2026: Kingdom Come

This is Confessions of a Pastor. This is season five, everybody. We are your hosts, pastors Keith and Kara. And this is where we share the good, the bad, and the ugly. All for the glory of God. That means in life with marriage, family, ministry, faith, and more. This is this is this is our time for free counseling. Kara, here we go, everybody. You know, Kara, I thought about a new year, new season, new episode. I thought, hey, this would be a good chance for us to talk about New Year's resolutions or what's happened in the world because it seems like there's like protests everywhere from America to abroad, but then at the end of the day, this is confessions of a pastor. So, I thought maybe instead of going there with the cliche of what everybody else is talking about, okay, instead of

new year, new year or big bold resolutions. Yeah. How about we just get honest for just a moment? Oh, boy. Now, just in in all seriousness, like you know, you could start a new year off and still be the same you. I mean, in reality, we started this new year off, and I think both of us, and I'll just at least speak for myself, and then you just say same if it's true, is we went into the new year tired, empty, and maybe just the fire just burning a little low. Yeah, I would say that's probably true. I think we can talk about some things that led to that, but Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think that's probably true. I mean, it's confessions of a pastor. Sometimes ministry is not always clean, easy, polished. Sometimes it is. Sometimes we still have to we still have to do ministry.

So, sometimes it looks like we got our stuff together. Even when you're not feeling it. Even though you're not feeling it. So, let's talk about our feelings for just a moment. That's not my favorite thing to do, but we can go there if you want. We got tissue in this room. If you want to cry, it's okay. Well, let's rewind to December. December was difficult. It was I think um we went out to lunch the other day and I was just kind of like explaining to you what my analysis of it was. Why it was so good. It was multi-layered. Yeah. I mean we experienced a death um you know from a family member here um that that was really impactful. I think that like was like the icing on the cake of all of it. And then December is just really busy. Yeah, we did way too many things as far as events and things probably. Um, also in addition to that, we I told you we cut pursuit night which I think kind of cut off this lifeline.

We didn't cut it. We put it on pause for Okay. Wrong term. We did cut for a month. We knew it was we were so busy and just to honor not only our lives but the teams that have Yeah. Which was probably the right thing to do logistically on a calendar but spiritually speaking. I do think it cut off something that is a refueling that we cut out in December and I think that maybe had something to do with it. What do you think? Well, I when we did go to lunch and you you were just debriefing December cuz I I just couldn't put my finger on why was I so tired. I mean, I I hardly worked out in December. I ate terribly. I drank too much. I gained weight. It was I mean, just for me personally, it was it was just not a good month. And it's like I tried I was I was working really hard and but I just I was empty and there was several meetings we had to just postpone into the new year because I I just said

my mind mentally was like fried and it's like I wanted to be present but I wasn't. And then when you explained even about that death and doing the memorial which I think was the last weekend of November, it it dawned on me there there's definitely rhythms of ministry that I think I don't know for sure. This is like my opinion. I think I'm an empath in some sense of like because we've talked about this with our daughter too. Like I take on things and I don't even know that I do it. Like I don't know that I'm doing it, but I'm like I'm taking on the hurt of someone else and the burden of someone else. And in the moment it doesn't seem like it because I'm just present and I'm pastoring. I'm leading. But then after that's done, if I don't have a way to decompress or uh to go heal or get re refilled, it's that phrase that uh my my coach mentor

and uh good friend Chachi EBT told me that if you're just pouring out uh then you have no living water. You know, your sistern is going to be empty cracks in it. Maybe a part of why I said when we when we stopped pursuit night, pursuit night can be a refueling in some ways. It's it's not a getaway or like what what you're actually talking about. But I do think there's something about being in the presence of God in a um in a tangible way regularly that really does refuel that we just did not do in December. Yeah. So for for me I think I just got emotionally and spiritually drained and didn't even really realize it. And then that led to me being physically drained. You just got a whole hot mess now going on. The days are shorter so less sunlight. Yeah. So, I that that that's for me kind of what led up to it. I don't know if there's more for you that you were feeling in December.

No, I think that's that's a lot of it. I mean, there was a few events that I helped run that were like kind of a heavy lift that I think were impactful, but I think it was just like all added up to um kind of what we experienced. And I can think of a few things for you too, like you oversee a very uh strong budget with the church. So, you know, reconciling budgets and this year financially we were lower than the previous year. And so then dealing with budgeting at the end of the year, I mean, I I'm I'm going to be petitioning in the near future for a fiscal year instead of a calendar year. Yeah. Well, this year I could genuinely say I can see why churches do that. Do like a whatever July to July. Um because you know wrapping up year-end things in December for a church is difficult because December is like game time for a church. Yeah.

And not that the rest of the year isn't but on a different level. We have a lot of guests that come in. Yeah. There's there's rhythms in life. Yeah. People go to church more around Christmas that they're open for invitations. Yep. Totally. So I could see why. I think um Yeah. So leading up to Christmas Eve, yeah, I mean those last few weeks of the year were just kind of a hot mess. Yeah. Sickness was rampant throughout central Oregon. Uh the neuro virus was going around. By the grace of God, we didn't get that. Come on, somebody. We've had our fair share in our share of stomach sickness. But but people were sick like crazy. Yeah. And then like Christmas Eve, I get a text message from Pastor Brandon who he and I were doing this collaboration for a fun song on Christmas Eve. Yeah. And he's like, "Bro, I've got the fever.

