Level Up | Part One

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center podcast.

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

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

I should introduce myself.

I'm uh Brody Calluman.

I'm the pastor of KCC.

You may see it on the sign up there.

Welcome.

Uh I do that for those who are also watching online.

And every time I look back at the cameras, I see our our youth teams leading us in the media and the lighting and everything.

So awesome.

But uh whether you realize it or not, we're all looking and working towards new levels.

We're talking about this leveling up today.

And this is part of our series for September because uh I know that it's a part of who we are.

As a child, we uh look forward to birthdays.

As you get older, you you less, it's less looking forward to birthdays.

It's like just forget about it, just hide that date.

But when you're a kid, you're always thinking about this the joy of a new year, the joy of a new beginning, the joy of a new number.

We had uh one of our kids this year turned his double digits.

He turned 10, and that was like a huge accomplishment.

He's out of the single digits.

We still have one that's still in single digits.

But um we look forward to this new year as we grow older.

We look at school, we think about graduating, we move from kindergarten, grade one, grade two, grade three, grade four, all the way to grade 12, and then after that, we look at post-secondary education.

After that, you're looking at moving from like perhaps your home where you grew up to living out on your own, and then after that, you're thinking, man, this is lame.

I should be living with someone, and you want to get married, and you want to have a spouse, and then you're like, this is kind of lame, you want to have kids, so you can share, not that that's lame, but you uh you want to just grow in your life, you want to level up.

Now, the challenge in our culture today is it's like it's constant push, get more, get more, get more, and they've taken something that God has given us and they've pushed it too far.

Saying, okay, you you know, we know this is a natural inclination in you to want more, to desire more, but it's a God inclination in you.

God wants you to grow.

God wants you to move forward.

God wants you to be in the pro in the mindset of actually moving ahead.

It's called momentum.

A train that's not moving isn't any good.

A train is meant to move, but sometimes if you stop, it's really hard to get that thing moving again.

It's on the tracks, it's loaded up, everything's good, but it's hard to get that thing moving again.

Well, today, I'm our challenge to you is saying, you know what, don't stop, but keep moving.

Keep moving to that next destination, keep moving to that next spot.

Whether you like it or not, if you're alive this morning, you're moving.

You're moving.

And you're looking forward as to what's going to happen.

Some of you are already thinking, what am I gonna have for lunch today?

How am I gonna enjoy the last days of summer before the rain hits?

If you're moving, you're growing.

And if you're growing, you're living.

If you're living, there's hope.

And so, if as long as you're moving, there's hope.

Turn to your neighbor and say, as long as you're moving, there's hope.

Summer, summer for me was such a great time.

Um, I I I mentioned it here, but one of my best memories in summer, you know, is sleepovers, hanging out, and uh just doing the things that you want you are able to, I was able to do dirt biking, sleeping in, staying up late at night.

Um, I did that the other night, and uh I I paid for it, not the same way I I used to when I was younger.

But uh fishing, camping, all those things.

Uh my kids did something we used to do is sleeping on a on the trampoline.

They were gonna do like this challenge where they sleep on the trampoline all night.

And I'm like, I remember that day getting in a trampoline, like on the trampoline, and everyone always rolled to the center, right?

You wake up and you're all contorted in with your best buddy, and you're in a sleeping bag, and at four in the morning the sun is beating down on that sleeping bag, and you're like, why do I feel so ill this morning?

I know what it, I know what it is to have that fun, but one of my greatest, and I'm gonna take you down nostalgia lane here a little bit, is for Christmas I got an NES, a Nintendo Entertainment System.

And one of my memories is that be I as soon as I got it for Christmas, I was sent to bed.

And my dad and my uncle stayed up and played it.

And I remember peeking out the door, going, wow, that's so cool.

My game, they're playing.

And I remember watching, and I watched them as they completed a whole game one night.

And I remember thinking, they completed this whole level.

They worked till like they the game would just keep moving, and they hit the top level.

And the challenge was, is in in those days, is there was no walkthrough.

You couldn't just go on the internet and figure out how to get through this game.

You had to work at it.

And whenever you completed a level, it was like a huge accomplishment.

Sometimes you had to like, hey dad, help me complete this level.

You give it to your dad and he'd play, or your mom, and she'd take care of it.

