Heart And Soul Of Kelowna Christian Center

Thank you for listening to the Colonna Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging for more information on KC and how to connect.

Visit us at KCT.com.

This is a great time of the year for our church.

We're having a whole all of our teachers come in this next week for the online school and for the campus schools that are getting ready to educate our students.

And it's a great vision weekend for us at KCC.

We're appreciating our volunteers this evening, big dinner, lots of games and fun, and then sharing some of the heart and the intent of the church in the next little while.

As we look forward to our budget year, which is July on to next June, we follow the school year in terms of our budget, and a lot of our vision follows along with that budget.

And uh we've just we're in a real exciting time.

It's great to see all the faces that have been on away on holidays are coming back, and we have a family with us.

I'm just gonna uh welcome them from Taipei City, from Taiwan, all the way from Taiwan.

Welcome to church today.

Um we have people that we're just uh we we've got the family.

That's what's so awesome about the family of God.

That's so what's so awesome about the church is the church is global.

Uh wherever we go, you can find the church.

Wherever you go, you can find the church.

And it's a relationship that's not just uh topical, but it's it's deep because that uh that same heart is in each one of us.

Amen.

Well, today uh is a great time.

My wife and I uh had a few weeks of time away.

We uh I can't even remember, we were away last week.

I know my but my dad said, make sure to download the podcast and listen to it.

So I did.

It was a good message.

Um keeping up on Instagram.

I know a lot of you are following on with our uh our online messages or the online recordings on Facebook, streaming live on the Sunday mornings, and that's just so great that you're actually keeping track and of uh where we're going and where the church is at.

Um but it's great to have you here in church.

There's something about the experience of just rubbing shoulder to shoulder with people and singing alongside of each everyone that uh makes it that experience that much deeper.

Um, so this week is our our vision weekend for KCC for 2018.

And it's incredible that we've never been here before.

I always think this is awesome when you think about vision.

Vision is about something that we've yet to experience, yet to achieve.

And when I look forward, I actually have the hope of God in my residing in my spirit, something that's when I look forward, I see potential, I see opportunity.

And when I look forward, I'm thinking not in terms of what has been or what has been done before, but I think forward in terms of what is God doing now and what is he wanting to accomplish in us today.

Turn to your neighbor and says, God wants something to be done specifically for you this year.

God has a plan for you this year.

Specifically for you this year.

Every season's new.

The scripture talks in Ecclesiastes about all the different seasons of life that we've been living in.

The seasons are new, and uh it with every day it's new.

It's a new day.

Um, but we believe God has something in store and something new for us today.

Um, you're living in a day you've never lived in, you're sitting in a service you've never sat in before, you're looking at a future that you've never looked at before.

Opportunity, potential, and you know, I'm you're gonna get better looking this year, amen.

You're gonna you're gonna get stronger, you're gonna you're gonna look back and go, this was the best year that we've ever had.

2000, this summer, when we're gonna go next year, we're gonna look back and we're gonna go, remember when it ended in smoke?

And something new came out of the ashes, this phoenix, right?

Something new came up.

Uh that's what we're looking at right now, that new.

What is it that God is doing that's new today in the church?

Uh, we're starting a new school year, we're starting a new church year, and we believe God's with us.

So it's my belief that what God is doing in the church can be closely aligned to what God is doing in individual families.

The best place to be as a family is knowing where God is moving and then coming into line with where God is going.

So I hope you all, as well as uh along with our team, have your pulse on what God is saying to the church.

And you're sharing it with each other.

Where is God moving?

Who is he directing us to?

What is the message he's calling us to carry?

This is the best place to be, is in the center of where God is moving the church.

My hope is that your hope is open and that you'll learn, uh, that you'll lean in today and cheer us on as we talk and affirm who we already are and where with God's help we're going to be.

Um this holiday was an interesting holiday because I didn't have plans to actually go away when I knew that the smoke was coming in.

Had I known the smoke was gonna be here, we probably would have headed away.

But uh we had our holiday time, and it ended up that it started when the when the smoke rolled into the Okanagans.

So we spent a lot of time at home over the last week, and it was really exciting.

We got to look at the house and look at all the stuff that needed to be done in the house.

And my wife was getting really anxious, and paint cans started coming off the shelves and paint gear stuff, and I thought, oh my goodness, this holiday is gonna be something of a work holiday.

