SPEAKER_00: How many of you remember wake-up calls at hotels?
SPEAKER_00: That you would get a wake-up call.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's like a digital wake-up call.
SPEAKER_00: You just calling that front desk.
SPEAKER_00: Make like make sure I'm up.
SPEAKER_00: Just make sure they don't come to your room and you know knock on your door.
SPEAKER_00: And but uh we want everyone to be involved, and uh that's our heart.
SPEAKER_00: So we hope you join with us.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you, Brian, for uh, Pastor Brian, for uh just taking us through all those steps.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot to go through, but we hope in some way, form or fashion, or in all ways, you uh engage.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this morning, uh, it's really exciting for me in particular because many of you have followed along with us in our story uh as a family, and that uh my mom a year and a half ago uh was uh diagnosed with uh uh cancer, and uh through the process of uh managing the chemotherapy and the results of that in terms of fractures and and uh um breaking in uh her bones and uh eventually like uh a fall that uh damaged her wrist as well as her back uh and her hip.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we just keep on believing.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know that when you push until something happens, you push in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: And uh today we've got my mom with us in the service today, and so yeah, she's standing up.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: And uh my dad has been um caring and and uh praying and continuing to support uh the home uh in her recovery, and we're just believing for more and more strength.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God isn't finished, but uh He's He's gonna continue to uh cause strength to enter the body.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we just thank you today.
SPEAKER_00: We give you thanks in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is uplifted with gratitude, and Lord, we give you the glory, Lord, of this testimony of your goodness, Lord, in this place, and just as a reminder to us, Lord, that when things can seem to be lost, Lord, you have a way of taking dead things and making them come alive and broken things and making them new.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, today we're just believing for Lord that continued testimony, that continued message, Lord, of your goodness over our church and our people, Lord, this year in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, what a what a good way to start the year, and uh it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And her hair has come back thicker and greater and more more uh curly than ever.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: She's she's just amazing, she's an amazing mom.
SPEAKER_00: I love my mom and my dad.
SPEAKER_00: They're just amazing people.
SPEAKER_00: So great to stand on their shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Romans 12, 1 and 2 is our text for this uh this start of this series, and I'm gonna read it to you at first, then we're gonna break it down a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it says, therefore, therefore, this is after Romans chapter 1, all the way through to 11, uh, Paul is sharing about uh the the fact that we were dead in our sin, the fact that we needed his right Jesus' righteousness to make us right and in right standing with God, and how we were we've been called to this greater life with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as he had gone through those first 11 chapters, he he kind of transitions in that point there in the letters.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 12, he says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: That's strange language, hey?
SPEAKER_00: A living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the problem with living sacrifices are?
SPEAKER_00: They keep crawling off the altar.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you gotta keep them down there.
SPEAKER_00: You need a spouse that helps you to stay on the altar, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Holy, pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is your true and proper worship.
SPEAKER_00: Many people see worship as something that's fun and heart melting and touching and tingly and all those romantic feelings, and real worship is a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: That's a hard thing to start January 2026 with.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to be a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 do not conform to the pattern of this world.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know there are many cultures out there, many cults?
SPEAKER_00: And we're called to be a part of the kingdom culture.
SPEAKER_00: To shift, it's not about one way, left or right or center or whatever your your position is.
SPEAKER_00: Your position doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: The Christ's position, God, the kingdom position matters.
SPEAKER_00: What is righteous to him needs to be righteous to us.
SPEAKER_00: His thoughts need to be our thoughts, his words need to be our words, his actions need to be our actions.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to do and live our life the way Christ has called us to live our life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.
SPEAKER_00: His good, pleasing, perfect will.
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing word there.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in the will of God, his good, pleasing, perfect will.
SPEAKER_00: Now, prayer, as we're going to begin with today, is one of the most practical expressions of a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And we learned about it from Pastor Brian last week as he touched on a living sacrifice begins with prayer because prayer stops uh being about asking God to do to bless our plans, but instead putting his agenda first and saying, God, it's not about my plans for 2026, it's about your plans.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to do through me?
