Inspire

Guest (Female): Aloha and welcome to the Inspire Church podcast. Whether you're on a walk, driving to work, or just need to hear a fresh word, this is your spot to get inspired, challenged, and equipped to live a faith-filled life. Each episode, you'll hear powerful sermons straight from our weekend services that speak into your life, your leadership, and your legacy.

Before we dive in, do us a favor: hit that subscribe button, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs a word today. And if you want more resources, like Pastor Mike's newest book, *Blow Your Mind*, head over to mikekai.tv. All right, let's lean in, open your hearts, and let God speak through this message.

Mike Kai: Hallelujah. Come on, I believe lives are going to be changed today. I believe that faith is going to be filled. Come on, I believe. I'm prophesying over your life today that God's about to do something big in the mighty name of Jesus. Come on, and everybody said... Hallelujah. Praise Him one more time. Thank you, Lord. Amen and amen.

Before we begin, number one, if you are from the military, we want to welcome you to church. I know you might be scoping it out, trying to find the lay of the land, what church you want to go to. We want to welcome you from the military. If you're not from the military and you're still looking for a church, I hope this becomes your church.

I want to welcome this guy right here, Rodney Orias. I don't know if you know him, but it's good to have him back on worship. He was the kahu, the shepherd, one of the kahus at Kamehameha Schools. But he's a good man, and it's good to have him back. And then my good friends, Jeremy and Bree in the front row, all the way from Hilo, Hawaii. Come on.

One last thing. Pahala, Naalehu. I grew up there for two years. Kahu. I've been in contact with Pastor Troy Gakayan. Pastor Troy is leading the charge. There's not a lot of churches in Pahala and Naalehu. Maybe there's more than I realize, but there's not a lot. When Lahaina, when that fire raged through Lahaina, taking forever to build by the way, but when that happened, the pastors after one year, they were PTSD burned out from the trauma and helping people, the spiritual warfare, all of that.

So Pastor Troy, we're trying to get him some relief because he's a one-man show. The mayor of Hilo of Hawaii Island is really depending upon him, Mayor Kimo Alameda, who is doing a fine job by the way. Anyway, I'm glad you're in the house of God. Let's pray. Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus. We thank you for your presence and your power here today.

Lord, as we open up the Word, would you speak to us today? So God, we give you all the glory, the honor, the praise. Help me to see what I never saw before. Help me to say what I never meant to say in Jesus' name. And everybody said... Amen. Before you have a seat, give somebody a high-five, fist bump, elbow, chicken wing, double-tap, man hug, something to somebody around you. It's good to be in the house of God with you.

I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Colossians. We're going to be in the book of Colossians today. I want to welcome Mililani and Kailua to this service. Would you guys welcome them please? Mililani and Kailua have joined us today. We're going to open up the Word. Can we release the worship team? Thank you, worship team. We'll see you guys in a few. Thank you. Give them a hand, everybody. So good.

We are going to be in the book of Colossians today. It's right after the book of Philippians. Then you go to Colossians. As you're opening up your Bible and you're going to the book of Colossians, we have been in this journey through the Bible for 27 weeks of going through probably what we would deem the most important 27 stories. I know we could find 52. I know we could find 300 if we really wanted to, but I wanted to give everybody an overview of the Word of God so they knew where to go.

If they did not know where to go, they would find where to go because mostly we don't necessarily teach topical all the time. But it may look like it's topical. We're actually teaching a text and we make it look topical. It's about how you prepare the meal. You might have all the same ingredients, but it's how you prepare the meal and serve the meal, which is the most important part.

By the way, if you are here and you haven't registered for the 25-year anniversary of Inspire Church, we're going to celebrate that at the Blaisdell and you've got to get your seats because it will fill up in about two weeks. I believe it's going to be at capacity. Get your free tickets. We're buying out the whole place. You don't have to pay anything for it. You can bring an offering if you want to, but you don't have to pay anything for these seats. It's not a concert. It's going to be a time of worship and celebration. It is going to be incredible.

But when you go through the book of Colossians, if someone had given me this advice, I would have really appreciated it if I got this advice. But I didn't. I got other great advice. Once I got through the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and developed a hunger for God's Word, I wish somebody told me then you go to the book of Colossians. Because the book of Colossians will help you with your identity in Christ.

