when you know God's purpose for your pain, you can endure pain better.

I went in this last week and I had a root canal.

And I hate needles.

I hate the dentist.

I don't hate dentists.

I hate the occupation of there's a special place in heaven for dentists, okay?

But I went there and I see the doc like, you know what's crazy is when they're working so close to your mouth, right?

The needle comes out and they're bringing it towards your face, and you're like, oh no.

But I knew that if I endured the pain, there was a purpose for the pain.

And I endured the needle.

Why?

Because that needle would provide less pain for my future.

They could grind away and I could watch HGTV or whatever they've got going on on the ceiling ahead and above me.

I knew that there was a purpose for my pain.

I see it in the gym all the time.

Not that I'm there all the time, I just see it when I'm driving by.

I see people, uh, uh, they're they're looking in their face and they're they're pressing out like uh you can hear the pain they're going through, and you just watch.

You're like, wow, you're committed to this pain.

Why?

Because they see themselves getting swallowed.

They're like, yeah, that's right.

I can I'm losing weight, I'm putting on muscle, I'm I'm growing, I'm growing bigger and better.

And a good trainer knows how to push you through pain.

And the fact is that God isn't necessarily about making you happy.

God's purpose for you is to develop you.

His purpose, his motivation in your life is not to make you make you happy, it's to develop you and move you into be, he, the Bible says God is at work within you to do something in you, and that work within you to do it and to complete his good purpose in your life and to set you on part on point for your purpose and for your legacy to complete your legacy.

That life is really, he's not concerned about your comfort, he's concerned about your character.

And there's a cycle for your suffering.

Every good trainer knows it.

That like a trainer, it must be the most difficult job, almost like a pastor.

It's like, hey, welcome to the world of suffering.

The Bible even says Jesus said, guess what?

This is one promise that you can hold on to.

In this world, you will have troubles and tribulations and difficulties.

Why?

Because I'm gonna start the cycle for you.

And the cycle is gonna go from pressure and pain and suffering, and it's gonna move its way into a place where you can endure it and you can persevere through it, and character is gonna be built in you, and excellence is gonna come out of you.

There's a point in your life where your pro your pain carries with it a purpose.

The pain within you has a purpose.

So look for God's hope in his process.

Because his process is may not be your process.

My process at the gym might be like getting down, like picking up easy weights or whatever it may be.

But a trainer's process is I'm gonna make you sweat or puke or what, and I'm like, God, give me my process.

I like my process, it's easy.

But God's process is intentional in developing you and helping you harness character.

So we grow through that process.

Fourthly, you'll find hope in God's purpose.

I've discovered that one of the greatest gifts I can give you as a pastor, and I can give you as a church member, is helping you realize what you were created for and why you are here.

Why you are here.

The best way I feel like I can put this is I I'm not here to help you solve your problems.

I'm here to help you find your purpose.

Because once you find your purpose, your problems look smaller in comparison to what God has called you to do.

So when I help you find your purpose, uh, there's something bigger, there's something better that you're living for, that your problems become minimized.

I'm living for something bigger, I'm living for something better.

Uh, our team literally could help you, each of you do one-on-one counseling with you, help you identify your problem, deal with your problem.

Identify your problem, deal with your problem.

And as soon as we're done helping you identify and deal with every piece of your problems, new problems will come.

Not in my life, yes, in your life.

I've seen it.

We we see it.

There's problems.

Problems keep on coming.

In this life, you'll keep having problems.

But one thing doesn't change, and that's the call of God, the purpose that God has placed in your life.

Once you find your purpose and you place your hope in God's purpose in your life, these problems minimize.

All of us have a call.

All of us have this call, and I like what Jeremiah says.

He says, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans, these plans, this purpose gives you what?

Hope and a future.

Your hope and your future are attached to your hope, your your the plans that God has placed in your life.

So identify those plans.

Identify that purpose in your life.

I I love the part of our growth track.

I think everyone should have should take our growth track, our next steps program, that take you through certain steps on identifying who we are as a church and then identifying what we actually believe and what we uh pursue and the vision for the church.