I'm sick as a dog." And he had been fighting sickness for the whole week. And usually, you know, you break the fever and you're just at least a hair better. But he went from like bad to worse, right? And we were trying to decide what to do. And I did go to Chat GP and ask like, "What do I do about this?" And it was like, "Whatever you do, don't let him come to church. Find a plan B right now." And I mean, I was so nervous. And we we had talked about it that morning how many times I've actually operated in sickness, you know, on Christmas Eve or Sundays where you're going up to preach with a fever because you you you can't call in sick if it just happens. Yeah. And he end up coming that day. Yeah, he did. And he did a better job than I did. I not collab. At least from me personally, you know, uh that was just it was a hot mess of a day, but we we got through it. It was a good day, a solid day. Okay. We had good

attendance. So, uh, but leading up to Christmas, we got up at, what time did we get up? 1:30 or 2? 2. I was up at 2:00 a.m. getting ready. Yeah. Okay. Couple hours after we got home, we were back up getting ready to to fly out on a plane. We got a solid 2 or three hours sleep and then headed to New York for a relaxing vacation with I don't know if I would term it relaxing. 10 million other people. Yeah. In the heart of Manhattan. It was one of those bucket list trips though that like probably was never on my bucket list, but let's go. Uh it was something that was um cool to see one time. I don't know if I'd ever go back, but Yeah. But there's 10 of us holed up in a New York apartment. That's true. And it was definitely It was a hot mess. It was not peaceful, but it was memorable. Yeah, for sure. We created a lot of cool memories.

Tell me a highlight, something you loved about New York. something you go did not like about New York? Um, I just took it like I wouldn't say one thing that I loved. Generally speaking, I liked taking it all in. Like we got the full New York experience and that was from the moment we landed it was like Yeah. I mean, boom, this is next level. Well, we get dropped off from um the airport in an Uber right in front of where we were staying. And I was at first like I can't believe this is where we're staying. Like this is weird. It was what's what they call trash all on the sidewalks. Yeah. It was what they call the financial district. Um but then like around the corner we went and saw Wall Street which was crazy. So we were staying like a block away from Wall Street yet it felt so um dirty. It wasn't what I expect. I expected

something that was cleaner and where we stayed was very dirty. Um but the place was nice for you know for what it was. Um so I would say I taking the whole thing in. I mean we saw um the Statue of Liberty. We saw what the bridge the Brooklyn Bridge or whatever that was. Brooklyn Bridge. Yeah. Um but we saw Central Park. We saw all the big things. Yep. Um the kids went to a Broadway show. That was our the same night they went to a Broadway show. That was our anniversary. We celebrated 22 years of marriage. Um which was super fun. We can talk about where we went. That was super fun. It was one of the highlights for me. We went to the oldest building in all of New York. The building was built in 1709. Yeah. Think about that. before America was a nation, right?

And this is where George Washington frequented a bar at this building. Yeah. In fact, a restaurant opened up in 1766 and the restaurant is still the same name as this as as when it first opened and now it's five different bars. It's really kind of cool. It's kind of iconic. Like if you're in the Pacific Northwest, like it's reminiscent of like McMen but more like older. I mean it's like these the wood is, you know, 400 years old. It's like it's wild. And for me, it was just really cool because one of the rooms is named the Washington Room because he and Thomas Jefferson used to meet in there and and plan. He took uh soldiers after they beat the British in the British uh was it the British Revolution. Uh he went and celebrated with drinks at this same place we went. Yeah.

So to me that was a cool experience just because it was iconic. Yeah. And it's surrounded by highrises. It's only a two-story building, but it's got the stairs that go up because the streets would have been muddy. And even the entryway was small. Like everything was smaller back there. Oh, yeah. The the um the doorway the uh stairs going upstairs. We went to a piano bar upstairs and I mean the stairs were like 6 in deep and I'm like this wouldn't fly today with ADA. They were steep. They were skinny. And uh we went up there and we went to this cool cool piano bar and the piano player just was like, "It's kind of weird playing a piano in a place that was made or built before the piano was invented." Crazy to think about. That's weird. Uh but but that was a weird experience. Uh I mean, we we sat down and then this gay couple comes and sits as as close as you and I are. This we

just joined their this gay couple sits right next to us and they're feeling the awkwardness as much as we are. Yeah. Well, it was just it doesn't matter who it was. It would have been awkward because they were so close proximity to us and they they they were young and one of them was young. Yeah, that was it was a weird experience weird. New York was a weird experience. Okay, so you liked taking it all in. What did you not like? The smells were horrible. Okay, that's on my top. Talk about the smells everywhere we went. It was either marijuana or human feces. I thought Bend was bad when it came to marijuana but we only get like drifts of it. Yeah, it was bad. It was constant. Well, it kind of it was it kind of reminded me of Vegas a little bit in some ways. I mean, Vegas is like a knockoff, you know, but Yeah.

Um New York really does not sleep. Yeah, it's wild. I mean, people are moving. Well, do you remember we went into Time was it Time Square the first night and hoping that we would like avoid the crowds. 11:00 at night. Christmas night and uh we were getting bullied around like it was nuts. It was like you were like you just pushed up against each other to go see what Rockefeller Yeah. in the trees. Yeah. All the stuff you see on TV of Oh, it just feels so like Christmas. No, it doesn't. Feels like pushed only to hold your phone up as high as you can to maybe get a picture of this tree. I mean that Yeah, that was Central Park was really cool. It was way bigger than I understood it to be. It was huge and it was of course it the day that day we went to Central Park it was snowing so we uh bundled up.

Everybody and their mom went to take pictures. Yeah, it was really beautiful but we only made it about like probably halfway through it before we were just done. It was cold and it was so cold. People were slipping everywhere. The worst part about Central Park is bathrooms. Yeah, there's no bathrooms anywhere. No bathrooms anywhere. Thousands of I was confession. I was so close to peeing behind a tree and I don't think you really could have hidden behind those trees and that snow would have been yellow. I I was ready to be arrested. I mean our Colton, our son, poor guy, he was dying. It's the only reason I didn't because he has too much uh dignity totally. He would not have done it behind a tree. I at my age I didn't care. I was about to wet my pants. I mean, we were we were hustling to try to find and we eventually found one and it was right next to a restaurant that we

actually snuck in and used the bathroom in there. So, yeah. Anyway, it all it all worked out. It did. And we ended up going to a Mediterranean restaurant right outside Central Park, which was the weird most unlike Mediterranean restaurant ever. I mean, there was not a Mediterranean restaurant. They had a smash burger that ended up being like this thick. And I'm like, "Y'all don't know what Smashburgers are in the Northeast." Yeah. You know, we did have pizza while we were there. Yeah. We did all the New York things. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there was anything we didn't do that was Yeah. New York. The subway. We Oh my goodness. We could talk about the subway all day. That That was our main transportation. Yeah. I mean, it was just that was interesting to me because I didn't I hadn't really thought that much about it, but on a subway there's like 10 micro stories playing out in front of you all the time. Always.

