Welcome to Ontario Community Church, where we are encouraging, equipping, and engaging lives for Christ.
! I'm Pastor Patrick Daly, and each week I share sermons that balance the grace and love of Jesus Christ with the truth of the Word of God.
Together, we'll explore Scripture using observation, interpretation, and application.
This helps us discover practical ways to live out our faith every single day.
Let's dive in together into God's Word.
Hi, everybody!
Hi!
How's everybody doing this morning?
Good!
Good, good.
So my name is Lisa Dickard, and I work for an organization here in Ontario, Oregon, called Building Healthy Families, and we're a family support organization.
And Building Healthy Families is actually in more places than just Ontario.
We started in Enterprise about 25 years ago, and then they moved into Union County, and then they moved into Baker County.
And probably about three or four years ago, or maybe, well, more than that, about 2020, they moved into Malheer County.
And so we're the newest branch of Building Healthy Families.
I work full-time, and then I have a work associate that works very part-time.
She's a stay-at-home mom, and she really enjoys doing that, so she's kind of helping out a little.
But when her kids get a little older, she'll be full-time as well.
But yeah, we are here to support families.
And today, I've got a little PowerPoint, and I just want to share with you guys some of the things that we've been doing.
And I also want to thank you guys, because you allowed us to have a parent education series here in your church this past winter and spring.
And we had volunteers that some facilitated, some made meals for our families.
And so I thank you for doing that with us, for partnering with us in that.
And you guys have also donated to this organization, so I thank you for that as well.
So we're going to go ahead and get started, and please feel free, if you have any questions, just stop me along the way.
It's just real casual today.
We're just going to talk a little bit about what this organization does.
Okay, so Building Healthy Families.
We are, we can go to the next, yep, go to the next slide.
Okay, so we are an independent, nonprofit, family support organization.
And we offer personalized, universal family support and educational programming for parents, caregivers, parents-to-be, students, and children through diversified programming at no cost.
So families never get charged.
They don't get charged for parent education.
They don't get charged to come to Kinder Music or any of that.
It's all free.
We're grant-funded, mostly grant-funded, and some federal funds.
We're focused on child development, age-appropriate behavior, parent-child interaction, positive discipline, and family health and safety.
And we promote family access to needed resources in the community and advocate for children and families.
We are interested in collaborating with other local agencies, school districts, churches, and child care centers in supporting families.
That's one of the reasons I'm here today.
Okay, so some of our programming.
We've got playgroups and storytime and kinder music and parent education series.
We've got parent cafes, which are part of parent education.
Parent cafes are nice because they're non-committal.
It's a one-time thing where they come out and learn about protective factors for their families.
We have a safe sitter program.
We have home visiting, family fun events, Malhear County Parent Council.
Amber and Patrick are on our parent council.
And family education workshops.
And we're going to go through these slides and kind of take a look at some of these things.
Okay, so first is our playgroup.
And they are called the Mini Mountaineers.
We meet on Wednesdays from 1030 to 1130 over at the Treasure Valley Children's Relief Nursery.
Have many of you heard of the relief nursery before in Ontario?
Ha ha.
So we meet over at the relief nursery.
And it's really nice because we have a lot of moms that have formed friendship out of this group.
When we started the playgroup, I actually started in parks because we didn't have an office yet.
I was working from home.
And so I would go out to the park and just meet families.
And that's kind of how playgroup got started.
And then we started talking to the relief nursery.
And they said, oh, we'd love for you guys to come over here and meet some of our families.
So we meet over there weekly.
But we like playgroup because it helps kids to socialize, right?
We need that socialization for young kids.
And it gets families out of the house.
It encourages early childhood literacy through the natural development of skills, through the enjoyment of books, activities, and positive interactions between babies, toddlers, and young children and their parents.
Okay.
And it gives parents a sense of community, too, that they're not alone out there.
Sometimes it can be hard for stay-at-home moms.
Do I have any stay-at-home moms out here or anybody that's been a stay-at-home mom before?
Yeah?
Yeah.
It can be isolating sometimes.
So it's good for us to have friends, right?
Okay.
We have story time.