Or you'd have to invite a buddy over and they'd take care of that level and they get you through to the next zone.

And you were always moving level one, level two, level three, level four.

Never once did you like, hey, I wish I could go back to level two.

After just completing like a higher tier level, you never wanted to move back.

Today, there's a difference in our culture.

Today, um, it may be indicative of how people feel, but my son was playing video games this year.

And over the summer, we're like, hey, get up, you play some video games in the morning before breakfast and have some fun.

And I found out that the game he was playing, you could purchase a level completion.

I don't know if you feel the grief in that, like in my heart here, but I'm like, are you kidding me?

My dad's like, or my son's like, dad, all uh I'll pay for it.

It's like six dollars.

I I'll give you the money from my piggy bank.

Just get like, tell me.

I said, there will never be a time where I will pay for you to level up.

You will grind this out, you will figure it out, you will work hard, I will keep you up all night playing games until you finish.

I will have the battle with mom, I'll talk about it.

We will accomplish this level together.

We will not pay for these levels.

And so, in the end, I I thought about culture and I thought, this is ridiculous.

Everyone thinks you can just pay to play.

You'll just like increase levels, you just gotta push through, you just gotta move forward, and you just put yourself out there and it'll happen.

Put it out there and it'll happen, and there's no work engaged in it.

So this morning I'd like to take you on a quick journey of one extraordinary life in Scripture where the levels were fairly clear.

Like all, um, advancements were made, and each level required change and adjustment.

And what I recognize is that everyone who comes to church, and you might be here today, is this your first time at church, this might be your second time, or you're just checking out, or you've watched online and now you're here.

Um, everyone is at a different place on their journey.

They've completed, maybe some are starting at different places.

And we realize that here.

So everyone who comes in these doors has come from somewhere and has come from some place.

And we're saying to you, it's okay to be here where you're at, at whatever stage you're at.

And we're not like, when I talk about levels, I was concerned about putting this series title because everyone thinks, you know, those at a level four are better than those at a level one.

But the fact, everyone who was a level four was a level one.

And everyone who's made that next step can help the scripture says our job is actually to help others make that step as well.

Move forward, but we don't move forward isolated and separate, we move forward together.

And this is the the challenge.

So, of course, today we want to start with uh a little hero of the scripture named Jesus.

Everything always starts with Jesus, every story, every lesson can be found in him.

So Jesus is often a difficult example.

People are like, whoa, you really want to talk about Jesus when it comes to leveling up?

Because Jesus, you know, he was kind of extraordinary.

I'm like, yeah, he was.

Why don't you use someone like Samson or David or these guys who had real failures?

But I want to take you to an example in Scripture here right now, where we look at the life of Jesus because his life wasn't all that different than our lives, our experience.

And so there was no necessary reason for God to have problem, but the first step and the first stage is that Jesus came as a baby.

Jesus was a baby.

And there was no necessary reason for God to send his son Jesus as a baby.

Uh, in fact, he could have actually sent him uh at different stages.

God was God.

He could have had had Jesus, I've got my voice, my voice is stressed.

It's not like I'm 13 again.

Level up.

Hi, honey, how are you doing?

Good morning.

But Jesus started as a baby.

And Jesus as a baby, it it's interesting that God was going to send the Savior of the world to the earth today as a baby.

Now, considering that the culture that they were living in, Roman, Greek, there would have been no problem with God sending his son from a mountain, coming down as a soldier or as a god or as some kind of triumphant being, creator, that when he hit the ground, the earth crumbled, and who had super extraordinary power demonstrated from his original perspective of who he was.

In fact, it probably would have been beneficial if God would have sent his son looking like that.

The Greeks, the Romans would have probably accepted it because their lore, their story, was all about Mount Olympus and all this ideas of gods that came a certain way, and there was no real proof of it, yet they still believed.

Now there was someone who would come, and would they believe if he actually came that way?

A soldier, a scholar, a someone who understood the signs, a prophet of the times.

But Jesus was sent in a different way.

Jesus came as a baby, vulnerable, reliant on family, submitted to challenges and dynamics of life.

And what Jesus, I believe the lesson in Jesus' life is that unless you start, like unless I learn from someone who started where I started, I can't really learn from them.

If I want to learn how to be successful, say in business, and I'm trying to learn from someone who was handed a business, it's not going to do very much for me if I'm just an entrepreneur, starting from nothing.

