Miracles | Part Two

Thank you for listening to the morning creative center podcast.

So today is Tile Dedication Sunday.

Thanks, Chris.

Tile Dedication Sunday.

And just as a little bit of an introduction, I'm going to uh just do a couple funny things that I wish people would have told me before I got married.

Or before I got married, before I had well, there's that's a whole different book.

That's a whole different book.

But before I had kids, some of the things that some people would have told me.

Sleep is the thing of the past.

For those of you that have had children or small children, for those of you that have kids asleep tonight, please don't come talk to me.

As you get a little bit older, you have to discipline them.

And if you're a parent or a mom, you know that when she says your full name, you're in trouble.

Or if they uh speak in French.

That's that's my wife.

She speaks in French, we're toast.

All of those years of discipline and training, and they may never feel like they're ready on their own.

Next slide.

I like how it's just like a delayed reaction, like three seconds.

You're like, oh, I get it.

Okay, apparently I thought these were funnier than you did.

And sometimes being a parent, you have to question uh why you do what you do.

Uh, and the next slide will tell you uh that being a parent is very stressful.

How many of you think that's true?

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs that we have.

It's not the hardest job, if not the hardest job, that God has given us.

The Bible tells us that children are a blessing.

Why do you laugh, guys?

And a gift to parents.

Yet there are times when you're left confused and worried that maybe you missed the boat.

And although parenting books and YouTube and articles and all of them can be good and they can be part of a learning process, there's nothing more important than the word of God.

Amen?

God has called us to this great task and a great ministry.

Uh we had a I had a pastor friend way up in Prince George that used to tell me all the time, he would say, he would say that if I had when we had kids, he said, what greater ministry is there than to have children for the rest of your life?

He said that ministry just is the gift that keeps on giving.

And it is a gift, even though you're all are laughing, it really is a gift.

Billy Graham said the greatest legacy one can pass to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and of faith.

We get to do these child dedications every few months or every year we get to do them.

And here's some of the reasons that we do this as a church.

Reason number one, baby dedications are biblical.

Psalms chapter 127, verse 3 says, Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Psalms 127:3

It is in God's heart to reward us, and children are reward.

Men find a good reward in a good woman, a husband and a wife find reward in children.

God loves to reward it's in his nature.

Do we agree?

You will love to reward your children.

How many of you know that when you give your children a piece of chocolate cake, as the small, small, small ones, that the face is this gonna be filled with glee and happiness?

Because they get to have that sugar rush and the joy of the chocolate cake, but it's all over and you end up having to clean it up.

I never enjoyed that particular part.

Matthew 7, verses 9 to 11 says, If your child asks you for bed, would any of you give him a stone?

Matthew 7:9–11

Or if your child asks for a fish, would you give him a snake?

Even though you're evil, you know how to good give good gifts to your children.

So how much more will your more will your father give in heaven, give to good things to those who ask him?

Baby dedications are biblical, and it's important to know that the disciples didn't think so.

How many of you remember the story of the disciples kept on trying to shoe the the kids away?

And Jesus kept on saying, Come to me, bring them to me.

I want these kids.

It says, Don't push the children away, don't get between me and them.

That's important.

Some of you, when we do the baby dedications, it's just a ritual or a tradition to something that we do.

Yes, it is biblical.

It is something that we support as a church.

Because even though we do the baby baby dedication or the child dedication, it's as much for the parents as it is for the kids.

Here are some examples of dead but child dedications in the Bible.

Samuel, 1 Samuel 1, I prayed for this child.

Children are a blessing.

And the Lord has granted me when I asked for him.

So now I give him to the Lord.

For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there.

Jesus was brought into the temple and they recognized him as someone of power and authority, that there was something more.

So if we look at our kids with the most uh prayered up, prophesying that our kids are going to do great things for the Lord and expect that from them and train them in the ways that they're gonna go.

Reason number two baby dedications have a message to tell us.

The message is this These children are the very center of life in the kingdom of God.

Mark this unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you will never get in.

This is not a small message.

This isn't something that we can just gloss over like it's nothing.

They will teach you genuine love, genuine forgiveness, genuine grace, genuine mercy.

They will test the bounds of your selfishness.

I had uh a pastor once said to me, he said, There's two times in your life you realize how selfish you are.

The first time is when you get married, the second time is when you have children.

Because you literally, as a parent, have to put aside all of those things that you want to do for the sake of your child.

And it's we sometimes talk about that like it's a burden.

It's not a burden, it's a joy.

Trust in God as God as the child will trust in you.

How many of you have had your kids launch themselves off something knowing that you're gonna catch them?