Dozens and dozens. I mean, it that was like a aha for me. Like, first of all, this is some people's lives. We're just so far removed from that culture and that lifestyle that it was it was good for me to get into and just to witness. Like, I mean, you know what's interesting is on the subway, everyone's stoic. So, no one engages in each other's stories unless they're begging for money, which, you know, there's a lot of homeless that'll go through asking for money, or they're entertainers. They're trying to get everybody's attention, but no one gives them attention. Everyone's just like cold and stoic and they look mean and harsh, but they're the kindest people once you like Yeah, we talked to some nice New Yorkers. Oh, yeah. I mean, that would help us cuz we got off on the wrong subways often. Often. We got lost a few times. Yeah. Um but uh gosh, I was going to say something. What was it? Um Oh, the advice that I was given, and it might have been from your family who we were

with, um was don't make eye contact on the subway. Like that was the advice that I was given. My sister said that ensure safety is I I think essentially so I tried not to they don't make eye contact there so you don't make eye contact with them as not to be misunderstood. I don't know but there was a few times uh yeah I I think people are nicer than they appear. Yeah. You know it's it's a part of the northeast bravado that you've got to I mean it's a different world. Yeah it is. It made me appreciate Yeah. the Pacific Northwest. Yeah. more because I thought it got cold here, it gets cold there. Yeah. Very a different cold. First time in my life I've worn scarves. Yeah. But what what's crazy about it was um uh even though it was that cold, we we walked miles and miles and miles in it every day.

Yeah. So, we just learned how to bundle up and be fine in it, which my face always felt like sunburn from the wind. Yeah. Shafing that just that wind just like ripped me up. I mean, that was just I don't know. I I I think we both felt like we got it out of our system. Our kids were like, "When I come back, I'm I was like, "When I come back, I don't know if I need to come back." Well, let's talk about the church experience we had there. Okay. So, we were there over a weekend cuz we had Sabbath Sunday here. And I was so looking forward to attending this church cuz I watched messages online regularly of the pastor, told you guys about it. We were doing good to be on time or even early. And what happened is we got on a subway and there's two different types of subways. There's local and there's express, right? Express is on the the same track or, you know, parallel as as the local, but express skip stops. So you on the

Parkway, so yeah, you get faster to your destination, right? I mean, you you skip stops. I didn't know we got on express. And so when I looked for our exit, we skipped it. Yeah. And as we're talking about this, thankfully some nice people joined in. I think they heard us talking about church and this big guy. Hey, you missed it, but here's what you got to do. Get back on the subway and go back one, but make sure you get on uh the local local because that stops at every stop. I'm like, okay, okay. So, we got on the local. We're hustling. We get there 7 minutes after the service has started. 7 minutes. And I had warned all of you guys that the church services there are are long, right? Because they're they're multicultural, much more than the West Coast. I mean, New York has every culture. I mean, we heard everything from Jamaican, Italian.

Yeah. really cool to me. Yeah. I mean, you're hearing all these different languages that I mean, you're even trying to guess at different times. I Every culture you think of, Asian to African, literally all over Africa, all over Europe, it's all right there. So, we go to this church, we're seven minutes late and I know we're late. We go in and took us 5 minutes to get in because of the security. Yeah. You got to show your bag. You got to go through metal detectors. You go through all this stuff to get in. It's We're in line. And I go to get into the main church and I'm watching individuals go in but we got a family and this African lady stops us and she's like, "Uh, church has started." And I said, "I know. We're here for church." And she said, and she literally I I felt it's a true prejudice. I don't know if it's

racism or prejudice, but I know. She looks me up and down and she's like, "The church service is 2 hours." And I'm like, "Okay, okay, we're good. We want to worship. Like, let us in." And she and she's like, "When you come in and the pastor preaches, you can't leave." We're like, "Okay." I'm like, "Okay." And I don't know if she saw my backpack on or what. The backpack was loaded with Bibles. But she's literally looking at us like And maybe it was a backpack that she was just Yeah. And I think she thinks we're tourists coming off the streets hearing music or something. But I'm like, "We're here for church." And then she's like, "Well, how many of you?" And I'm like, "Five." She's like, "Hold on." And she shuts the door in my face, leaves, come back like, "There's no room." I'm like, "What?" So then I'm watching people go up the side stairs up to the balcony. Let's go guys. Let's go up the balcony. And this is where it went from bad to worse. The lady on the stairs, and these are ushers, by the way. They're wearing formal clothes. You could tell they're working for the church.

