 How do we really know that people are okay, right? When you can't sit across from them. Like when you can't spend a lot of time with them. I think one of the biggest challenges that we're facing is that that doesn't lead to people feeling like they're just pieces, like on our board that we're just trying to move. We want to define growth, not just in numbers, but in you. Everything we did before was to lead up possibly even to this moment for you to realize that you're the church. Hello, radiant family. My name is Caleb Culver. I'm one of the worship pastors here at Radiant Church. And if you remember, I preached last month and I forgot my jacket and I preached in my t-shirt like a goober. So I made sure my wife, how good do I look in this jacket though? This was the jacket I was supposed to wear. I made my wife don it on me like I was a master's champion earlier. But feeling good cause I got my jacket and I'm very, very excited and honored. And to be honest, a little nervous because I'm teaching in the Be Radiant series on our third value. And I just feel so incredibly honored that I have this opportunity to share this value with us. And go ahead and turn your Bibles to Matthew 12. And we're gonna read a few other verses but we're gonna end in Matthew 12. And while you go there, I just wanna say hi to our Portage family and those watching online. But one thing I love about our values is how they build on each other. We had week one, we talked about being word centered. And then week two, spirit and power and incredible messages from Pastor Lee. And you can't be the next value without having the value before it. So you have to be word centered in order to be spirit and powered and to be family and oriented. You have to be word centered and spirit and powered. And so we are talking about building upon the word of God and the spirit of God and then how we relate. And you might be asking, well, family oriented, does that talk about the family unit? Or are we talking about the church as a family? And the answer is yes. It is both of those realities. The church is the family of God and it's comprised of the family unit. And it's something that we see all throughout scriptures. And so tonight we're gonna be talking about three aspects of what it means to be family oriented as a church. And the first is gonna be the way the church functions is family oriented. And the second one, the way we relate to the church and one another is family oriented. And then the way we relate to the world is family oriented. And the first thing we wanna say about family is it is not a man made institution. In fact, we see it before humans ever make it onto the scene. God was a family. You see, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit as the spirit of adoption. And then the first institution he created on the earth was marriage, which produced family. And this language, we see not only God the Father and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit but we are described as brothers and sisters. Jesus himself was born into family. And I'll actually go a little bit further. Jesus was adopted. Jesus's father Joseph was not his biological dad and would have legally had to have adopted him. And Jesus, so next time someone makes a tasteless snarky adoption joke you can just let them know that Jesus was adopted. So that should put them in their place. But Jesus is also described as being our brother. The church is called the household of God, the household of faith. The family of God, we have been adopted into the kingdom of God. The church is the family of God on the earth. It is the kingdom of God in embryonic form. And we can forget this because we talk about the kingdom and the family of God, but in heaven those two realities make perfect sense. And so we're gonna read a few scriptures. I'm gonna read a few, they're gonna be on the screens and we're gonna end in Matthew 12, 46 through 50. 1st John 3, one through two is the first one. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children. Ephesians 219. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Romans 8, 14 through 16. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And then this passage in Matthew 12 that you've had your Bibles open, ready to read Matthew 12, 46. Well, he was still speaking to the people. Behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Pretty incredible statement here from Jesus. He said, this is my family, those who are obedient. And to the point that says this, my mothers are right here in our midst. And so you can go onto Facebook right now, you can just type in Jesus is my mother or I am Jesus's mother, excuse me. And you would be biblically sound to do that. I don't know if the comments would know what you were talking about, but the language to us, it's a little funny. We're like, I am Jesus's mother for doing the will of God, but Jesus was using fiercely personal and familial language with the disciples around them saying, no, you don't get it. There's not a preference in the family of God. We are all family of God if we are obedient in Christ. And why family? Why family? Well, family bears the image of God. When we talk about man being fearfully and wonderfully made and being made in his image, that's not just speaking about us as individuals. We were made individually and sure body, soul and spirit, we reflect the image of God, but God himself, even though he is three, he is in one in family. God himself is complete in family and we are only complete in family. We are not image bearers solely by ourself, but we bear the image of God as a family. Family bears the image of God. And there's an enemy that really hates that because Satan was up in heaven, having a good old