If I'm starting from nothing, I need to learn from those people who've started from nothing.

And so Jesus, it was it was important that we realize that Jesus came as a baby.

Why is that so important?

We go on Google and it's like, why was it so important that Jesus came as a baby?

This is the reason why.

Because Jesus came completely at level like zero.

He started where we all start.

And so I'd like to share with you this ideal today that you start from your beginning.

And your beginning may be unlike my beginning, but you need to start from your beginning.

In one sense, there's a commonality that we all have this beginning in life.

We all have this start.

Um, and you might be here at church today, and you might think, all right, I don't quite understand.

We're singing about all these songs, it's new to me.

Uh, we're standing up, people are clapping their hands, some people are raising their hands.

This is all new.

Uh the environment is new, people touching me, like shaking my hand, that's weird.

Like it could be like high fives.

Is this guy kind of crazy?

Turn and give someone a high five.

Tell them, God has a plan for your life.

All these things may be strange for you, but it's a start, it's a place, it's a beginning.

We all started from a beginning, and it's important that we set our ideals in life and say, you know what?

I'm gonna start from my beginning.

And everyone has a story, everyone has a narrative, everyone has in the church circles we call it our testimony.

We have this beginning, and it's important that everyone starts from that place.

Don't be discouraged.

Don't be discouraged about it.

Uh typically, people who are even coming to church or even have made this decision to take the next step won't make a decision.

They won't just come to church one day and say, you know what, I understand it all.

Everything's good.

I'm gonna make that next step in my journey.

No, it'll take time.

And you just gotta embrace it.

If you heard the message once, that's great.

It's wonderful that you've heard the message once, but you might need to hear it again and again and again until you get it in your heart and you just begin to understand the true meaning of this message.

We spend a large and important part of our life in that baby stage where other people do the work for you.

We've had three children, and all those three children didn't just start out making their bed, making breakfast for themselves, doing the things that children do.

They were children, they were babies.

And your stage in life might be in that place.

So we hope for you that you find yourself comfortable here.

We find yourself here accepted at the place where you're at.

And if you watch from far and you're watching even online today, that's okay.

It's okay.

It's good to be watching from that place, but be open to what God might be speaking to you in that still small voice that's going on in your own heart.

Be welcome, be open to it and take it seriously, take it considerably and considerately.

Just think about what God might be speaking to you.

And and there are times where in my life I have to go back to that stage and go, okay, what does it mean?

Even King David said this: restore unto me the joy of my first salvation.

Like, let me be reminded of what it was like to be at that beginning stage because it's so important to be at that place.

Jesus was on that journey, and that was the first place where you stay, and you might be there today, and we're grateful that you're here with us.

You're grateful that you're taking that step, and we applaud you along the way.

Next, Jesus was a child.

This child.

Being a child, Jesus was raised by his parents in a family.

He had brothers, he had sisters, a mom and a dad.

And uh he was treated like anyone who was regular or normal, like any usual kid.

And you're like, well, I'm sure Jesus had some special attention.

He was the son of God.

He when he before he was born, um an angel told him who he was and what he would do and who he would become.

I'm sure he was different.

Well, not so much.

If you look at Jesus' life, uh, one of the stories of his early childhood is that in Luke chapter 2, Jesus went with his family on a holiday.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And they went and they traveled up to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival.

And as they were there, they were partying and there were families together, and everyone was like having a great time.

Everyone was connected, and the parents were like, Okay, we're all done here.

Load up the camel, load up the horses, the donkeys, or whatever they had there, and load them all up, and let's get out of here.

And the Bible says that a day later, they were on their journey and they think, Hey, have you seen Jesus?

And at that point in time, they're like, no, and they start asking all their friends and relatives and people and start looking through all the bags, and they realize they don't have Jesus.

That's not the problem.

Like, hey, I'll text them or I'll call someone in Jerusalem.

They had to go back a day into Jerusalem.

Then they spent three days looking for Jesus.

Twelve years of age, Jesus is there for five days on his own.

And where did they find him?

The Bible says that when they finally found him, he was sitting in the temple and he was at he was listening to the rabbis, he was listening to the teachers, and he was asking questions of them.

And I believe there's another ideal, another place where in your life we move to.