So over at Nissa Public Library, Ruth does an amazing story time.
What we like about story time is it encourages early childhood literacy.
It increases verbal proficiency and children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings
while learning about different cultures, experiences, and points of view.
All that can actually be done in a story time.
It's really nice.
It engages the children.
So when Ruth tells a story, she doesn't just read a book and tell a story.
She has her book, but she'll have a felt board, right?
And if we're talking about an apple tree, she'll have the kids engaged by maybe they'll bring apples up to the tree, right, or different things like that.
So they are up and down.
They're fully engaged.
They're fully learning.
And we know right now that that's really how a lot of children learn best is being fully engaged and doing the action, the same thing that we're talking about.
Okay.
And also for child development, it helps to develop concentration, social, and communication skills, and helps children develop important emotional skills, such as empathy, compassion, and perspective taking.
Okay.
We also have kinder music.
So kinder music stimulates multiple areas of the brain, heightening age-appropriate development in each lesson.
Music and movement spark social-emotional learning and boosts language and literacy skills.
And it provides engaging music and movement for children ages zero to six.
The daily kids come to kinder music almost every Thursday over at the Four Rivers Cultural Center.
And we just have a really good time together.
It also provides parent and child engagement opportunities.
So we don't just hand the kids instruments.
We hand the parents' instruments, too.
And they play as well.
So they're able to do this together, which promotes bonding.
Okay.
We also have three parent education series.
So we have Strengthening Families.
And we were able to do that here at your church this past winter and spring.
And this is a prevention and evidence-based curriculum that engages the family as a whole.
So a lot of parenting classes you'll see, sometimes it's just for the parents.
The reason why we like Strengthening Families is because it engages the whole family.
And that skill that we are focused on that evening, that is taught to the whole family.
So that's why we like having a lot of facilitators as well.
Because we'll divide up into different classes.
We'll have a parent group.
We'll have an elementary group.
We'll have a nursery.
We'll have a teen group.
And that's what we got to do here this past winter and spring.
But it teaches life skills that can be helpful.
And just social skills, communication skills.
And gives our kids resilience skills as well.
We also have another curriculum called Parenting Now.
And it's focused on child development and parenting skills.
And it's geared towards families that have children ages 0 to 6, mostly.
It can be used with any age, really.
But it's really geared towards young kids.
Okay.
And we offer these on Zoom or in person.
And our last parent education class that we offer is called Conscious Discipline.
And we really like Conscious Discipline because it goes,
it talks about the different brain states that we all naturally have.
And it educates us about brain science and why our kids behave the way they do.
There's a reason they behave the way they do.
And it helps us to find that reason.
It also helps us to be able to teach regulation to our children.
It helps us learn how to regulate internally.
So we really do love Conscious Discipline as well.
Next, we have Parent Cafes.
Parent Cafes are great because they're focused on five important protective factors
that help keep families strong.
And so that's parent resilience, relationships, knowledge, support, and communication.
So families get to come out and enjoy a lunch or a dinner.
And as you can see from these pictures, we sit around a table, literally just eat.
And we have discussion questions that are taken from these five protective factors.
And so we discuss these different things.
And then together, we walk away with skills that maybe we didn't have that morning when
we walked in.
Or maybe, you know, we just don't feel so alone anymore.
Maybe we have something in common with another parent.
Maybe another parent is struggling with potty training or any other thing.
Or teens or anything you can think of, right, that families would be struggling with.
Okay, we have Safe Sitter.
So Ruth Blazard, my work associate, teaches Safe Sitter to kids that are in the sixth through
eighth grades.
And so they come in, and it's a day where they sit together, and they have lunch, and they
learn about emergency preparedness, a little bit about child development, a little bit
about babysitting business skills.
There's actually business skills in babysitting.
A little bit about life skills, and a little bit about how to communicate and interact with
other people.
It's a really nice class.
I also provide home visiting.
So if parents can't make a parent education class, then I'll come to them, and we'll do
a home visit.
We have a Malhear County Parent Council.
Amber and Patrick are on that council.
And the main purpose for this council is to serve as a platform to empower parents to have
a voice and be active decision makers in their communities.