time, leading worship and then had this thought, man, I wish everyone would be singing to me. I'm pretty awesome. And the moment he thought an arrogant thought, he fell like lightning from heaven. God sent him out of heaven. He emasculated him. He humiliated him. He put him on the earth. He put him on his belly like a serpent and humiliated him along with a third of the angels in heaven. He hates God because of that. And every time he sees the image of God, it drives him crazy. Why do you think Satan hates the church so much? Because we're the family of God. We reflect the image of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and he wants to do everything to destroy that image. I know what that feels like because I was an Oklahoma City Thunder fan and Kevin Durant stabbed me in the back and I don't wanna say that made a grown man grow bitterness in his heart because that would describe it perfectly. Kevin left the Thunder and joined the Golden State Warriors in arguably the weakest sports decision of all time. That's debatable, but my personal opinion. And every time I'd be on Instagram, the NBA would like post highlights of Katie. I'd go right to the snake emoji kind of like psss. I'm like boom, hit her with a snake emoji. I'm like maybe one day he'll see that and he'll feel sad. And I was just triggered every time I saw a picture of him because he was supposed to bring us a title. He was supposed to win one for us. Jojo Ridding back there, he knows exactly what I'm saying, how painful that was. But every time I saw that image, I just had to do something and Satan is that same way. He is attacking family and church. I want to say it so clearly. The spirit of the age is attacking family right now. We have to wake up and see what the enemy is doing. The world is redefining family in order to remove God and place self at the center. See, family does not exist for itself. If family exists in isolation, then it doesn't actually fulfill the purpose. That's because family doesn't bring glory to family. Family exists to bring glory to God. And the marriage covenant isn't primarily just about a covenant between a man and a woman. It is the covenant of God at the center between man and woman. It is an institution of man, woman, and the Holy Spirit. And family is not just about the blood connection, but it's about God in the center. And Satan wants to remove the fact that family exists for the glory of God. And so it seeks to redefine what family is in order to disassemble it to remove the image of God at the center of it. Listen to this verse in Matthew 21. Jesus describes this perfectly. Now, brother will deliver up brother to death and a father his child. And children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. There is something intrinsically inside of us that is meant to protect and defend family. Like, man, my brother and I, we would go at it, we'd fight about everything. But man, if anyone picked on them, there's just that thing in you that rises up because there's a God-given thing inside of us that wants to protect family. But the spear of the age is attacking family in such a way that brother hates brother. Son turns his father in to be murdered. And you might be like, man, that's not even close to where we're at. And I would beg to differ. I was heartbroken truly. This last election cycle, I heard so many stories of kids that wouldn't go home to their families Christmas because they found out who their parents were voting for. I knew a girl who cut off and severed a relationship with her brother said, I'm never speaking to you again because she found out he liked a certain political commentator. There is a political spirit, the leaven of Herod, that wants you to join this collective ideology that exalts itself above family. And we've seen it. All these examples are extreme. I'm not saying this is where we're at, but we've seen it in history with Marxism and Communism and Nazism. You see this ideology arise that has this corporate reality that has to disassemble family. And I wanna read a quote to you from a leading social justice organization in the US that raised $90 million this last year. This is what the quote says. We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and villages that collectively care for one another, especially our children. The spirit of the age has a set of values that says you have to live by these and if not, we turn our back on you and you join this collective family and the family unit is destroyed. Why? Because society, the church is built on the bedrock of family. And for an ideology to go into a progressive future that drifts from what God has defined as family, what that does is that creates a resistance. And so to avoid that resistance, it has to be disassembled. And so you do it by attacking the definition, the understanding of marriage. You attack it by parents and we see the authority of parents being under attack, the education system and entertainment and politics. It's all geared to stripping the authority and power out of family to put this collective family together. And it feels scary and overwhelming, but let me tell you saints that I am not afraid today at all. Here's why. We are Christians and we know the end from the beginning. Jesus comes back for a pure and spotless bride. Or another way to say that, Jesus comes back for a whole, complete and healthy family made up of whole, complete, healthy families. He's coming back for family. So family's not going anywhere. It doesn't matter what culture is, try to assault this idea over and over again, but it's not man's institution. It's not some political institution. And so you can attack it all you want, but God has built his kingdom and foundation upon