ASK AWAY: Real Questions. Real Answers

[0:00] Welcome to Ontario Community Church. I'm Pastor Patrick Daly, and you're listening to a special Ask Away episode. Today is a little different from a normal sermon. This is a question-and-answer format. Real questions, real answers.

[0:15] And during the recording, you'll even hear my wife, Amber, join me as we respond to questions together. Some of the questions are theological, some are practical, and some are personal.

[0:28] But our goal is simple, to keep Christ at the center, to pursue clarity, and to grow together. All right, let's begin together. Well, good morning, everyone. We are doing things a little bit different today, as we have been just going through our mission and vision.

[0:50] We've been going through just all sorts of things with the new year. Our annual theme being Blessed Are the Peacemakers. And we've been... And we've just been really going through a process of just identifying who we are as a church.

[1:10] And it's just, there's been a lot of questions that's been going on, and it's just been really, really rewarding. It's, I'm really grateful for you guys to submit the questions that you have.

[1:20] And some of the other questions we put on are questions that we have commonly gotten in the two and a half years that we've been here. Some that we get are a little more, some are pastoral, some are more about children's ministry, some are about family.

[1:38] And so we just wanted to take some time to really just respond to some of the questions here that we have. And so what I'd just like to do is, I'd like for us to open in prayer, and then we'll just go ahead and get started in our time together.

[1:52] And so, Father God, we thank you for this time, this opportunity for us to gather together. We recognize that this is not a typical sermon. This is more of us responding to questions that have been submitted by the congregation and the community as well.

[2:09] And we just pray that this will be a good opportunity for us to respond, for us to respond in wisdom and clarity. And we just pray for everyone who is here in person and those who are tuned in online, that this message will just, these answers, these responses will be made clear and on ears that can hear and understand.

[2:32] And we're just grateful for this church body. We're grateful for this congregation. And you have given us just a wonderful task to be able to preach the word and to be present with this congregation and to be salt and light to the community.

[2:46] So bless this time together, and we just love you so much. And thank you so much. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and we all say together, amen, church. All right.

[2:58] So, again, today is we're just doing a Q&A session. We did this two years ago. It was actually in 2023 or 24 when we did that.

[3:08] And it was more biblical-based questions, which naturally, you know, when a pastor comes on, you want to ask questions regarding scripture and whatnot. And it's still, it's a time for us to, as leadership for me as a pastor, and then I have Amber up here.

[3:26] There are some questions regarding children's ministry and regarding just us as a family unit. We'll answer as clearly as possible, and we will just with grace and truth.

[3:38] And if you guys have any other questions, feel free to just write them down and give them to us. If we have time, we'll get to any additional questions. We do have, I think, 15, 16 questions to go through.

[3:49] So, we're just, again, this is not a typical service that we do. So, if this is your first time, we typically open the Word, we observe it, right? We learn the lessons, and we learn what we need to do as Christians.

[4:04] And so, we're going to go ahead and go into, I've titled this on here. It's the same title as we had back in 2024.

[4:14] It's Ask Away, and it is real questions and real answers. If it wants to... All right, just give it a second in here.

[4:26] Real questions and real answers, and this is basically the 2026 or part two of Ask Away. We're not going to have this every Sunday, but will be situations for us to go over things.

[4:38] So, the first question that comes up, then, is... Let's start to the next slide, then, is... Does God help those that don't know Him?

[4:50] This is a common question that you get when regarding... What if they're not a Christian, right? How does God help at all, or what does that look like?

[5:00] And what I put on this next slide here is that God shows kindness and help to all people. Now, what type of help that looks like is going to be different.

[5:14] And you think of the creation of the earth, right? You think of the rain and the sun, right? And every day that you have life, that is a gift from God that is for everybody.

[5:25] Now, when we're thinking of salvation and transformation, becoming more like the Lord, that is more exclusive for Christians. And there's a verse that's in Matthew 5, verse 45, where it says, He makes His sun rise on evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

[5:49] So you think about the creation of the earth, like I'm saying, the sun, the rain, every day that we have is a gift from God. And that is going to be for the unbeliever.

[6:00] That's going to be for the believer as well. But when we're thinking of what God gives to us, that's going to be... Us as Christians, that is going to be very different.

[6:10] And so it's important for us to know that with every gift that God gives the unbeliever or soon-to-be-a-Christian, it's an opportunity to see God's provision, to see that God does provide even for those that don't know Him.

[6:27] So you think of how God is the God of abundance. He gives so many gifts and opportunities for us to know Him. And what an amazing God that we have that gives gifts even to those that don't believe Him.

[6:40] It's an opportunity for them to believe. Right? You observe the earth. You observe the universe. You look at the sun, the sunrise and the sunset. You look at the mountains and the birds that are chirping in the air.

[6:52] And it's supposed to be evidence of something that is much greater than that which is created kind of thing. And so there's a lot into that. Amber, did you want to...

[7:03] Yeah. And so as some of you might know, I have a background in biological and part of my classes was going through cultural and religious and that was one of the questions that would get asked quite frequently from a lot of my classes.

[7:21] And so they were quite frankly, they would say, well, isn't that not fair that people in remote places may never hear the gospel message?

