80th Anniversary Sunday at Ontario Community Church

[0:00] Well, hello and welcome to Ontario Community Church's Sermon Podcast.! Today you're going to hear highlights from our 80th anniversary, stories of God's faithfulness,! a vision for the next generation, and a short word pointing us to the hope in Christ. Let us start where God began this work among us.

[0:20] All right, turn the cats, turn the cats, we've got to stay on time here. I know, it's so nice to see everybody. You can chat downstairs. Okay, there's a couple of announcements that I wanted to make prior to the rest of our service. This day has been in the planning for months, and there's just some people that I wanted to thank. This was definitely a team and a group effort. So, Nora, Nora, where's Nora, and Diana Yano, and myself, we kind of were the, we were the volunteered group to lead up the celebration, but there were so many people that had their hands in today's work. So, I just want to draw their attention. Just special thanks to Amber Daly, Chris Van Liff, Lita Gressley, Benny Carter, Jose and Liliana Delgado, Mark Iceri, Katie and Hadley Grover, and Kathy Ida for all of the help in setting up, and wait until you go downstairs if you haven't. It is beautiful. So, thanks to all those folks who really had a part in making the celebration just truly what it is today. And for all of our staff, thank you. Let's give a round of applause. So, I'm looking outside, and Bill, is it, did it stop raining? Okay, so the plan is right after service, we are going to go outside and take our photo. So, I'm here in front of the church. And so, we'll do that quickly, and then we'll come back inside, and we'll have our lunch program. So, hopefully the rain will keep away, and we'll be able to get the photo. We'll also say grace before we leave this sanctuary, so we can go ahead and get in line and start the meal downstairs. And again, we just want to thank you all for coming. So, now we're going to just really kind of calm our hearts and our minds, and gather our thoughts, and come together in some prayer. Just a nice time for us to reflect. So, if you could all join me in bowing your heads. Dear Lord, thank you for this day and the opportunity to gather at this place of worship to enjoy fellowship and praise for our life eternal.

[2:43] We are here today to celebrate a huge milestone for our church, acknowledging and praising you for 80 years of blessings. Our church footprint, its congregation, identity, and mission has evolved and changed over time. Today, Ontario Community Church is a growing fellowship of believers, friends, and families who represent our diverse community and who honor and praise our Lord and Savior. We've come a long way, and our rich history and past continues to mold and shape our future. We honor and recognize all our past ministers, board members, volunteers, staff, and friends who have considered this special place and call it their home. From our first church bazaar to all the countless gatherings and events, happy and sad, this place, our church, has been an important piece of the fabric of our community. We lift up all praises for God for this special day. Father, please continue to watch over our community, those who are struggling with medical, mental, and financial needs. Bestow wisdom, character, and compassion on our local and national leaders. Bestow serving in our armed forces, our first responders, and all those who work in our hospitals and medical facilities, and all those who take care of our underserved populations.

[4:31] Thank you for watching over Ontario community, our church family, Pastor Patrick, Amber, and their family, our board, staff, and volunteers. Be with those who couldn't be with us here today. Heal those who are sick and hurt, and those in need of encouragement, strength, and faithfulness.

[4:54] Please help us to remain faithful and hopeful in a world full of difficulty and challenge.

[5:07] Thank you for bringing us here today. Let us honor, celebrate, and give thanks for Ontario Community Church and 80 years of blessings.

[5:17] We ask all this in the name of our Lord, who taught us to pray and sing. Our Father. Lord, Lord, and heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy glory be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

[5:33] Give us this day our daily bread, and give us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. and lead us now into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[5:46] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory of your forever. Amen. Thank you. And now I'd like to call on our board chair, Craig Yano.

[5:58] And as he is coming forward, you know, many of you, you all know who's on the board. I'd like all the board members to please stand. Board members. Thank you.

[6:16] I'm Cicero, Ralf Kro, Patty Faw, Kathy, myself, and Aaron Reins, who's not here. So, thank you, Kathy.