No welcome, no kindness, no hello, good morning, nothing. No merry Christmas, happy new year. It was literally go to the annex. Yeah. And I'm like, oh no, no, we're just going upstairs. We're going. She's like, did you not hear me? Go to the annex. And I'm like, it was like cattle. I was like, "That is the rudest thing ever." I mean, she wasn't kind at all. She wasn't compassionate. She had no clue who we were. I'm like, first of all, what's an annex, right? You know, second of all, like, what in the world? You're letting other people walk right by you. I mean, I I totally felt like a judge. And I could have been wrong. Kind might have been. Well, I think it was full, you know. I I think that's And maybe that happens regularly. I don't know. And that's just the protocol. And we just Yeah, it's it's out of normal for us. So, yeah. So we, you know, I have to ask around where's the annex? Oh, it's down the hall, up the elevator, down the hallway to the right. It's like

pretty bad. And it's like this cold room with just chairs, man. It went from this gorgeous building, this ornate, beautiful art everywhere building to a a huge white room with three or four small screens. Yeah. The volume wasn't turned up that loud. Probably sat 3 400. And there was at the time we arrived maybe a couple dozen people scattered in this large room. It was like nothing what I expected. Yeah. I mean we ended up leaving because it was just lost the whole experience. Probably normal in New York, you know, like we're just we're we're a very different culture here. So and we've created a very kind and warm and welcoming culture at our church. Well, that's why I always say the West Coast is the best coast. I I like the uh the relaxed attitude we have on the West

Coast. I I like, you know, everything from the aloha spirit that Hawaii brings to the West Coast to the Latin, you know, spirit of just just, you know, relax a little bit. It's not as rushed and hurried, you know. Uh even our urban environments, LA is a sprawl versus the the hustle and bustle of go up, you know. And personally, I I I just found it to be a negative experience. And I, you know, we decompressed that date with our kids and they were just like, man, what if we were brand new, unchurched, seeking God for the first time? Turned off by it. It was, yeah, it was just, it was a harsh experience, but you know what? We learned a lot and it was even learned a lot from me as an outsider. What did people feel like at our church? You know, made made me reconsider those things. So, so New York was the end of our year. We got back on New Year's Eve at midnight. We were too exhausted to go

to the uh last couple minutes of the prayer and worship experience at journey, which I heard was awesome. Yeah. But we get home and we were just stinking tired. I think I think it took me at least a week to like recalibrate here. So yeah, it took me like when I go on mission trips to Africa or Israel, that I I can usually actually recalibrate pretty quickly, two or three days. New York I felt like was harsher. But coming back to our original conversation, I was just drained from December. Yeah. You know, I was drained from dealing with some deeper things and uh had had to recalculate. So, so here we are in a new year. I think we've recovered. Yeah. I think from December. And so here we are just to at least confess here it may not have been the sexiest start of a new year for pastors, you know, like we even looked at some of

the rhythms we traditionally do. We didn't push them like we do. And it's like I told you like there's some grace, you know, like let's let's do things authentically, organically. Let's make them healthy and good. I'm speaking of things like fasting and prayer, which we're going to do next month in February. Uh we usually push the Bible reading plan more than we do, you know, which by the way, I'm doing a new one this year and I'm really enjoying it. You're doing it with me. Um if anyone out there is looking for one, um the Bible recap has been really good. It's with Terry Cabo. It's a chronological Bible in a year, but it's seven days. So, it's a little bit less reading per day, which is what we've done in the past was 5 days. But in addition to all that, there's a short devotion that she gives at the end of each one that's just like a synopsis about four. Just keeps you like focused and it's actually been really um really beneficial. I've enjoyed it so far.

We're in Since we're doing it on the Bible app, it just you tap through the devotions and it tells you if you're caught up or not caught up. Yeah. And then at the end, you could share notes. And since we're subscribed to each other, I see your notes and you see my notes, etc. So, yeah, always good to read through the Bible. Yeah, I highly recommend that. So, one of my regrets not doing it earlier in life, read through the Bible in a year. Uh you could, of course, go quicker or you can go slower, but read through the whole Bible. It's always worth it. And the more you do it, the more you learn each time. Yeah, totally. It never gets old. It actually just gets better and better and better. You know, at first you're like, I've never read this before. And then each time you're like, ah, I never tied this together. God, God is so much greater. Totally. So, we started that this year. Then, entering into the year, I asked the staff this year, hey, what's what's a word for the year? What what's something that's guiding you? Something that's just on your heart, an impression

you feel God's either taught you or you feel like is something uh you're going to experience this year. Uh share with me your word and I'll share with you my word. Okay. So, I have to give just a little bit of context on this um is because I really didn't have one right from the get-go. I hadn't really thought about I think I was so mush from December. I really like I didn't set my mind towards something new, right? And um but then the first Sunday back I got two different words from women that were very impressionable for me. It was very it's the power of the church coming together and using our gifts. And so essentially combined it it it was like the the words were um uh surrender essentially. I'll just in a nutshell it's surrender. And it's and it's looking at it's almost perspective shift of looking at things that I feel are a

defeat. Meaning something that didn't go the way I thought it should go, didn't happen the way I thought it should happen. Um it's not it's not defeat. It's actually surrender. And it's um it's it's a beautiful thing really to um to consider as I've chewed on it and and thought about it is like she like one of them pointed me to a a um verse out of Isaiah and it's my ways are not your ways. My thought your thoughts are not my thoughts. My ways are so much higher meaning God. And um all of that combined was just like okay I maybe don't know what I think I know or I don't have the best I don't have the eternal view that God has. like he's doing something in a situation that I felt like was maybe a failure, but but it's not a failure at all.

And so that's for me, it's actually a it's going to be a year of surrendering um lots of things. Um one of them being what my expectations. Um I'm not going to surrender goals or things that I'm going after like surrender. I mean like not do them. I'm just me saying I'm going to surrender the outcome uh that God is in control of it. And uh yeah, so that's that's mine. What is yours? Well, I I just want to speak into yours for a moment because I think that's great. You do things with such excellence that when things don't go your way, it I think it feels like and I'm speaking for you, but it feels like your world's falling apart or you've lost control or you know, it's harder for you to see God in it. So to be proactive in in our personal lives, our our marriage, our family, the church,

leadership, all of those things is to say, "God, where are you?" Even when it didn't go the way I wanted to go, because you will always find God. Jesus promised I'll never leave you nor forsake you. So I I think that will preach not just to you, to all of us here today that we we can receive that word. Mine I I feel like was similar is how the Holy Spirit works through just a multiple different facets. And mine was again, I'm going to joke about this, but it's just the tool that's been helpful, Chat GBT, when I just asked for some some uh some direction and here's what I'm going through. Here's what this is. Help me out with this. And there was one word that just worked through when I'm flushing out some some new year uh not just resolutions, but goals, some aims to be healthier this year holistically.