And she's like, Brody, let's just go for a drive and for a coffee.

And I thought, that sounds good.

You know, we'll go out for a little while while we can do it, and we'll stop in at home sense and yesk, and I thought, tell the devil no, not today.

Not today, devil.

We're not going to yisk.

Uh we have you ever heard of shopping online?

You can do that from home while I'm sitting reading my book or whatever it may be.

But she said she was we were talking about you know the house and and all the the all the plans she had, and and God bless her.

Like, we need I need a Natalie in my life, like to move the house forward.

But um, but when I was looking at that, she would say, Brody, I have this vision.

I have this vision for the house, and this is what it's gonna look like.

Uh, we're gonna have a desk, we're gonna have for the kids to do their schoolwork on, we're gonna have the room looking this way and that way, and furniture and hangs, things up on these walls, and and she had her vision, but I had my own vision of what her vision looked like.

My vision didn't look like her vision, and it came to that place where I said, Oh, just pick up this desk and do like you know, it's the typical man walks in and just go, just do this and this and this and this, and it's all done.

Mission accomplished, move on to step two.

She's like, No, like it had to be a particular desk with a particular color where drawers and shelving space was and the way it was supposed to, shelves were to look a certain way.

And I looked at that and I thought, when I'm thinking about vision, you can be on the same page as to where you're going, but not be on the same page in as in terms of what the vision actually looks like, where you just cross paths.

And it's important that when we enter this next season with KCC, that we're all on that same path.

And that people say, Well, it's really important, like, why is it so important that you attend church?

It's important that you attend church because that way we're all in alignment, we're all walking on that same path, we're all going in that same direction.

You're hearing the same message, you're rubbing shoulders with people that are seeing the same way, and it keeps us in alignment.

We're thinking straight, we're moving in the same direction.

So we wanna we wanna really look at where God is moving the church, lift our eyes to see the future of the church.

And if you're a guest with us today, we're just so grateful to have you with us.

We believe that this is gonna actually this will be a blessing to you as well.

As we just look at vision, but this is the heart and the soul of of what we believe the church is to be and where God is moving KCC particularly.

So finally, let's look at a few reasons why we need to have big vision.

Big vision.

Everyone say big vision, big vision.

I look, I was while I was on holidays, I was able to look at Facebook and uh have how many of you have ever heard of the Facebook before?

Yeah, the Facebook, yes, a few of you.

Um and there was this one video someone had shared with me, and it was about a guy saying, How much, like how much he was a a business leader, and he was talking to other business entrepreneurs, and he was saying, Okay, tell me about your vision.

What's what's a number you've got in your head that you want to accomplish, you want to have in your account?

And someone someone said, I want a million dollars.

And he stopped that individual, and they were about 27, 28 years of age, and he and he broke it down, he said, Okay, a million dollars, how long can you last on a million dollars?

And he stopped them and he said, Okay, if you were to have a million dollars today and you were to spend$4,000 a month, how long would that million dollars take you to burn up?

And believe it or not, that by the time that 28-year-old was 48 years of age, he would have burned through most of that million dollars.

He says, you need now that sounds like a huge number for us.

That's a huge number for me.

Million dollars.

That sounds like really ambitious.

But the fact is, he said, you have to stop thinking about one million dollars.

You need to think minimum ten million dollars.

And I was thinking, oh my goodness, ten million dollars, that sounds like such an extravagant number.

But the fact is, you need to have big vision.

Small vision will move a church in small increments, it will move a family by small increments.

But large vision, big vision will move in big steps, will move forward in big steps, and you may not ever hit that 10 million mark.

He's saying, as an entrepreneur for a company, you may not hit that 10 million mark, but at least you're moving with a larger focus and a larger vision to actually hit those bigger steps.

Big vision is important.

So why is it important?

Number one, vision is a key to progress.

It's a key to progress.

Without vision, you don't have progress.

Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 2 says this.

Habakkuk 2:2

It says, Write the vision down.

Make it plain on tablets so that he may run who reads it.

Vision is incredibly important for you to have progress.

Um, my grandfather, in his later years, his eyesight started dimming.

And I got to see firsthand the effect of dimming vision, the amount of stress that vision alleviated from your day-to-day life.

If I was to bring someone up on stage here and put a blindfold on them, I was thinking about doing this, but I thought there might be a liability issue here.

And I was to put a blindfold on that individual, and I said, you know, now, now walk, just simply walk.