this idea of family and it will not be moved. Come on. Malachi 4-6, I will send the spirit of Elijah and he will turn the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. John the Baptist operated in the spirit of Elijah. It says, what was his ministry, repentance? See the world seeks to redefine family to put self at the center and remove repentance. But God says, I have a solution and an answer and it's called fathers and mothers filled with the spirit of God returning, repenting to their children, softening their hearts and strengthening family. And that is the environment in which Jesus comes back and he returns. God has a strategy and God has a plan. Now you might say, well, the church is this collective family that you were talking about the world. What is the difference? Well, there's a very clear distinction. The world wants to replace your family. The church wants to restore your family. The world in order to thrive, they have to crush and disassemble your family in order for that ideology to reign. But in the kingdom of heaven, for that collective family to thrive, we need the individual family to thrive because both the individual family and the church both represent Imago Deo, the image of God in the earth. So I wanna read a few of these. What's the difference between the world and the kingdom? Well, the world says family agrees with you on everything. The kingdom says family loves you through everything. The world says love only affirms and never corrects. The kingdom says there's authority and correction because of love. Hebrews 12 says, you are my sons and that's why I discipline you. The idea of discipline from the father heart of God is an example that we see in church that's passed on to family because of love, not in spite of it. The world says you can be canceled at any time. The kingdom says you're forever family. The world says family fights against everyone who doesn't belong. The kingdom says family fights for everyone who feels they don't belong. The world wants to replace your family and the kingdom wants to build your family. I just wanna pause here for a moment because every time we speak on family, it's both an exciting topic because it's near the heart of God and it's also an incredibly difficult topic as well because many of us have experienced abuse in family. Many of us have experienced hurt and pain and loss and even right now there are people that are feeling the sting of divorce or a lost loved one or they feel the strain of a difficult relationship and the enemy tries to come in and bring this shame into our heart that says we don't belong or we're less than or God can't use us because of this family limitation and I just, I felt Psalm 68 for us today. God takes the lonely and he sets them in family. That's who he is and you don't have to be in a perfect family to be in the perfect will of God for your life. We don't even see Paul with a really close family relationship and yet he was one of the greatest fathers that we see in all of the scripture. God can rewrite the story, God can use you even if you're not married or you're suffering through difficulty of family. First thing is that the story is not over and the second thing is God will take the lonely and he will put them in family. I just want to declare that over us today. So when we talk about radiant being family oriented we're talking really about these three aspects. The first is the way the church operates and functions is family oriented. And we know that part of radiant we have a legal entity, right? Like we exist within a county, we exist within a state, we exist within a federal government, we have to follow federal guidelines and there is a very real operational piece where we exist as an organization. But the heart of who we are is a organization that serves a heart of family. And that's where we're going to go. It serves a heart of family. And families have culture, they have history and they have authority. And family is not lost in those areas but every family has some culture, it has history and it has authority. And the world is trying to take and strip those realities from individual families while the church wants to bring out the diversity of that. And I just want to speak to that even on the entity side, because I'll state the glaringly obvious. Like when we say we're family and oriented, radiant is a big church, like we big. Like that's a reality. And because of our size, there's ways that we operate and function that are different than being smaller. And look, it's not particularly good or bad. Jesus, when he commends the churches, he commends the churches who are obedient and he provides a rebuke to the ones who are disobedient. He doesn't talk about size but you're just obedient to what you've been given. And we've been given a call from God to steward a certain congregation. And listen, families operate different because of different size. Like I came from a big family. Like we had seven of us and we used to go out and people would be like, wow, like really? Of all the things you would do with your life, this is the one you chose, like have a family this big. And I never heard my parents say anything. I don't know why. No, I'm just kidding. My family loved it. You know what? We operated very differently. Like I didn't maybe get as many Christmas presents as some of my friends who had two different sets of parents and there was only one of them. Like there were things that function operated differently but there's strengths and advantages and weaknesses and blessings. And so when radiant is family oriented, it can be tempting to look at a large church and be critical of these things or a small church and be critical of these other things. And the