And it's it's the word entrusted. So for me, it's entrusted. God has entrusted to me you as a wife. So, how do I uh be a better husband or or to reverse that is how do I be the person you want to love? So, so God's entrusted me with this to to know you and to love you the way that you are. So, he's he's entrusted me with that. He's entrusted me with our kids to be a father. I am a father and I've got no excuse. Uh so, now how to be the father that my kids want to be. And so, the the phrasiology that chat used for me is uh to father them well in their season, not my season. Yeah. So, so, so I'm entrusted to be their father in every season of their life. Uh, we've got a great church with a great team. I love our staff team, but God's entrusted me with them.

So, how do I be a better leader to love them well, to lead them well? He's entrusted me with the staff. Then I go down to the church. He's entrusted me to be the lead pastor. And so, the word for me this year is to steward. It's not the word steward, but it's entrusted. Yeah. Is to look at what has God given me and take the take what he's given me. He's entrusted me so that he can entrust me with more. So to steward what he's entrusted me with. So totally that's that's my my word. I love it. I and I think they kind of complement each other in some ways. Let's go. Um so I I think that's great. Come on. I I I maybe it's my personality bent, but I don't often like set goals at the start of the new year. And maybe it's because I don't want to fail. Uh whereas I'm the opposite. I'm over here new thing, new this, new vision, new this. But I I guess in as I just know

that I work hard every day, but but but it this has been a um this is for me this going into 2026. I'm excited about it now. I think we started out kind of blah, but I am getting there. I'm excited about it now. Just in all re confessions of a pastor, you know, like um I think both of us like new. We both like change. We both like new. We don't like to sit in the same thing very long. and we've, you know, yeah, we we we've led this, well, I'm newer on staff full-time, but you've led this church for, you know, um almost 16 years. We're going to celebrate 16 years in February. And and I think it's just um it's I'm excited for something new this year that is not um like a numeric goal or something. It's like a it's like a character thing. It's a it's a spiritual thing. God, take us to new levels, which is our vision for the year is kingdom come.

Yeah, there you go. And that vision thankfully I don't think about that in December or else I would have been so fried you know I don't even know what our vision could have been it might have been a little more depressing but kingdom come came out of usually we start wrestling with the next year's theme and vision around September you know August September November because the end of the year just seems to go quicker than than the way years start or in the middle and so we start wrestling with it early what is God doing in our church what has he been doing how's this year's theme going and his vision and and what direction do we sense God is leading us? And he's actually it's it's been one of those mysterious uh components of church that is one of those like honor and like I don't know how this works but God typically gives us a word for the church. Yeah.

And every year I think you and I are just like kind of like Lord you really do know what you're doing. Yeah. And you give us those things and it's weird because every year we have to wrestle with what God's actually doing in the church. And he gave us that. Yeah. Last year was love like Jesus. We needed to really really reflect on that and work through that. I don't even think we arrived in it. No, I agree. But I do think it was what God wanted for us. Same thing with this year's theme, which we'll talk more about this vision of kingdom come. But every year, I mean, I remember the year that we were wrestling with the next year's theme, and in my mind it was equip the saints and unleash the army. And you're like, what about like equip the saints? And it was the same phrase. I'm like, I've never that is like Holy Spirit. Wow. That's a God thing. And it was is we need to focus on disciplehip of trusting that God's going to uh use people, but

we need to equip them so we can let them go and go do and our church is not the same church as that year. I mean, it was like we keep growing and maturing. Yeah. But every every theme of every year has been meaningful and impactful and shaped the the culture of that year. So, I love that we even do it. I don't know a lot of churches that do that. I that specific I think it's common in larger churches. Okay. Okay. Or and just in general. I mean I remember working at a church here in town that we came from and that pastor had themes every year. Okay. I remember like he he was a pastor through the 80s, 90s and then by the early 2000s he had uh left the church for a new role and uh I mean he he he did the Christian cliche cute stuff you know like uh more in heaven in 1987 you know

like those were the kind of themes he did you know which uh actually I think was a part of the church growth movement you know to reach people and uh reach them on common grounds and understanding and logic but this year's theme. I I I feel like So tell So tell us about Kingdom Come. What is that? What does that mean for you? I think it's going to be the best year we've ever had because to me this is the clearest theme that we could ever have. This is a vision from every year has been there's always been scripture that's motivated it and so forth. But when you really think about kingdom come, it will wreck your life. Yeah. In a good way. If you start taking this this seriously, you will discover this has been God's plan from the very beginning. Amen.

He is a kingdom God. He's established a kingdom because he's the king. He's a God of order, a God of systems. We see it in the Old Testament long before Israel demanded a king. You know, they they the people were governed. Yeah. By God as as a king. It was a theocracy. They didn't need an earthly king like all the other people. He ruled and reigned. There was a governance system. God has always worked with a kingdom. Jesus steps on the the scene and the first message he preached is repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Amen. And then we jump into Matthew and Matthew talks a lot about kingdom. And the first line of the first sermon, you know, blessed is uh blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom.

And then he goes on to say, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see the kingdom. I mean, it's like over and over he by chapter six, he's teaching us to pray the kingdom. Yeah. You know that pray then like this. Yeah. You know, your kingdom come and over and over first the kingdom and all these things will be added. Same chapters, chapter 6, verse 33. I mean, so over and over, we're getting this repeated theme that this is this is important to God. And then I'm still preaching through John. It's the longest series we've ever done. It is. And the irony is though is as we're coming to an end of the book of John, the culmination is kingdom. You know, the word kingdom is only mentioned, I believe, six times in the book of John. And most of it's at the very end where we are right now. God totally does that.