Or at least hoping that you're gonna catch them.

Okay, here's a how many of you have missed?

I didn't know he was doing it.

He didn't, he bounced.

He's all good.

Reason number three baby dedications remind us that our children are most blessed when they are in the arms of God.

This is a very important part.

John, first John chapter 3, verses 1 to 3 says, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.

1 John 3:1–3

And that that is what we are.

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.

But we know that Christ that appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

All who have the hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure.

As parents, we want the very best for our children.

What are we willing to do?

We have great hopes for them.

Someone builds, your two-year-old builds blocks, you think he's gonna be an engineer, picks up a plastic stethope and stethoscope and goes up to your parent, you think he's gonna be a doctor.

We expect the very best from our children.

We want the very very best for our children, and we're willing to go to war for the very best for our children.

The scriptures tell us the people brought children to Jesus, hoping that he might touch them.

That is the very best that our children can get.

Is that their parents lead them to who he is, and that they have their own personal relationship with Jesus.

And as a church, we get to stand with these families today and be, hey, we're gonna be there and help you.

We're gonna support you, we're gonna pray for you, we're gonna do all these things that we that you the any help that you need will be there for you because that's what the family of God does.

Amen.

So let's meet all of these uh families.

First one is gonna be Leo William Salter.

Give him a chair, Miranda and Brendan Salter, and their big brother is Ezra.

As they slowly make their way up.

Next one is Liam Joshua Bergen.

That was family.

Kayla and Steve Bergen, big sister Ella.

And there they are there.

The next family is London Eve Engelsmeyer.

Richelle and Brandon Engelsmeyer are the parents, and big brother Lincoln.

Guys are all clumping up on one side.

Stretch out.

Brandon's looking at me like I'm crazy.

He's like, what's going on?

The next family is Hannon Scott Sansivang.

Jordan and Andy saying Sansavang are the parents.

No big brother or sister quite yet.

Next family is Zamira, Adeline Elsie Finn.

Vanessa and Nicholas Finn are the parents, and big sister Kezia, and big brother Siobhan and Ezekiel.

Next family is Josie Rose Kuchma.

Parents are Kristen and Anthony Kuchma with a big brother Jonas.

We have two kids with the next family.

It's the Bensons.

The first child is Elliot Jacob Benson, and Stephanie and Christopher are the parents.

Yeah.

And the next child is Rebecca Joy Benson.

Yeah.

And Big Brother is Elliot.

It's a real privilege and an honor to be able to be a part of this, but also to be a parent.

And this is where I'm going to turn it over to Pastor Brody, and he's going to do the dedication.

Look at these little babies.

When they're sleeping, it's like, please don't clap so loud.

Just to show your show your appreciation gently, quietly.

There are a few things that are that you know that touch my heart as much as seeing families dedicating their children and carrying their children.

You see the vulnerability.

How many of you see the innocence and the vulnerability and the need for protection?

And and uh you know, parents are wonderful, but the church needs to come behind them as well, amen?

And be able to support and and help raise up these kids because it becomes a community that builds this families together.

And so not only are these families coming together to actually dedicate their children, but they're coming to pledge themselves to be able to raise the children in the way of the Lord.

And uh much like a service, what we do at a wedding or a marriage ceremony, you know, when you make a covenant with the Lord, it your yes is yes.

And uh we're making this covenant today because what you hold today is a gift from God to you.

It's a gift from God to you, entrusted to you, to care for, to love, to uh pour into, to nourish, and to uh build forth into their own future.

Each one of these children has a future, each one of these children has a hope.

Each one of these children will need will need a parent behind them, leading, helping, guiding them along the way.

And uh today we're going to charge.

Are you coming up too, right?

The McLeods.

Yeah, come on up.

I don't know where you got.

I was wondering, there are a few that are missing here.

Oh, there they are.

Duncan, Brandon McCloud.

Come on.

This is the little warrior right here.

And uh Brandon means from the Beacon Hill.

We're so glad you're here.

Children are here.

So when we hear the word of the Lord, it says this commandments that I give you today are upon your hearts to impress the commandments the Lord has placed on your hearts to impress them on your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home, talk about them when you're walking on the road, when you lie down, wherever you go, you're instructing your children in the ways of God, you're dedicating them to Him.

So a covenant to the parents, bringing up your children.

Let me get that.

If it's your intention as parents to present your child to the Lord today, your children to the Lord today, and pledge to bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord, then please answer we do to each of the following promises today.

Do you hear this day recognize your child as a gift from God and give heartfelt thanks for God's blessing to you?