We start off with a place like, hey, I'm in the beginning.

My beginning is important.

Other people can do things for me.

But then there comes a place in the ideal, too, where it says, I need to find the truth.

I need to look for it.

I need to ask questions, I need to listen.

So the scripture says very clearly, he began to listen.

He began to listen to those teachers.

That's why it's just so important if you're here and you're just searching for truth after, like, you know, you don't have to do anything, but start listening to what's being said.

Start going to a connect group, get connected, and just sit and just say, hey, I'm just here to listen.

That's okay.

Hey, let's go for coffee.

Let me just listen.

And that's a good place to be in.

And then he began to ask questions.

And questions, I'll tell you this: God is not afraid of your questions.

I am not afraid of your questions.

Other people in this place who've been here for a while, welcome your questions.

Questions are important.

Uh, my kids are awesome.

I think they're they're great kids, but every time at the end of the day, I'm just beat.

I'm like, go to bed.

It's maybe a little late, and we're like, okay, it's time for us all to settle down.

It they'll be in their bed, and it and you'll just tuck them in, you'll pray for them, do whatever needs to be done.

And as I'm leaving, I'm about to close the door.

It's like one of my sons will say, Dad, uh, what is sin?

23 hours of the day, it's always at that last moment.

My daughter, why isn't hope a fruit of the spirit?

Dad, can you interpret this dream for me?

Like this is virtually what she's saying.

Dad, I had a dream.

What do you think it means?

I'm like, oh my Lord, God, I need you now.

It's a good place to be.

Spend those times, ask the questions.

It's healthy to ask questions.

I don't think we ask enough questions.

I think we need to ask more questions.

Again, Sunday is wonderful.

Listening is important.

But the good place to be is in a small Kinect group, and in those Kinect groups, you can ask questions from each other, saying, Hey, what about this?

What about that?

I'm experiencing this in my marriage.

What should I do?

Where do I go with the information I know?

How

Having that is invaluable.

The truth is always found, the scripture says, in God's word.

And it's what brings life to us, finding truth.

The scripture says that Jesus is the truth.

And that where that truth is, there's freedom.

So we're searching for truth.

An ideal that we have is there has to be that spirit in us that says, I will search for truth.

I love when I get into someone's vehicle and they've got like subscription with auto.

I went to lick my finger like I was changing pages in a book, but now it's like audible.com and it's going to be podcasts and different series where they're actually learning from the scripture.

Be in a place where you're learning from scripture, reading the scripture, praying, being around people that know a little bit more than you do, that you trust and that you trust.

Jesus was at that place.

He was at that place where he could trust.

So search for truth.

Number three, Jesus, obviously, in his life, as he moved forward, he moved from a baby where he was starting from his beginning to a place where he began to search for truth, asking questions and listening.

He moved to Jesus the man.

And Jesus realized that at one point in his life there was going to be a commitment that was required of him.

A dedication of his life.

So we don't know what happens between ages of 12 and 30 years of age.

We know that Jesus existed.

We know he built a reputation.

The Bible says this, that in those 18 years, people said of Jesus, they said, Is this not the son of the carpenter Joseph?

Doesn't he have brothers?

James, Judas, Simon, are not his sisters with us?

They knew him.

They knew him.

He had great reputation.

He had good reputation.

But it moved to a place where in his life he had to take responsibility and take matters to another level.

And he did that by going out into the desert.

He found a guy named John the Baptizer.

And John went and was preaching a gospel.

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent so that you can start moving in kingdom living, doing the things that God would want established, working along people that are establishing the kingdom on this earth.

And so Jesus goes and he goes to see John the Baptist, and John the Baptist says to him, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I know who you are.

I can't baptize you.

You need to, I'm not even worthy.

And Jesus says, No, no, no.

I want to be baptized.

I want to dedicate my life.

I want to recommit.

I want to show the world that I'm committed to this cause.

I want to move to a different level.

And so John took him, and the scripture says he baptized him.

And when he came out of the water, a voice from heaven confirmed who he was.

This is my son, in whom I'm well pleased.

Listen to him.

Listen to the words that he says.

And the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove.

It wasn't like a dove dropped on him.

It was like like a dove.

The Holy Spirit was gentle and just landed on Jesus and he began to carry, out of his commitment, he began to carry a different grace.