[7:33] And so that was one of the things that I would hear frequently. But as Pastor said, there's kind of this divine revelation that God does send through beauty of the earth, through instances where people do come into contact with us that really displays God's power.

[7:55] And quite frankly, a lot of people may not have heard the message yet. But they do... They say there's something that's just special. There's something that is great about this place or how there's miracles happening.

[8:12] We don't know where they come from. And... And I would also preface that with that is why we are called to go out into all the nations as well.

[8:22] So we are called to go out and to share the gospel, share the news, get it translated for even the most remote places so that they can really have that deep relationship with God.

[8:37] But they could very well come across God and an understanding of God in their own circumstance. And we can't put God in a box to say that he cannot speak divinely to those people in some way, shape, or form as well.

[8:55] You have to think, not only is it nature that is speaking, right? You think of the heavens declare the glory of God, right? Or all of creation sings out to glorify God, right?

[9:05] You have all of these verses throughout Psalms, Proverbs, just throughout Scripture that is testifying to the awesome power of God. Not only do you have it within the creation, but also through people, right?

[9:18] Part of us is to share in the gospel message, right? The ministry of presence, speaking truth in love, all of these different ways to get people to see that there's something more than this earth, right?

[9:31] There's something more to this life. And it's just such a wonderful thing. It's a great question. Absolutely. Let's go to that next one. Question two, then, is does one have to be baptized and born again to be saved?

[9:44] Now, this is a question I get all the time. I don't know about you, Amber, but I get that all the time. Because in Scripture, there are some verses where, for example, where it says, repent and be baptized, for example, right?

[9:57] And then you have other verses that talk about, well, believe and be saved, and it can cause some confusion that happens, right? So I want to put the answer that we have on here, which says that we are—what's that next slide?

[10:13] Is that we're saved by grace through faith. And baptism is obedience that follows that. Now, sometimes when you read certain verses where it says, well, repent and be baptized, it's kind of talking about, right, repentance.

[10:30] We understand that as metanoia, the changing of mind, right? Our minds to be changed on who the Lord is. And through that repentance, through that metanoia, we come to believe in the Lord, right?

[10:42] And from belief comes the obedience, which is baptism. There are so many verses that talk about faith in God and believing in the Lord.

[10:52] That is the core. That is the first—that is the most important thing. Now, does it mean you should never get baptized? Well, no, you should absolutely get baptized. And it's important for us to know that if we create baptism to be a requirement for salvation, it then becomes part of a workspace salvation, right?

[11:14] What happens to those—and there are case studies of this where there are people who may be more allergic to water or they may not have access to water.

[11:25] And it creates just this kind of strange situation that happens. And so, as Christians, in so many verses, it talks about believe in the Lord and be saved.

[11:35] And I understand there are some people who have a different theological understanding where it may be more of their conviction to be baptized than by all means be baptized. But when we're talking about salvation, it talks about belief, right?

[11:48] Salvation is the gift of God, right? And it is received by faith in Jesus Christ. And so, being born again, if you go in the Gospel of John, where there's that conversation with Nicodemus, how can somebody be born again, right?

[12:03] And Jesus answers by saying, that which is born of the flesh is born of the flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is born of the Spirit. And you have to look—I think it's John chapter 3 where it's talking about that.

[12:15] It's important for us to realize that we are born in the physical realm, and there's also the spiritual realm, right? Being born again. And that occurs when we believe in the Lord, right?

[12:26] Believing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And so, again, baptism, it is important. It is something that we should do after salvation.

[12:36] And what you see commonly in the book of Acts is they'll believe, and then they'll then get baptized. And that's fine. I actually think that's wonderful. And a lot of churches that do that, they make a decision for Christ, and they're ready to get baptized.

[12:48] That's a beautiful thing to see. Many different churches have timing. Sometimes they might have baptism classes and things. But we must not make it where baptism becomes the requirement.

[13:01] It is belief in God. Having faith in Him is so important. Yeah, and I just like to add a piece. Because I work with the children, they often ask me a way to get baptized.

[13:13] And so, we don't typically baptized infants. But we do believe that when you have made that choice, you have professed your mouth and believe in your heart.

[13:23] And then you can be baptized. So, I mean, really, as early as children can do that, they might find it more significant, especially when they're a little bit comforted.

[13:34] And can really take to heart that. But I'm of the belief that when they're at five, and we're professing that Jesus is there, so we're at that. But we just don't typically do it.

[13:47] But if we're baptized, we think that's okay. Yeah, there's a lot of times where some churches will talk about, well, re-baptism and legitimate baptism. And we don't want to go so much into that.

[13:59] But it's just important to get baptized. One way or not. And it's one final thing before we go to that next question. It's important for us to know that believing in Christ, receiving salvation, right, making that decision for Christ, that's a very personal thing.

[14:17] Right, that's something between you and the Lord. That's very personal. And when you're ready to get baptized, that's something that you want to tell everybody. Share with your friends that now you're ready to make that public confirmation.

[14:29] And so that's something that's... Yeah, exactly. It's a part of our way to think that if we are baptized in front of our friends, our family, they may not be at the meeting yet.