[6:30] Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. What a joy and blessing it is to be standing here before you to celebrate the 80th anniversary of our church.

[6:41] and I have to warn you, I'm not a public speaker. I'm a farmer. I spend more time with my dog than people. And then they said, you got 10 minutes to cover 80 years.

[6:54] So, here we go. I'd like to thank Kathy for, for, she was kind of the front person in organizing a lot of the celebrations.

[7:08] She did a lot of work and she's a great facilitator. So, I think she deserves a round of applause. Before we get going, I'd like to introduce a few more people.

[7:24] I'd like to introduce our paid staff on our church, at our church here. and it's headed by Pastor Patrick Daly, if you can mind standing. And his wife, Amber Daly, who is head of our chair of the ministry.

[7:37] Also, Nora Dean. She don't call her. She is fast. Nora Dean is our church secretary and she makes sure that the church is running well. So, thank you.

[7:49] And, in addition, even in this little church, it takes a ton of volunteers to run this church.

[8:00] And, there are just way too many for me to mention. I just want you to know that you're greatly appreciated everything you do for this church. Whether it's taking care of the audio video or doing the worship music or taking care of the, the events downstairs or Sunday school.

[8:19] There's just volunteers everywhere and that's the only way that this church can function. And, I know that the board and, and I do, I, I greatly appreciate the work that you put in.

[8:30] So, thank you. Yay. Also in attendance today is, um, our former pastor, Tom Greco and his wife, uh, Gid.

[8:45] Would you please stand? Thank you. Thank you. Pastor Tom and Gail put their retirement on hold in order to serve as our 14th pastor in the church.

[8:57] He provided, uh, critical leadership, uh, during the pandemic. And, I know that it was all part of God's plan for bringing him here. Uh, thank you for your attendance today.

[9:07] Thank you for your selflessness and your, uh, faithful service. Thank you. Um, over the course of 80 years, um, we've had 15 pastors.

[9:20] Each of these pastors have brought their own gifts, um, their own vision, their own love for the congregation. And we're grateful for each of them for their leadership, um, their faithfulness, and their legacy they left in our hearts and in our church.

[9:36] The last group that I'd like to recognize, um, is there, there are a few, uh, Nisei generation, uh, Japanese Americans here. Nisei means second generation.

[9:49] So, they are the, um, second generation Japanese Americans and between them and the Nisei, they were the first generation. They were the foundation of our church.

[10:01] And there's a few of you here and if you wouldn't mind standing for me, uh, my aunt, T.I. Kido. Um, I see George and Dorothy Ita. Margaret Morita.

[10:14] And David Sherry and I. Junior Asinda. You might stand for your best thanks to me. Thank you all for your time and talents and support of this church over the years.

[10:32] You've made that church meaningful and what it is today. We'll be playing, we'll be playing a video shortly with many pictures and, um, of the past and present, but I'd like to go over a few milestones in history.

[10:49] We were established in, on Easter Sunday, April 1st, 1945, as Boise Valley Community Methodist Church. At the end of the Second World War, Japanese Americans were released from internment camps and many of them settled in the valley here to, um, work in the fields.

[11:09] Among them were our founding members who had the foresight, the faith, and the fortitude to plant the seeds of this church. We were one of the main Japanese American Christian churches in the valley.

[11:25] In 1946, construction started on this church with a dedication a year later in 1947. And parts of the original church are still here, including this beautiful stained glass window.

[11:42] A parsonage was built a year later adjacent to the church. And, um, the cost for both of those was $33,706. About $400,000 in today's dollars.

[11:58] And to help pay for that mortgage, the church established what they call the Lord's Acres. and, um, this was a local field of sugar beets. And, it was tended to, uh, church, it was tended to by church members growing for the church.

[12:15] Um, many of the inputs were all, um, were donated. And that, that went on for two years and that, um, project netted $4,728.49.

[12:26] That's how precise they were. And that helped them pay them more to drop than four years. in 1947, as Kathy, remember, mentioned, we, we held our first, um, bazaar and, um, and we still hold it today.