And we are partnered with the Eastern Oregon Early Learning Hub in this.
Okay.
And we have different partnerships.
So we're partnered with the Relief Nursery.
That's where our office is.
We're also partnered with Healthy Families, or IRCO, and Four Rivers Cultural Center, and
the NISA Public Library, the NISA and Vail Food Pantries.
We supply them with pantry items and early learning packets.
Also, the Ontario Public Library, we supply them with learning packets.
And then Advantage Dental.
So we have Advantage Dental come out, and like two or three times a year, she'll come out
and provide dental exams for our littles.
We also are partnered with ODHS, the Oregon Department of Human Services.
So I get referrals from them to do parent education classes or to do some home visiting.
And then lastly, I've got you guys on here because we were able to do a parent education
class.
And my hope is that we can partner with more things together.
Okay.
What does it look like to partner with us?
So it can be done in a number of ways.
We are very creative.
What I like, too, is I like getting ideas from other parents.
I want to hear what parents want in this area.
I want to hear what parents are needing.
I want to see what is lacking here that we can help support with.
So it can be, you know, anything that a parent comes up with, and we can talk together and
make a plan.
We do parent cafes, which is nice to bring families together.
We have family educational workshops.
So, and we're always looking for new ideas.
And then these are some of our pictures, some of the things that we've done.
We've had field trips.
Sometimes we'll take families to pumpkin patches, or we went to the Children's Museum.
That picture down below, that's Jessica with Advantage Dental doing an exam and educating
parents about dental health.
And then last is our Strengthening Family Winter Series that we had here at the church.
And to end our series, we had a cookout at the Fruitland Park.
So this is building healthy families.
We're just out here trying to support families in any way we can.
Do you guys have any questions, any thoughts?
I think of anything.
Yes, sir.
You say your funding is state funding and federal.
Based on what's going on now, do you expect to continue to get federal funding?
We hope so.
Yeah.
And that's not my area.
My area is really just kind of going and serving families.
Yeah.
And so we hope so.
Yeah.
But it's been kind of rough.
Oh, I know.
Yeah.
Yes.
So are families referred to you, or how do they find out about a class, or how do they find
out about a dad campaign?
Is it a referral basis?
That's a great question.
Yeah.
So a lot of it is word of mouth.
We also have social media.
So I have a group on Facebook.
It's called Mini Mountaineers Playgroup.
And I would encourage you to join that because I try to post a lot.
I get permission from the parents first.
But I try to post a lot of the work that we do in this county.
So the Department of Human Services, they will send me referrals.
Other partner agencies will send me referrals.
And right now, we're just...
So when I started working here a year, it'll be, let's see, 18 months.
I started working full-time for Building Healthy Families.
And we kind of just had to come up with programming, right?
Like, we just...
All of this kind of fell into place with Parent Education Series.
That's pretty much what we started off with in Playgroup.
And then it branched out into other things, kinder music and such.
But it's referral-based, but it's also word of mouth.
A lot of times, parents will see our social media posts, and they want to know more about it.
And so they'll call me.
Yeah.
And I've got cards here today.
I encourage you to take some cards.
I'll leave them out there in the lounge area.
Another question?
Do you do things with children who have severe health challenges?
Yes, we would.