size has nothing to do with if it's family oriented or not. It has to do with the heart. And the thing that is so unique that I felt here, I've been here a little over four years, is that it was built on the heart of a mother and father and Pastor Lee and Jane Cummings. And I just want to speak on that for a moment because I have the microphone and he's not here. He probably wouldn't like me saying that. He wouldn't like me just complimenting him but I have the mic and he's heading to a beach in Florida. So I get to say what I want. And before I knew Pastor Lee as a communicator, before I had heard him teach and before I had seen him lead the organization radio, all things he does incredibly well. Before I knew any of that, I knew him as a friend and a father. I knew somebody who would text me how my family was doing. I knew somebody who we talked in his living room until midnight about revival where we read books together where he sowed into my life and ministry way before we ever knew I was gonna come to radiant. And when Pastor Lee offered Rachel and I the position to come here, I didn't know Jack about radiant. I didn't know if the church was cool. I didn't know if it was terrible. I didn't know, I really didn't know anything. All I knew is I knew I could trust Pastor Lee and Jane because they were a father and a mother. And they have been a father and a mother to so many and have paid such a cost for it. And I just have to be honest, like I get, you know, like you do, like when people like kind of attack your dad, like you get a little riled up, like I get, I get a little riled up, you know, Lee has to calm me down. But you know, when people get critical of things like when we're expanding and looking at new buildings and they lob criticisms and you're just about money and these things, what they don't know is that Pastor Lee has spent literally thousands of hours on his face and knees before the Lord, crying out for the lost, crying for our city, praying for your marriage, praying for your family. He's not leading any of these things for his name. He as a father is saying, I want to see the family of God grow and he's leading our congregation in such a way that's so fatherly. And of course, many of you aren't gonna have that same personal relationship, but our goal is to be a family-oriented church. So the way we operate is that we're duplicating that heart and we don't always do it perfectly and we don't always get it right and we have to understand that family just isn't perfect, but we hope that you can feel and see that the rock of what it's built on is the word of God and being spirit and power and then we operate as a family. Ephesians 1, 5, I wanna read it in the new living translation. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure. Oh gosh, I love that so much. He adopted us into his own family. This is what he wanted to do. Why? Because it gave him pleasure to operate, a church operating as family. It gives pleasure to the glory of God and I love the language and scripture. We have been adopted into the kingdom of God. That word is special to Rachel and I and our family because our first born, Aliyah, who's eight years old, we adopted from birth and adoption was something that was always in our heart to do and I'll break down the story another time, but December 14th, the day that Aliyah was born, our hearts and our life just changed in every way and expanded so many things in our family and I hear a lot and this is awesome, like I appreciate it. I'll hear people say like, man, it's so incredible that Aliyah gets this opportunity to be in a Christian home and family and be raised up in such a way. It's awesome how the Lord rescued her like that and that's awesome. I think that's a fine perspective but the way I look at it is, man, I feel like Aliyah rescued us. Like the joy, I mean, I could unpack for so long just any of you who know Aliyah, she's just, she's wild and full of life and creative and joyful and fun and she has ministered and brought so much to our family just by being herself and I love that our family got more diverse. I love that our family got bigger and we didn't have to be the same on the outside for our skin but we bore the same name and we carry the same heart internally and this is how as a church we look and we operate at all of us, we say we are adapted sons and daughters. We all were far from him and each person is unique and precious not for the gifts they bring or what they can do first but for who they are and I just want to declare that over you that you are valuable and you are irreplaceable and family, you can't replace family. In corporation you can, you can just get somebody else to take another role in job but you're not filling a role in church. You're a family member and you bring a unique strand of God's DNA and through your adoption our family got bigger, our family got better, our family got richer. I love the adoption of God because the larger the family grows the more of God's DNA that we get to see and we see it fully on display. You were found by a father but you were formed in family. See family didn't save you and this church didn't save you. This church hasn't saved anybody. You were saved by grace through faith. You were saved by a savior who died a bloody death on a cross and a father who found you and pulled you to himself through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. You were found by a father but you are formed in family. We need one another in family. It's not enough to just have us and God because that's not the complete image of who God is and the whole idea is I don't have to serve. I don't have to lean in. I don't need close relationships. I don't need discipleships. I