You can reply with we do.

Do you hear this day dedicate your child to the Lord who God gave to you?

Do you hear this day pledge as a parent that you will bring your child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

Do you hear this day promise to give your child every possible benefit of home, of school, and of church?

Do you hear this day pledge to pray for God, to prosper and bless your children as they grow and as they develop?

And do you hear this day promise to set a Christian example before your children as they grow up?

Do you hear this day pledge to do all that you can to direct your child toward a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as their own personal savior?

All right, congregation, would you please stand with me this morning?

And we've asked for a few of our team to come forward and some of the families to come forward and just to surround some of these families, just as we pray together for them and their children.

Would you come forward as well to just lay hands on some of these families as we dedicate them to uh the Lord?

Let's bow our heads and pray.

Father, today we now dedicate our children to you with love and with care.

We do realize, Lord, the great responsibility that rests upon us, Lord, to be the caretakers, to be the ones that are helping them grow, to helping them to see, Lord, with the uh eyes of truth, unfiltered and uh and and guarded from the eyes of this world.

Lord, open up our hearts to be able to lead our children into the hope that is in front of them.

Lord, help us to be able to see with eyes of wisdom, Lord, to see the future that you've placed and the seed that you've placed in each one of these children.

Lord, we ask for your your wisdom.

We ask for your strength.

We ask for your grace, Lord.

In our weakness, would you become strong?

In our weakness, would you be there for us?

In our absence, would you be present?

Father, in our lack of understanding, would you bring knowledge?

Lord, we acknowledge today that we need you.

We need you today, Lord.

You we're not enough for our child and our children to be raised up, Lord.

They need more than us.

They need you.

And so we dedicate them today, Lord, to you.

We dedicate them to you into your hands, into your sanctuary, into your place, Lord, as you would raise them, educate them, uh, cause them to grow, cause them to come to a recognition of their identity in you.

Lord, not their identity in this world, not their identity of the impressions or the socializing of this community in this world, in this culture, but their identity in Christ, Lord, where they are hidden, where they are protected, where they are safeguarded, where they are sheltered from any harm and any danger.

We ask today, Lord, that you would protect their hearts, that you would we plead the blood of Jesus around them, Lord, that their health, mental, emotional, physical bodies, Lord, would be kept in you, guarded in you.

Lord, we thank you for your your pleasure upon them.

We thank you, Lord, that you are pleased with them, that they are they are the joy in our homes today.

And Father, we ask that as they grow, Lord, we would celebrate each and every win.

We would celebrate each and every uh accomplishment and each and every graduation, Lord, that they would know that they are yours.

We thank you, Lord, for the life before us.

We dedicate them to you today, Lord, trusting you, Lord, with the very, very precious, precious person you've given us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you give them a round of applause?

Amen.

Now, before you leave, we have a gift for you at the front.

If you just wait just a moment as they're given hugs, and then we have a full nursery.

We have a full nursery, child area.

They say that uh we give um whenever we do child dedications, it could be semi-annually or annually.

You know, it's all dependent on the people in the church.

If they're babies, we're dedicating them, right?

If we have enough, uh we will dedicate church growth right here.

Let's give him one more hand.

Way to go.

Amen.

Would you turn to your neighbor and say, our God, he is a miracle working God.

How many of you this week have been on tiptoes?

How many of you this week have been looking, expecting, waiting for God to do something exciting in your life?

Something beyond the norm.

Beyond the norm.

What a normal name, norm.

Beyond norm, beyond the norm.

You want something better, you want something bigger, you're expecting God for more.

How many of you are out there?

You want that today?

It requires an expectant heart, a heart that is waiting, a heart that is actively, actively aware of what God is up to, what God is doing, and uh willing to be surprised.

You know, some of you, I think, some of you, maybe you're like me.

You know, you're not quite interested in surprises.

Like, don't surprise me.

I remember walking up behind my mom as she was peeling carrots, and I didn't even mean to surprise her, and I almost lost my life.

She just, I saw the peeler.

I'm like, I'm dead by a peeler.

Like that was that was it.

Some people don't like surprises, but I tell you, you've got to get over that emotion and be open to allow God to surprise you.

Tell God to surprise you.

Wait for it.

Look for it.

Expect it.

Get on your tiptoes.

Actively searching out where the surprise is of God.

The church, a lot in the church today, are afraid to talk about this element of miracles because they don't want to put God to test.

They don't want to put their faith to test.

They don't want to believe for something that's risky.

They don't want to believe for something that might is a little scary on the inside.

Trusting God, believing God for this uh this miracle.

