annual? Yeah, first year it's estimated at 2.4 million. TOT. TOT, transient occupancy tax. And then there's sales tax and property tax issues. Sales, yeah, sales tax would be separate. Property tax, if that was going to be your next question, is based on the assessed value after construction. And so that would be roughly in the range of 240,000 a year paid. I do have another question for you, Bonnie. When someone spoke to selling public lands, we've also been buying public lands. So we've been buying public lands and I can think of pack station north and south that we've been converting to affordable housing. Can you think of any other projects or do you have an estimate of how many public, or private properties the city's acquired for the public use of affordable housing lately? Yeah, for all three of the projects, the public projects that we have that are 100% affordable projects, which is just under 400 units. And all three of those projects have required the city purchasing land in order to make those projects happen. The first project actually was a land dedication from the developer of which this developer team was part of. So they helped create the project for pack station south. Pack station south is the project that's across the street from the proposed hotel project. It's under construction right now and it's 70 units of affordable housing. And I did wanna add on one thing about the affordability level for those public projects is that they are affordable for between the range of 60% of area median income down to 30% or below. And so for the public projects that the city invest in, we really invest in those that are hardest to get built and we do monitor those annually. So that ranges on average of from a studio to around $900 a month up to a three bedroom family around 2400. Looks like Mr. Butler has something to add. If I could also add real quickly, Vice Mayor, in addition to the projects that Bonnie just outlined, those are most top of mind because they're currently underway. But we also recently acquired as the council knows the corner of highway one and nine where the current central home supply businesses with the goal of also advancing additional affordable housing on that site. And I'll add in because as we're talking about too, and Lee's in my ear, we also acquired 125 coral in the last two years and we're contemplating that site for potentially an expansion of homeless services that could include housing as well, whether it ends up being permanent supportive housing or other short term emergency shelter housing. And then in addition to the highway one, nine, we also acquired the outdoor world property that's currently in an application that we just submitted for with the developer for another affordable housing sustainable communities grant. And that was over I think a $22 million grant application. So it's fair to say we've acquired for far more properties than we've disposed of. That's accurate. Yes. Oh, thank you. And just out of curiosity, and I don't know if you have the answer to this either, but just from meeting with people up in Sacramento, we couldn't find really any other cities that were building affordable housing with their own money. I don't, but that was just from folks that we met. Do you know of any other cities that are doing this around the state? I think for a city our size, no. I mean, definitely some of the larger cities that have either active housing authorities within their city are building housing as well. For a city of our size without a housing authority, I'm not aware of another one. Okay, I think that's the extent of my questions. I do have some comments, but I'll wait. Thank you. I'm gonna work my way around if that's all right. We've got Ms. Calentari-Johnson. Thank you. I have just a couple of questions. See here, this is maybe for Mr. Lawler. The affordable workforce housing program, really great to see that. I wonder if you could just explain what the decision-making process is for selection of who receives those subsidized units or how the subsidized units would get allocated. We'd definitely qualify folks for those units on an income basis. We would likely have a lottery if there's more than more subscription than available units. Okay, I do have one more question that's probably to you. Sorry, I lost where I was. Okay, is there a plan for a local's discount or employee discount during off-season? I know some hotels do this and the dreamin' does this. So is there a plan for that? Could there be a plan for that? What are your thoughts on that? I think we certainly could have a plan for that certainly in the off-season. Okay, thank you. Those are my questions for now. Thank you. Ms. Watkins. Yeah, thank you. I'm gonna thank the folks that are here today. And I heard overwhelmingly the interest in wanting to understand affordable housing. And I had a question similar to the vice mayors around kind of how much property, but not really how many downtown kind of units of affordable housing has the city invested in or will be seeing coming online estimate? We have about 1,400 units currently in the pipeline in downtown. And of those between 800 and 900 are affordable units. So more than the majority of those units. And that largely is because of both our inclusionary ordinance, which requires that in market rate projects, but also the 100% affordable projects that are currently in the development, three of which are city led projects. And then there are additional project under construction to nearing completion right now. That's 100% affordable as well. Great. And so for folks who might be interested in wanting to see if they could be eligible, how would you, as we start to see these come online, you know, expect people to kind of learn about