SPEAKER_00: And this all comes back to the start of our relationship with God in terms of our salvation was announcing Jesus as our Lord, our master.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a that's a strong start to this relationship.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about what I want, it's about what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the friends I have I want, it's about the friends he would want me to have, the company he would want me to keep.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about what I do with my money, it's about saying, Lord, I get you are the Lord, you're the master, my account is on my account, it's your account.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to do with this account?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know it's better to put it in the hands of God than it is to put it in some RBC advisor?
SPEAKER_00: The Bank of Canada will take care of me.
SPEAKER_00: No, it will not.
SPEAKER_00: God can do so much more with your resource than you can with your resource.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: We call it being a slave to Christ, is saying, Lord, everything I have belongs to you because it's in the best hands that it can be in.
SPEAKER_00: My relationship, it's not about my feelings about my relationship and my marriage and my, it's about, Lord, how do you want me to act as a man in my home?
SPEAKER_00: A husband in my home, a father in my home.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is the beginning of that living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, Lord, it's not about my agenda, it's about your agenda first.
SPEAKER_00: Not about my plans, it's about your plans.
SPEAKER_00: And when we pray, we pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Not my will be done on heaven in his place, but thy will be done, your will be done on earth, just like it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would love that to be church to be an expression of heaven?
SPEAKER_00: In heaven, there isn't sickness, there aren't people walking around depressed and down.
SPEAKER_00: You're in heaven, there's there's fullness of joy, there's pleasure, there's life, there's strength, there's health, there's resource, and there's future and hope.
SPEAKER_00: That is the heartbeat of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The powerful and unique expression of our prayer is that our prayers once prayed, they never die.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayers continue.
SPEAKER_00: Looking back, I look at history of KCC, the church, I look at the church history in general, and men and women laid down their life to build the church.
SPEAKER_00: And they believed that when they prayed, that things would change.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that many of us have had those times, and we even experienced it in our homes.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, dude, if we pray, will things actually change?
SPEAKER_00: If we pray and continue to pray, will things actually change?
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that when we pray, things change.
SPEAKER_00: And I grew up in a church where we had three services on a Sunday, two morning services and an evening service for the real Christians, right?
SPEAKER_00: That came out on Sunday night.
SPEAKER_00: And we had prayer meeting on Wednesday, and we had youth preschool prayer on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
SPEAKER_00: I was praying Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday, and again on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: This was a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just a 21-day uh run or sprint, it was a lifestyle of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And we understood that prayer is an essential part of our faith because it's a representation and practice of what it means to be a living sacrifice and by making Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You have to go to Him, hear His voice, learn His way, and then we submit to that voice and that way and that instruction.
SPEAKER_00: And I remain obedient to Him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe He should be obedient to me.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be obedient to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer was taken seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther, many of you have probably heard this name.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Martin Luther.
SPEAKER_00: He challenged the traditional religious structure that we're actually, and he believed that we are actually saved by grace, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And when you studied him, he was a gracious person.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't legal, he was leading a revolution, was leading from a such a busy place, he was taking on this whole structure of organized religion of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, It is so essential that I spend time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This I have so much busyness or business, I cannot get on without spending three hours in daily prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The more God puts on your plate, the more you need to go to God to actually learn as how He would have you approach whatever situation you may be facing.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to some really great guys this week as they were coming in and through Kelowna and they're traveling, they just want to grab lunch or grab coffee.
SPEAKER_00: People of a lot living a lot of impact and uh uh a life of impact.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What are you doing like for 2026?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Man, I've picked up my calendar, I've set it down, I've picked it up, I've prayed, I've set it down, picked it up, I've prayed, I've set it down.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like there's this prayer that says, Lord, I don't want to move one inch if you're not in it.
SPEAKER_00: Because if I build the house, those who build the house they labor in vain unless the Lord is in the building of it.
SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I want to do is backtrack.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you hate going the wrong way?
SPEAKER_00: Hate that.
SPEAKER_00: I have to reverse and find another exit and come back.
SPEAKER_00: Blame it on the GPS.
SPEAKER_00: His business would not have succeeded without prayer.