don't need mentorships. You know, I have my Bible and the internet and that's good enough. Well, you don't have all of God then. We need each other and the way that the church looks at those inside of the church is that this is where we're formed together. We've been found by the same father. We've been saved by Jesus but we're being formed together and we need one another. Paul prayed that you would all know the width, length, depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge and fills us with all the fullness of God. You cannot know the love of God in isolation. You need family around you. You cannot experience and know the fullness of the love of God without each other. So the way the church relates to us is family-oriented. Second is the way that we relate to the church and one another is family-oriented. I wanna read 1 Corinthians 4, 15 through 18. For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ yet you do not have many fathers. For in Jesus Christ I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me for this reason I have set Timothy to you who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere. This is what Paul's saying is like, man, we have 10,000 influencers. We have 10,000 people that wanna be on stage. Everybody wants their words to count. Everyone wants their gifts to shine but we need fathers and mothers. I'm really excited about our docuseries because you guys are gonna be able to meet Jim and Eva Kendricks, a family that has been here for I don't know quite how many years but you probably don't know that face when I say that name because they've never been on stage, they've never preached, they've never led worship. And yet their ministry and what they bring to the church I have received from more than almost anybody. Every time I go out in the lobby Eva Kendricks grabs my hand and she's crying half the time and she's like, Caleb, you're so filled with the Holy Spirit. We pray for your family every day and then Jim's right there. How's your family doing? How's your wife? What do you need and anything I can do for you and every single time I see them because why? They're coming to church and they're coming with a family oriented mindset. They're not waiting to be found. They're not waiting to be asked to do something. They're not waiting for an opportunity. They're going and just saying, they're just fathers and mothers who come and they just wanna pour out and love and Paul says, we got it backward. We all want church to be this place where we have our needs met and there's already an institution for meeting needs. It's called business. But family is not where we go to get our needs met. It's where we go to find our identity and our purpose and to serve. See the enemy, the enemy wants patrons and pews waiting to be entertained. The father wants sons and daughters in the living room waiting to serve. Kind of like grew over time. That was nice. This is our living room and this is our flat screen TV. I had to. The enemy doesn't want you to come to church. We all know that, but he can still win if we can come with just being a patron in the pew. If we can treat it like a business where we're just showing up to be entertained. I went and I looked and Radiant has like Yelp and Google reviews. Not only we have like a hundred of them. I was like, what? We have these and I was like going and looking at them this week because I'm like, who is like going to Yelp to find a church? If you're looking for a church, please don't go to Yelp to find your church. And if you found us by Yelp, then welcome. We're glad you're here. We've been praying for you. But I'm like looking at it and some of them are like, Pastor Lee's message is awesome. Worship, not the best. I'm like, aw. And I'm thinking about it. Like thinking of our worship leaders who are pouring their heart out using their spiritual gifts and people being like, oh, 3.7. Like how absurd that is? Like I was thinking about, I went over to Pastor John and Kendra's house a bunch of times watching Bill's games. And it was super fun because their cousin plays for the Buffalo Bills and I'm a massive Buffalo Bill's fan. And we had a great time and they would get food and make food. And one of the times it was like, it was my birthday the game fell on and his daughters baked me a cake. It was so sweet. I showed up and they baked me this delicious cake. And you know, I mean, what if I just left that? And I was like, hell bro, thanks so much for having us over. Such a sweet time. Can you tell your daughters 3.7 on the cake? Honestly, presentation, not great. Could have been better. I would have liked it better like this. Like when we translate, we're just obsessed with ratings, by the way. We got a chill. It's like we got a little bit of power. We're like, oh, I can hit you with a one star. You have to serve me. And we get to the church like that. And we're like, oh, I have the power to make noise or I have the power to complain or put Facebook statuses that I don't like different things. And so you need to do things my way. And it just doesn't compute to family. Family doesn't come in. We're not looking to have our needs met with something. Listen, we're in a big congregation. Like we all have massively different opinions. And we have to understand when we all gather together, not everybody's gonna like the same set list. Not everybody's gonna like the communication style of the speaker. Not everyone's gonna, every single thing that we do can and will be criticized. But when we carry a family mentality, we're looking at the identity and the heart of what God is doing. Not with a lens trying to be critical and criticizing what's happening. But we're saying, God, thank you for the family that you