But I'm here to tell you today that God is in the business of doing miracles.

God is in the business of surprising you.

He did it in the Old Testament, He did it 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 years ago, and He hasn't changed.

He's doing it today.

And so today I'm so excited because we get to share a few of the miracles that have happened in our church.

And we want to be able to share these miracles that have happened as a point of encouragement to you who are still believing for God to do something.

How many of you need a miracle today?

Raise your hand.

If you're in miracle anticipation, then then we're here today to build your faith.

And so today I would love to welcome one of my good friends and his wife, uh Nathan and Katrina Nickel.

Would you just give them a hand and say, come forward?

At our small group, Nathan has been uh involved in our in our men's group, and uh we've been just so excited to hear what God is doing.

Let me tell you about how I I got to know Nathan.

Uh I was down in Tacoma, Washington, and I was sitting at a table at a uh at a pastor's or uh a conference in a pastor's lounge area, and this big Louisian guy came up to me and he sat down.

Where are you from?

And I'm thinking, well, you know, no one really knows K.

Where are you from?

Louisiana, where are you from Kelowna?

He goes, I have a buddy who's in Kelowna.

We have family that moved to Kelowna.

I'm gonna tell them to come to our church, and you didn't come to our church right away, did you?

No, you just went around searching some of the other churches, but there came this point where he was he came to church and we connected the dots, and I've been so encouraged by their faith and their ability to believe, and I'm we're just so excited to share uh for them to share their story today.

So let's give a hand to Nathan and Katrina as they share.

Thank you, Pastor Brody.

Um, never want to fail to give God the glory for everything he's doing, he is amazing.

Um, we're so happy to be able to share uh with you guys today.

Uh, two things before Trina kind of takes us uh through what God has done for us.

Um, I really believe that uh with every testimony and with every time the word of God and testimony of God is spoken out, that it's spoken out as a word of faith.

So, one thing I'd like for you guys to receive today is faith and hope.

As the word is released and as you guys see what God has done, that you will just feel that, that faith and hope will begin to rise in you for the miracles in your own life.

It may not be identical to our story, but God is in it and he's working in all of our lives.

Um the second thing uh I'd like to share sometimes miracles are seem far off.

I mean, we're when you're in need, you sometimes can start to lose hope and you start to doubt.

Um, one thing I'd like for you guys to see is God is always better than even what he thinks we think he is.

He is good, he is so faithful to each and every one of us.

He brings us through amazing times and hard times, and he's just good.

And so I'd like for you guys to see those two things if you'll receive it.

He's calm.

I'm not calm, my legs are shaking, and you guys all look scary, so smile, please.

Um I wrote like pages and pages of notes, but they all look like fuzzy numbers now, so I'm just gonna wing it.

Um we have been married for 15 years, and it sounds like a long time, and it has been a long time.

And um the I was trying to think of how to say this right.

Um, about eight years ago, we decided we wanted to start a family.

Before that, we were busy, we were running youth groups, Sunday school, and stuff like that.

We just stayed busy and it didn't feel like the right time.

And then when we decided it was the right time, it happened right away.

We were super excited.

Um, but it turned out to be this kind of bad experience, sad experience, and yet in a good way, God brought it around as well.

Um went into pregnant and went into the doctor's office, and I said, uh, something doesn't feel right, and they said you're crazy, it's in your head, first time mom, you're fine.

Kept sending me home and sending me home and kept going back to the hospital, and they kept sending me home for about a week, and it turned out that it was an ectopic pregnancy, and my tube had already burst.

So I had been internally bleeding for six days by the time that they did the emergency surgery.

So the surgeon sat beside my bed and he said, I don't know how you're here, I don't know how you're walking out of this hospital.

And we knew because it was God, because there was no way we kept walking back into that hospital, like, nope, we need to keep going back here.

And he really did a miracle that day, and we walked out, and it was incredible.

And um, calm down for a second.

Sorry.

Um, he told me if I was talking too fast, he would pinch me.

So if you see that, that's all that this is about.

So my coffee is kicked in.

Um anyway, so we had about uh in the last eight years, there were no babies.

Everyone around us had babies.

Um, everybody around us had great advice for us.

Some was crazy, some were simple, like pumpkin seeds is your answer.

Like, oh, I never thought of pumpkin seeds.

Okay, so there were there were simple little things and funny little things.

Someone gave us a fertility god, and I thought, I think you don't know me well enough because there's one living God, and it is not this little piece of wood, and no, we're not taking that home.

Um, no, we believe in the name of Jesus, and we believe that when it happens, it's gonna be because of him.