He began to carry a different power.

But at that point in time as a man, he was moved into a different space.

He went to a stage called the desert stage.

And this is where your commitment is tested.

And he was tested.

What was he going to do?

How was he going to live?

And how was he going to, what was he going to hold on to and what was he going to release?

Where was he going to compromise?

And Jesus, after every test, and you can read about this in Luke chapter 4, every test, he was adjust it, it was adjusted.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Every test was financial, fame, glory, all these things, all this power that he could have, he was tested by this at this stage.

This place of commitment over comfort is a very important place.

At one level, you need to move from that good place where you have that good reputation to a place where you're willing to risk something in order to have something great.

And you move from the good to the great.

You move from that place of comfort.

And we as a church we tend to isolate ourselves and we tend to isolate our spiritual gifts.

Even when we look at Ephesians chapter 4 and we look at the gifts of the church, we know the Bible says they're prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, apostles.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

There are all these different gifts.

We tend to spiritualize them.

Oh, that uh a prophet must be uh a spiritual prophet talking about the things of God.

No, you can carry a prophetic, a prophetic spirit to a boardroom table, to an executive table.

You can sit and know what's happening around the table, know who you can trust.

I know business leaders right now who can sit at a table who have sit who have sat at a table and they've looked across the table and they've looked in the eyes of that other person and said, You're stealing from me.

And the person's like, Yeah.

Like they just came.

I'm gonna search it out, I'm gonna find it, you're rock, you're robbing from our company.

And the guy admitted it.

It was a prophetic space.

He didn't go, thus saith the Lord, you're stealing from the company.

No, he just he knew it.

He walked, I know people walk into a room and they can sense the presence of a room.

That's a prophetic gift.

Teachers, aren't you?

I love our teaching academies here.

We've got some great teaching institutions here, but those teachers do more than just teach.

We value teachers.

Mothers are teachers, fathers are teachers, grandparents are teachers.

There are those of you who teach on debt reduction, and those who teach on how to start up companies and how to raise families and strengthen marriages.

There's teachers, those how to build fires, those how to get through the next levels on Super Mario.

There are those of you who are teachers, pastors, apostles, those who know how to break ground and start things from nothing, who have the ability to risk something, go into places that no one else goes into.

I love apostles.

It's not just a spiritual gift, it's a natural gift that you bring into the world.

Don't spiritualize it, don't just solely.

The church does have it, but uh like the in the church uh organization and body does have it.

It's made up of those individuals.

But they're not for just operating in the church, they're for operating in the world as well.

And that's what moving into that spirit of the man, that level of manhood for Jesus was saying, I'm gonna take what's in me and take it into the world.

Take it outside of the carpentry shop, take it outside of my own home.

So those 40 days, he was tested, and this is what he was tempted with comfort.

You'll have comfort with money, comfort with security, you'll have comfort, and that was really important, and it was wanting to immobilize Jesus, but he chose to remain committed to his calling.

Last stage here, Jesus became the Savior.

After coming through the desert, it was really wonderful to see this one scene painted out in the scripture.

After coming through the desert, the Bible says he goes into a temple and he'd just been fasting, just been praying, just been tempted and tested.

And he goes into the temple and they give him a scroll, and he opens the scroll and they hand it to him.

He just opens it and he begins to read.

I don't know if that was divine itself, but the Bible just says it was handed to him.

Like, just read it.

And he began to read this scripture.

And he says, This is what it means to take on that next step.

He says, the Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he's anointed me.

And this is what he was anointed to proclaim good news to the poor.

He sent me to proclaim the freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight to those who are blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Today, the scriptures fulfilled to your hearing.

All the people in the synagogue, when they heard Jesus say it, he was saying it with an authority and a strength and a grace in himself that when he said it, they were furious for the way he said it.

Because he was saying it with a conviction in his heart.

He was saying, I've moved from good.

I'm gonna move to somewhere great.

I'm gonna move to being not just an ordinary silent man sitting in my carpentry shop.

I'm gonna go and I'm gonna proclaim good news to those who are poor.

I'm gonna go and I'm gonna reach and find those who are in captivity and break their chains.

I'm gonna go and give healing to those who need healing and strength to those who are weak.

I'm gonna go and declare the year of God's favor to those who need favor.

And he strengthened himself in that spirit.