SPEAKER_00: John Wesley, a great reformer, a revivalist, he said God does nothing but in answer to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He does nothing but in answer to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Every blessing, every act of work you've experienced in your life is a result of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Every good thing you can think of in your life is a result of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God does nothing but in answer to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God responds to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to challenge us today as a church as we look into 2026 to approach prayer and believe God for big things.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say big things?
SPEAKER_00: Because why not?
SPEAKER_00: Why not believe God for big things?
SPEAKER_00: Great things, impossible things, miraculous things.
SPEAKER_00: To ask God to do the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Because if God, if we can do it in our own ability, we don't need God.
SPEAKER_00: But when we go to prayer, we partner with someone who can do what we cannot do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what sets us apart from the world or from even other churches who don't believe in this engagement of prayer, is that we believe that when God comes into the equation, nothing is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: With man, things are limited, but with God, nothing is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to recognize that our prayers can actually influence God.
SPEAKER_00: Not because God is reluctant, but because he invites relationship with us.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayers matter.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because God doesn't want to bless you, but he wants to engage with you in your lifestyle and in your living.
SPEAKER_00: And so we learn persistence, we learn trust, we learn faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so Luke chapter 11 has a parable that Jesus shares that's really a challenging parable.
SPEAKER_00: And I think if it challenged me, it'll probably challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says this Jesus says to them, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight.
SPEAKER_00: Already I'm ticked off.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.
SPEAKER_00: And a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine being home.
SPEAKER_00: Kids are asleep, babies are quiet, you just got changed, you're in bed, and ding-dong, and your neighbor comes from across the street.
SPEAKER_00: But road, Brody, I need bread.
SPEAKER_00: A buddy of mine just showed up, and I need you to get me some food.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what in in this parable, God is the one who's in bed.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're the one going to the door.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and suppose the one inside answers, don't bother me.
SPEAKER_00: The door is already locked, my children and I are in bed, and I can't get up and give you anything.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would be like, Fair?
SPEAKER_00: He is kind of late.
SPEAKER_00: You're all in bed, your kids are in bed.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your what?
SPEAKER_00: Shameless audacity.
SPEAKER_00: Makes me even more mad.
SPEAKER_00: He will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
SPEAKER_00: Take the loaves.
SPEAKER_00: Four or five.
SPEAKER_00: It's a strange parable that Jesus is sharing because the instruction is to come to God with such boldness and persistence.
SPEAKER_00: Shameless audacity.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus isn't saying this, uh, saying God is like the reluctant friend.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like God is withholding things from you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying if persistence works with a friend, how much more do you think persistence would work with a loving father?
SPEAKER_00: If you would do that for you, because you all know, I will get up and give you what you need.
SPEAKER_00: Don't come to my house at 12 o'clock at night and prove me on this, test me on this, because I'll be, uh I will know that I preached this and that you're doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Have to set a boundary, healthy boundary.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get my wife to help you, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: She's a little bit more gracious than me.
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying, if a reluctant friend would do it for you, how much more would a loving father take care of you and do it for you?
SPEAKER_00: Show faith.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't about willpower or an ability or a persistence or a consistency, but it's about a faith in who God is and his heart towards us.
SPEAKER_00: We come to him and we ask him.
SPEAKER_00: And now, this is a powerful word, the word ask.
SPEAKER_00: Ask.
SPEAKER_00: The first point regarding prayer is that we have to assess that the prayers that God has not answered for you are perhaps the prayers that you have not asked him for yet.
SPEAKER_00: You need God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Have you prayed for your family?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked God to help you in your finances?
SPEAKER_00: Provide a way for you in your marriage, in your relationship, in reconciliation with estranged family members.
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked God to be a part of your business?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked Him for wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked Him for grace?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked Him for creative abilities?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked?
SPEAKER_00: Ask asking is one of the first points of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Do we start asking?
SPEAKER_00: Get in the habit of asking.
SPEAKER_00: And don't just ask, but ask with that spirit of shameless audacity.