what's possible for them? Yeah, on our city website, chooseSantaCruise.com, we have a button for housing and you can go down to housing resources and we have two interactive maps. One has all the affordable housing projects that are currently built and you can look at that and they have a contact information on that. The other has links to the planning's website that has all of the major development projects, housing projects in the pipeline. And you can actually look at each project by location. Those that are affordable are outlined in yellow. So you can look on the map and click on each one. You can look at the breakdown of affordability as well as units, what level affordability, how many are from studios up to three bedroom. And then additionally on our website, you can contact our housing team and they'll put you on a list for when these projects do come up to connect directly to the developer or the property manager for each project. Great, thank you for sharing that because I know I heard overwhelmingly a lot of folks really interested in living in the downtown and knowing that there's more properties coming online, it's wonderful to see opportunity arise in that way. So I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, and additionally I would just add in sort of a acknowledgement of the housing authority who does maintain a number of lists and properties that are available for affordable projects and those that also have vouchers in the community. Great, and I'll actually have you stay up if you don't mind, I have one more question. In regards to the trolley, I know that there was 50,000 set for that. I was wondering if that is one time or if that's on an annual basis? I think that the original sort of proposal was one time. Okay, and so for others that do contribute to the trolley, is it usually a one time contribution or is it usually an annual contribution? So we have a number of sponsorships and they are on an annual basis, although we do have to go back and confirm each year that they're going to contribute again. I wonder if, I mean, I'd be open to seeing if that could be possible for this project as well given that the trolley is operational annually and having a contribution proportional to those that are also contributing on an annual basis makes sense to me. If you were to anticipate that could be possible, how much do you think that would, what would be a meaningful contribution in that way? Our total operating is between 118,120,000 a year. We currently have sponsorships for a little over half that. So we're subsidizing it by about 54,000 a year. So that's our gap annually and to the extent we can fill that with a variety of sponsorships that would be great. Okay, and for this project specifically, do you have an estimated amount that you would see feasible or maybe you might have a suggestion? It might be a developer question. Okay, yeah. I'd be interested in understanding if whether or not that could be possible. Maybe if we could have the developer come up and potentially speak to that. We'd be willing to commit 5,000 a year towards the operation of the shuttle. Does that seem appropriate to our city staff? I mean, we would take any sponsorship that helps annually. I do think some of our larger sponsorships past we've had seaside have been 10,000 a year. Okay, okay. Yeah. For the questions? Yeah, I don't necessarily have further questions. I just would say I'm open and we can talk about the amount to seeing that as an annual contribution on a regular basis. It's a wonderful thing for our visitors to have access to and given that we're having the first hotel in our downtown, I think a regular contribution makes sense to keep that going personally, but we can get to that when we get to the motion. And I guess I'll just say I really appreciate you sharing the amount of investment we've had in affordable housing. I hear overwhelmingly an interest in that. I know from our community, we need that and certainly agree with that. And I also understand that we don't have a hotel in our downtown and we are a tourist destination. And this is a meaningful contribution in that way. And certainly will benefit our local businesses as well. So I appreciated the hearing that as well. So anyways, it's all of the above. And that's the last I have to thank you there. Council Member Brown. Thank you. My questions I believe are gonna be for the developer. So I can intuit why some of them are gonna be why questions. And if you could help explain, and I can make some inferences here, but I'd like to hear your perspective and logic in the ways that you are proposing to address the low cost accommodations and the housing to the extent that there is a requirement there. I appreciate that you're wanting to make a contribution in that arena. So I'll try to just get right to it. Why are we looking at the affordable housing contributions in the same, they're not really conflated, but compiled in a way that makes it appear that the affordable housing and low cost accommodation commitments are sort of, they happen together, right? So you're suggesting that we're gonna reduce the low cost accommodation commitment or discount it because we are, because you're making a commitment to housing. And I'm just wondering a little bit about that. So that's one question. I just wanna put them all out and the others are maybe a little more simple. I'd love to better understand the rationale for the project taking on that affordable housing subsidy for four potential workers. I recognize there's gonna be a lot more workers than that. You are recognizing in making this commitment that these will be at least some of them low wage jobs. And so just kind of wondering why not just a bigger contribution to the housing inclusionary