And I've done this because the lights in the sanctuary have been off, and I've I've come through it during the day and thought, uh, I can, I don't have to turn the lights on, I'll just make my way to the back door.

My shins disagreed with me there because as soon as the lights came off and my vision was depleted and got became diminished, I start, you start moving super slow, tentative.

And they say the vision is connected to 93% of your stressors.

That means it's alleviate when your vision is relieved, 93% of the stress comes off your off your uh your activity.

You're not thinking about where you're stepping, you're not feeling each step, you're not, your hands aren't in front of you looking for that obstacle.

You see what's in front, you see the obstacles, you see the challenges that lie ahead.

And if you want to make progress, not slow progress, but but move and make big steps, you have to have that clear vision.

Vision helps with progress.

It's very clear.

And God and God was instructing Habakkuk, he says, What I want you to do with this vision is write it down.

And the reason why you write it down is so that it may become transferable to those who are walking with you.

You can actually communicate that vision.

This is where I'm going.

This is where I want you to come alongside with me.

This is the target point.

These are the obstacles.

You can see it along with me of where we need to go and what we what hurdles we need to move over.

Writing down the vision is important.

Moving that vision forward is important.

The church is called to have that vision because God is wanting to take the church from point A to point B.

God is wanting to move the church forward.

God is wanting to move the church and allow it to advance and progress.

What happened in latter years, we celebrate.

But the fact is, God has something for us today.

Amen?

Turn to your neighbor and say, today, God has something for you today.

It's new, it's now.

There's more for us, and God has got more for us.

God isn't finished with us.

And the plan is to move us forward and to progress.

So are you planning to progress?

Big vision is a vision that has in its mindset progress.

Number two, no vision leads to division.

Division.

The scripture says in Proverbs 29, 18, without vision, people perish.

Uh we had to do, had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling in the last year, and we loaded up the vehicle with all of our luggage and decided to drive south, and uh we were going through all these little towns, these little communities, these little cities.

And it was really interesting where we were driving because uh when you go into a city or a town that has vision, it looks different than a city or a community that doesn't have vision.

You can see it.

You see the graffiti on the walls, you see the streets that are dirty, you see the you you read the paper and you see that the crime has elevated.

And you see all these things that happen in a city that doesn't have vision, but you move into a city that has vision, you see construction happening.

You see city cleaners out there making sure the streets are are are tidy.

You're you're seeing a council that's working towards progress.

Vision is important for any type of unity.

And so the same thing, you walk into a teen's room.

We have a 12-year-old right now, I think.

Is she 12?

She's 12, yeah.

Good.

Still 12, always 12.

And uh, but she just celebrated her friend's 13th birthday, and I thought, man, this girl just turned 13.

I remember holding her as a baby.

And I thought, man, she's 13.

I'm gonna have a teenager soon.

And I remember thinking, and I go back to my youth pastor days when we would go in and we kidnap a kid for for breakfast before school in the morning.

We go into their place, and I go into some rooms and I'd be like, this kid has no vision.

Their room showed it.

There, there's clothes on the floor, there's they're just kind of like all over the place.

And you can see it when your teen doesn't have vision.

They're just sitting on the phone, there's no activity, there's flicking through social media, there's no intent or vision in the life.

They're loitering around, they're just lethargic, they don't have a plan.

You can see the importance of vision even in a teen's life.

In a family, a marriage, when you have uh your children, do you have a vision for your children?

Is there a vision for their success?

Is there a vision for their for their dreams and goals to be accomplished to help assist them on their journey?

A lot of families have a vision for their children, but then when the children all leave the home, what happens after that?

Is the vision just complete?

Is there a vision remaining after that fact?

Do we really we need to continue to carry that vision?

And that's oftentimes when there's critical changes in a couple's life, in a couple's lifestyle, is when the the vision the vision begins to uh break down.

Thirdly, vision accelerates our devotion, it accelerates it.

Another translation of Proverbs 29, 18 says, without vision, where there's no vision, the people are unrestrained.

Unrestrained.

And this oftentimes is a reason why people live undisciplined lives.

Without a vision, it doesn't matter what you're drinking, who you're hanging out with, what you're smoking, it doesn't matter where you're going, what time you go to bed, it doesn't matter what job you have, but with a vision, it's intentional.

It's intentional, my relationships are intentional.