[14:41] And so it opens up that conversation. What's going on? Where are you going in the water? Why are you doing that? So it's also a piece of that that is a beautiful...

[14:53] All right, let's go to that next question. So the question is, what do you say to a Christian who's concerned for their non-Christian loved ones who have passed away? And this is a very, very good question.

[15:05] And I wanted to take a moment to pull up in Scripture. It's from Genesis 18, 25. It's actually a very, very good verse. If you want to turn your Bible there, that's fine.

[15:16] If not, you don't have to. But what's very interesting is you have the scene of Sodom and Gomorrah, right? And it says in verse 22, men turned from there and went towards Sodom.

[15:30] Abraham stood before the Lord. Abraham drew near. Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place of non-spirit or the 50 righteous who are in it?

[15:44] And then verse 25, far be it from you to do such a thing. To put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked.

[15:56] Far be that from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And it's this question that's being asked here where we don't always know the heart of someone.

[16:10] Now, we can see the outward expression, right? We can see the actions of people, right? Someone who has a heart of bitterness. We can see that. We can see the anger and the animosity that people have towards other people.

[16:23] But what's so important is that towards, in the course of someone's life, how God may have revealed himself to a person, we don't know that.

[16:34] And so we have this hope. That question that gets asked, it comes from a place of love. Love for someone who, you may not have seen the evidence, right?

[16:46] You may not have known them as a Christian. You may have known them as someone with a heart of a stone, right? Or a really cold heart, as it were. And we honor that. But it's important for us to know that we place our loved ones into the hands.

[17:01] Right? And God knows the heart. We trust in the character of God. Especially when we don't have all of the information, right? How many of us know every thought in our own minds, right?

[17:14] Sometimes we wrestle with our own thoughts. And so when we think of someone that has lived a life that is a non-Christian, we don't know their heart. It is only God that knows that. And so I want to give these words to you.

[17:25] We grieve with hope. And that's so important for us, right? We grieve honestly. And we are not hopeless, though. Because it is God who will.

[17:38] He knows. He knows you better than you may know yourself, right? He knows you better than a family member would. And so we trust in God. And we give our loved ones into the hands of God.

[17:49] And this is not... We have to know that from those verses in Genesis that God is just and God is merciful. So part of it is we can't even fathom the mercy of God on one end or God's justice.

[18:05] And at the same time, we may not understand a person's heart. How many of you have may known somebody who has a hard shell but a soft inside, right?

[18:18] I mean, I'm sure we could all raise our hands and know someone who's like that. Maybe you yourself are like that. We just don't always know the heart. And that's so important for us. So when there is a loved one, we have to offer that to the Lord.

[18:32] And so that's very important. And if you have had a loved one who has passed away, I mean, I'm here for you as your pastor. You can always talk to Amber or anyone from the board.

[18:43] We can pray with you. And this is not an easy question. You know, we're in our third question. And that's a heavy one. Yeah, and I think we have to be mindful of how we interact with people who are greedy.

[18:55] And it's something that sometimes our words are meant to try to help someone get through that. But they actually become a lot more harmful.

[19:07] That might work, well, they're not going to heaven. You know, they were such a wicked person. It's really not our place. God is the ultimate judge. And he knows our hearts.

[19:19] He knows their hearts. And so we have to check ourselves in how we respond to someone who's grieving. Because all of us are around people who might be going through those.

[19:31] And sometimes we do it as a way to relate. Or, oh, yeah, my grandfather just died. And he was a wicked man. Or, you know, we try to relate. But we be mindful. The scripture says to us to be mindful.

[19:46] It's slow to speak, right? To listen. To hear where they're coming from. And comfort them without necessarily pushing on what we believe to be about their problems.

[19:59] And certainly with the loss of any family member. I mean, the last thing you want to do is be like, well, they're in hell. You don't want to do that. You want to comfort them and be present with them.

[20:11] Because at the end of the day, you don't know. You really don't know their heart and what they have been through. The people that have interacted. Every single person that interacted with their life. It's certainly possible that someone planted a seed that was there.

[20:26] So. And you're speaking as the person. Yeah. To the living. And you have a profound effect on how their faith developed as well. Let's go to the next question then.

[20:38] So it's why do you partner with the secular community? Now this is one. This is a question we've gotten a few times. Where it's so.

[20:52] It's important for us to recognize that. Jesus calls for us to love God and to love us. To love our neighbors. There's a verse in Jeremiah 29.7.

[21:07] Where it talks about seeking the welfare of the city. And pray to the Lord on its behalf. And it's so important for us. You know. The church is a safe place.

[21:19] For us to come together. Encourage one another. To grieve together. To be present with one another. But it's also important for us to be salt and light for the community.

[21:31] That doesn't mean we are compromising our beliefs. It means that we are representing Christ when we go out in the community. Because let's be honest here. Is anyone 100% never interact with anybody?

[21:45] I mean maybe if you're alone on an island I suppose. Right? But more often than not you're going to interact with somebody. Right? And how are you representing Christ with every interaction?

[21:57] Whether that's at Dutch Brothers. Right? Whether that's at Walmart or Albertsons. Right? Or you're going to Walmart. How are you representing Christ? And that's so important in that.