SPEAKER_00: And now get this.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't me preaching.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus saying to the people, you go to God with this spirit of asking.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, there's no the pain is going to be gone.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, the back will recover.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, the cancer will go.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, the blood will be restored.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We ask for the surgery to be to be uh completed and healthy at the end on the other end and secure.
SPEAKER_00: We may not deserve these things.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people don't ask because they feel like they don't deserve it, but the reality is we don't deserve anything.
SPEAKER_00: And look what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: 50 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Nifty at 50.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like many of you know that I ran a marathon, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: I just ran a marathon.
SPEAKER_00: It was pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I had to bring that in here, so I was gonna wear my medal, but my wife said it's not a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep that medal at home.
SPEAKER_00: I'll wear it to prayer tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_00: But the fact is we don't ask because we don't feel worthy of asking, but the fact is we don't deserve anything.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus follows up that parable and he says, because like based on this parable, verse 9, so I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find it.
SPEAKER_00: Knock and the door will be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who asks receives.
SPEAKER_00: The one who seeks finds, and the one Who knocks, the door will be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Brody.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, keep pushing.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you remember those bracelets?
SPEAKER_00: Push.
SPEAKER_00: Pray until something happens.
SPEAKER_00: My wife still has a my wife is Natalie, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are visiting with us, she's here today.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I told her, I didn't tell her I'd be using her in this message.
SPEAKER_00: But my wife still has struggles watching like any scene from a movie or a TV show where there's a woman in labor.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, breathe, push.
SPEAKER_00: And she just goes on her phone, puts a blanket over her head, goes on her phone.
SPEAKER_00: She's just like, I don't know, there's something happened for her.
SPEAKER_00: And but they said, you push, and you know that you just can't stop.
SPEAKER_00: Like when you start, they're like, I don't care if you're tired.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you're like done.
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta keep going.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people are like, well, I did push.
SPEAKER_00: I I came to one service one time and I prayed about it one time when I was just going to bed and I went to sleep thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not pushing.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of women will tell you that it's a different experience.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not like, oh, I had a 10-minute labor.
SPEAKER_00: It's like hours.
SPEAKER_00: Hours.
SPEAKER_00: Push, push, push, breathe, push, push, push.
SPEAKER_00: Even that word, four-letter word, just seems like it sends like trauma traumatic episodes in this room.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like push.
SPEAKER_00: Keep going until something happens.
SPEAKER_00: Come 21 days.
SPEAKER_00: People are like, 21 days.
SPEAKER_00: It's like that's a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It could be longer.
SPEAKER_00: First John 5.14.
SPEAKER_00: This is the confidence that we have in approaching God.
SPEAKER_00: That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean he answers your every ask, but he hears you.
SPEAKER_00: But you go to him with confidence to pray is to invite that change and say, Lord, like a lot of people see prayers like, I'm gonna change heaven for me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer works like there are certain laws in nature and principles in the world that are in effect.
SPEAKER_00: And you look at the law of gravity.
SPEAKER_00: If I was to take this iPad and just let it go, and and there was bets, you bet 100% it would hit the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Laws of nature, laws, principles in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You've got the principle of like bad company will corrupt good morals.
SPEAKER_00: You hang around bad company, it will corrupt your good morality.
SPEAKER_00: You watch crummy shows on show on TV, it will corrupt your character.
SPEAKER_00: You surround yourself with bad company and bad values, it will corrupt your good, your good values, your integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what happens in prayer is that when you go to prayer, prayer doesn't change God, it changes you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the effect.
SPEAKER_00: You you it changes your desire, it changes your language, it changes, you begin to pray different as you pray according to his will.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, you begin to change according to the prayers that you pray to adjust it to his will.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't but have new desires and a new heart when you pray, when you're seeking God, when you're praying according to his will, praying these prayers, these 21 days of prayer, I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Bring big prayers and bring big big prayers to God because He will hear you and be prepared to be changed in the process of prayer, because the the ego says that I'm gonna go to prayer and somehow affect God.