My my uh my time is intentional, my calendar is intentional.

All these things are are intentional.

And in terms of what we have collectively, I know um I know when it comes to your devotion, uh collectively as a church, I know we're all in a different place in our in our walk and our journey with God.

But and God does have a plan for your life individually.

Uh, God really does care about Brody, God does care about Natalie, God cares about each and every one of you, but God not only cares about you, God cares about the church together.

In terms of your devotion, in terms of your time and your commitment, the question is this uh when we think about God's house, God's house can be of a low level of devotion in our lives, a low level of commitment in our lives, or it can be of a high level commitment in our lives.

And I look at what has been accomplished in this church, and because I grow I've grown up in this church, 35 years plus, I've looked and I've seen the power of devotion.

I've seen it as we move from uh what was it, Winnegers Post House?

Winnegers Post House, which is the OK Correl.

And now we move from there to Laser Tag.

You know where the laser tag is right now?

You it sounds like our church was in an awful lot of interesting places, but the okay correl, we moved up in life, went to the laser tag space, and now we're here on this great property, thinking about what God has got planned for us today.

And I I celebrate each and every individual who like approaches, approaches the church and approaches the vision with a sense of devotion to it, commitment to the vision.

It's easy to be casual, it's easy to be just not connected, but when I see people, Who are like, what needs to be done?

What needs to be done to accomplish the vision in the church?

Then there's a sense of devotion that's there, moving the church forward.

That's what really gets into my spirit to be like, man, I want to build alongside of you.

I want to work beside of you.

I want to accelerate the vision of this church.

I want to accelerate it.

Fourthly, vision stirs our faith.

When you start to get vision, something stops and it shifts in you.

Instead of thinking, we can't, we start thinking of why not?

Faith.

Vision.

What's the vision?

Do you have a vision for your family?

Do you have a vision for people in your life who need salvation?

Do you have a vision for our community to come to know Jesus?

Do you have a vision for businesses in our community to rally around a righteous cause?

Our educational systems in the universities and the schools to celebrate what God is doing in the faith community in the city here.

Do you have a vision that the young people of today would celebrate the message and the gospel that's being shared in the churches?

You know, we have some great youth youth pastors in our community.

We've got a great youth pastor right here in Malachi.

We've got, and you know, we've got great vision this year for us to be able to be a voice in a digital format to young people that are going to school.

We're gonna land on their iPods, we're gonna land on their iPads, we're gonna get into their space and inform and influence the young people of this community with the message of the gospel.

And it's gonna come out of the young people that are serving in this house.

There's great vision.

When you say, when there's vision, there's faith.

Instead of saying, hey, we have to, we we stop and we say, no, we get to.

Because when there's faith associated with your vision, you want to be a part of the solution.

You want to be a part of what God's doing.

So there's an expectation associated with your worship, with your prayer.

Instead of saying, you know, we have to pray, you say, I get to pray.

Why?

Because I believe prayer actually changes things.

I believe that instead of I have to go to a connect group, I get to go to connect groups because I know that community will help me see more clearly the purpose that God has for my debt life and my destiny.

And when that happens, there's joy that's in my heart, and there's a sense of fulfillment that'll happen in me.

Faith comes by hearing, it comes by hearing the word of God.

Faith is believing in those things that are not as though they were.

We had bought the property and there was no building, it was just an orchard.

You remember how many of you remember those days where this was just like a land full of apple trees, and Ben Le Park was like an apple orchard in behind?

I remember when we first got the church built, and I was sitting in my office, and we were just getting organized.

Uh I saw someone in a car jump over the curb into Ben Lee before Benley Park was there.

And it was an orchard, and the car was ripping through the field, and then there were police cars coming after that car, and I thought, where have we landed?

Like, this is our community here.

But we have a vision.

Someone had faith for what we see today.

Now we have a thriving online school and a thriving campus school, and we've got a church that's planted in Rutland.

There are no more police chases going through the fields.

We've established a presence in this property, and it's because of the faith of those who have gone before us.

They've set a standard and they believe for something that was big.

And today is our opportunity to continue to believe for those things.

Believe, have faith, have hope for your family, your relationships, the church.

Vision, lastly, brings us together.

It brings us together, even in our diversity, in our various perspectives, our various backgrounds.

Uh, when we gather around vision, it's like getting on the same bus, heading in the same direction.

Just like bringing us together.

We're going in this direction.