And when the Bible said, when they heard him, this is church.

When the church group heard him say this, they were furious and took him outside and wanted to throw them off a cliff.

Great church, hey?

You're not part of that church today.

But but imagine, this is church.

These are the people that were close to him.

And they wanted to throw them off a cliff, and the scripture says that Jesus just walked through the crowd.

He just walked through them.

He had a different mission that he was carrying.

And this is where he went.

He went and he carried himself with a different kind of confidence.

And this is the last ideal.

This last ideal in terms of moving forward in your faith is to boldly go.

Boldly go.

Not just go, but boldly go.

And this is where Jesus went.

As soon as he left the temple, he walked out, and the Bible says he walked into a little town just down the street from where he was.

In a synagogue, there was a man who was possessed by a demon, an impure spirit.

And the man cried out at the top of his voice, Go away.

What do you want with me, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

And listen to what the scripture says.

This is how Jesus replied to him.

Jesus said to him, Be quiet.

And the scripture says this.

Jesus said sternly, boldly, there's this different attitude in Jesus.

He didn't sit and go, be quiet.

Shh, shh, shh.

He said, be quiet.

Like bold, there was a boldness in his voice that was that was the result of a different stage where he was at.

He was moving to a different place.

And God had a plan for him.

He said, Be quiet and come out of him.

Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring the man.

All the people were amazed and said to each other, What words these are.

With authority and power, he gives orders to impure spirits, and they come out.

And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

In a synagogue, again he walked back into the place where they were going to throw him out over the cliff.

He walks back in.

That's pretty confident.

And there was an authority and a power that he carried.

This is what he carried in his own heart.

So Jesus again moves to the next place and he begins to heal many there.

He went to a woman's house, and uh there was someone who was sick on their bed.

So he bent over this girl and he rebuked the fever that she was dealing with and it left her.

She got up at once and began to wait and serve them.

At sunset, people brought all those who had various kinds of sickness, laying hands on each one, he began to heal them.

He moved to a place of actually healing.

Moved to a place of making a difference.

Now, like Jesus today, there aren't too many differences.

Jesus started as a baby.

He had to make a decision.

I'm just going to start somewhere.

This is like we all have this beginning.

It's not a question.

He moved to that of a child where you began to ask the questions.

You might be at that place today where you're just like listening and asking questions, and that's all good.

But there's going to be a place where you're going to have to move forward beyond that.

You're going to have to move.

You're going to have to advance.

You're going to have to start moving that train.

Getting it on the tracks isn't enough.

You've got to start pushing it forward.

And you start moving.

Start asking those questions.

What questions have you been living with right now that you've never had answered?

You need to find those answers.

You need to ask those questions.

You need to stop saying silent and just listening.

You need to start asking.

Then you have to come to a place like Jesus as a man.

You might be at that place where you've asked all the questions, and everyone knows you've asked those questions.

And everyone knows you've been to the Kinect groups and you've been a good person.

Good.

You've been at church regularly, your seat has your name on it.

People know to expect you.

It's great.

But you've got to move to that place where you're committed over comfort.

You've got a commitment over comfort.

And you move to that place that you're saying, you know what?

I'm going to step up and I'm going to serve.

I'm going to lead a Kinect group this year.

I'm going to step out in my gift.

I'm going to, I'm going to, your gift might be raising money.

I'm going to raise money for missions, for our church, for projects that we've got, whatever it may be.

Some of you are like, well, that's I've got I've got to step into my ability.

And that's where our next steps program helps you discover that gift that God's given you.

So you don't have to ask those questions.

You can just start advancing, advancing, advancing.

And lastly, to boldly go.

Boldly step out and do what God has called you to do.

And actually, and that's our position at the church.

That's our heart here as a leadership team, is to actually stand and support each of you who are stepping out.

And we pray that this place becomes after a week of you going out, a week of you being bold, a week of you coming back with the stories.

Man, they tried to throw me off a cliff this week.

It's like, yeah.

We'll come, we'll worship together, we'll pray together, we'll stand with you, we'll support you, we'll give you a hug and a high five.

Say, you keep keep going on, keep pressing in, keep doing what you're doing.

We'll help build your faith and support you that way so that you can actually grow in your calling into your destiny.

So this is where it goes.

And at 33 years of age, this last stage of his life was completed.