But one of the best parts of our grow our growth track is the fact that we help you identify and discover your gifts and your abilities, your leadership ability, your spiritual gift, your leadership style, your personal passion.

And we help narrow this big scope, this large scope down to something that's like a laser.

And we help you discover what God's purpose for you is in terms of when you're living in that place, coming to church becomes less about you and more about what you can do for others.

Activated in that place of personal passion, activated in that personal purpose.

If you haven't taken our growth track, I encourage you to take that card in front of the seat in front of you, or go on the app and make sure that you're registered for January so that we can get you connected.

Your hope is connected to your purpose.

Find your purpose, find your hope.

Lastly, number five, you'll find hope in God's place.

Find hope in God's place.

And this must be might be a tough one for many people today, but when they think theologically right now, they think that you know God's place is is here.

God's place and positioning of me is is here.

No, this is 70, 80 years.

It's not what God can do for me now, now, here.

The Bible talks in Hebrews about the the church, the people, the heroes of the faith.

They were longing for a better country.

They were longing for a heavenly country, and God is not ashamed to be called their God.

There was a new home, a new place.

And the Bible talks about this new earth that's gonna be uh there for us.

There's a new opportunity, and the thing is, some of us are attached too closely to here, and not enough to our real home, which is there.

So I talked a number of weeks ago, I gave a message about being here and there and living cross-eyed, having your eyes here, but having your heart there, and your eyes there, and your heart here.

You have to live in both places, but realize that our greater home and the better home is our eternal home.

And when we place our hope in the fact that that we're in another place, that God's purpose and plan for us is in another place, we begin to live our life differently.

Heaven is better.

And that's why you're here at church today, because you're all here thinking and worshiping and and listening to this better place because you're preparing yourself for the new earth, you're preparing yourself for this new home that we're living in.

And so take your hope.

Take your hope.

Get his presence.

Let it fill your wings, let it fill your heart, let his presence fill your spirit.

Take that 15 minutes.

Get in your car, get in the closet, find the presence of God.

It may not solve all your problems, but at least you'll know that you're not alone.

Find that presence.

Find the promise.

Let the scriptures speak to you.

Find that place of promise where it will lift you up and find that promise that you can lean on.

Move from there and find the place and the purpose.

And find that place where God actually has called you into.

And realize that this home, this place is not our final destination, but that this place is a means to it.

And trust God's process.

Trust it.

Trust it.

And say, submit yourself to God's way.

And I believe that there may be someone in this room today who may be feeling discouraged.

And you might be in a place where you don't know God's presence.

And we can talk about all these things, but unless you know the source of hope, who's Jesus, all these other things are going to be difficult for you to grasp.

You can't lean on a word called hope.

You have to lean on the reason for the season.

Without Christ, there is no Christmas.

Without Jesus, we don't have opportunity.

But with Him, opportunity is available to us.

So I want to encourage you today.

If you're discouraged in this place, you need to take your eyes off me and put your eyes on Him.

Take your eyes off self.

Lift your eyes up and look to Him.

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

This is just a moment in time we like to take in every service where it becomes personal between you and God.

And you might be here today, and you might be either you felt far from God or you have been far from God, or you may never have even heard this message before, and you never knew that there was even an invitation available to you to know Christ.

Well, today I want to make that known to you that you can know Christ.

And in knowing Christ, you can know hope.

And so today in this place, the Bible says if you call on the name Jesus and you announce him to be Lord of your life, and you declare him to be Lord of your life, you will find salvation.

You will find hope.

Say, I want today to follow Christ.

I want to make a decision.

I see that hand.

Is there anyone else in this room today?

I want to find that hope.

I want to find that opportunity.

I want to find that new beginning today.

Amen.

Well, for those who are making that decision today to follow Christ, maybe for the first time, and those who are making that decision, maybe just to renew that decision, I'm just going to invite the church to pray this prayer together with me.

Say, Jesus, thank you for paying for my sins.

Thank you for the great gift of eternal life.

Today, during this Christmas season, I give you my life.

I surrender to you.

I invite you into my heart.

I want to live the best that I can and the best that I know how.

Thank you for giving me freedom and launching me into a new beginning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you give a hand for those who made the decision to follow Christ this morning?

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.