yes yes it's long so we are all about children and family support we advocate for children
and families so yes we would do that work that hasn't been presented to me yet but we would do
that work yeah and we're always looking for volunteers right when we had our strengthening
families here it was great and part of what made it so great are the volunteers because it's great
that i'm here and i'm able to do some of that work but i can't do it alone i need volunteers as well
so if you're interested if you feel your heart moving in that direction please see me please
you know it can be for anything it can be for a parent education series it can be coming to a
parent cafe and supporting parents just kind of being there right it's not a lot that you have to
do
i know i've given referrals for up eight nine ten year olds so can you talk a little bit about those
older families the high-risk kids that i'm sending to you so then you have we look through a lot on
the younger kids yes what does it look like for the older kids the older kid groups yeah
so we really do like our strengthening families program for the older kids so when i get a referral
from you or anybody else that sends me a family that's got older children usually what i do is i go
in and i home visit i will go visit the home if the parent is comfortable there are parents that they
don't want you in their homes and that's okay i understand that fear it is it is a little bit scary
to have somebody come into your home so if they don't want me in the home then we will meet at
the relief nursery or we might need a coffee shop right and so what i do is i bring strengthening
families with me so i bring those skills what's nice about strengthening families is we can make
it a big program right here and do it at church and have a bunch of families come in and learn these
skills or i can go sit with a family in their home and we can talk about these different skills
and we can talk about their struggles and they can tell me really kind of what's going on in the home
and how what kind of skills they're needing sometimes they're not sure of the skills sometimes it might be
hey my kids are fighting and maybe it's just communication skills that we need right or hey
i can't get my child to uh get up in the morning and go to school or i can't and a lot of it comes back
to connection we know that uh the biggest thing in families that we really really need to have is
connection we need to have bonding and connection and trust and sometimes we just have to go back
over some different life skills to kind of remember again about that does that kind of answer your
question joni okay is it all economic levels it's all economic levels yep you don't have to qualify
to come to any of this programming
well we we talk about that a lot we talk about the effects of it and what it does to a child's brain
um because really kind of what it does is the more time that they're on a screen it kind of
i hate it kind of deadens brain cells really it's not it's not good for them to be on the screen
um and we we provide educational material and we talk through that and then we help families to maybe
work out ways okay we can set a timer i mean sometimes we get so involved with just everyday life
that we need to step back a little bit and say okay i could set a timer or i could make it one
time during the day that they have this screen time sometimes families get so lost in the everydayness
of life that if they just have a visit or if we just talk a little bit that they can kind of make some
decisions for themselves about that and we're just helping them to see their different choices
different options that they can do
yeah any other questions
okay thank you guys for having me here today thank you for allowing me to share about building
healthy families and i'm going to hang out here a while so like if you think of something just
you know come see me after church okay thanks
all right
just give us a moment as we uh trade it all off
well i've only got a few minutes here and that's okay we're just going to get to the point then amen
so i wanted to go ahead and do and a ministry update because one of the things that i want all of you to
know is that god works in some incredible ways one of the things here at ontario community church
is the fact that we are very big on coming to know the lord on growing in him and doing good in his name
part of what we just heard with lisa is us as a church as the body of christ partnering with those who are in the
community we have to think of the importance of having strong families the importance of healing and restoration and
transformation that comes from the lord and part of our ministry is to not only serve in the church not only grow as
individuals but to grow collectively as a church that we are to go out and to be ambassadors for christ that we are to do good in the name of christ
and certainly let us remember it's important for us to first believe in jesus christ to believe in the death burial and
resurrection and knowing that god extends an invitation for every single one of us it doesn't matter what you have
gone through or what you are going through what your backstory is we all have a backstory and some of us it might just be
okay for others it might not be and that's okay what matters is it's you answering that question will you respond to jesus christ
we grow we learn the word of god but we also learn what it means for god to work in and through us for us to be
continually transformed every single day yes we believe in jesus christ and we are saved by grace through faith amen
but that is the beginning of our new life in christ where we are to put on the new self we are to continue to be transformed by him
letting god mold us into the men the women the individual whatever that god wants us to be and that's so important for us to