are releasing. And God, who do you want me to be a father and a mother to? Who do you want me to be a brother and a sister to? And many of you, I just wanna speak to you that maybe you do feel alone and maybe you do feel unseen and maybe you do feel unknown. And I want to encourage you. Come to church and go with the perspective of, man, who do you want me to bless today, Lord? Who needs to have a cup of coffee? Who needs to be asked out on a lunch date? Not guys to girls and girls to guys if you're single. I mean, I mean, maybe though, I mean, if you see someone great, go shoot your shot. I mean, not a bad thing, but that's not mostly, that's not exactly the spiritual ministry and the heart that we're looking for. But we're going into this congregation saying, I'm a family, my voice matters. And let me say this as the worship pastor at Radiant Church. We need your voice. We need you to sing. When you don't sing, your sound is missing. And when we lead worship and you come in, know that we as worship leaders, we need your worship. We need your song. We need your praise. It releases something in the room. It's not more powerful or more special that we have microphones. It's just to provide leadership so we can all join together. And what if we came into church and we knew, like Paul said, everybody come with a Psalm hymn and a spiritual song, just waiting to release that in the atmosphere, that's the sound of family. Family doesn't care about who has the microphone. Family doesn't care about who's taking the lead. Family cares that we're together in unity, moving forward. And that's what God is looking for because that blesses his heart and pleases his heart. The last one is the way that we relate to the world is family oriented. The way we relate to the world. And I said this question that the Lord posed to me that's just been resting on my spirit all week. What if we saw the lost as adopted sons and daughters and waiting? What if we didn't see them as the enemy? What if we didn't see our prodigals as ones who are just so far away but we could actually picture the seat at the table when they return? We could actually picture them worshiping in the presence of God because we know that they are a son and a daughter who's just waiting to come home. And the example the Lord put on my heart is Lain and Mindy Gordon, who are actually here in the room right now. They have just a really beautiful adoption story and in February, 2013, they applied for an adoption and in March, 2016, they were matched. And they were matched with Zeke Gordon or Juju as I've always called him. And man, it was beautiful, but there's one problem. His being matched in Haiti did not mean that the adoption was processed and you could not pass. And so for the next year and three months, the Gordon family had to just wait. They had already met Juju. They already knew he was a son. They already knew he belonged, but they had to wait for one year and three months. And I remember hearing their story over tacos at Mi Pueblo and just remembering how joyful it was to meet Aliyah and not realizing, oh my gosh, I cannot imagine the excruciating pain of one year and three months being separated, knowing that he belongs and yet he can't come home. And when I was talking to Lain about it, he said the unique thing about it is that we just felt completely out of control. We had no ability to do anything. All we could do is just pray. All we could do is pray and know that he was our son. He was our boy and he was gonna come home to us. And then one year and three months later, they got the call and they were able to go to Haiti and bring Juju home. And man, I think we had a picture. Did we already put it up there and take it down? Just such an electric smile. I was telling them like it's just so much life and such a beautiful story with their family. And I really felt the Lord's heart on that story this week. I was like, man, what if we thought of prodigals in that same way? They're adopted sons and daughters, but we haven't been able to bring them home yet. We haven't been able to prepare the seat and the table. And I know that in this room, we all have prodigals that we know. We all have lost ones. Let me say as radiant church, we are family oriented toward the world. What we are doing, we are doing not to exist within ourselves, but we are doing to set a table to call sons and daughters home. I wanna read a prophetic word that we received a few years ago from Banting Leapshire, pastor of Jesus' culture. Cause I want this to stir our faith tonight. He said, I wanted to declare this. There's gonna be a revival of prodigals marked by this church, talking about radiant church. I saw a prayer wall in the lobby that had names of prodigals on there. There's something about declaring prodigals to come home right now. I really believe there's an anointing on Pastor Lee and Jane. Them as a father and a mother to really have an environment where prodigals are gonna come home. I believe he so rejoices that we're together, but there's an empty seat at the table. There's an awareness that someone's missing. I believe this, that one of the main markings of what God is going to do in this house, and you're gonna see it, is you're gonna see prodigals start coming home in a really profound way. I'm telling you, you're gonna begin to hear stories about people that you haven't heard for years, sons and daughters you haven't heard from for five, six, seven years, about brothers that have been disconnected for 20 years. Different ones are going to start coming home. I think there's a real anointing on your pastors for this. I believe God is setting this up, and I believe one of the testimonies that is gonna come out of this house