God, he put this thing together long before I orchestrated this. Yeah. series. And certainly it's not a series. It's just going through the book of John. And as we do come to this beginning of a new year with a new vision. Yeah. You know, the old uh 2025 was love like Jesus, which of course we preached through that. Now we come to a place where Jesus is saying my kingdom is not from this world. Right. Uh Jesus saying for this purpose I was born. And and just as I preached this week, Pilate says, "Behold your king. This is kingdom." Yeah. And now we have to reconcile. The Jewish people in Jesus day rejected him as king. Yeah. And instead chanted crucify. I'm generalizing the Jewish people because not obviously everyone did. There was women who were devoted to him. There were certain disciples that were devoted to him.

But the chief priests, the rulers, the uh military officers or the the temple officers rather, they rejected Jesus as king. That's kingdom. We are in a crisis of an age. And I believe this Kara. This This is going to set me on fire. We have to determine who Jesus is and what we're living for. The world is so confused with the system and the governance of of what's ruling our lives. We see it right now in our own nation with protests of of of of yes. What morals and values are we willing to give our lives for, energy towards, and protest for? And the devil is such a distractor, Kara, and such a deceiver. This is what woke me up last week when you let me know. We were happened to be in the same room or at least the same place of someone in our church who had stage four colon cancer who's our age.

It was like a a sock in the gut and a wakeup call of do not let the devil dictate kingdom here in this world because there is a kingdom of this world and he is the ruler of this world. So, he is establishing a kingdom. And I felt like the Lord was telling me, "Come on, kick it in gear." Yeah. Bring forth the kingdom here. Yeah. Eradicate cancer. Heal the sick. You get the lame to walk and the deaf to hear. Amen. It's time for us to cast out demons, to preach the gospel, the good news. And so, kingdom come for me is is establishing what God has already ordered and set up, and then aligning our hearts with it. Because it's way too easy to listen to all the voices of this world and think that that is the establishment that we should be living for. Yeah. And it's not. Yeah. Forgive me for the sermon. No, it's great. I asked you what is it?

What does it mean to you? Which is you're leading, you know, like what is this going to look like for us essentially as a church is what I'm asking, you know, in 2026. It's it's praying over the sick. Yeah. And declaring God's goodness in the land of the living. Mhm. It's declaring things prophetically, things that are not as though they are. Yeah. I I don't care if people get sick of hearing me say Central Oregon shall be saved, or there's going to be revival in our age, because if we're going to establish the kingdom, we're to declare things that are not as though they are, pedophilia, pornography, drug addiction, uh abuse, uh uh homelessness. When we think about poverty and that that's locally, but we want to establish these things on earth on earth as it is in heaven. For God so loved the world. So

it's just realigning our hearts with his. Yeah. Bringing them into our lives on a micro level starting with me. Yep. Establishing God's kingdom in me. So before I judge anyone else, I'm going to look at that plank in my own eye. Yeah. And and and establish what's shouldn't be there, what should be on the temple. I want the Holy Spirit to dwell in holy place. And then beyond that, our family, our relationship, the church, and then the community. Yeah. Amen. Cuz then we're establishing something healthy. We're not trying to establish something we're not, which I've tried to do before, you know, hoping that if I say it only goes so far. Yeah. It's It's just not It's not real. Yeah. So, it's taking something God's given us and applying it to our lives. Kingdom come. It's going to be good. I love it. I'm super excited for it. I I think that um the the Western church has really done a disservice to Christians,

to people that really do love God um and follow Jesus or or want to, but has made it just um something that's just much more intellectual than it is practical. Yeah. And I think this is going to be a year of of practically speaking bringing God's kingdom here as it is in heaven. And yeah, cuz cuz it's not a a formula. No. so much as is applying it to every breath of your day. Yeah. You know, every every area of your life. Yeah. And it's it's good and it's real and this is not our our faith has to come go from our head to our heart and our hands, you know, like Yeah. I want to just go there with you for a second about the western church and the world that we live in because being leaders of a church is so weird because the highs are so high. They're so good. I mean, we prayed over so many people on Sunday

that I have got holy anticipation. We're going to hear cool answers. Amen. Like the little girl we prayed over with sleep apnnea who's had uh um surgery after surgery and it's not fixing the problem. It was an honor to pray over that little girl cuz I know I could look her in the eyes and be like, "Jesus loves you so much." And I can't believe God's entrusted me to pray over a little one that he loves so much. And I just I'm believing that we're going to hear and answer prayer. We prayed over Steve with stage four cancer. We talked with this family and there was a confirmation that God was in it. Yeah. When I prayed for such a time as this and that's been his theme for the last year before he got diagnosed with cancer. It's what his wife was sharing with us what he put on. He's coaching um girls basketball at a local school and it's what I think he put on their shirt. Yeah. And now they're confused like I thought this was such a time as this and it's like well now they get to invite kingdom in this. So I'm

on the like spiritual level the highs are high. Yeah. But people are so fickle and they're like sheep and it's like you understand Jesus when he saw the crowds and he had compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And I didn't even tell you this but we and we get emails and I get text messages and just people they they get distracted on things that aren't kingdom. Yeah. So yesterday I did a um a little little money talk and the the only thing that was consistent in all three messages is I shared Proverbs 3:89. This is God's word. Yeah. Not my word. Right. Not it's not even the elders words of the church who are are our governance is this this is this is God's word which says in Proverbs give of your first fruits and give of your finances. Yeah.

So that God could fill up your barn and your vats of wine would be overflowing. Amen. This is God's word. It's the word. I didn't make this up. I'm not cherry-picking that. It's just this is God's word. Some people want to argue, well Jesus came. He changed the No. This is God's word. Amen. And the flowers will fade and the grass will be gone, but God's word is going to endure forever. So, I get this text message from someone in our church for a long time. It's just it's it's all she wanted to hear was, "Oh, what? Because I'm hurting financially right now and can't write a check. I guess this is the last time I'll be, you know, I'm like, oh my goodness." I'm like, "Boy, this is the state of your heart. kingdom is absent from your if you find an offense with me sharing God's word. I I wasn't even talking to you.