Like most of us don't have a problem with our identity, but maybe we might have a problem with the identity in how God sees us and who God is. And when you open up the book of Colossians, it just blows your mind because you hear everything in the book of Colossians is everything you need to know who Christ is. When I look at the book of Colossians, I think about how Paul is writing this letter. It's a letter. Everybody say 'letter.' Okay, we call it a book, but it's actually a letter.

And this letter is called the prison epistles. And so Paul is in a Roman prison. He's chained between a couple of guards. Sometimes he was under house arrest, and sometimes he was actually in a prison cell. Now, when you think about prison, we're not wearing orange or whites. There are no rights. You're not getting a degree, you know, if you go to the federal penitentiary, come out with a Master's degree. Amazing.

But not in Paul's day. In Paul's day, you were lucky if you had food. In Paul's day, you were lucky if they didn't beat you. In Paul's day, there were rats all over the place and there was no union looking out for you or NAACP making sure that you're going to be okay. There was none of that back in that day. And so Paul hears about one of these churches that he started in a region of Colossae.

Now Colossae and Laodicea, and Laodicea is in the New Testament and you're going to read about it in the book of Revelation. And this is the place where Paul preached the gospel. He went all over to bring and spread the Word of God. And while he did, he planted churches and a young man caught fire and his name was Epaphras. Epaphras took that word that he heard from Paul, all that training that he got from him, he took it all the way to Colossae and he began a young church.

Now that church was mostly Gentile people, very few Jewish people at the time were there in Colossae, but it was Gentiles. And so he's preaching the word, the church is growing, but somehow you know how the enemy is. He came in and the enemy snaked into the group of people and began to poison their minds that they were missing something. There was something missing. And even though he was preaching the full gospel of Christ, they were telling the people that he's missing it and you're missing something.

So they would take people into this thing called Gnosticism. They were Gnostics. The word 'Gnosticism' is really the word 'knowledge,' but they were Gnostics. And the Gnostics or the Gnosticism that was spreading its way throughout Paul's church in Colossae began to poison the people. And the people started to take authority over other people and initiate them and told them you've got to get this course, you've got to have this. If you're not doing this with us, you guys are missing it. You need to come.

And they would initiate them into a kind of human, demonic knowledge that they had and they began to dumb down Jesus, His power and His person. They began to dilute Him. So Epaphras goes to Rome and Paul is writing three more epistles. He's writing one to the Philippian church in Philippi. He's writing another one to the people in Ephesus. He's writing another one to a man named Philemon who goes to the church in Colossae and he writes this one to Colossae and the church in Laodicea is going to share that letter and read it. We call it the book of Colossians.

The book of Colossians is interesting because when you look at the book of Colossians, it's really Paul trying to inoculate the church from what it's already been infected with. And so it got into the church. And it's not new today. Stuff gets into the church. It's real easy for it to come in. You don't realize it because the bigger you get and there are way more entry points into the church. You don't know that people grouped up together, they meet other people and that's what the church does.

But there are times that different viruses come into the church. That's a virus. And a virus is, I would call it, a demonic attack. I'm going to call it a demonic attack, but I'm going to call it a virus just for today. So that virus of Gnosticism came in. And here's what Paul says. The big picture of what Paul says is this. Watch this, watch this. I'm going to do some math. Here we go. Are you ready? Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

And you might feel like you've got nothing, but if you've got Jesus, you've got everything. You might feel like you don't have enough, but if you've got Jesus, you've got more than enough. Come on, Jesus is more than enough. And so when we look at the book of Colossians, he's telling you Jesus is all that you need. But let me remind you of who Jesus is. And so what I would have preached last week, I'm bringing today and I just want to give you a little portion of what I was supposed to preach last week until the weather stopped us.

And in Colossians chapter one, verse 15 to 20, it says, Paul writes, 'Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before,' say before. Say it before, don't crack your voice like me. Say before. 'Before anything was created and is supreme,' say supreme, 'over all creation. For through Him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones and kingdoms and rulers,' watch this, 'and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else.'

Come on, He's the uncreated One. He is the Alpha, the Omega, He's the First and the Last. Dad, who created God? Nobody. God. Think about that for a moment. He existed before anything else and He holds all creation together. And Christ is also the Head of the church, which is His body. And He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead, so He is first in everything.

For God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through Him, God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. That we could preach for four weeks. Just that. And when I look at this and I think about this, there are four things that he hammers for us in this verse. Number one, it's supremacy, the supremacy of Christ.