realize and to recognize we have the handbook so to speak but we also recognize that god continues to work in and through our lives
we ask god to transform our lives and maybe for you if you have a hardened heart
maybe it's time for you to ask god to soften your heart
faithful with little trust with more let's go to this next slide we've been going over the parables of christ
and one of the most critical things for us to take away is the patterns that we find within the parables
church let's read this together god takes what is small and expansive
you find so many times in scripture the seed that gets planted into the ground and it's cultivated
it is watered and it grows into a magnificent tree or a plant and lord willing it bears fruit
we find this kind of language many times in parables we also find this in the daniel 2 35
passage where it talks about the rock that knocks down a great statue and grows into a mountain well if you read that and you don't know the
context and the connections you might completely miss what that means
but it's finding that god is taking that which is small and expanding it
we think of how salvation works and how the salvation was once available to the jewish people and has now available for everyone
we think about how god transforms our life the seed that gets planted knowing that we are becoming more like him
or at least we should become more like him and may you be on that trajectory to become more like christ let's go to that next slide then
in that we find also in many parables that god calls us to stewardship let's read that together church
god calls us to stewardship it is this concept it is this idea that we find that is biblical that we are to steward what god has given to us
we find in psalms there's this reference of how god has given us the earth and we are to take care of it
we're to take care of not just the earth but also our very lives there's a lot that's outside of our control
but there are things that god has called for us to steward
i've mentioned it before and i'll mention again that we are to steward our time our talent and our treasure
every good gift that comes from the lord you are to steward it and by golly you are to steward it well
and it's a call for us to think of you think of the parable of the talents
you think of all of these parables within and these patterns within scripture that's saying
how do you steward your life it's a question for us to think of and to reflect on i know i'm going
fast here let's go to that next slide here the other thing that we find within parables is that let's
read it together church god calls us to prepare for greater things you can think for a moment about
the jewish people how they were anticipating the coming of the messiah right how they were waiting
they knew that there were many promises and prophecies that were to be fulfilled
and they came and they were fulfilled amen in the same way then we as the church god continues to speak
and god is constant he is the same yesterday today and forever and we have got to recognize we place
our trust in the living god knowing that he is preparing us for the great banquet the vineyard the
wedding feast remember all these parables you start seeing the connection it is preparation for what
is to come that we are not to be afraid of the evils of this world we're not to be afraid of even death
itself but we are to look forward to the promises of god can i get an amen that's so important for us to
prepare for greater things when we place our trust in the living god i think of this church body and i think
of how this congregation has been faithful to god and his word for 80 years that faithfulness god recognizes
and that faithfulness we are all to be faithful to god we are all to walk and follow in the footsteps
of christ being transformed and and putting on that new self and sharing in the love of christ with others
sharing in the gospel message living and loving in what you say and in what you do
we have seen let's go to that next slide tremendous fruit that is happening here at ontario community
church we've already had four baptisms that have happened here in this church building just this last
week we have had 10 child dedications where the families come together as the family unit dedicating their
children to the lord what does that mean it means we as the family unit are going to come alongside
our children and raise them in the knowing who the lord is just as scripture says to train up a child
right in the things of the lord four baptisms 10 child dedications and we have by the grace of god up to
20 children on a given sunday that is a blessing from god and here's the thing there's four more kids
that would like to have a child dedication so that's going to place it at 14 because here's the thing
when god works in some incredible ways it is beyond me it is beyond you it is even beyond us
we thank god we have the sense of gratitude for what god is doing just by these numbers they they
may be small but that doesn't mean they're insignificant every child every baptism every
person that believes in the lord it matters and we celebrate that as we go along let's go to that
next slide we just had lisa talk about building healthy families where we've had up to 30 people is that
correct lisa up to 30 people and we have to think the importance of us as a church coming alongside
with organizations in their mission because by coming alongside people it allows for conversation
it allows for the cultivation of relationships it is this recognizing look none of us are perfect here
is anyone here perfect okay nobody raised their hand i'm glad right i'm glad none of us are perfect
and what we have got to recognize when it comes to the things of god is that god meets us where we are
and in the same way why don't we we should meet people where they are and invite them to the table of
plenty invite them to know who jesus is the haynes family they're not here this time but that is one