Like, how selfish of you to actually think that somehow I'm calling you. Like, yeah. If if you only understood our rent is $40,000 a month, we got utilities to pay, $1,000 a month for trash. Like, listen friends, yeah, we're the church. If I don't go to God's word, you're missing this. And I just think it's just it's not kingdom. Yeah. If if you're looking for an offense, I hate to say it, but that's that's the devil's kingdom. Yeah. I actually chose I I refuse to let that I I refuse to let that get into my heart. Yeah. So, I'm not going to respond because at the end of the day, like at this point, and I'm I'm processing this. So, friends, this is free counseling for me because I Right. I could respond to it. I I I might change my mind, but what I am saying is like at the end of the day, if you choose to find an offense in God's word,

it doesn't matter what I say, like we're just trying to establish God's kingdom. Yeah. Exactly. And it does include our finances. And in fact, Jesus talked more about money than he did about hell. And he did talk about hell, by the way, often. He used earthly examples of Gehenna and the garbage dumpouts. He he used real tangible practical hell is real. But he also spoke often about money. Yeah. How it is an obstacle and you cannot serve both God and money. So if if you're gonna find offense in this, your heart's in the wrong place. And at the end of the day, my only call is to come back to kingdom come. Repent. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Amen. And I I'm not trying to cause an offense. I'm not What I'm trying to establish is a healthy church.

Exactly. is to say that your giving does and the two of the three services I quoted Matthew where Jesus said for your where your treasure is there your heart is also. If you really just reflect on that one verse he tells us that your money is going to dictate where your heart already is. Yeah. You can't say I'm not giving to God but my heart is for God. No. God's word says opposite. Absolutely. if you're not financially giving. And there's a lot of Christians who culturally, the Western church thinks, I can do things my way, not God's way. And I can go to church. I can listen to God's word. I can call myself a Christian. I could do Bible studies and not give financially to God. Well, according to God's word, you can't. Yeah. I I didn't establish this. Totally. I It's the governance of God that he wants your whole heart. Not He doesn't just need your head. He needs your knowledge of God to go down to your

heart where now you say my treasure is going to go where my heart is. Yeah. Which is exactly what I was saying is taking it from here to here to here is like I agree with you. It's really important to do like well you know it kind of reminds me of a couple months ago you gave a a charge and a call to the church about if you're not serving you're not giving. This isn't your church. That was so weird how that so many people got offended by I mean it's weird. I know. Well, we what yesterday we heard somebody talking about they ran into somebody who at the barber shop got offended at that particular got offended at one statement. They got offended and people hear that and then they leave the church and then they tell everybody. They don't come tell me. But you know what what I what I have witnessed um and I think it's biblical is that is that pruning produces fruit. And so as we're trying to establish God's kingdom and a healthy church culture, which does not shy away from things that are that might be hard, but

that the Bible is very clear on if if we use the Bible as our guide. We can't shy away from those things. And so it might prune some things. It might, but new fruit will grow. And I shared this yesterday and I I think it hit with a few people is the fear of God. Yeah. Over the fear of man is not easy. It's it's really not easy. If it was easy, the church would be doing it and we'd be changing the world. But when you really fear God over fearing man, you do hard things. You say hard things that aren't always received well. Yeah. But at the end of the day, to honor God is always greater than the convenience of doing Yeah. You know, thinking you're you you're going to please more people. And I've done that most of my ministry. Please man, which never I joked about at third service. It never works out.

No. You know, in fact, sometimes it does the opposite. Oh, totally. It's it it you get people you think are loyal to you, but they're not. They're loyal to themselves. And so, at the end of the day, the kingdom comes going to be good. And like you said, it's not about numbers. It's not about establishing more. It's establishing his kingdom here on earth. And when we do that, we align our hearts with his. I love like even our we got some really cool church merch coming next month for our uh 16th uh birthday. And uh the kids gear has kingdom come on it and the kids like font and then it has a Bible verse. I'm like well what's the Bible verse? And it's out of uh Matthew when Jesus says uh the kingdom belongs to such as these the little ones. Amen.

It's just like the kingdom is it's everywhere. Yeah. And so it's like here our Journey Kids Church gets to establish that the kingdom belongs to the kids to them. Yeah. that it's the childlike faith. Not childishness, but the childlike faith that God really demands of us. Yeah. That we trust him. We take him at full value. And I just love that this is going to work for the youngest to the oldest to the new newest believer to the oldest believer, you know, to the non-believer to simply establish. This is the first message Jesus preached. Yeah. He he he wants all of you. He wants you to surrender to him fully. Y it's it's going to be a good year, Kara. Yeah, I agree. I'm excited. Yeah, but I know we're going to have to go to war because just like what happened that first pursuit night, finding out about stage four cancer, it's like, oh,

we can't sit on our laurels and expect that cancer is going to disappear. I agree. We've got to call forth the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. I mean, it's everywhere and the violent take it by force. We're taken back. Why are we going to let the hospital do all the work for us, church? We should be praying for this. Amen. And by the way, nothing's wrong with medicine or doctors. Knowledge is from God. But he's given us the keys of the kingdom to establish that authority here. Let's be praying for this. Let's let's be believing in faith for greater things. Amen. I love it. I'm excited. Oh, good. I'm I'm excited, too. Excited for the church merch. We got some um we got some sweatpants coming, but I'm praying we're going to have a sweatuit because uh I remember years ago watching John Maxwell in his 70s preach from a