[12:45] To the best of my knowledge, it's been held every year with the exception of 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. In addition to fundraising, um, we are using this event to reach out to our community and share God's love.

[13:01] Approximately 20% of the proceeds are donated back into our local community for local missions. In 1966, the church went through a remodel and the changes reflected the generational growth of our congregation, mainly the third generation, the Sanse.

[13:20] They added space for classrooms, for worship, and for fellowship. It was completed a year later at a cost of about $80,000 and that debt was paid by the end of 1969, three years ahead of the plan.

[13:37] The next 44 years, we were faithful and supportive members of the Methodist denomination, but in 2010, we took a significant step of faith by choosing to separate from them.

[13:50] this was by far one of the most difficult decisions I've been a part of. Our primary goal was to preserve the unity of our congregation.

[14:09] And amongst the board and the congregation, there was much prayer and discernment, but we decided to separate ties.

[14:20] And when that happened, the Methodist denomination wanted all of our assets, and we said no, and they didn't like that. And so they sued us.

[14:32] And after a brief legal vow, we were required to buy back our church. And the total due was $358,000, of which the church had $205,000.

[14:47] And we needed $150,000 in six weeks. And we were able to raise that with God's help. And we were able to buy back our church. And since then, we've been a non-denominational church.

[15:02] In 2014, we remodeled once again. And this time, the major change was adding the elevator and handicapped restrooms.

[15:12] and the church was built on the church. And I know that sounds small to some, but we were committed to providing a place of worship that was accessible to all. The original church was built on three levels with no wheelchair access.

[15:27] And the capital fundraising campaign was started in 2014, construction started in 2015, 2015, and the project was completed and dedicated in February of 2016.

[15:39] Total project cost was $797,000 and was completely paid for by 2017. I highlight these events just to show the resilience and faithfulness of past and present church members.

[16:05] But mostly, they are examples of God's never-ending and everlasting love. Through every hardship of time and uncertainty, or time of uncertainty, God has always provided for us.

[16:20] And today, as we look back, we honor the elders who came before us. We remember their sacrifices, their sadcastness, and their unwavering belief that God was with them, even in the most difficult times.

[16:37] 80 years ago, we started out as a church of singular ethnicity, and today, we represent many. Another sign of God's wonderful plan. God's love.

[16:48] And I saw a quote in some of the documents of a church leader way back in the 1940s, and it simply read, the future of the church is not easy to predict.

[17:02] And that simple statement still holds true today, especially as we look forward, knowing the many challenges that we face in our modern times. God has been with this church from the beginning, and I'm positive he'll be with us in the future.

[17:19] On a personal note, in preparing for this day, I looked over many documents and photos, and it became evident very quickly that through this church, God has touched the lives of many people.

[17:37] There are hundreds and hundreds of people who have served this church or been served by this church. It's overwhelming when you think about it.

[17:49] More importantly, God has provided 80 years of blessings, his steadfast love is overwhelming, and I know the story of this church is still being written, and I'm truly honored to be a small part of it.

[18:05] Thank you for attending today. I hope you enjoy the rest of our celebrations. Thank you. Wow.

[18:21] That was amazing. Looking back at all those pictures, truly 80 years of blessings.

[18:34] amazing. I just wanted to shout out to, special thanks to Diana and Craig and Pastor for helping put together that amazing video.

[18:44] Imagine all the pictures and all the videos that went into trying to put that all and condensing it together. Thank you so much. What a beautiful reflection. thank you. Chris Van Leap put together some of our old photo albums and some different things from our past, and it's right down as you go down to the steps.

[19:11] So please, I already checked it out and looked at some of the, gosh, when I was in middle school and high school, and we had church conferences, and so lots of great memories. So please, Chris, thanks for doing that.

[19:23] So please go down and look at all of those photo albums and some of our memories. The sun is shining. Praise God. And so when we finish the conclusion of the service, we are going to go outside and take our photo.