SPEAKER_00: But when you go to prayer, God affects you, and you get you experience humility, you experience your own darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You have to go to God and you experience you need to approach Him with grace and humility, and you need to approach Him with contriteness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: So when you go to prayer, God's responses will be one of three.
SPEAKER_00: God will say yes.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know God says yes?
SPEAKER_00: Yes is a good word.
SPEAKER_00: All of us love yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, man.
SPEAKER_00: But when you pray big prayers, a lot of times God says yes to those prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And if you were to look at your life right now, you'd realize that you have more yeses than you have no's.
SPEAKER_00: What God has done in your life, and it's a signal of maturity in your life when you recognize the yeses that God has done in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And we sometimes I look at my life and I realize that I would not be here if it wasn't for God.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy would have me stripped and down and out.
SPEAKER_00: But if it wasn't for God being in my life, that the yes that God has for me, that God, it's like a common grace.
SPEAKER_00: God says yes.
SPEAKER_00: The prayers I go to Him with, yes.
SPEAKER_00: I I remember living in my parents, like in their house and and being in my bedroom and wondering if I was ever gonna find that special somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, and at first I was like, man, I don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have it with me to be able to do the things I need to do to provide the home.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was serving at the church at the time, and I'd gone to school, and I just didn't know where my life was leading.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord made a way when there was no way.
SPEAKER_00: He knew my yet, he knew how to bring a yes to the equation, but sometimes God says no.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't like no as much as we like yes.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people who are out of church today because God said no, and God does say no at times.
SPEAKER_00: And I uh I believe that there are times in my life where I would have to say, thank you, Lord, for saying no.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that you didn't promote me.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that that deal never went through.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that I I was in a universe in a university class with a teacher that was just terrible and rude, and just everything about it was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, like I was going to my direction, and the Lord just said no, and I ended up going on a missions trip, and it changed my whole occupational like viewpoint.
SPEAKER_00: God said no.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been in those relationships where all of a sudden there was a breakup and things didn't happen, and you had been praying for God to say yes, and God said no, and thank you that that wasn't necessarily a rejection, it was a God's redirection for your life.
SPEAKER_00: He moved you into a place of a better way.
SPEAKER_00: Not everything we ask for is according to his will.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes God says no to protect and preserve us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to experience disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for not giving me what I desired.
SPEAKER_00: The no is important and it's a sign of spiritual maturity when you can look back at your life and you say, Thank you, Lord, you said no.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, you didn't answer my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that that there wasn't always that you didn't make a way for me in this direction because you made a different way.
SPEAKER_00: But no doesn't always mean never.
SPEAKER_00: And God will say yes, God will say no, but a lot of your life will be marked with not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Not right now.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are in a crisis of faith because you've been asking for something, and you're saying, well, I'm kind of done with prayer because I've prayed and I've kept on praying, and I didn't get that thing, or or I didn't find that way, or I didn't find that solution at the time, like in my own time.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that God, God wants us to continue to pray, and sometimes God is just saying, not right now.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of prayer is not to get man's well will done in heaven, but to get God's will done on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we go to prayer, we have to go to prayer with this perspective that we're like, okay, Lord, it may not be now, but I'm still trusting in you.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the process, what do we do when God says, not yet, not right now?
SPEAKER_00: Because I do believe that our best days are in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: I do believe that we've got God has brought us this far, not just to stop us at this point, but to help us continue to go.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to keep knocking on the door, we need to keep being persistent, and the difference between those who will go farther are those who will keep knocking, even though the not yet has happened.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the one of the perspectives of this is the the scripture talks about the importance of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: God says, not yet, because you aren't prepared yet.
SPEAKER_00: Are you complaining or are you preparing?
SPEAKER_00: And there are people in in uh who go to prayer and they ask for something, and God's like, no, you're just complaining, you want something, but you're not prepared for that thing yet.
SPEAKER_00: And complaining is talking about that thing which exists without any desire to actually adjust your life to in order to solve that issue.
SPEAKER_00: But being a person who's prepared is saying, you know what, I mean I know I'm not ready, so I'm going to start taking steps in order to get ready.