And uh the more the vision is a powerful thing.

It's more powerful than our own opinion, it's more powerful than our own preference.

When we get in line and we say, you know what, I'm gonna get on board and I'm gonna support where the the church is moving.

And together, what do we see?

So the that's vision.

But then where do what do we see as the church?

What does what is the church that we see?

And for some of you who are new to the church, uh, you know, you may say, well, what I see today is maybe a little taste of where you're going, and and it's good.

But I still believe that God has more for us at KCC.

I believe God has more for us here.

I know that we still have our challenges, we still have people who are in need of healing.

We are we still have people who haven't yet come to know Christ.

You may still have an empty seat beside you that needs to be filled with some by someone.

There are people that need to know and need to hear that message, but what do we see?

We see the church is advancing.

It is always advancing because Jesus' mission is always advancing.

He needs to be first in our lives, his mission has to be first.

I love what was said last week on in the message about God's called us to love our community and to have such a deep love that's that's strong for our families and for our community.

Is that love in our heart?

Um, what is God's heart for our community?

What is his vision for this community?

And when we connect to that, it's going to be uh it's it's gonna be a big deal.

So the church we see is always advancing.

Uh, I think it'd be an insult to our creator to be passive about this, to be passive about seeing the church move forward and saying, okay, we've done our job, now we stop.

Uh I have the privilege of having had a great heritage.

All of my grandparents were those who never stopped moving forward.

They were those who kept on praying, kept on believing, kept on giving, kept on supporting, kept on cheering on.

Even my my grandma passed away a few months ago.

She would she was the one when I go in to see her, she'd tell me, hey, I listened to your podcast.

At 94 years of age, 90, 95 years of age, still listening to the podcast, cheering me on.

You keep preaching, you keep doing, saying what you're saying, keep encouraging that way.

It would be an insult to us to actually say, hey, God, Jesus, what you died for, what you had is your vision.

It we we're stopping.

It's enough right now.

How many of you know someone who needs Christ?

How many of you know someone who needs to know Christ or needs that hand that that encounter with God that shifts and changes their life?

We need we have that.

And so we need to get on board with where the church is moving, the church is advancing.

Our vision is to get, and let me say this, bigger and smaller at the same time.

We're not afraid of being big.

And I don't think it's are you a big church or are you a small church?

We want both.

We want the big, we need the gatherings of people, the rally together, the worship, the message to be heard by all.

But we're not afraid of the small.

We need our connect groups strong.

We need our smaller groups to be small because there are things that you can only deal with in a small community, where there's safety and counsel, and people care for you, and there's prayer for you, where people are laying hands on you and believing for you and for your personal advancement.

Uh, I'm one person.

We have three or four of our staff people that can be there for you, but let me tell you right now, we have a community of people who are mature in the church here, who are a part, who are running small groups, and if you get connected to that, can if you connect to one of those groups, you're gonna find your life, uh your life benefited.

Your life and your your marriages and your your personal lives and your parenting skills and your wisdom, your knowledge will just be benefited all around.

We are not afraid of being big and we're not afraid of being small.

We need both.

We want to be a church that's expressive.

We want to be a church, why expressive?

Because we believe that the Bible says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.

I we want to be a church that's practicing inside the four walls what we want to be living outside of the four walls.

If I see a challenge, I want to be able to pray.

In the same way that when I leave the four walls, when I see that same challenge, I want to be able to stop and pray.

You'll find me singing on the front row at church on a Sunday morning.

You'll find me when I'm driving down the street in my Toyota Camry, singing to my cassette player on my uh, you know, whatever that song is, I'll still be in that place of worship.

When God moves on me to pray in church on a Sunday morning and to intercede for my city, I'll intercede here.

But and I'll intercede the same way as when I'm at my home with my family and for my kids.

There's an expression.

If you can't do it here, how will you ever do it out there?

So we're saying, be 20% louder here, be 20% more engaged here, be that extra level because you know that when you go outside, you're gonna feel that pressure to like dumb down and quiet down.

And that's when you gotta get loud and push your spirit.

It's because we're gonna be more than just a Sunday church, we're gonna be a church that's living every day, everywhere, everywhere we go, advancing the kingdom of God.

Amen.

We're expressive and we're excellent.

We believe that God deserves our best.

Deserves our best.

So we determine to stir it up.

We determine to do that in our relationships.