He is supreme. Supreme means he's the first. Christ stands as the image of the invisible God and firstborn over all creation. Number one, he establishes supremacy. So if you want to be a Gnostic, go all right ahead and be a Gnostic, but Christ is supreme is what Paul is saying. The second thing that Paul says is number two, creation. All things, visible and invisible, including thrones and dominions and principalities and powers were created through Christ and for Him.

He establishes that Christ is the Creator of creation. In other words, people who are manifesting into the universe and sending good vibes into the universe that Jesus already created. How funny, how hilarious. You've got a good vibe about you. Sometimes I meet people for the first time. 'Oh, I like your vibe.' Okay. It's the Holy Spirit, what can I say? You've got a vibe. All right. Think about this for a moment. Think about... Number one, supremacy. Number two, creation.

Third thing, number three, reconciliation. He reconciles all things to Himself, heaven and earth. He reconciled it. He reconciled me and you because of His blood shed on the cross. The atoning blood, atonement, at-one-ment with God because of His atonement for me and for you. You and I can come boldly before the throne of grace, even though we have no reason to, we have no righteousness to. It is because of the righteousness and the goodness of God that you and I come into this throne room, the atonement of our sins.

The fourth thing, the fourth one, divine fullness. Divine fullness. He is everything, everything. All the fullness of God dwells in Christ. It's interesting because he establishes who Christ is. But still there are people and I've got to say it, that there are people, they've got Christ but they add a little bit more. I've got Christ but I still got my new age beliefs. I've got Christ but I'm still in sexual immorality. I'm in Christ but I still got my culture. Yeah, the part you can keep, part you can't.

There's all these things that we add to. But let me tell you about the viruses that I've experienced that came into the church. I remember when we had a young adults ministry, you know, 25-year history, so there's a long history. It's not a pop-up. Come on, somebody. And I tell you what, we had a young adults ministry. This was before Becca and Elijah, this was before Dominic Jones, this was before Clint and Michelle, this was all before that.

And I remember that we had a young adults ministry and these guys came in with their own ministry and started attending. Before I know it, my guys weren't attending, were attending their thing. Before I know it, they were coming back and judging us, telling us that we don't have what they got. I was like, man, that's a virus that came into the church. And before I knew it, half of those young adults went with them and eventually fell away from the Lord.

In a big church, it's hard to monitor. In a smaller church, it's so much easier. Let me give you four viruses, four of them that I just want you to know and be aware of them. And they come in, they creep in. They creep in and sometimes it comes in with good intentions and then eventually the intentions get morphed up and they change up and they're not the same as they were before.

Here's the first one. The first one, spiritual exploitation. Spiritual exploitation. I'm going to hit this one the first one because this is the freshest. Spiritual exploitation. Okay, now listen to me. You all know that I love business people and entrepreneurs. I love that. I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I call myself maybe a pastorpreneur. Coined that phrase, but I really believe in that stuff.

I really believe that you are empowered to go into the marketplace and dominate and make a difference. Okay, so go own that mountain, seven mountains, seven gates theory. Think about this, made popular by Bill Bright and Loren Cunningham. When I look in spiritual exploitation, I'm talking about people that are coming to church for the specific reason of building up their clientele. Seen that happen. Don't come here to do that. Okay, anyway, do I have to say anything more? No, I move on. All right.

Here's another one. Here's another virus. Another virus that comes through the church is, we'll talk about hyperspirituality. Hyperspirituality. What do I mean by hyperspirituality? I'm talking about people who sometimes, if you don't have this... I don't know. I don't know. You've got to come soak with us. You've got to come with us. Like you're missing it. You guys are missing it.

And normally these come in the form of ministries and not churches. And they what they do is they sow discord and that happened to my prayer ministry. Like our prayer ministry, that came in, that came into our prayer ministry and divided our prayer ministry. And pretty soon they start to question the authority of the covering church, so to speak. 'We don't need covering, where's that covering?' and all of that, that's hyperspirituality.

Hyperspirituality means that you have to come here and you have to go there and if you go there, then you're going to get this special blessing. And if you see the gold dust and maybe even the feathers, you know what I'm talking about? And that happened to us too. Hyperspirituality. But it's got a cousin and the cousin of hyperspirituality is called the religious spirit.