[19:37] Also just a short reminder that we have a freewill offering box just right as you are going through the meal. So if you want to donate and help us with the meal today, that would be much appreciated.

[19:51] And now I'm going to turn the time over to Pastor Patrick, and we'll start with Amber. All right. So churches, we celebrate 80 years of faithfulness.

[20:03] I'm excited to share what God is calling us in our families and children's ministry. And I say for the next 20 years, because this church will be here for its 100th celebration in just 20 years.

[20:17] So we're just, we're dreaming and calling on God and asking him to just prepare our hearts. And as Craig had noted, we don't know what the future does look like.

[20:30] We don't know. But we can faithfully pray and see what is going on in our community and who the people are in our community, who the children and the next generation of people are and what they need.

[20:43] And so with that, a vision for our family and children's ministry is to have a generation rooted in Christ. We envision children growing up to know Jesus, not just on Sundays, but at home, at schools, and in their neighborhoods.

[21:01] And our goal is that every child at OCC has a personal connection with one of you in this service. And that is going to be so important to passing on our past, our present, and building for our future.

[21:20] In today's world, sometimes people turn a blind eye to things. They don't know the past. So I think it's been beautiful to learn the history of this church and to learn where we've come from so that we don't make mistakes that have happened.

[21:37] Sometimes we are. We're going to have that happen as well, but we can pull upon the wisdom and knowledge of those before us. So we would really like to see that as something going forward, a part of the children's and families ministry is to connect one child with one person in the church.

[21:56] And you guys can write letters. You guys can share stories. I know Miss Mary, she's always there with my kiddos, and my kids just love that. They talk about Miss Mary.

[22:08] Playing marbles all the time, and that connection that they have with another person in a completely different generation. And I think of all the wisdom she will pour into my kids throughout their lifetime.

[22:21] So just keep thinking about that. Maybe there's a kid in our church right now that you just connect with for some reason. They remind you of you, or they're so opposite of you that you're intrigued, and you just want to share a story with them.

[22:34] You bring a coloring page or something, you know? Just having that personal connection with the children of our church, because our children are going to need that building block.

[22:45] Many of you sitting here were children in this church. And that's a beautiful thing that you guys were raised up in such a way that built what we have today.

[22:56] And our second piece of it is that multi-generational discipleship. So families are important to discipleship. Families are critical.

[23:07] And today we don't see many complete families, and that's okay. We would love for there to be complete families, but we have to go with what we have to give them, the tools and the skills.

[23:19] So we do that by partnering with Building Healthy Families. We have dad cafes and, excuse me, parent cafes. And we do, now we're going to be doing our second annual Strengthening Families class.

[23:33] And this gives parents practical tools. It gives the kids practical tools of how to live with each other. Don't you wish you had like a playbook to how to talk to your mom or your dad when you were little?

[23:46] And so it's just creating this relationship. So we really are leaning into that ministry. That we're able to partner with them and just be that presence.

[23:58] It's held here in our church. And while it's not a Christian program, we get to pour into them and pour our stories and our wisdom into them. And so I think it's just a wonderful thing that we are doing and we'd like to continue doing.

[24:14] We want to connect grandparents, parents, and children, as I noted. number three, a place where every child belongs. And this is something that in the last year has really been on my heart.

[24:29] Seeing children walk into our church that have needs. They have a special way they like to learn. They have special interests.

[24:41] And so we really are, we're working on creating sensory spaces for them. Our partner, Building Healthy Families, gave us a kit to help kids with sensory processing things and just helping them.

[24:54] So we really want to be a place where people are welcomed, our children are welcomed, and they are loved. And they know that they're loved. That's so important to us.

[25:05] Give them the tools that they need. For preparing the next generation, we are not just raising children to attend church.

[25:16] We're raising children who have a heart for Jesus. Who they want to help their community. I look out and I see critical people in our community.

[25:28] Whether that be at the community college. Whether that be at the cultural center. May that be in the chamber of commerce for Fruitland or Ontario. There are movers and shakers in our congregation.