[22:09] Right? And we partner with these secular organizations. Because it's the common good. So I think of building healthy families.

[22:19] I think of FACE. I think of the Treasure Valley Relief Nursery. A lot of them they are focused on having strong and healthy families. That's something that is very important.

[22:30] That we as the church we value. Now how they help families might be a little bit different. We have the spiritual side. Right? We have the biblical and scriptural side.

[22:42] Right? The ministry of presence. For them they may have evidence based or science fact or different ways. Different techniques. But it's so important that when we are out in the community.

[22:54] We can build relationships. We can. It's really. We're focusing on. You think of how Jesus dined with sinners.

[23:05] Right? How he was present with all of these different people who are worldly. Or secular as it were. Right? Well he was there to be present. And as we go further on in these questions.

[23:18] We believe in this idea of friendship evangelism. And the ministry of presence. Where it is about building relationships. And when the proper time is right. You don't force it. When the time is right.

[23:31] Then you share. In who Christ is. It's not force. It's by waiting upon the Lord. Waiting on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

[23:41] And you have to think families. They need support. They need presence. And so we partner with them to. Because we value families. But also. That's part of our mission.

[23:54] Yeah. When we first moved here. We've been doing ministry for many years. So I thought. Oh. Just do the same things that I've always done. You know. I have some events.

[24:05] And different things. And very quickly. I was humbled. By the amount of resources. Organizations. That are in our community.

[24:15] There is a lot going on. And actually. We were talking about it. In our class this morning. That we live in a post-Christian world. That might seem very strange. For some of these. Because we were raised.

[24:26] In the Christian era. In the Christian church era. Where the church really dominated. A lot of life. Social life. A political life. Just everyday interactions.

[24:38] We're really centric. Around church. But our world has changed. And our world has progressed through. And a lot of things in our community.

[24:49] Are going to happen. Whether or not. We show up. Or not. And so I quickly learned. That you've got to be where the people are. Because they're not going to step through these doors.

[25:00] Unless something drastic happens in their life. Or. Or. By friendship with the people. By just being there with one another.

[25:11] Seeing how you live your life. And so. I put. My. My children and myself. We went to. Building healthy families. We went to. A lot of these activities.

[25:22] And I met other moms. I met other families. And. Very. Seldom. Did I. Reveal. I'm a pastor's wife. I've got a church.

[25:32] You know. I thought. I was a selder. But. When the questions. Hey. I can't lie. So. I tell the truth. And I tell. Yeah. I'm a pastor's wife. I do children's ministry. And it just.

[25:43] Opens up doors. That are more authentic. That are more. Real. That says. Yeah. My kids. Run around. And just like. You are not.

[25:54] Perfect. And you're welcome. You're not perfect. With me. And know that Jesus loves you. And so. That was really. What kind of. Shifted that. And the church already had these relationships.

[26:07] Built in. When we came. You guys were already supporting. CDCRN. Not at the time. You guys weren't supporting. Building House and Families. But now we are. But there's a lot of other organizations.

[26:19] That you guys were already supporting. And you guys have. Joined in partnership. With each other. At the food pantry. You get to know people.

[26:29] You serve alongside them. People love. To be in community. With one another. They love to serve together. And when those. Moments happen.

[26:40] It's the most organic thing. That really. That really. Shows the love of Christ. Before we go to question five. I think. Just as people ask. Why do you partner. With the secular community.

[26:52] How often. The secular community. Will ask. What are you guys doing? You're from a church. What do you. What do you want from us? And it's. It's. Very standoffish. But.

[27:02] It's. I'm here to serve. I'm here because I value families. And I'm no different. I'm. No better than you.

[27:13] And I just want to. Be here to help. And the amount of conversations. That you get from people like. Oh. Churches don't do that. I don't want to judge other churches here.

[27:25] But. It's. This is a real conversation. That Amber and I have. All the time. We're going into. Question five. Why is Ontario Community Church. Nonpolitical?

[27:35] Now this is a very interesting one. We'll go into the answer. Directly. Right. We are. Nonpartisan. We're not going to. Going to endorse the candidate. That's not appropriate.

[27:48] We. Come to church. To gather. To worship the living God. Right. To. Celebrate the. Who Jesus Christ is. Being the way. The truth. And the life. And. It's important to know.

[27:59] That Christ. Is above. Political parties. Now I know. In the culture. In which we live in. Well. What seems to happen. Does the news media. Or social media. That try to bring everybody together.

[28:11] I wish. Right. But they tend to divide. Right. They tend to divide. On. You know. How taxes should be paid. And you know. Who has so much authority. Or you should endorse this candidate.

[28:21] Or that candidate. And it goes on and on. But the reality is. Just because we are nonpartisan. Does not mean. That we are non-moral. We turn to the pages. Of the word of God.

[28:31] To guide us. In how we live. In our everyday lives. And it's important. To make that distinction. Because some people may say. Well. Why aren't you picking a side? Are you watering down the gospel.

[28:43] Or compromising things? Absolutely not. In fact. It's a call for us. To double down. On scripture. And what it says. And what it means. And how we can apply it. Let the word of God.