A religious spirit is more of a judgmental, legalistic, judgmental. And a lot of times it could be because of your old church experience where you came from, that that's the way that you were brought up and so now you bring that view to where you go. And what I notice about churches that are... And I'm not hitting on churches. I just want you to know that, okay? I'm just trying to protect my church, okay?

Is when you have this in that particular church and you breathe that, eventually it will eat itself and cannibalize the leader. I've seen it happen. All right, okay, moving right along. I've got one more. One more. It's not that bad though, but one more, no, it is actually, it is really bad, but it's not here. Here it is, number four: Wokeism. You don't want that in the church. It's dangerous.

But this is, these are the viruses that come in. And Paul is telling the church in such a way that you've got to be careful of all of these things because when you do, you are going to be fine. Now listen to me. The main word that he's going to use in chapter two, verse one to 23, and in verse one he says, 'I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea.' Now I want to stop right there.

And one of the reasons... no, I want to keep on going. 'I want you to know how much I have agonized for some of you who wonder why does he hold the Bible and read his notes and the Word of God in his notes.' Because my Bible is 10-font and I'm older and I read 14-font, okay? All right, that's why I do this. But I bring the Bible up just to validate everything that I'm doing. Is that okay? All right.

Verse one: 'I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church in Laodicea. Look at that, I've agonized for you and for many other believers who have never met me personally. I want them, Kailua, I want them, Mililani, to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ Himself. In Him lie all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am telling you this so that no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.

For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you, and I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. And now,' everybody say now, 'and now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Here we are. Let your roots grow down into Him and let your lives be built on Him and then your faith will grow strong in the truth that you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness.'

I want to give you three things with the time that I have left with you. Three things with the time that we've got together. And by the way, don't leave early, okay? In the altar call, don't leave, okay? All right, here we go. Three things that I've got for you. Even when we're done with the altar call, please don't leave. I've got three things for you.

Number one: roots deepen in the right source. Roots deepen in the right source. When your roots go down deep, like you've got to have deep roots. You can't have shallow roots in shallow soil. You've got to have deep roots. And to be able to grow the root system of your life, we are compared to trees, we're compared to vineyards, and roots deepen in the right source.

The way that your roots grow is that you are planted rather than potted. You want to get planted and you don't want to be potted. A potted plant goes from this place to this place to that place and they never get planted. And in order, they never grow roots and they never grow roots because they're always uprooting. Now I know you might be from the military and you're here for two and a half years, hopefully longer. I'm not talking about you. I'm not talking about you.

You've got to do what you've got to do. But there are people who don't have to do it and they go from this place to this place to this place to that place. They take their pot and they go here. I've had people come up to me, 'So this week I go listen to you and then next week I'm going to listen to Pastor Wayne Cordero because he's coming back from Oregon, and then the following week I'm going to listen to Pastor Waxer of One Love.' I'm like, 'Dude, just get planted. Like what are you doing?'

Think about this for a moment. I love it when people say when I meet people and I finally say, 'Do you have you heard of Inspire Church?' 'Yeah.' 'Have you ever been?' 'No.' 'What? You've never been to Inspire?' 'No, I've never been to Inspire Church.' 'Just come one time. Just come one time.' You know why I tell them one time? Because they're coming back a second time. I said just one, just come one time. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. They come one time, then they come two times. Then there are people that I meet that say, 'Oh, I used to go to Inspire Church.'

Now I don't like that one. I just want... I have a hard time with that. I'm just like, oh. I know not every church is for everybody, but for one reason or another, because this happened and oh, that happened or the coffee was... the coffee was too hot. People left because the coffee was too hot. Bro, you go to church for the wrong reasons, my God. You go to church for coffee? Listen, listen, not every... this church is not meant for everybody. I wish it was, but it's not.

But when I hear people tell me 'I used to go to Inspire,' I'm like that, I'm like, oh. 'Where are you going? Where are you going?' 'Oh, yeah.' Probably not as good as... no, just kidding. Just kidding. I just think if you ain't laughing, you ain't learning. Come on, I'm just trying to keep you engaged, especially Mililani. Their pastor is... he always loses focus. Love you, Clint. We love you, Clint.

But watch this. But the third one is when I find out, and this is the interesting one, is where people say, 'Oh, yeah, I've been to 15 churches.' Okay, if you're... if you don't move because of your job and you've been to 15 churches because of your job, because you move, I get it. I get it. But if you've been to 15 churches in your lifetime and you only live in Hawaii, hmm. Hmm.