[25:42] And that is one piece. If you can just give them that wisdom and that heart for serving their community, it will make such a big difference.

[25:54] And so we pray for the children and families that come into our church. We want to have a mentorship program. And Lord willing, we're able to connect in the schools, get some youth programs going.

[26:09] For some of them right now, we've got a slew of littles. And that's okay. But we want to connect with our youth as well. As we go to the next generation of godly leaders.

[26:21] And I just want to invite you guys to participate. I know it can be scary with a bunch of little toddlers crawling and hugging you and holding on you. And they just want to love on you.

[26:32] But they just have the sweetest hearts. And they want to know and love Jesus. They talk about Jesus all the time. And it's such a beautiful thing. And I know that will touch your heart.

[26:43] If you just step in, teaching or mentoring, or maybe you can't lift up. And that's okay. We can, you know, maybe you can pray the snacks. Or you can make copies for the kids.

[26:54] Or, you know, different things. Coloring books. You can think of a craft and come and talk to me and we can get that going for them. But I really want you guys to think about how you can connect with our children and our families and our church.

[27:09] church. It's important. And it is the future. It is the future of the church. But you guys are building into that future. So, as the next 20 years of our family and children's ministry is growing, we know that Jesus will work in their lives faithfully.

[27:26] And that Jesus will enact in them this heart to serve. So, we are committed to that. And church, I'd love for you guys to join in that mission with us.

[27:37] To serve our children. Thank you. Is my microphone on?

[27:51] All right. Well, we're going to go over the book of Ezekiel real quick. You didn't get the jump in, right? No, I've got only a few minutes here to just kind of go over.

[28:05] You know, God has worked in this place in such great capacities. God has, the spirit of God has been moving in so many people's lives throughout 80 years.

[28:17] It seems like it's such a long time, but at the same time, it's such a short amount of time that has gone by. It's kind of like, where did all the time go? And there's a famous saying that goes, time flies when you're having fun.

[28:35] And there's a lot of truth in that. I want to, I put further 80 years of God's faithfulness, which is very connected to blessings that we have received from the Lord, that God has been with us, with this congregation, with this community all along.

[28:53] It hasn't been the perfect ride, but it's been a ride nonetheless, because God is with us in every season of our life. The good, the bad, and even the ugly.

[29:06] Amen? Amen. So I want to, I only have a few minutes here, so I'm just going to go through this. Let's go to that next slide here. When we look at 2025, we've had four baptisms and 13 child dedications, and we praise God for that.

[29:24] There are going to be, at least last time I checked, there's going to be four more, four or five more children that will be dedicated to the Lord. And that's going to show you, as Amber was talking about the future of this church body, the future of Christianity, we have to double down on raising the next generation of children who know the Lord, who are strong in their faith, but also deal in love with others.

[29:52] So this is a praise, my friends, just kind of seeing what has been going on in this place. Let's go ahead and go to the next slide then. Our attendance has an average of 62, with the peak so far of 102, but I think we broke that record in celebration.

[30:10] Amen? So that's been great. And one other thing that I think has been really profound, it's been incredible to see is that we have been posting our online, we don't post our online services per se, but we've been posting our online sermons.

[30:29] And it's been incredible. Oh, looks like someone's locked out. We opened the door. Someone's locked out. So, as we have been posting our online sermons, we have been, by the grace of God, given this opportunity to go onto TikTok.

[30:49] And just to encourage you, over the last, in the month of August, we had reached almost 5,000 people. That's about 1,000 people that we are reaching.

[31:02] People that are just scrolling aimlessly on their phones. Maybe they might have the seed of God's word planted into their hearts. We've had people, sometimes you get trolls, sometimes you get people who are really strange, but that's okay.

[31:16] We want them to come to know Jesus too, amen? There have been a lot of people from different areas, from Virginia. We've had people from around the world who are tuning in, showing the profound impact of what our church is having, not only in this place, in this town, in this community, but also a much greater reach.