[28:53] Mold you. And how you vote. And how you. View politics. Not the other way around. It's very tragic. When you see politics. Trying to force. Itself.

[29:04] Into the pages of scripture. For some sort of agenda. Or narrative. And so. That's something. That we've got to be. Very careful. Just as Christ said. In the. Gospel of John.

[29:15] That my kingdom. Is not of this world. That's very powerful. And very strong language. Because how often. Do people want to. Make their own kingdom. Right.

[29:26] Or weaponize Christ. As it were. And there's also a verse. In first Timothy. Where it says. I urge that prayers. Be made for people. For kings. And for all those. In high authority.

[29:37] Right. Important for us. To pray. For those. Who are in political office. Pray for those candidates. Pray for those. Who are currently serving. Ask the Holy Spirit.

[29:49] To move. In their life. Let there be change. Because if you remember. When we went over Ezra. We had those three. Pagan kings. That the spirit of God. Changed their hearts.

[29:59] And through the Holy Spirit. God's purpose. Was fulfilled. The very. I mean. That's why we went over Ezra. To see. Wow. The spirit of God. Can work through pagan kings. I pray that.

[30:10] He'll work through. A lot of. Some of our leaders. In political office. And I'm not saying that. To take so much of a job. At politics currently. But I guess I am. But. It's just important for that.

[30:20] So. Just understand the difference. Between that. Right. That Christ is above. Political parties. And that. Our unity. Is in Christ. We're seeking the things. That are higher. Seeking the things. That bring us together.

[30:32] And we pray for our leaders. And we just. We refuse to be divided. By. By. Our. Yeah. And I was just. I was that with. Don't be afraid.

[30:43] To ask. A question. That is. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. For. pulpit, but you can certainly have meetings of pastor, myself, or, you know, us together, where we go through that.

[30:58] Where in Scripture can we find some wisdom? Where can we find direction? But yeah, you're not going to hear the, what's on the news headlines. Let's keep going.

[31:10] I know we're already taking a lot of time. So question six, how does OCC hold grace and truth when either I or someone I love is worldly, a sinner, or non-Christian, et cetera, right? That's a pretty big list in here, right? And I actually think that covers the questions submitted, right?

[31:26] It's important for us to know that we stand on the truth of God's Word, right? We stand on the truth that is found in Christ and we love others like Christ has loved us.

[31:37] And we are to be a light for others to come to Christ, right? It's important for us to know that the Lord invites all of us, no matter what our background is, no matter how sinful we are, no matter how much in darkness we are, there's still the call to come to the light.

[32:01] And so, as far as I'm concerned, you are welcome to, no matter what kind of sinner you are. There's a joke that I hear every so often where it's name a place that's full of sinners, right?

[32:15] I think a family feud. And when the number one answer was the bar. I'm like, a bar in the church? Like, why is the church? I think the church was like the third one in the list here.

[32:27] I'm like, what in the world? The church is full of sinners. Sinners that are in need of a Savior. Sinners that are in need of direction in their life and divine transformation.

[32:39] That's so important. And this is just a place for us to come together no matter what your backstory is. And that's the beauty of this place. We'll just go ahead and just keep going.

[32:51] Going to question seven, I have to thank certain people. I'm looking at you, Matt. As I hear you're speaking at Baylor University on AI.

[33:02] Is this for the church? And the answer is yes. I am presenting at Baylor University at the end of the month on artificial intelligence. And I'm just going to go over this real quick.

[33:13] AI is a tool like any technology that we steward. And I'm speaking on behalf of Ontario Community Church for others, leaders to learn from. We have used AI to see what it can and cannot do.

[33:25] In fact, that's why I have this next slide. This is kind of our congregational. This is part of what I'm presenting here. And that it's that scripture remains the source and the authority, right?

[33:36] And we turn to the word of God. Amen? Right? That's important for us to know. And number two is that AI may help us but it may never replace the word, right? With all these prompts and these generations that happen from AI, it can be overwhelming but it must never replace the word of God.

[33:54] The third thing is the church must discern and steward AI. Just be mindful of what it is and what it generates. What kind of images? What kind of videos? What kind of answers? It's no different than how you discern conversations that you have with people.

[34:09] And then finally, ministry requires human and spiritual presence. I put that on there because I kid you not, there are churches that have AI ministers and they don't forget.

[34:21] And I don't know about you, a computer that doesn't forget doesn't sound good to me, right? Especially if I'm pouring out a lot of personal information kind of thing. So when we think of ministry, right, it requires human presence but also spiritual presence, right?

[34:37] We have the Holy Spirit that is with us and we also have people, humans that minister. So that's very, that's the gist of that. I don't want to go too far into that but this is for the church, for Ontario community but also for the collective church to have a framework in how they use AI.

[34:55] Let's go to the next one then. Question eight. How do you handle recent events? Now this is one that I really, I wasn't sure about putting on here because let's be honest here, there's a lot of recent events that are going on.

[35:10] There's a lot of violence, a lot of confusion, misinformation, and debates and then it goes on and on, right? And I put on here as the response is that we respond through prayer, discernment, and scripture.