You've got to get planted. Get planted. Find your pastor and get planted in that pasture in Jesus' name. Somebody say amen. Because why? Because roots are important because when you grow roots, you grow deep and roots deepen in the right source. That's why Psalm 92:13 says, 'Those who are planted,' everybody say planted, 'not potted, those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish,' say flourish, 'flourish in the courts of our God.

And when you are planted, you flourish. If you're potted, you're stunted.' You know one of the greatest trees in California is actually a bonsai tree. It's a bonsai tree that was let out of its pot. And they're all along the coast, Santa Cruz and parts of San Diego, beautiful. I think they're... I don't know, I think they're a type of a cypress. Yeah, thank you, Dennis. Yeah, they're a type of a cypress.

But if you leave it in a pot, oh, it's Miyagi-San all day. 'Oh, Daniel-San. Oh, the front of tree, Daniel-San, back of tree.' I didn't know a tree had a front and a back. A bonsai is nice to watch, pretty to have, but never reaches its full potential. I'm only saying it at this service. It just came to me.

A bonsai tree that is left in a beautiful, beautiful cement kind of flat pot can be 50 years old or more that's been stunted to the growth of the size of the pot. But when the bonsai is taken out and it's put into the ground in the right environment, in the right soil, in the right place, it grows to be beautiful.

Number one, your roots deepen in the right source. Let's go to number two. Number two: roots strengthen through obedience. But I'm going to change it at this service, that roots strengthen in storms. It says let your faith, then your faith will grow strong in the truth. Okay, the truth of God's Word that you were taught, so you have to obey it, not just read it, and you will overflow with thankfulness. But I understand for the sake of the scripture that we're going to go technically with roots strengthen through obedience, but I also want to say that roots strengthen in storms.

I don't know how, I don't know if you're in a storm right now. I don't know if you came through one. I don't know. Anybody been through a storm since January 1st, 2026? I know I have several. Been through a storm? No storm? Oh, I wish I had that life. No storm? You good, bro. Right on, right on. Some of you are here today because a storm sent you here.

A storm, a gale force wind cornered you to a place where you didn't want to go. You didn't want to go. You were fighting it the whole time. You're fighting against that wind, you're fighting against that wind. You've got your umbrella this way, it's not this way anymore. You're putting your umbrella this way and you're fighting through the storm of life and you just can't do it... No, no. You're at church. You're at church. Michael Jackson, Fred Astaire right there.

Think about this for a moment. A storm might have pushed you to church. Or some of you, the storm is happening and you're still in church. You know why? Because you have roots. You are rooted. Come on, I know we can get better, but man, I'm telling you, you're here because you've been rooted.

I went to the Big Island where some of you know that that's where I'm from and Ka'u, Pahala, Naalehu got hit. And I don't know what the latest estimate is. We're going to find out by the next service. Sorry. But 300 trees? We lost 400 trees. That's a lot of trees, guys. This one right here, uprooted. How's it uprooted? Well, I've got some theories. I'm not a horticulturist, I'm not a treologist, whatever I don't know what you call that guy. Botanist, I don't know. I'm a pastor.

But I'm guessing that tree, top heavy. Top heavy. If you maybe if you pruned that thing... if that thing got pruned a little bit, got trimmed a little bit, it wouldn't have been a sail. And then I don't know, I'm just a pastor. Maybe the root system not as deep as maybe it could have been. I don't know. I saw this tree in the Waikoloa area just the other day as I was driving by, which is a lane of beautiful 80-year-old trees. And all that whole lane survived.

It was like yes. Except the one right there on the corner that didn't have any of them next to it and that big tree, massive tree, down. It's an empty space there now. They took it away, they took everything away. No roots connected with one another under the ground while they were rooted. So your roots connect with my roots. You know what I'm talking about? We are rooted, we're close together.

Storms come, sends you here. You go through that type of life and that's what happens. Worship team, at least keyboard can come up right now. That's why you have to get planted in the right place. Whether it's Inspire or a church called Perspire or Aspire or Broke-tire. Get planted. Get planted. Find a church and get planted. Don't dabble, don't bonsai. Get planted.