SPEAKER_00: I look at the uh the example of King David in 1 Chronicles 29, 16, he's about to die.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, he says, Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: So David's prayer had been that he would see the temple restored, but he wasn't able to see it restored in his time.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't yet.
SPEAKER_00: So, what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He started preparing, and so he prepared the finances to be able to make sure that the temple could get built by his own son.
SPEAKER_00: He put all the resources aside so that his son could come on the scene and just construct it.
SPEAKER_00: Preparation is important, and so sometimes we go to God, we need to ask the Lord to say, Lord, why not now?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord's like, Yeah, I'm preparing you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, the question is, well, then what do I need to do in order to be prepared for you?
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do?
SPEAKER_00: What steps do I need to take so that these big prayers can actually move forward?
SPEAKER_00: The preparation is often happens, often happens in the natural.
SPEAKER_00: We think that God's just gonna deposit something into your life.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that we think God is gonna do both the super and the natural.
SPEAKER_00: But God relies on us to be the natural.
SPEAKER_00: I need, I'll tell you, we have a marriage event that happens each year here at KCC.
SPEAKER_00: We've got small groups and Bible studies, and we've got uh programs that are running throughout the year.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it doesn't matter what you're interested in in terms of growing, if you're wanting to get married, start learning about what it means to be a good spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Start having kids, start learning about what it's like to be a good parent.
SPEAKER_00: You want to start a business, surround yourself with people who are good at business.
SPEAKER_00: People of character, people of integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Surround yourself with people like that.
SPEAKER_00: To start developing that spirit, preparing yourself so that when the time comes, the Lord moves from not yet to yes.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19 says, give or Proverbs 16:9 says this, in their hearts humans plan their course.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the Lord who establishes their steps.
SPEAKER_00: So you put your plans out there and you say, Lord, I need to be prepared, I need to put together a plan, but Lord, you need to make a way for that plan to work.
SPEAKER_00: You may need another uh some time, you may need space, but he's preparing you and he's uh strengthening you to be order to accomplish your prayer or and accomplish those things that you ask.
SPEAKER_00: So so go to God with a a position of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Lord, prepare me.
SPEAKER_00: Second of all, God requires from us all patience.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you love that word?
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend this week who said he is not patient.
SPEAKER_00: He said the one thing he is not is patient, and I just felt like, God, you're gonna test them on that.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the area that he needs to get prepared on.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact is that God is developing patience inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: Patience is how the kingdom of God works.
SPEAKER_00: So think of this patience is how the kingdom of God works.
SPEAKER_00: When God spoke of the kingdom, he often used the example of a seed.
SPEAKER_00: The seed gets buried, gets put in the ground, gets covered, it's in darkness, and it just sits there.
SPEAKER_00: And what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: You don't try and build it, grow it, move it.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the economy of the kingdom is the patience.
SPEAKER_00: Patience is how the kingdom of God works.
SPEAKER_00: And the question isn't will you wait, but how will you wait?
SPEAKER_00: So when you're waiting, you're not complaining.
SPEAKER_00: When you're waiting, your heart is still full of faith and still full of hope and so full of expectation, just like the farmer who goes out into the field and sows his seed, he doesn't turn his back and complain about the field not being grown.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's sitting back and he's waiting in expectation for it to grow.
SPEAKER_00: When God says not yet, which is often the place where we struggle, we have to be willing to be people who are prepared and people of patience.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to invite the team to come up.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that not all growing is like when you grow people who pray for growth, it's not always like a good thing?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know when you roll your ankle, it's it grows?
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of attention goes to it, and you see it, and you're like, wow, that's pretty big.
SPEAKER_00: It's growing, but is it good growth?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's gonna slow you down.
SPEAKER_00: So you want God's growth, God's way, and God's timing.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, perspective.
SPEAKER_00: So you have preparation, you prepare yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what do I need to do to prepare?
SPEAKER_00: You have patience, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do in order to be patient here to wait this thing through?