around the world is going to be that you are going to ignite the heart of the churches across America and faith for prodigals to come home, that the spirit of God is stronger than the spirit of the age. I saw a knock on the door and something shift with a father. He said, that's my boy, he's home. Come on, can we receive that word right now? I wanna invite you to stand. Man, that stirs my heart. Radiant, we're going into a time where we're talking about the radiant city vision. We're talking about moving forward into what God has for us. And my heart for us tonight is that the Holy Spirit would bring healing like we are singing about. And I feel it for a couple different people. The first is you're here at Radiant and you don't feel like you belong. You feel that spirit of isolation where you don't feel seen and you don't feel known, you don't feel loved, and you've always struggled to feel like you fit in a spiritual family. I believe the Lord is coming with a spirit of adoption, the Holy Spirit, the one we sung about. He is coming with a spirit of adoption to speak to you, you belong. There is a place at the table that you were made to be formed in family. The second group I felt was those of you who have prodigal sons and daughters. And maybe some of you have even, just for a season, even given up praying. And tonight the Father is stirring your heart just like Lane and Mindy where the Lord just held them through that time and said, just come on, keep praying, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. We have a prophetic declaration that this house is going to see prodigals come home in a special way. Your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, they're not too far gone. And the Lord wants to restore a spirit of faith that nobody is too far gone. Just thinking of Pastor John and his testimony, how he was far away from the Lord as in his words, as far as you can get. But Jane Cummings, the mother of the house said, mm-mm, he's a son. There's a spot, and I'm not gonna stop praying until he takes that spot. And it would have been awesome if he was right there when I pointed, but he's not. But still powerful. The third group that I feel right now where the Lord wants to minister where there is brokenness in your family unit. And right now, I believe this just prophetic word that Jenny sung earlier, that there's healing in the house tonight. I believe that's for right now. I believe that the Lord in the moment, Lord can come in a moment, he takes the lonely, sets them in families, but he's the one who brings the spirit of reconciliation. He turns the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. In one moment, he can make a severed relationship whole. In one moment, he can heal a broken marriage. In one moment, he can do what it would take to live a lifetime in our own strength. So I'm gonna pray. And as I pray, I just wanna invite you right now, whether you're watching online, you're at home, or you're in this room, if you fall into one of those categories, I just wanna invite you. I'm just extending a hand of faith, saying, would you join it again? Would you join this call of radiant to be family-oriented and what that means? And would you believe again for what God wants to do in families in Kalamazoo? So Father, we come to you as Father. We thank you that we've been adopted. Or we thank you for family. Or we thank you for the family of the body of Christ outside of radiant church. Or we thank you for the family of God in Kalamazoo and all the churches that bear your image in our city. And Lord, right now I just ask that you would set a fire in our heart for family again. God, that you would take the lonely and put us in families. God, that you would break off the orphan spirit right now. That spirit that is just, never feels like I belong and I never feel like I'm home and I never feel like I'm fit. God, I ask you would come with a spirit of adoption right now in this moment that you would speak our value. You would speak our worth. You would speak that you are irreplaceable. Someone needs to hear tonight. You are irreplaceable. When you aren't there, there's a spot missing. You are irreplaceable in the family of God. And Lord, I ask for faith to stir in our hearts for prodigals. God, you spoke this word three years ago. Lord, I ask that 2021 would be the year that we see it come to pass. God, I ask that the carpets at Richland and Portage would be, the front of the carpets would be soaked with tears of prodigals that are weeping and repenting again. God, I ask that our altars would be filled with chains that have broken off. God, I ask even this week, God, that a text will come that a phone call will come that says, Mom, Dad, I had the Lord speak to me or maybe just a sliver of an open door. God, I ask for faith to arise in our hearts. God, you are building a family. God, you are raising us up and you can make the crooked places straight in a moment. I know that there's been brokenness. I know there's been abuse. I know there's loneliness, but there's also a father. There's also a father who loves you and he takes the ones who are broken and he places them in family and he makes them whole. And so I ask for the healing oil of the Lord and the Holy Spirit to flow tonight. Lord, I ask for the presence and the power of God to rest on your family. Lord, I ask that you would unite your church, God, both at Radiant and in Kalamazoo. God, that we would see a united church heal the divided states of America. We say, only a united family can heal the division in our nation. So would you unite your church and unite your family, Lord, and would you raise them up to bear your image and the glory of God in the earth? In the name of Jesus, amen.