[35:24] We could spend days if not weeks going on and all the current events that are happening in our world but it's important for us to know that we pursue peace, truth, and doing good in the name of Christ.

[35:38] Just as it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Or in Romans 12 21, do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.

[35:54] It's very important for us to know, right? And I know whenever I have any sort of news thing that goes on, I have to really pray about it and think very often the media will try to, you might have heard the word rage baiting, right?

[36:09] Just trying to get you built, right? Get you angry, right? Get you warped up. And then there's also the truth of things that are happening. But it's important for us, we see that a lot of evil people and a lot of evil things that are happening, that's why we trust in the living God.

[36:24] we trust in him and not to be afraid but just double down on him. Now, question nine. So this is a classic if I have a dollar for everybody that asks this question, right?

[36:44] So, real quick, God has provided us five beautiful children, right? And we're focused at this time, we're focused on faithfully raising our children in a Christian home. God has blessed us with those five children and some of you may know, some of you may not know, it took us four years.

[37:01] Amber was actually told that she could not have children and it is by the grace of God that she was able to get pregnant and have lots of children and we are blessed by that.

[37:13] God has provided in such wonderful ways and yeah, that's something that we get all the time but you know, it's okay, that's all right. So the next question then is, how do you personally share the gospel?

[37:29] This is an interesting one. I get this every so often and I know for Amber she gets this every so often as well. We'll go to that next slide in answering this. It's known as the ministry of presence, right?

[37:41] It's being present with people in the community, people within the church, right? You think of how Christ in his ministry he was present with the disciples.

[37:53] Yeah, I'm out with everybody, right? All walks of life. He spoke the truth. He dealt in love, right? He was present with people and so it's nothing to really overthink.

[38:05] It just means be present with people. It's not about force or coercion or aggression. It's about building relationships with people. That's something that is incredibly important for us to know.

[38:17] And there's another one that is known as friendship evangelism. It's very similar. It's again building relationships and at the proper time. It's not to say you're never going to share in the word of God.

[38:29] It's when the time is right. For some people it may be years. For others it may be a few weeks. It just depends on the person and it's important for you to ask the spirit.

[38:43] When is the right time? More often than not you'll know. You'll know when they're not ready. More often than not you will know when the time is ready. And what I have found in my own experience is when people begin asking questions.

[38:57] Hey, I thought is Jesus just this cool surfer guy? He's got long hair, he's got a robe, he walks in sandals. Is he like a Laguna Beach guy or what? You know?

[39:09] Or I heard Jesus was this. Or why do you do that? Just like we're talking about our presence in the community. Yeah, I would just like to say to do it with gentleness, respect, and authenticity.

[39:24] You're not going to be everybody's best friend. And not every seed is meant for yourself. And for some you may go to community events and different things and think, oh, I'm going to tell people about Jesus.

[39:38] There might be people there that already have a home church. I would implore you not to try to take them away from the home church. God has them with it. He has them.

[39:50] And it's just being real. Don't be safe. The world has very big radars of knowledge. Just be real.

[40:01] And a lot of our culture is actually very against the idea of forcing scripture down or forcing faith down people's throats. You find this a lot in the global Christianity, global stage.

[40:14] There's all these articles that are written on it. But what's important is building those relationships is far more powerful than forcing. And as I said last week, and I'll say it again, God does not force us to choose him.

[40:29] So what are we doing forcing people to choose him? Right? It's the same intentionality, focus, building that friendship, being present, right?

[40:41] Letting your life, the words that you speak, exhibit the life-loving truth of Christ. We're going to go on to that next question then. This one is geared towards Amber. Yeah, you guys are all, you guys are worried on the burnout, but mostly as part of the choice of serving God for us, it allows us to be in the community, it allows for our children to have experiences outside of school, and to see the amount of people, my children are no stranger to all kinds of people, all kinds of kids, it's something that allows us to actually balance our family, our church life, and our community, let them feed off of each other.

[41:31] So it might look like sometimes we're doing a lot of things, but we're cultivating relationships, we're allowing our children to learn and experience it well in different ways, and sometimes we get the opportunity to share to people, and that's usually the most beautiful thing.

[41:49] And it definitely allows for us to have balance. Because Amber and I are so active in the community and active in the church, we have a flexibility that just allows for us to go where the Lord leads us, and then also have spontaneous trips to be able to teach the kids different opportunities, going to the zoo, going to all different.

[42:13] I think I have some opportunities. somebody in our congregation invited us to that, and so that was something that you were able to enjoy, and the kids were able to hear different instruments.

[42:28] Then we have the last one day of prayer. If you look at the crowd, there's not a lot of kids there, because most of you are in school, but our kids get to experience that, and we do pray, and we get together, and we're kind of one of the only couples that's actually ever at that national day of prayer, because other couples might have to work somewhere else at the school, or different.

[42:53] So we have a presence together, and as a family, which so many times I have people say, it's awesome to see your family function together, and to see what a family can do together.

[43:08] it's not something that they see. So it's these kind of opportunities that allow us to have that. In community service, we've got to go to home to families. We've got to actually remember in the spring, in the winter, they've got to go to the for the residents, and in the winter, they sang Christmas carols to them.