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not always about the promise, but it's about the promise giver and saying, Lord, I don't look for the work of your hand, I'm looking to you, and I'm gonna continue going to you.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact is, my my family, and I'm so glad my mom and dad are here today, because uh my story didn't start 50 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: My story started not just even with my mom and dad in Kelowna as pastors here in the city and pastors of this church, but my great-grandparents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents were people of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know what?
SPEAKER_00: They prayed for me.
SPEAKER_00: That sometimes our prayer and our perspective is so short-sighted that Lord, I'm gonna give you 21 days and you're gonna change something right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you seven days, seven, three days, one.
SPEAKER_00: No, how about giving him years to say, Lord, today I'm gonna keep pushing, I'm gonna keep pushing, keep believing, because that that vision that you put in my heart, I'm gonna plan my way.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, you're going to direct my steps and you're gonna help me along the way.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna give me the proper perspective, you're gonna give me the proper patience, you're gonna give me the proper uh preparation in order to make sure it happens.
SPEAKER_00: So we go to God with faith and we go to God with hope.
SPEAKER_00: If God answers our prayers, which we believe He will, will it change the world?
SPEAKER_00: Will it change me and my world?
SPEAKER_00: And that's an important place because we, when we go to prayer, it's about how prayer changes us in order to have God's will done in us.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand with me today?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you learned something today?
SPEAKER_00: Pulled something out of this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's always strange for me to talk about prayer versus praying, but I do feel like we need to have that mindset that says, How do you approach prayer?
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, today, we thank you that you've said so many, you've given us the yeses.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just thank him for the yeses in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that common grace.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for the shoes and the gas in my vehicle, thank you, Lord, for the roof over my head and the food in my belly.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for those those prayers that I didn't even I didn't even recall praying, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You've made a way where there doesn't seem to be a way, and you've provided all along the path.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for my family, thank you for my health, thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Just give them thanks today for the yes in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And now we should just say thank you for the no's.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for saying no to my will, so that your will could be accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for bringing me to this place at this time with these people in this in this church congregation.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for the no's.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for pulling back, throwing up the caution sign.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for stopping me on my journey, my way.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for the not quite yet.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a never, it's a not quite yet.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, today I pray for each and everyone in this room, Lord, that you would begin to prepare them for 2026.
SPEAKER_00: You would begin to prepare their heart, prepare their perspective, prepare their mindset, prepare their relationships, open doors, prepare their uh their finances, prepare their way forward, Lord, their hope and their expectation, prepare their uh I am just praying for marriages today that you would prepare unity, that one person isn't believing for one thing without the other person uh similarly believing for it as well, that there would be unity in the whole.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare, Lord, because you do nothing out of unity, nothing out of agreement.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare, Father, and Lord, move, help us, Lord, with the patience today that we would learn to enjoy and embrace being covered in the darkness, in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, in the waiting, we will wait with expectation and faith, believing, Father, for a return and a harvest on a seed.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, change our perspective today.
SPEAKER_00: Shift our perspective, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That we not think just about the temporary, we think about the eternal.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just think about the now.
SPEAKER_00: We think or or or the the physical, we think about the spiritual, think about our perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, Lord, shift our thought so that we're not we're not on our own in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father, for this opportunity to come to you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this opportunity to come before your pre in your presence, Lord, and ask of you what's on our heart and relate to you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the invitation to come into community with you and come into your home.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for Jesus that made a way where there was no way.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we can come boldly before your throne of grace and ask of you the things that we need.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that you care about our now and you care about our future.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father, that you care not just about me, but you care about my family.
SPEAKER_00: You care about my wife and my kids and my nieces, and we thank you for my extended family, my mom and my dad, my grand and parents, whoever they may be.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you, Lord, that they're not we're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: You care for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we give you thanks today.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you today before I release you.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have uh a team up front that would be happy to pray along with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope to see you tomorrow morning, 7 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: until 8.
SPEAKER_00: And uh join us with us in person if you can, if not in person, online, and uh starting off this uh 21 days of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So may the Lord bless you, amen.
SPEAKER_00: May He keep you, may his face shine upon you, may He be gracious to you, lifting up His countenance over you.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord give you peace, making you strong, body, soul, mind.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Be blessed, God bless you.