And uh things I did have one sweet lady.

She was trying so hard to commiserate with me, and she she said, I know I've been trying, I tried for three months for my first one, and God brings things out in you, and you start to realize and recognize as he starts to bring things to the surface.

And that sweet lady that really was her trial.

They waited, they couldn't get pregnant for three months, and she was being sweet, but the sarcasm in me was rising, and everything was rising in me.

And I thought, all I could think of that game was like whack-a-mole.

I just wanted to bop her one, and I didn't, I didn't.

I smiled politely, and because her heart was so sweet and she was trying to be so kind, but eight years and three months just felt very different, and that doesn't mean it was different for how hard it felt for her, but my perspective was quite off.

So we just about missed the miracle in the waiting.

Uh God really showed us that we started to get a little bit bitter.

Um, it just about tanked our marriage, and the fact that we started to get bitter and we stopped seeing, we stopped being kingdom-minded, and our perspectives were off.

And we sort of put him to the back burner in our life.

We were still faithful on Sundays, God was good, but in our day-to-day life we weren't reading the word.

Our personal prayer lives were terrible, and God showed us.

He brought all that stuff to the surface, he started to root out the things that needed to be rooted out, and I am so thankful that we got to have that miracle in the waiting and in the time that we didn't expect it to all the things we didn't expect to happen was could we trust him with our future?

Was his plan really better than ours?

Is that a possibility?

And it's always the truth, even when we can't see it.

Um the other one was were we giving God our first and our and our best?

Or was he getting the leftovers?

And was he just getting like if you do what we want, God, we will serve you.

It does not like that.

Could we praise him through the pain?

Could we praise him and worship him?

Um other things bad started to happen.

We had other health issues and other things come up, and it was like feeling like you were getting kicked while you're down, but that's not what he was doing, and that's not why these things were allowed in our life.

But we started to get closer to him and closer to him and closer to him, and it was kind of amazing that these miracles could happen while you're waiting for something you want so bad.

And um I would never take that time back.

As hard as it was, and as lonely as it was, our youth group kids that we raised and were grown-ups now, we're having kids, and you're like, you just sort of feel like wow.

We even had someone say to us, if you really wanted a family, you'd have one.

You're obviously not trying.

And I was just like, Okay, sure, this is a challenge.

You want to challenge me?

Bring it on.

Okay, so but that's not the fact, and that's not what God was doing.

And once we kind of got back, probably I would say chaos came back into order in our life.

He was where he was supposed to be in our life, and we could see clear, we could see again, and I was so excited.

And and we went to small group, we joined the small group, went to small group, and we got to give a testimony that you know God didn't answer any of our big prayers this year.

And we could be excited about that because it was such a good year that the next year we want this next year to be the same as what God has been doing, even though we didn't get our miracle.

And um that night we went home and we were going to Disneyland in three days, so I stopped at 7-Eleven to get a pregnancy test for the billionth time.

And um uh 7-11 is a yeah, anyway.

Um so stopped there and uh I took the test and sort of forgot about it, looked at it, didn't see anything, walked away.

And the next morning I got up and I said to him, Do you see a tiny, tiny, tiny little faded line?

He's like, No, I see a cheap test in 7-Eleven.

Like, stop buying cheap tests.

So my sister-in-law bought me another one because we kept picturing Disneyland rides and a pregnancy you didn't know about, and and I took it just sort of begrudgingly because they're never positive, and it was positive.

So our baby is due in October, and we're so excited.

So but it is all of Jesus, it is all of God, it was his timing.

We have fertility meds book for the end of February, and we found out on February 6th, so it made me cry.

But I'm so thankful and so grateful, and it's all God, it is nothing else.

And I don't miss the miracle and your waiting time.

Don't miss out on it because we were almost so distracted that we lost it.

And the relationship we have with God now, we're in his word, we're talking about him.

He's our morning, afternoon, and night.

And I am so glad that he did that first because I feel like I can be a better parent.

I guess one more encouragement, and I'm elated.

This is amazing for us.

It's I I don't have many words for it.

Um, he's in the waiting.

He, the miracle, even it might not be the miracle necessarily you're looking for, but he's doing it in the waiting.

If you'll pursue him for who he is instead of the gift, the gift's just come.

He is taking care of us, he's a miracle-working God, and I just praise him.

Amen.

Awesome.

Thanks.

Now I've Nathan and uh Katrina are part of our prayer team afterwards.

If we want to just continue to be believe, and so there are people here in the church who are there and willing to pray with you because they too have experienced their miracle and they have faith, and they want to share that faith and just help support you, pursue that miracle you're uh pursuing yourself.