[31:38] And so that's really encouraging when we're thinking of the next generation for Christ. Statistically speaking, who we are reaching online is under 40.

[31:49] Over, I think it's over 60%, Amber, is under 40. So it's that demographic of people, of young people, who need to come to know the Lord. So that's another praise here.

[32:02] And here, Amber kind of touched on this. We've been serving families and the communities by partnering with other organizations, other nonprofit organizations, and just being present, right?

[32:15] It's so important for us as Christians, for us to come to know Jesus Christ, for us to grow in our faith and our understanding of God and his word, but also to be salt and light for the world.

[32:28] And what that looks like can be serving in the local church, but also serving in the community. As Amber was saying, we have these, we partner with Building Healthy Families for the Parent Cafe, the Dad Cafe.

[32:41] There's the Community Baby Shower that's coming up and the Strengthening Families course. These are all opportunities, not just for us, but think of the profound impact that we can have on people.

[32:54] People who may not know the Lord or people that may have even been hurt in the past before by people. What I like explaining to people is that very often people will fail you, but God will never fail you.

[33:09] And sometimes you need someone who might have experienced some sort of hurt or some sort of just situation that was just not good. We pray for comfort, transformation, and healing that comes from the Lord.

[33:24] Let's go to that next slide then. And so what's next coming on is on November 2nd for this year, we'll be having our annual bazaar.

[33:34] I hope that if you are visiting or if you're local or even if you're online, that you can come and join us for our continuing tradition of our bazaar.

[33:46] And also we're going to be going into our next sermon series going through the book of Revelation. For many of you who have been attending, we went over the parables of Christ.

[33:57] That was almost 40 weeks of going through the teachings of Christ and the parabolic language. Things such as the Good Samaritan, the Good Shepherd, the Ten Virgins, the Sheep and the Goats, all of these type of parables and how they are connected within the Word of God and how we, as people, we can learn, we can grow, and we can act upon this.

[34:21] This is the, so the parable series was Thy Kingdom Come. And we find that a lot of the apocalyptic language in Revelation is very similar to what we find in the parables of Christ.

[34:36] And I'm very excited to go over this because for many of us, let's be honest here, how many of us have read Revelation and we think it's confusing and it's an outright scary book?

[34:50] Right? You see a lot of newspapers and it's at the end of the world. Here, how many of you remember the Y2K scare? Yeah? Some of you weren't alive.

[35:01] Some of you were, right? You remember the Y2K scare. Or my favorite one is the Mayan calendar that the world would end in 2012. When we really think about it, there is hope in Revelation.

[35:14] There is a lot of symbolism, but there's also a lot of connections. And what we are going to focus on is the hope in Jesus Christ. We're going to go into Revelation and we're not going to fight over, you know, what is the beast?

[35:31] Is it Russia? Is it Iraq? Is it the United Kingdom? I have no idea. We're going to focus, though, on the significance of the beast, the significance of the mark.

[35:43] What is it? Where have we found it within Scripture? So we're going to focus more on that rather than the timing, because let's face it, a lot of us, we will argue and fight over when.

[35:58] But what's so important is that even in this kind of apocalyptic language, there's victory at the end. And that victory, my friends, is in Jesus Christ.

[36:10] Can I get an amen? Amen. So it's so important for us as we will be going over Revelation. And in conclusion, I want to show this next slide here.

[36:22] One thing that I've really enjoyed being here in Ontario Community Church, do you know that in Japanese, Ontario means grace overflowing?

[36:35] It's not interesting. And it's something that is such beautiful language. I believe it's pronounced on teru. I hope if I get that right.

[36:46] If I haven't, please forgive me. But grace overflowing. And what a wonderful representation of God and the love that he has for us, the truth that he has for us, that it is in abundance.

[37:00] When we think of God's salvation for us, that it is available for all. When we think of John 3.16, whosoever believes. Is it talking about only tall people or only short people that will enter the kingdom of heaven?