'But Pastor, I'll be gone in two and a half years. We PCS.' I get it. We love you. But man, when you uproot, you take some of our roots with you. Why? Because you gave. You know what it means to get rooted and planted in a church? This is why I look at it. Number one, you're connected. You're in a connect group. You get in one. Number two, you serve. And when you're serving in a connect group or you're serving, I find most connect group people serve.

And then you serve. You reach people, you make disciples, you multiply leaders. And when you begin to serve, you begin to connect and then you begin to give, not necessarily in order. Do it all one time. Your life will flourish. And I want you to know, here is the test though. If you end up moving somewhere else, like to the continent, and you move, it's going to be hard. I've got to leave that people, got to leave that church. It always is.

'I can't find a church like Inspire.' I know. Now, just kidding. I'm just kidding, I'm just playing. Sounds prideful. I'm not. But everybody's... 'Pastor, can you help me find a church? Can you help me find a church where we move into Bragg, Fort Bragg, North Carolina?' I've got a... I've got two churches for you. 'Pastor, we're moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico.' I'm going to pray for you. Tough city, tough city, tough city, tough city, man. Got to get a good church. Because you uproot, and when you uproot, Daryl Hall and John Oates from the '80s: 'Every time you go away, you take a piece of me.' Never mind.

Last one, number three. Rooted lives... look at that, 'and you will overflow with thankfulness. You will overflow with thankfulness. You will overflow with thankfulness.' Rooted lives overflow with gratitude. Rooted lives overflow with gratitude. I was so thankful, I'm so grateful. Yesterday, Lisa and I were in Hilo. Coming back from Hinano and Milton Hinau's 25-year anniversary. Are they here at church today? They slept in? Wow. Anyway, no, they're still on the Big Island, they're still there. And 25-year renewal of vows ceremony in Hilo Bay. So beautiful.

And Lisa and I had to... our car was all the way... or our plane was all the way in Kona. So we had to fly to Kona to catch our flight. So we were driving on that Alaskan Airlines, aka Hawaiian Airlines. I'm confused. Catch our flight here. One hour and 40 minutes, yeah babe? One hour and 40 minutes. You look scared. I'm good, I'm not going to say anything bad. I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm good, yeah.

And we were driving up, we were driving up... you drive all the time. We're driving up Mauna Kea on the right-hand side. Wow, Saddle Road is dangerous. Mauna Kea is so beautiful. Look at look at Mauna Kea, look. I know. Told her twice, 'Look.' She's watching our daughter play a game, play a volleyball game, Cal State Northridge against Pepperdine. She plays for Pepperdine. We're watching their volleyball game and we're cheering. I've got the sign up.

I'm like, 'Babe, look, Mauna Kea from this angle.' 'Oh, yeah, I know.' And then she goes, 'What mountain is that over there?' I said, 'Mauna Loa. City girl, city girl. Mauna Loa.' Going through and I'm just talking. I was like, 'God, what a great... we got to Milton and Hinano's celebration and what a summer, our grandkids were here.' And I'm just reminiscing with her, just reminiscing just for two minutes. Just reminiscing.

Here's the picture, can I just show you? I'm just reminiscing. This is my... this is what happened this summer. Family and friends and look at my grandson right there. Come on, hit that bag. Pop, pop, pop. Hit that bag. Come on, one more time. Go, go, go, pop, pop, pop. There you go. And and we were just having such a good time and I'm talking and I start getting emotional. But she's still watching the game, she doesn't see the like the little tears. I never mind, I just inhale my tears, you know what I'm saying? Just bring them back in, just bring them back in.

And I was just thinking about how thankful that I was ministering to a young man yesterday and he's going through a really tough time. Really tough time. Some of it decision-making that's brought this on and some of it is not being in church. Had a chance to minister to him yesterday and I don't want to tell you too much, but I just told him, I said, 'You have to have a long view. A longer runway. God's got a long runway for your life.'

Sometimes we think it's a helicopter pad. It's not. It's a runway. And you may not be able to see beyond what you're looking at, this storm right in front of you. But I'm telling you, I was there. When I was 21 years old, I was there and I want to tell you God's got a plan for your life. And I broke off the spirit of suicide over him, the thoughts of suicide. I broke that off in the name of Jesus. Started crying.

God's got a long runway for your life. God's got a long plan for your life. God's got plans for you you don't even know about, but you've got to get rooted and you've got to obey and you're going to find out all that He has for you. No matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, no matter how old you are. So you've got to be thankful.