[43:28] So they were able to go there into shining flight. And we did a community research at Four Rivers Cultural Center and also we get to this was a dual purpose.

[43:41] We were promoting our VDS, we were promoting faith, and we were also to have fun in the park, and it was amazing as well. So if you can see that, it kind of all is together.

[43:55] So we get to do things as a family, but we also get to serve our community and share the church presence in these spaces. We're most oftentimes we're the only presence in these spaces.

[44:09] Also, if you don't know, Amber's previous job when we were in Hawaii, she was the head of school of a Montessori school, so she's got credentials in this.

[44:20] Not only is it gifting to be able to teach our own children, but also the children here, so it's just been a wonderful blessing with that.

[44:30] Let's move on to that next question 12. Go ahead, if you want to talk to it or not. How come we don't get anyone to ask you those questions?

[44:44] And that actually breaks my heart. Oh my goodness, who has been angry to you when you've asked questions? Questions are beautiful. Questions reflect the heart. Questions reflect that you want to go deeper.

[44:56] It shows us you want to go deeper. When you're asking those questions, it's like, okay, yeah, I don't think your question is so like, you're in trouble, like, oh, let's get you, like, we're going to jam all these scriptures down.

[45:08] No. It just means that you might be hurt. It might mean that you're confused about something. You might be hearing a lot of what's going on in the media, and you're going, I'm just confused.

[45:19] But I'll tell you that God is not a God of confusion. He's a God of clarity. And so clarifying is by asking questions and being open to you talking about it.

[45:32] I might have a slightly different perspective than you. And we might be able to work that through and go through the scripture and see what that looks like. But I'm sorry if anyone has ever told you to stop asking questions.

[45:46] I personally notice that they go to Amber with the questions. And so she'll bring it to me. Hey, somebody asked. I'm like, who asked? She's like, that's the kind of question.

[45:58] And I might not always have to answer them. I might say we have to research this. I'm not sure. I'm only 34 years old. It's important to know that there are many things that we are certain about when it comes to scripture.

[46:14] We think of the gospel story, the significance of Christ, being the savior of the world, being the Messiah, the atoning sacrifice, all of these different things.

[46:25] We know for sure. There's other things. Oh, gosh, you scratch your head. In one of my classes, I was going over the book of Job and the three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

[46:40] Oh, my goodness. You want a heavy book of the Bible, read Job sometime, right? But sometimes we have questions that we may not have the answer in this life, or there's sometimes we find passages in scripture that we're not meant to understand at this time.

[46:59] Sometimes it's the proper time, right? There's a section in Daniel. It's towards the end of Daniel. I don't know the exact verse where Daniel's having all these visions of what's to come, and he's basically saying, God, I have no idea what you're saying here, but you're telling me to write it down, and God's like, yeah, so shut your mouth and you're going to write it in.

[47:19] It's not your time for you to know. And that seal goes in and is revealed in Revelation, which is wild, but that's a whole different thing, but that's an example of knowing at the proper time, right?

[47:31] It may not be in your lifetime. It may be it's okay for us to not know certain things, and sometimes that's intentional. Sometimes that's God saying, not yet.

[47:43] You'll know sooner or later. It makes us very, it actually humbles us in things that we don't know. That shouldn't uproot our faith.

[47:53] In fact, it shouldn't even. So the next question then, what are sea nights and how are they different from parent cafe and dad cafe? Ooh, we get this one one night.

[48:05] Want to take this one, Amber? Yeah, so parent cafe and dad cafe is something that building healthy families offers, and so we extend our facility to them, and we also serve through that by providing childcare, providing presence, and just being there with them.

[48:24] And for dad cafe, it's kind of more led by Patrick and I, like we designed that whole thing, but we are trying to help people to come to that care.

[48:35] So the word that dad is good. But it's just a time for parents, grandparents to come together to be able to talk about their stories, they go through questions, they're called protective factors and different things that Building Health with Families has, and they've got a set of questions, and it builds that community, it gives them knowledge, it gives them resources, resources, and we get to be there with them, and we get to care for them, whether that be child care or being part of the discussion, and allowing, we are not hired by them, so we can say whatever we'd like to say, we are just another person in that room, and so that's another way that our light shines into people that we may never have ever come into contact with, so it's different than the sea night, because sea nights are something that our church is doing, from inside it is completely ours, so we can share Jesus a little more blatantly, but we do that by a take home, we do a take home piece where we give the kids the science projects we take home, and I put a scripture on there, I put a little bit about

[49:49] Jesus on there, but we do prayer before we have a meal, so that's an introduction into what does prayer even look like, what does having a meal together as a family look like, and we look through some of the flavors and then another slide, we've got people come together, they do some writing meals, they do science experience, technology, there's I think one more, or two more, but yeah, we get together at a table and dinner together, and have conversations, and it gets to do hands-on activities, and so it's really, it's our ministry to families, it's our ministry to children, and particularly trying to reach the middle school age children, because we do a lot with the young kids through building healthy families, but we would like to try to help the middle school, future coming in March, we're going to be working on youth group, and we started with

[50:50] Melinda and I, and we were having an Olympic pizza night, so those are all something that the church is doing from inside, reaching out to the community. Let's go to the next question then.