Like, secondly, I'd like to invite up uh Mark Decone.

Let's give him a hand.

Mark, you probably don't need an introduction, so I'm just gonna let you take off with it.

Thanks, Pastor Brody.

Uh I too have uh a lot of emotion uh flowing through me right now.

Uh as I was preparing um to speak, I was remembering all the things that God has done for my family.

And um uh there was probably four or five times this week where I was uh driving to work and there's just tears streaming down my face because of what what God has done.

So I have an older sister, she uh her name is Sarah, she lives in Texas.

Uh I have a younger brother, his name is Kyle, he lives in uh Cambridge, Ontario, and another younger brother, his name is Brent, and he lives in Waterloo.

And uh one Sunday morning, it was uh April 18, 2010, uh I got a call from my mom, and uh I was at church, and uh I knew my mom knew the time difference, and I knew it was really weird for her to call me while I was at church, and so I left church and answered the phone, and uh she started to talk to me about my brother Kyle.

Uh Kyle's a police officer, and he was sitting in a parking lot uh with another police officer, and they had driver's window to driver's window, and they were talking through uh their police cars uh when my brother had a seizure.

And the next Monday uh he went in for a CAT scan and they found a lesion on his on his brain.

Uh he was diagnosed with uh stage four inoperable uh cancerous brain tumor, and the doctor said that he had as little as a few months and at the very most uh two years to live.

Uh it was it was uh devastating for her family, and so uh one of the first things I did was I went and I met with Pastor Brody uh up on his office.

It was a Wednesday, and uh it was interesting because he he commanded me.

Uh Brody's been a spiritual authority in my life, and he said, You need to go home, you need to anoint your brother with oil, and you need to pray for him.

And then I met with Pastor Diana Tripke, and she said, You need to go home, you need to anoint your brother with oil, and you need to pray with him.

And then I met with another leader in my life, uh, his name was Brian West, and uh and he said the exact same thing.

He said that you need to go home, you need to anoint your brother with oil, and you start and you need to pray for him.

Um, and so I began to prepare myself, and uh our our families, we come from large Dutch families, and there was almost this rejection of the doctor's diagnosis that this isn't gonna happen, uh, we're gonna find a way, and we're gonna believe in my brother's healing.

And so everybody in our family began to do research.

We were looking up naturopaths and doctors and chemotherapy and radiation, and uh, you name it, we did research on it.

And so my brother was flying around the country trying to find uh these different avenues in order to find his healing.

And so my brother is in Baltimore with my parents and a few other people, his wife, and they're waiting in a waiting room for a doctor's um for a doctor's uh diagnosis, and they're they're like you know, they're waiting, and so they decide to pray, and and this is kind of where the miracles start.

Um so they they pray and they're sitting in the waiting room, and uh, and my brother said finishes his prayer and he says amen.

And then uh his cell phone uh he gets a text message and his ringtone says message received.

And uh and there was this this piece that just just hit the the waiting room, and they knew that that God had heard their prayer and that God was beginning to work in his life.

And so uh meanwhile I'm in BC and and I fly home and uh I'm all studied up.

I've got you know some knowledge on some scripture and some healing prayer, and I've been commanded by my leaders to go and do this.

And I show up at home, and my sister had just uh driven in with her family from Texas, and we're in my parents' kitchen, and and we're talking, and uh I'm telling my sister, I'm like, this is what I I've been told to do.

I need to go, I need to anoint Kyle with oil, and I need to pray with him.

And uh and my sister's face just lights right up, and she says, uh, where's your oil?

And I'm like, uh, Mom, do you got any vegetable oil?

And so I I didn't have any oil, I didn't think about that part.

And uh and so my sister in preparation for for leaving to Ontario for Texas, uh she's her and her husband are driving out of her driveway when another vehicle pulls in and it's one of their friends, his name is Snuffy, and uh that's that's his nickname.

He used to be in the rodeo, but uh he he hands my sister a vial of frankincense and says, You'll know what to do with this when the time comes.

And so I go to my brother's house and spend about 30 minutes with him, anointing him with oil and uh and praying for him.

And um, during this time, we we start praying more and praying more, and we start discovering different avenues, and uh his prognosis changes.

It goes from stage four to stage three.

Uh, some doctors are saying it's stage two and maybe even stage one, and it goes from this inoperable brain tumor to us finding uh one of the top neurosurgeons in the world is actually in Montreal, and he's willing to operate.

And so that alone was a miracle in itself.

And and so uh my sister, who's who's in Texas, uh, they had a little boy who lived down the street.