Uh, there are times in my relationship with Natalie where it just becomes common.

And I have to stir it up.

Right?

I'm not gonna tell you how I do that now, but I'm gonna stir it up.

And I have to stir up that relationship.

If I want to walk in in excellence with my relationship with my father, with God, I have to stir up that spirit inside of me.

And I have to work on it.

There's times when I have to actually get stirred up to love you.

Yes, Lord, I am hearing from you now.

Is there something we have to have communion with me one-on-one afterwards?

You can just calm up.

No, there's the time where I have to say, like, Lord, you've brought me this great, you've brought us this great congregation together.

We've got brought the church together.

Let's move forward together.

And let's, and you know what?

I have to stir up my love for the lost.

Stir up my love for the Lord, stir up my love for the for the Word of God so that's in my heart.

I'm not living on day-old bread.

I'm living on the fresh.

I'm living on an experience I'm having regularly with the Lord.

A relationship that's stirred up.

There may be a time where you're looking at your life and going, man, work has been hard, life has been hard, relationships have been hard, and the things that you've pushed to the back burner that ought to be on the front burner.

And we have to stir it up and say, no, I'm gonna bring those things front.

Bring those things front and center.

I'm gonna hire a babysitter, I'm gonna make a reservation, I'm gonna go away for a few days with my wife.

I'm gonna stir up that relationship.

There comes a time where when's the last time you've prayed?

Really prayed?

When's the last time you fasted and prayed?

And actually, like said, no to self and saying, God, you're first.

I'm gonna stir myself up in moving together.

I'm gonna be generous.

Generous.

The church I see is generous.

Amen?

Generous towards one another, generous in your body language, generous in your in your face, in your expression.

You're generous.

At church, I see is considering people, considering everyone who comes in the doors of the church.

You're you're looking, everyone has their own narrative, everyone has their own story, but we consider each person who comes in, whatever they look like in terms of their where they came from geographically or where they came from financially, we're looking at people and sort of saying, you know what, you matter to us, you matter to God, and we consider each and every person, and and we consider each each story that comes in these doors.

So when we're looking at the church, where do we look?

We look internally.

The first place you go when you go to shift your yourself is you say, okay, Lord, where do you want us to, where do you want me to change?

You have to first start with yourself.

So when we look internally, we look at the areas of our love for the word of God and prayer.

I love what one of my friends said the other day.

He said, man, every you know how much of life would be shifted if we just had a deep hunger for the word of God?

Because if the word of God was our meal every day, we wouldn't have to worry about the love that we have in our heart.

It'd constantly be reflected in the word.

We wouldn't have to worry about excellence and andor generosity or honoring each other or any of the values that we hold strong to, because the word would constantly be refreshing us and realigning us to where we ought to be.

Word and prayer, knowing one another in terms of our pastoral capabilities and our pastoral ministry.

There are people in this room, we've said it before, where everyone we believe everyone is a minister, and everyone is a ten in some area, and and everyone's job is important.

You we don't, we're not a church of three or four pastors, we're a church of 400 pastors.

Carrying and bearing each other's burdens.

And moving the church internally means caring for one another, helping each other be strong themselves.

Uh, and then externally, we believe in in actually reaching out to our community, praying for uh, praying for our community and and engaging and informing and influencing our community.

Today we have a uh a vision night where we're gonna be talking to some of our our volunteers and anyone who's interested in coming to come to that meeting.

What time does it start at?

Seven?

Seven?

Seven o'clock tonight.

Just to for uh the vision aspect.

We have an appreciation for our volunteers for last year at 5 30.

But if you'd like to come, we're just welcoming you all to be there and just to hear where God is moving the church in the next in the next year uh in a little bit more detail.

So as I close the let me share this.

What can I do?

And maybe saying, all right, what can I do?

Number one, you can pray.

How many of you know how to pray?

You need to pray.

Pray for the church, pray for our community, pray for the unity of the church, uh, pray for our our families, pray for our marriages, pray for our city leaders, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray for those who need healing, pray for those who need help, pray for those who need reconciliation and and uh and a uh a restart in their relationships.

Number two, protect the unity of the church.

And you do this by just guarding your mouth.

The Bible says this that you can bring blessing or you can bring cursing out of just your words that you say.

And I think you gotta you've gotta work it saying, we have to work it saying, you know, whatever I'm gonna do, I'm gonna bless.