sweatuit and I'm thinking, you know what, when you're in your 70s and you've been speaking as long as this guy has. You could preach in his in his sweatuit. Well, sweatuits are all the rage right now. And Kara, come on. I could imagine myself preaching from a sweatuit like some new kicks or something. Let's go. You're hilarious. I These are the things I think about. Wow. I've got an ADHD de mind. So, uh, hey, it's going to be a good year. We ended the year a little mushy. We did, but you know what? God has reestablish it. I I feel like for me, I've told you a few times already, like I'm I'm back in the rhythm of working out. I completely got out of it. And you know what the devil does when you get out of it? He's like, "Oh, well, might as well stay there." You know, I I gained some weight. I I I'm It's going to be hard to get back in

it, but I feel like the Lord gave me like a reset. I'm right back in that rhythm. And it feels good. Like my body feels good. My mind feels clear. I was talking to our chiropractor at church yesterday just about being wholly healthy, you know, like just you know, not having to worry about putting on your seatelt and pulling like, you know, like um uh you know, I remember once when I was unhealthy putting on my seat belt and then like hurting your neck. Yeah. hurting my back and my neck, you know, like when you're unhealthy, you're just unhealthy, holy, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It's just like you're a mess. Like, so start somewhere in God's kingdom and vitamin and physically, emotionally, spiritually being healthy this year. Last year, we tried it. We did kingdom workouts mo for most of the year and then we lost the rhythm when we got busy and but I I think it was that the heart was there. It's like it's got to be

whole, you know? And we want this for everybody, not just for us. Yeah. We want it for our family, for our staff, for the church and beyond. So friends, if you're listening, this is your year of health. Invite God's kingdom to come. Yeah. Amen. Go study what that looks like. See, just see how many times God's word kingdom is used. And I just the verse keeps coming back to me. I think it's Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom. It is and all these things will be added. Don't seek the added things first. Exactly. Yes. Seek kingdom. Kingdom. Yes. And his righteousness. Healing comes and health comes and let's go. all the things. I'm gonna stand in agreement that that's going to be a powerful year. Well, it's our first episode of the fifth season. Can you believe we made it this far? I can't actually. How has it been five seasons?

Well, I tell you, God is so good. He's gotten us through it. He Sometimes in life, success is is is not an immediate success. Uh it's it's my coach tells me this, not Chachi PT, an actual physical real life human being. Uh he says life is not a marathon. There's all these myths out there. Life's a marathon. Pace yourself. It's going to be okay. He's like, "That's a load of BS." Like, nobody like hardly anybody runs marathons, you know? He says, "Actually, life is full of short sprints." Yeah. He says, "Run that sprint." Yeah. Run it hard, but you got to recover. You know, get get that breath, stretch afterwards, and and go after it again. I'm like, "Okay, okay. Okay." That's why rest and Sabbath and like refueling is so important. I think we got to talk about that on this season and this year more about Sabbath. Yeah, I think God's going to do something good.

Callie, who's in the room, my assistant, she got me a book on Sabbath, which thank you by the way. I did start it and it was just kind of like this. Oo, like, okay. Okay. Like, if you go there, you better go there. Yeah. You can't have Sabbath. Yeah. And I'm like, and for me it's convicting thinking about, can I put my phone away for 24 hours? And and the truth is we make idols of things. Yeah. No, my flesh right now says no, but my heart is going to align with it. Like you just got to make these steps to say God established Sabbath. He definitely didn't eradicate it. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Amen. Amen. So we we'll talk more about that later this year. It's near and dear to my heart for sure. It is. And you do a good job telling us every Friday I'm like, "Let's go on a date." Like, "No, we're Sabbath. Well, let's invite the kids over. Let's make a meal." Yeah.

Let's sit around the table. It's like, "Okay, take a breath. Here we go. It's okay. It's okay." Uh yeah, it's going to be good. So, hey, we we got we got the plane off the ground for this new season and I'm believing God's best and a part of it is just being consistent and and we thank you all the listeners out there. Thank you for telling us you listen. Tell us what you want to listen to. This is going to be year. We've always said we're going to have guests, but this is the this is the season for guests. We've actually talked about some some guests that are coming to Journey. Now that we're on video, I actually just think we we got it dialed in. This team is awesome that we have here. Uh, I mean, we're just starting and the best is yet to come. And so, uh, we're going to do it. But whether it's staff team as guests or, uh, some of the music artists we got coming, Jonathan Trailer, Martin Smith, it's going to be good. It's going to be a great year. Can't wait.

Can't wait. So, hey, thank you all for for joining us on this journey of free counseling for us. Uh, the good, the bad, the ugly, all for the glory of God because God is working in all these things. Even as I just confess these things, like, you know, you get them off your chest, but then you you meditate on it. You work with it. You let Holy Spirit work. Yeah. He's doing a good thing. He is. Yeah. So, so be encouraged, friends. He's working even through the hard through your life. So, Amen. Just don't stay there. So, hey, how about we pray to end our time? Okay. Lord, you are so good in every way. So, thank you for a new year. And we're not seeking to have a new you, like a new us, Lord. But we are seeking for you to do new things that because you are the God of new. You you you are teaching us new things. And uh we constantly come back to Isaiah 43 where you remind us that remember not the former things. Uh

behold, you're doing a new thing. Do we not perceive it? So God, make make a new way this year that we didn't even see coming. We pray your kingdom would come and be established in our lives. That God, you would work in every single area. So God, speak to our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our souls. That we would love you with everything. We thank you for your grace, your goodness. that God, you don't hold anything against us from our past, but you are the God that forgives, sets us free on the trajectory of new. So, I love you. I thank you for my wife. I thank you for allowing us to lead and shepherd Journey Church. We do pray for revival in the region that we live in. Central Oregon shall be saved. But it's not just here. Those listeners that are listening beyond this, we say, Lord, you are working. We say, establish your kingdom. Let us experience revival in our lifetime that we would see greater things. Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We thank you in Jesus name.

Amen. And amen. Amen. Well, God bless you all. Hey, go go go figure out what kingdom come looks like in your life. Let us know. Let's journey this together. God bless you all.