family that started coming and attending here at ontario community and here's the thing even if no one
comes it is still us doing the work of ministry where we minister to people where we are present with
people how many of you came to know the lord because of a relationship you do not have to raise your hand
but i know for me it was and i know for a lot of us here it was a relationship that was cultivated
and just as we talked about in last week the parable of the growing seed where this guy is cultivating
the earth planting the seed pouring water into it and he's surprised that it's growing
you pour into people much like we pour into children and much like well how god pours into you
let's go to that next slide then we had the school fundraiser the spaghetti for books raising 2 168
donating 306 books for local schools and our own church children that goes to show you that it is
just as i mentioned this analogy the individual was pouring and cultivating the soil and he was
planted the seed and poured water right watering the plant but it is god that grows the plants
it is us coming alongside with others doing the work of ministry and letting god stir hearts do you
remember when we went over ezra we talked about the stirring of the heart of the king
to issue a decree that the people of god could return to their land we talked about cyrus
xerxes and artaxerxes and how god worked in these pagan kings hearts that's the power of god that's the
power of the holy spirit the stirring of the heart to be softened or to change your mind just as it says
in repentance how many of you have had that changing of mind for all of us it should be the case that we
not only are our minds changed to know who christ is but continue to be changed to become more like him
the next slide is that occ was part of the upcoming film sansei sensibility i mean we have mark iseri here
we have carol tolman here who were featured in the film and what a blessing it is for us to be a part of
not only their story but a part of the story knowing the rich japanese heritage that had happened
is the legacy and for us to be a part of that continued legacy is a blessing from god
i'm excited when this film will come out talking to devon about maybe having a screening here for the
film talk about ministry talk about legacy not only understanding yes certainly understanding the rich
japanese heritage but also an opportunity for us to say hey we were a part of this you can be a part of
the family of god it's a win-win situation and here's the thing that's not by accident that is the hand of god
working in this place and we thank god for such blessings let's go to this next slide
recently i launched the pastor patrick podcast you'll find this in your notes
is that just as these sermons are broadcast and recorded and they're distributed onto podcast
platforms and on video sessions i started a devotional study through the book of psalms
and by the grace of god we saw not only a spike within our own sermons but a spike within the podcast
performance doing this so that people within our local ministry context right our local community
our regional and even beyond can hear from the word of god a praise that because of this podcast was
we had a best-selling author dr pamela prince pile who wrote the book anticipating heaven reach out
had a phone call and we talked about the ministry of presence coming along people when they are going
through well seasons dry seasons vulnerable seasons and being able to minister to people
even when they're going through they even when someone feels abandoned or lost
the importance of being there with someone when they're hurting that is a part of ministry
and it is a blessing that this author sent a copy of her book i haven't read all of it yet
but it's knowing that every experience that we've gone to even the bad and the ugly can be part of your
testimony for others to hear for others to know that you're still here and that god still loves you
and no matter what may happen physically emotionally mentally whatever happens in your life
you still trust in the living god and he's there for you in every season can i get an amen i get
really emotional with this kind of stuff let's go to that next slide here
and it's a reminder for us of the word ontario and i i've mentioned this a couple times before there's the
book that talks about the church history that uses the japanese word on tara u
we can just say ontario i'm not going to ask you to pronounce it but it's this idea that grace
is overflowing or grace is an abundance we think about that from the very beginning of this
church being established i can't imagine hearing that for the first time but knowing that that's been
there since the beginning it goes to show who our god is that his grace is in abundance and his grace
overflows that is the love of god that we get to experience and we get to share with other people
and i pray that for all of you you may have experienced or you know or if you haven't yet may you know and
experience the love of god that he loves you and that you're made in his image and that he invites you
to salvation and to be transformed to radiate that love as it were or to mirror or to reflect in any sense
that he wants to exhibit this love it's i'm glad that the lord loves me and i'm glad that the lord loves you
it's not about who you voted for it's not about it's not a requirement you got to be six feet to attain
salvation it's nothing like that that salvation is for everyone and we as individuals and as a church
body are to grow and to exhibit that same kind of love and that takes us to the next slide where this year
ontario community church will celebrate its 80th anniversary what a blessing to know that god
has been there since the beginning has worked through many lives and is continuing to work