I'm gonna support, I'm gonna promote, I'm gonna say it on media, I'm gonna say it to people's faces, I'm gonna encourage and exhort and build the church.

It's called the spirit of prophecy.

It's blessing the community, it's lifting up the community from where it's at.

You protect the unity of the church.

The Bible says that there's one who's against us, and his intent towards us is to divide us.

And the Lord wants us to come together, and we do that by the words we say and how we share with each other.

Um, next, uh, I would say this, and we've talked about this, our financial year started just a few weeks ago.

Um, but I would say this have a giving plan for you and your family.

A way that you can help is having a giving plan that supports the vision and the progress of the church.

Uh this is something all of us can do, and it's never been about equal giving.

It's always been about an equal sacrifice.

It's about saying, what can I do?

Lord, how can I help?

And actually supporting the vision of the church through your giving plan.

Natalie and I have a giving plan.

Every month, the first of the month, we give.

We give on our envelope or on our on the app or online, that there's never an excuse to give and how to give, but we give.

And I'm believing that we'll move beyond just uh operational giving.

Hey, let's just keep the church the way the church is at.

But I'm believing that God is gonna raise faith within the hearts of business leaders and individuals in the church today that God is gonna supernaturally bless you for the sake of benefiting and building the kingdom of God in our missions, in our operations as a church.

I'm believing for margin to be able to build beyond what we currently have.

And I know we started in July, and July's been a tight month for us financially, but I'm believing as we move forward that this heart of faith and a heart that believes for greater things is gonna be coming out of each and every one of us.

We're gonna pray for your blessing, and you pray as well in your state where you're at, we're there to support you and encourage you and help you and and and build in your own lives so that um you too can be a blessing to others.

So, lastly, be a bringer.

And this means looking for ways to actually bring people to the church.

This is a way you can help.

We've got cards out in the lobby this week about our upcoming launch, uh, September 9th.

Uh, our launch party, our after church party.

We're gonna be starting a new series in September.

We're making it invitational so that you could bring your neighbor, your friend, your barber, whoever, your barista to church on a Sunday morning.

And and the message will be clear as day for them to be able to hear the gospel of Christ.

Amen?

And participate.

In the life of the church.

We appreciate all of our volunteers.

We're going to show that this afternoon with the people who are coming for dinner.

We appreciate each one, and we're just encouraging you to not give up, but to continue, continue building for his kingdom's sake.

Amen.

Would you just close your eyes with me?

Today, Father, we thank you for your word.

Father, we thank you for the vision that you have for this church.

Father, in that there is more.

There are greater things to come.

Lord, there's more that you have in your heart towards us.

Lord, we just take a moment and we just allow you, Lord, to fill our heart and to fill that mind's eye with a vision, Lord, of our community and our streets, in our schools, and our families alive, living their best life because of you.

Healing.

Strength in families.

Every provision available for every vision.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Father, that you've cared for us.

Thank you that you love us.

Thank you, Lord, that you love our city.

You love Kelowna.

You love our community.

You love everyone who comes in through these doors.

We ask, Lord, even as this week opens up to teaching, to training the teachers in our community who are serving with our schools.

Father, we ask for your blessing upon them.

We ask that you would anoint each and every one of them with a fresh desire, Lord, for this new year to reach into families and homes and kids' lives.

Lord, to reach them and disciple them in their faith and to help them see, Lord, your destiny on their lives.

In Jesus' name.

Tonight, today, if you haven't ever received Christ, this is a great opportunity for you to be able to say, I welcome Christ into my own life.

I welcome Christ today.

And we're wanting to provide for you an opportunity to actually take that next step and to move into that next chapter of your life.

And the way we do that is we be we say a simple prayer.

And this prayer may just be words, but they're not just words that go are empty.

They're words that have power.

And so we're gonna just, I'm gonna ask the congregation, everyone, to just pray these words with me.

And for some of you, it might be the first time.

For others of you, it might be the uh a time of just reconnection and revision.

And uh would you just pray these words with me?

Lord Jesus, welcome to my world.

I invite you today to come into my heart, into my life, forgive me of my sin.

Make me into a new person.

Starting now, my life belongs to you.

I boldly declare that your grace is enough for me.

I stand in it and have confidence that today I'm fully forgiven and I will not be the same again.

Thank you for making me a child of God and giving me this fresh beginning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give the Lord a hand this morning.