Uh, his name was Spencer.

And Spencer believes in miracles.

Um, Spencer saw miracles as a kid, he believes miracles can happen.

And Spencer had been mowing the lawn all summer, uh, mowing the neighbors' lawns, collecting money, and at the end, he had this goal that he was gonna buy a bike with his money, this this 10-year-old little boy.

And uh and he hears about my brother, and instead of spending the money on a bike, he goes to his mom and uh and he says, I want to get some bracelets made for Kyle so that people will remember to pray for Kyle.

And so he had 200 bracelets made, and his mom offered to pay for the bracelets, and he said, No, I want to use my money, that was for my bike.

And so we handed these bracelets out.

Um, we we got ready.

Uh, these bracelets were a prayer reminder for people to remember to pray for Kyle during his surgery, and they started a Facebook page that uh people would pray for Kyle during his surgery, and they had 660 people sign up to pray for him during his surgery.

Uh, he had a nine and a half hour surgery, it was uh successful.

Um if I'm I'm probably gonna go over.

So sorry.

I still got like four pages of notes here.

There's just so many miracles.

I I couldn't actually decide what to cut out.

Um keep going.

Um so he's my brother has this nine and a half hour surgery.

He comes out, uh, he can't talk, he can't move the right side of his body, and uh it's three days later when they're in um room 425 in this hospital in Montreal when a Catholic priest comes walking in.

And the priest says, I had a vision from God to come to room 425.

Uh, there's gonna be a 24-year-old man on a respirator, and I'm here to give him his last rites before he dies.

And uh he walks in and he says, I have goosebumps.

Um he asked my brother his name, he asked my brother his age, and he asked my brother what his diagnosis.

And for the first time in three days, my brother talks and he tells him his name.

Uh, he tells him his age and he tells him his diagnosis, and the priest is just blown away.

And again, the priest anoints uh my brother and my parents and his wife with oil and uh and prays for my brother's healing.

And as he leaves, he said, I have to go tell others about this.

This is a miracle.

And so the priest leaves, and after the priest leaves, my brother, um, who hasn't talked barely for three days, recites the entire Psalm 23 just out of the blue.

Uh, if you don't know Psalm 23, Psalm 23 is the Lord is my shepherd.

And uh they get to the end of the chapter and it says, And you anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows.

And again, this piece just just hits this emergency room and so, or this recovery room.

Uh so the success the surgery was successful for for a couple years, but um tumors have like little roots, and uh so another area of tumor started to grow up a couple years later.

But one of the benefits of finding a doctor who was able to do the surgery is you're able to do a biopsy, and so you're able to discover what type of cancer it is.

When you discover what type of cancer it is, you know how to treat it.

And so they had this chemotherapy, and that was really quite successful.

The doctor wrote my brother notes saying, You're gonna be really sick, you're gonna need to take time off work.

And every time my brother took a chemotherapy pill, they would pray.

And my brother, as a police officer, never missed one day of work while he was on chemotherapy.

So again, for a few years, uh the tumor uh stays dormant and it starts growing again.

And so as a family, we're we're devastated.

Uh, we're about to have a big um family trip to Ontario where there's 60 of our aunts, uncles, and cousins gonna get together and we discover this news, and so we go on this vacation, and um, I had lost that jar of oil uh after I'd used it.

It was it was just gone and I couldn't find it.

I bet you I looked for it probably three or four dozen times.

And as I'm packing for this trip to go to Ontario, I open a drawer and I find this frankincense in a in a drawer.

And uh I go home and again I anoint my brother with oil and we pray for him.

And um there was just so many, so many testimonies along the way, and so um this time my we're we're researching and we're discovering, you know, uh what direction should should my brother take.

And so there's kind of three avenues.

He can get radiation in Hamilton, Ontario, he can um do nothing and just stick with the natural paths, or he can fly to Houston, uh, Texas, and and get treatment, uh very specialized treatment in Houston.

And so my brother, um, him and his wife can't decide, and he said, Okay, God, I'm gonna leave it up to you.

I'm gonna open my Bible, and if I read the word left or west, we'll go to Hamilton.

If I read the word up or north, we're gonna do nothing.

If I would read the word right or east, we'll go down to Houston.

And so my brother opens up his Bible and he reads uh through chapter Isaiah, uh Isaiah 40, uh, none of those words pop up.

And then he's starting to read through Isaiah 41 and he gets to verse 10.

And it says, So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand, right hand.

And so he said, Okay, I I guess we're going to Houston.

And so they they get on a plane, they make the arrangements, they go to Houston.