And the Bible says he faced the final boss.

The final boss was death.

And uh I love the song we sang this morning.

Death was arrested.

Because it didn't end at the cross.

Everyone thought it would.

The enemy thought he had won the victory over Jesus.

He thought he had crushed him down.

But Jesus stepped forward and he said, You know what?

For the joy that was set before me, set before me, I'm gonna endure this crucifixion.

I'm gonna step into it with all my intent.

I'm gonna carry and bear all the sins of the world.

And the Lord's grace came upon, or the Father's grace was on him to be able to carry that.

And together they carried that no matter, oh, it's so great, that no matter what we do, no matter what uh thoughts you might have about yourself in terms of your own, your own insecurities, your own k your own sense of not like lack of self-worth, your own shame, your own rejection, your own pain, your own sense of having to carry your own sin, that was taken off of you and placed on Christ.

And now because of Christ, we have freedom.

Forever we're free because of what Christ did for us.

So if you're serious about this journey, it's it's as simple as ABC.

Oh, I I always see it just this way.

You accept the fact that that uh you're a sinner.

You've gone your own way, you've done life your own way, and uh you've rejected or neglected God's investment and and position in your life.

And B is you believe that Jesus is not only just the Son of God, but you believe that Jesus died to forgive you of your sins.

He died to forgive you of your wrongs.

And all your past wrongs were then placed on him so that you could actually start new.

And you do this by confessing that Jesus, you confess that he's now your Lord.

You say, I trust you, God, I trust in your ability.

You confess that Jesus is is by trusting in him, our life is better.

By trusting, by confessing him that he's Lord, he's not gonna take, he's not gonna take, he's gonna come in.

He and he's going to resurrect what the Bible says is a dead spirit and make it alive again.

And so He's made, He makes us new.

And the scripture says it's like you get a new name.

There's a new person that gets born in you.

And we receive that because of what Christ did for us.

Amen.

Would you bow your heads with me this morning?

Just take a moment.

Just consider where you're at right now.

This year, would you consider committing to moving forward?

Committing to saying I need to move forward.

I need to press forward.

I'm gonna commit to this, to not sitting back, not being catatonic, not being just just uh sitting on the couch.

I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna get up and go.

I'm gonna make a difference.

Committing to my relationship with God, committing to my relationship to the church, committing to my relationship with others and my family.

I'm gonna commit to grow, to grow up and to move up and to level up.

Will you take a moment just to allow the Holy Spirit just to assess your own heart today?

And the Bible says that this that the heart is a wicked thing.

It'll deceive you into thinking, hey, everything's okay, you're in a good place, you're fine.

Uh just stay what the way you've been, and other people need to change.

You're good.

Just allow God to speak to other people.

No, God wants to speak to you.

We believe God has more for you today.

Father, we thank you that your presence is with us.

Lord, you're not here to put us down.

You're here to help us, pull us up, and put our feet on a solid rock, on a strong foundation.

And today, Lord, we start this September, this new year.

Lord, we start this new year thinking and dreaming about all that you have for us.

You're taking us from the old and moving us into something new.

And for those of you who have never uh made a decision to actually follow Christ, today, maybe today's your day.

And there's a power in the in the prayers that we pray, and it may just seem like words, but I believe that these words can actually make the difference between life and death.

So today, would you just together as a congregation just pray this prayer with me for the sake of those who have never prayed this prayer before and just make them feel comfortable and just stepping into that next space, that next stage.

Jesus, I thank you, and I welcome you into my world.

I invite you today to come into my heart, forgive me of my sin, and make me a new person.

Starting now, my life belongs to you.

I boldly declare that your grace is enough for me.

And I stand in confidence today that I'm fully forgiven and I won't be the same again.

I am your child, saved by Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you give the Lord a clap?

Amen.

I'm gonna invite Trisha to come up and uh if you've shared, if you prayed that prayer today for the first time, uh Trisha has a card here, she's just gonna show you.

It's a connection card.

If you prayed that prayer today, we want to encourage you to just take a moment, put the information on that card, and just acknowledge to us hey, today I made a decision to follow Christ.

There were uh over this church's span, there are hundreds and thousands of people who have made a decision to follow Christ, and we'd love to add you to that number as those who are now walking hand in hand with God.

Amen.