Be Different

**Tasia** (0:00)
But we are, before we hop into the message, I'm very excited because this morning, we will actually hear from, I say special guest, but he is not at all a guest to this house. He's actually a friend of New Vision. His name is Pastor Brad Keller. He's been here several times. If you've been to New Vision for any prolonged periods of time, he's preached several times. He is a personal friend to our lead pastor, Pastor Kevin and his wife, Melissa.
And so he is here this morning. I believe that his word, the word that he has, I got to listen a little bit during first service. And so I believe that it's going to challenge, but also encourage us this morning. And so, but Pastor Brad Keller, he is a missionary for a ministry called Youth Alive.
And this ministry, and he'll get to tell you a little bit about it himself. But this ministry allows students, it equips students and empowers students to preach the gospel and be missionaries right in their own schools and among their friends and their peers. So he has dedicated his life to equipping and empowering students to be able to do that. And so we're going to get to hear from him this morning. But as we do that, can we give him just a really nice New Vision welcome this morning as he comes to the stage?

**Brad Keller** (1:12)
Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Tasia. What an honor to be in God's house with God's people. I want to take just a moment to honor your pastors and so thankful for them and their friendship over many years of ministry. You know, you always have those people that you can count on, the people that you can go to. And Pastor Kevin and Mel are those people for me. I love them and appreciate them. And I'm sad they're not here, but I'm glad they're not here because, man, I got the microphone. Let's go. And it's going to be a great day. Thank you, worship team. Let's give them a great big hand. What an awesome time together today. And as I was worshiping first service, the Lord brought this scripture to my mind. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. That's Psalms 122.1. I am glad to be here in God's presence today. I don't know about you, but there's no place that I'd rather be today than drinking some coffee with some good people and being with Jesus. Amen? Amen.
I heard this, you know, some time ago during COVID, I know you're going to be like, this is from Spider-Man, but it's not. Okay.
It says with great challenge comes great opportunity. With great challenge comes great opportunity. And I want you to have that in your heart and in your mind today as we continue to move through this service. But before we go one step further, I just want to say, now we've prayed for these students and these leaders to go to camp, but they're going to need more prayer. Don't forget to pray for them later today, especially those leaders for patience. It's going to be hot week. They're going to need some patience. Pray for those kids this week that they drink lots of water and that the Lord is going to intervene in their life this week. So, as you think about it over the next few hours and days, just continue to pray for them. Today, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about myself personally. Then I'm going to share with you our mission as a missionary a little bit. You probably noticed there's a little table out there. It's got a QR code in it. We love to connect with you. We find the prayer cards just aren't what they used to be. Everybody's got one of these. You can scan your QR code on the phone and follow us on all the socials, whichever social you're on. I try to be on it. My name is spelled funny, B-R-A-D-L-Y. There's no E in Bradley. And there was a Bradley Keller here in Kansas City for a little while. He was a pitcher, I believe, for the Royals, but he's gone. So I want you to know, if you even look me up on the Google, Brad Keller Youth Alive, you're going to see my beautiful face. And we have a few stickers out there, too. We want you to be aware of those things. And we're going to talk about the Fire Bible that sits out on that table here in just a little bit. Then we're going to get into the word today. You're like, who is this guy? Some of you may recognize my face, and some of you don't. Well, I'm a farm kid from Nebraska, and I may be a small town boy, but I know God has a sense of humor. You know, not because I look in the mirror every day, but because this country boy married a city girl. My father-in-law worked in lower Manhattan his whole career, and my wife grew up in North Jersey, just outside of the city, and this boy met her in Springfield, Missouri. She's much younger than me. I robbed the cradle. Just so you know, I'm not going to tell you her age, but I want you to know that. But this small town boy, I'm so fortunate. We got three kids, two girls, and a son. My son married a Kansas city girl. So I'm thankful for that.