[51:03] Oh yeah, yeah, this is the other one that I get a lot, is TPCRN and building healthy families the same, no they are not, building healthy families does rent a space from TPCRN and they do support one another in different activities, so if TPCRN has an activity, building healthy families will usually be there alongside, they do offer child care for some of their events and different things, but they are two different entities, that is why we support them financially differently, because they're two different organizations, they do two different things, one, the TPCRN provides common for early education and support, so when a family is going through a crisis, maybe there was a brain surgery that needs to go on, there's something big that's happening that was unexpected, they can go to the relief nursery to have their child care for while they can go into those kinds of things, and building healthy families they have parent updates, they support the crisis of child care, they need parent education and dad families, and so some of our guys have gone out to the dad families, and we've had some visitors to check from those kinds of things, all of these events we have had visitors, not because we explicitly asked them, hey, come to church, but just because they wanted to know more, they had more questions, and they liked how they knew somebody, they knew the pastor and his wife, you know, and so it's really important for you guys, if you can, come to these things, because it's another familiar space for them if they decide to walk through these doors.

[52:45] And usually the people that visit are usually the ones that say, why would a church do something, why are you here? Churches don't go to these kinds of things, and it's kind of, it's like, really?

[52:57] Well, we're here, and we're not like other churches, so that's, you know, it is what it is. So finally, last question here is, how can I help children's ministry, steam nights, all the things?

[53:10] Yeah, so I need lots of help in both these ministries. We have, God has provided us so many children, and we kind of attract families.

[53:23] It's something that God is doing here. So if you can just help me once a month, helping the kids go, that's what they've got to like teaching class, or maybe you want to be able to teach the class.

[53:37] Maybe you want to support by helping hand out papers to the kids, doing the class, different things. Even one would be such a tremendous blessing to our children in ministry.

[53:49] And like on days like this where maybe our support isn't able to, they got sick, I can call upon some of those in our church body who we know and trust and who know these kids.

[54:03] Because if you saw my kids, they were looking for Miss Mary this morning. They know you guys, and they're comfortable with you guys. And that's what we want to have. So if that's something that you would like to do, that'd be great.

[54:17] BDS, there's always lots of things to do. Either running a station or helping with decorations, helping with snacks. And then events I have for like steam night.

[54:29] This month, Patrick's going to be in Texas. And so I'm going to be, I've got five kids and I've got to set up this event for sea night at the end of the month. And I need help.

[54:41] I can't do it all alone. So those would be some practical ways. You can come help set up the food. Or if you wanted to come maybe an hour into and start helping clean up the food and put it away into the kitchen or just do some dishes, something like that it can be just any capacity would really be appreciated.

[55:05] And then it's just another space that people are familiar with as well. Absolutely. We're going to go ahead and close in prayer and we'll do a closing song. And then real quick, I wanted to answer this.

[55:20] What cultural changes occurred between BC and AD to cause the most complication in the New Testament? So I think that is something that would be covered in our class that we have in the morning, which goes through the history of Christianity.

[55:36] But really, there was a gentleman named Gregory and he basically made it to where time was going to exist before Christ and after Christ.

[55:50] And the world actually didn't all agree on it. Germany didn't embrace it until many years later. But there is a huge cultural shift.

[56:02] It went from oration, storytelling, to being firm doctrine and creeds. And right now we're in the medieval time period.

[56:13] We're going through that history. So there was a tremendous shift between being persecuted as the church and then as it went on and became a dominant player of power and influence in our society.

[56:29] So I think that I answered that. If not, we can have another talk of that. Thank you. Let's bow our heads together. Father God, we thank you for this time together as we've just gone over these questions, these many questions that have been asked, not only myself, but my wife, Amber, questions about the church.

[56:52] And we just pray that this time has been really good for us to have a better understanding of answering those questions. And so we are grateful that we can have this opportunity to speak the truth and to speak in love.

[57:08] I pray for everyone who is here in the room, that they may understand the answers to their questions and may they never be afraid to ask questions. And may we be a church body that is sharing in the light, love, and truth of your son, Jesus Christ.

[57:24] And we're so grateful for this congregation, for this church body, and we're so grateful for your son, Jesus Christ, being the way, and the life. And all of these things, we pray in the name of Jesus, the cornerstone of our faith, and we all say together, Amen, church.

[57:40] Amen. Thank you for joining us for this Ask Away episode from Ontario Community Church.

[57:51] If you listened today and you heard Amber and I working through questions together, I hope that it encouraged you to remember, questions are not a threat to faith. When we bring questions to the Lord with humility, they can become a pathway to growth.

[58:07] If you'd like to follow up, need prayer, or want to get connected, visit our website at OntarioCommunityChurch.org. You can also find sermon notes and resources at sermons.OntarioCommunityChurch.org.

[58:22] May the peace of Christ rule in your heart. May you grow in wisdom and discernment. And may you live and love like Jesus. God bless you, and thank you for listening.

[58:33] Thank you.

[59:03] Thank you.

[59:33] Thank you.