[37:15] Last time I checked, no. We have to think that God's grace is in abundance and it is available for all who believe. And this image here, how many of you know what this is?

[37:29] It's kintsugi, right? Some of you may have seen the broken plate. They take it and they put it back together with gold. And what happens is it makes the bowl more valuable than it was when it first began.

[37:49] And what a powerful representation when we think of, for a moment, who we are. How many of us are broken? How many of us need to be picked up, as it were, and put back together?

[38:06] For many of us, that was a representation of our lives before we knew the Lord. For some of us, it's, that's still my life today and I need the Lord to put me back together.

[38:16] It's so important to see this imagery of the broken plate putting it back together, representing how God cares for that which is broken and makes it whole and brings it and restores it and transforms it, just like how it is in our own very life.

[38:34] That is on a personal note. But we also have to think when it comes to the world that we live in today. My friends, we've had a lot of headlines, news that has broken out, an assassination that has just recently happened, school shootings that have been happening.

[38:56] And for a lot of us, when we read that, we get discouraged. We get depressed. We get filled with anxiety in these moments, thinking, why would such evil exist?

[39:09] We turn to the Lord in times such as this. We turn to God and we think for a moment, if God is going to bring us together as an individual, it is God who will help transform this land, who will help transform this nation and essentially the world.

[39:30] We think of Christ as the transformer of culture, the sovereignty of God being the ruler of all, but also the responsibility of man to follow in the footsteps of Christ, standing firm on the truth of God's word, but also dealing in love.

[39:50] My friends, how some of you may have responded or reacted to some of these tragic events, may we be reminded. We trust in the living God.

[40:02] We do not condone violence. We do not condone division. Instead, let us seek God and the unity that comes from him, the peace that surpasses all understanding from him, regardless of what your background is, regardless of who you are or what you have been through or what you are going through.

[40:28] Let us seek God and his righteousness. Let us focus on the hope of Christ and transforming culture rather than these terrible things that have been happening.

[40:42] It is in Christ that there is healing and there is transformation. And I'm reminded as we're going to be going into our time of revelation, it's going to be a 42-week sermon series, my friends.

[40:58] As we go through that, I want you to know Revelation 21, verse 5, where it says, Behold, I am making all things new.

[41:13] When we trust in the living God, let us trust in that transformation that will happen in our lives and let us be empowered to make a difference in our community, with our families, and essentially within the world.

[41:28] Let's pray together and the worship team will be coming on up. Father God, we thank you for these 80 years of blessings, your faithfulness.

[41:40] We thank you for this time together, this time where we celebrate the legacy of how you have been there for this community, for this congregation, and for this church for the past 80 years.

[41:54] May we recognize that it hasn't been a perfect ride, but you have been there in every single season. From the moments of victory, the moments, those good moments, to trying and testing and tribulations that have happened in our lives, as well as this congregation, this church body.

[42:17] We just pray, Father, that we will turn to you in every season of our lives. When bad things happen to us or bad things happen around us, may we look to you.

[42:32] Just as your word says, I look to the hills. Where does my help come from? And Father, may we respond in recognizing that our hope comes from you.

[42:44] Or just as your scripture says, that though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, may we fear no evil. So we ask, Father, for transformation.

[42:58] We pray that your Holy Spirit will convict us, lead us, and guide us in our very lives individually, but as a church body as well.

[43:10] Mend our lives with your mercy. May we, that which is broken, be mended in you. We love you, we praise you, we glorify you, and we honor you.

[43:23] It is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray, and we all say together, Amen, Church. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Ontario Community Church, where we are encouraging, equipping, and engaging lives for Christ.

[43:37] My name is Patrick Daly, and I am the pastor of Ontario Community Church. To learn about our church and how you can get involved, go to www.ontariocommunitychurch.org.

[43:49] We hope that you will join us as we begin next week, September 21st, 2025, through the Book of Revelation. May God bless you all the days of your life.

[44:00] And you will find you Thank you.