So last night, I was like... I brought my keyboard player up. Tell them your name. MJ. We've got great keyboard players. And I just started going... just thinking about you probably know this song. And I just went... 'Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I'm just grateful for You.'

Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I'm just grateful for You. God, I'm just grateful for You. Come on, stand. Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I'm just grateful for You. God, I'm just grateful for You. And all my life You've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for You. Come on, sing it out. God, I'm just grateful for You. Yeah. Come on.

Who am I? Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I'm just grateful for You. God, I'm just grateful for You. I'm just grateful. And all my life You've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for You. God, I'm just grateful for You. And I, I'm lifting both of my hands because You gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm giving all that I am because You gave me chance after chance after chance.

And I, I'm lifting both of my hands and You gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm giving all that I am because You gave me chance after chance after chance. Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I'm just grateful for You. God, I'm just grateful for You. And all my life You've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for You. God, I'm just grateful for You.

Don't you just love that song? Don't you just... why'd we stop? Because I've got to pray. I stopped because we have to pray. Because all my life You've been right there by my side, even when I couldn't see it, even when I didn't know it. All your life He's been with you. All your life He's been with you. Some of you, you're going through a medical storm. Some of you going through a marriage storm. Some of you going through a money storm. Some of you going through a mental storm.

And I want you to know God's with you. He's right there by your side. And maybe you've never given your life to Jesus. What? You are missing out. You can't live your life without Jesus. How do people do it? How do you do? How do you cope? How do you manage? What about... come on, you can't save yourself. You can't put yourself on a cross and die for people. You've got to die to yourself, and when you give your life to Jesus, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's my sin and your sin.

But you've got to surrender your life to Jesus. You've got to give Him your heart, you've got to give Him your life. You've got to give Him your life, you've got to lay it down. Today's the day. Be ready today because in the next 30 seconds, we're going to lead you in that prayer. And you never know, nobody's promised tomorrow. We're not promised tomorrow. I want tomorrow, but we're not promised tomorrow.

And there's only two places when you die... there's only two places. The world will give you options. 'Oh, the universe, you'll be in the universe. Oh, purgatory, your Catholic family will pray you out. Reincarnation, you're coming back one day. You lived before, you're going to live again. You might be somebody else, you might be an animal.' No. Jesus said it's appointed once for a man to die, and then comes eternity. One time.

The world's gone crazy, if you've noticed, and it's only going to get more. Give your life to Jesus. Put your plant in the ground and let He help you grow in your life. With every eye closed right now and every head bowed, I want to lead you in that prayer. No matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, whether good or bad, successful or not, we all come to Jesus just as we are.

So at the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. From the front row to the top row, from the left side to the right side, Kailua, Mililani, if you're still with me, at the count of three. I'm going to go one, two, three. When you hear me clap, at the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. Hands going up already. So get ready to give your life to Jesus. We're going to pray out loud. You're going to repeat this prayer. Come on, He's right there by your side.

Here we go. One, He will never let you down. Two, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Here we go. One, two, three. Put your hand up if that's you. Mike, that's me, Mike, that's me. I need Jesus in my heart. One and two, God bless you. And three right there, four, five, and six. God bless you. And seven and eight, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. God bless you. 33 right there, baby girl. 34 right there. 35 right here. Come on, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 right there, 41. That's 41, 42, 43. God bless you. 43, 44, 45, 46. Come on, one in overflow, that's 47. If I missed you, you're in, though. You're in. Come on, 47.

Come on, I want everybody to repeat this prayer after me. Everybody, especially the 47 and that one in overflow. Repeat after me. Say: Jesus, today I surrender. Give my life. Thank You for dying on the cross, shedding Your blood that washes my sins as white as snow. I also thank You that when my time comes, I'll be in Your presence for all eternity. Thank You for loving me before I first loved You. And I bless Your holy name. In Jesus' name I pray. And everybody said... Amen. Come on, thank the Lord, everybody.

Guest (Female): What a powerful word. Come on, somebody. If that stirred something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, rate it, and let us know how God is speaking to you through these messages. We believe your best days are ahead and we're honored to be part of the journey. For sermon notes, leadership tools, coaching resources, and more, visit mikekai.tv. Stay inspired, stay planted, and stay ready because God's not done with you yet. Until next time, God bless you and aloha.