The first day they arrive in Houston, they are having a terrible day.

They are depressed, they are anxious, they are there with their kids, the travel sucked.

They're like, What are we doing in Houston?

Why did we decide to do this?

And uh, my sister and her husband drive uh from where they are in Texas to Houston and meet them there, and they're like, Oh, here, we we we brought a card from Snuffy.

And uh so they they open the card, and in the card is written Isaiah 41, 10.

And uh they just took it at this as this confirmation that you know they were where they were supposed to be at the right time for the right place, and um, so during this uh specialized treatment in Houston, the doctor said, You're gonna get really sick, uh, you're gonna lose weight, and you're not gonna have any energy by the time this is done.

Uh, when my brother was there, he didn't get sick, he put on seven pounds from from working out, and he had more energy at the end of it than when he started.

And so today, uh it's been over eight years.

Um, they said with the chemotherapy, you're probably not gonna have any more kids.

Today they had two more kids after after the chemotherapy.

And um, yeah, there's it there's more, but tell them about tell them about the resources.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

So as you can imagine, uh going and getting cutting edge treatment in Houston, Texas for very specific brain cancer would be extremely, extremely expensive.

And uh so there's this fellow, uh, he's a farmer, and him and I had been talking for months, and he had these two dreams.

He had a dream about a farm in Ohio where there was this bull uh running loose around this farm in Ohio.

Ohio's in the Midwest of the United States, and he had another dream that there was gonna be a flood at another one of his farms, that there was gonna be a flood of epic proportions, and he could just not figure out these dreams, and he knew that these dreams were from God, and he had no idea why he had these dreams.

And and I I uh him and I talked about these dreams often, and I don't talk to anyone about their dreams ever.

And so uh all of a sudden um he's watching the news one day and he sees that uh there's gonna be huge storms in the Midwest, and immediately in his spirit, he knows exactly what's gonna happen.

And so he knows that he needs to invest in corn.

Um, and so he takes a large chunk of money and invests in corn, and sure enough, these floods come ripping through the Midwest and just decimate all the corn.

And so, of course, the demand dropped and or the demand rose and the supply dropped, and the core the price of corn went up 70% in three days, and so he took all that money that he made and uh he paid for three-quarters of my brother's uh treatment.

Um, that that's not investment advice.

I had a dream.

Um but but it was it was absolutely incredible.

And um, like to give you an idea, my brother got home one Monday after being uh at home in Houston, and they opened a bill, and one MRI scan cost six thousand dollars Canadian.

And uh there's a little miracle in this too.

They they had done a barbecue with uh the police force, Peel Regional Police Force did a barbecue with my brother on the Saturday.

They opened this bill on a Monday, it says six thousand dollars.

On Tuesday, the police force calls and said, Hey, by the way, we raised six thousand dollars for you at the barbecue, and so yeah.

Yeah, so thank thanks for letting me uh share.

My brother's my brother's awesome.

I love him so much.

Awesome.

Let's give him a hand.

Would you stand with me for a moment?

We all need uh we what's we all need a snuffy in our life, and uh we need people in our lives right now who are gonna stand with us through the mirror for the miracle.

Amen.

Would you just raise your hands with me today?

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the testimony that breaks the back of the enemy's lives.

That Lord, you are a healing God.

There is hope in you, there is favor with you, there is uh a beginning, Lord, where you can start something and you can take us on this journey where each step of the way you're birthing a miracle in us.

We thank you, Lord, today.

We celebrate the miracle in Katrina for the baby.

We thank you for the baby in the Nichols family, Lord.

One moment in one day, we will be dedicating that baby at this place and celebrating the miracle.

Father, we thank you for uh for uh uh Mark's brother today, Lord, alive and well, and the testimony, Lord, that's going to grow in our hearts, celebrating you, Lord, today, as the one who can redeem, the one who can restore, the one who will never quit on us.

We thank you, Lord, for the miracle today.

We thank you, Lord, for you today.

We thank you today, Lord, for who you are.

You are the God who doesn't change.

You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We thank you, Father, that uh that those who put their hope in you will not be put to shame.

And Father, today that we know we can do nothing that without with the flesh only, it's useless.

But Father, with your spirit, there's life, there is life, there is life.

So today we hope in you, we celebrate you today, we express our gratitude to you today, in the name of Jesus, amen.

Would you give him one more round of applause?

Celebrate them this morning, let's give them praise.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

We're gonna keep sharing these miracles, we're gonna keep believing for these miracles, amen.

And next one is in your life, amen.

You may take a seat, let's welcome Trisha as she comes.