and is blessing us in such remarkable ways we have got to remember the legacy
and cherish the history much like we do with our own bible
it being written 2 000 years ago we cherish the legacy and we honor it and we live in today
and we look forward to tomorrow if we keep having more and more children
i don't mean me having more children i mean if we start getting more children here
we've got to prepare we've got to prepare the way so that we can have room in our own facilities for us
i don't know what that looks like quite honestly but i certainly know i'm going to trust in god to lead
and guide this congregation into the next season of ministry
and as we celebrate and we're going to celebrate we're going to have our 80th anniversary celebration
but as we're getting close to that celebration
it is time for us to remember that legacy
live in today and trust in god for tomorrow
just as scripture says we're not to worry about tomorrow
let us trust in him
asking god okay
there's a trajectory there's movement that's happening here
may we listen
may we be mindful
to what god has for us
and so there are four ways
we'll go to that next slide of what we can do
in this
the first thing
just as we find i don't have one specific verse
this is the culmination of what we've gone through with parables
is to
number one
let's read it together
steward
what god has given
god has given you life
he's giving you
this time on the earth
your talents
your abilities
and your treasures
how you steward that is unique to you
some of you can play an instrument
others may not
and that's all right
some of you can't sing a note
but some of you may have time
i mean whatever it is
it's for you to take that personal inventory
of how is your stewardship
the second thing then
let's read it together church
prepare hearts
for greater things
just as i've mentioned
that god takes that which
that which is small
and expands it
i believe that god is working in this place
and we're just seeing
kind of the beginning stages of it
it is an exciting time
and it's not just about
numbers
it's about depth and quality of people
because if you think about it
if you have a hundred people come in
next sunday
and they have no depth in the lord
well there's a lot of work to do certainly
but even if one person comes through the doors
we pray that they will grow
and bear fruit
in a quality-like manner
not being superficial
but exhibiting love
truth and kindness
and being more like christ
that's the important thing
so we prepare
for what god has in store for us
number three
let's read that together
celebrate the legacy
just as i said
it's important for us to
we honor the word of god
we turn to it as our source
in the same way
we honor our own
church context
honoring the legacy
not forgetting
where we have come from
and then
of course
living in today
and fourth
and final
let's read it together church
build bridges
for the future
it's amazing that
just in this january
i mentioned
the theme for this year
being about building bridges
not burning them
and unfortunately
please don't raise your hand
or shout any names please
but we know that there's a lot of people out there
that burn bridges
right
a lot of people that are more focused
on what divides us
rather than what brings us together
but one of the beautiful things
about just coming to know the lord
is the fact that salvation is available for all
so why should we
become gatekeepers then
we should continue
in extending the love of christ
and we should continue
growing in him
and continue
there is so much
that is
happening in this church
i am excited
for what is going to happen next
and here's the thing
i don't know what's going to happen next
do any of you
well none of us do
the answer is no
but the reality is
we're going to trust in god
to lead us as a congregation
for what god has in store for us
the movement of the holy spirit
the stirring of hearts
let us steward
what god has given to us
let us prepare
our hearts for greater things
celebrating the legacy
living in today
and building
bridges
for the future
let's pray together
and father we thank you
for this time
and this opportunity
for us to gather
we are in awe
or at least we should be in awe
and wonder
of who you are
i pray for
this church
ontario community church
the love that you
have for us
may we
know you
have that relationship
with christ
and grow in you
knowing the word of god
and what it means
to
live out the faith
but may we
all be moved
to live
and love
like you
serving in the church
serving in the community
being a light
in the darkness
being salt
and light
father you are
working in some
incredible ways
that is beyond
any comprehension
i could have ever
thought of
and quite frankly
beyond all our
comprehension
you are doing
a new thing
in this place
and
we would like
to say
thank you
for all that you
have done
and all that you're
continuing to do
may we
lean in
and fully
trust in what
you have in store
for our own
personal lives
but also
for where you
want us
as a church
to go
we're grateful
for all of the
children
and the new
families
we're grateful
for the baptisms
and the child
dedications
that are happening
we're grateful
for that
may we follow
your direction
i pray that
this church
will be a
healthy church
not divided
on the silly
things
the elementary
things
but rather
may we seek
you and the
higher things
and may we
influence
this city
this community
our friends
our families
our co-workers
other students
those that we
know
may we
exhibit that
love
and that
truth
balancing grace
and truth
may you
lead
and guide
and may
we follow
it is in the
name of
Jesus Christ
that we pray
and we all
say together
amen
thank you for
listening for
this week's
message from
Ontario Community
Church
I pray that
you are
encouraged and
strengthened in
your walk with
Christ
for more sermons
and resources
visit
Ontario
Community
Church
dot org
may God bless
you as you
live out his
grace and truth
every single
day
church
to