and in low fee. Just it's a question, I'm just trying to understand because it seems administratively complicated. Maybe at your end, you feel you could work that out in the operations, but just would like to hear a little bit more about that. And the last question, why not consider meeting some of that low cost accommodation commitment with rooms on site? I know that is a priority for at least some at the Coastal Commission. And I certainly feel, have a sense that, well, separate is an equal, I'll just say. Separate is not equal. If we're paying for low cost accommodations to be happening elsewhere and people are not able to access this hotel in the coastal zone, that to me doesn't feel as perhaps genuine as making some of those rooms available. So just wondering why you're not looking at that. Happy to answer those questions. They're good questions. Let me start with your last one first. Santa Cruz has traditionally been a community that's a lot of low cost visitor accommodations already. We have a large collection of motels on Ocean Street. This issues came up at the approval of the La Bahia project. So I want to put it in that context. We're not Santa Monica, we're not La Jolla. We've always served as a community going back a hundred years, visitors of modest means. That's the tradition of Santa Cruz. We're building, we have two very expensive hotels, one under construction and one both on the beach. They're gonna serve very high end clientele. And this, our intention is not to be in a luxury hotel. This is meant to be a cool hotel, but not a luxury hotel, okay? And it's meant to be affordable of people of relatively modest means, not of the lowest means, we understand. We understand the Coastal Commission has an interest in this issue. We're trying to address that issue through another project that has been identified by the county that's important at Greyhound Rock. That will, we think this is a really good use of the funds. Putting, we don't think, I mean, I'll just talk for myself philosophically, that downtown needs more affordable accommodations. It already has a lot of affordable accommodations. So that was the rationale behind why we structured the way we did. As far as, then the four units, we understand that this is a small number. It's a win-win if we can get more affordable housing downtown and more of our employees live walking distance to the hotel. It's a win-win for everybody. It's a win-win for the employees and it's a win-win for us. We don't relish the idea of people having to drive long distances to work. It's not in our interest. It's certainly not good for the employees. But we can't, as a hotel, have a viable operation and provide, subsidize more units. We want to be helpful. We wanna show that we care. But there's a limit to what one hotel operation can do financially in this regard. The answer is what we've discussed all today, which is the community, and I hope I'm a part of that, to build a lot more affordable housing downtown. That's the ultimate solution to this conundrum that we find ourselves in. And then you asked about why, and I'll let Frank address the first question you asked. Good afternoon, Frank Petrileva, Landy's attorney with Complance. So to reframe our thinking a little bit, so if you were to look at the zoning, the cities, LCP, the downtown plan, the general plan, there is no requirement for low-cost overnight accommodation. We are in the interest of maybe over-disclosing or being overly candid, anticipating an appeal to the Coastal Commission. And we've developed a really good working relationship with Coastal Commission staff and are trying to voluntarily propose a set of sort of additional public benefits effectively in anticipation of what that process is gonna look like. So what we've done is try and come up with from the standpoint of like economic feasibility, voluntarily proposing an additional condition that would require paying 8 million on top. That is an unusual thing for an applicant to do. But again, we think right now, it's necessary and the right thing to do in advance of what we anticipate is gonna be an appeal, right? We have talked to, and I think the city has spoken with the county about a potential project at Greyhound Rock, which would result in tangible overnight affordable cabins. And I think some opportunities too for academic programs for underserved youth. It's a super cool project, super early days, these conversations are just happening like in real time now. We've talked to the Santa Cruz Hostel and understand kind of what their operating and other needs are. So I think the idea is to try and leverage the money and put it to work as soon as we possibly can. And also being mindful that until, to the extent that four units is not the right number and that number might be a little bit higher, that the resources that are available to basically kind of be allocated towards overnight accommodation versus what we think is a super creative and kind of innovative workforce housing program, that's one bucket of additional kind of public benefit resources. That's kind of why the credit structure was proposed, the way it was proposed. On the housing side, just to amplify some of our thinking there too. So originally we were, so some background there just to kind of step back to. The only legal requirement in the LCP now is to pay that at least $5 a fee. I'm sorry, at least $5 a square foot above the 50 foot height limit, which is about 230 grand. We heard from the Coastal Commission and then from the council when you ratified the Coastal Commission's recommendation to include that at least language. So we knew there was a floor, but we had no idea what the ceiling was. We have also been paying attention to, again, some of that dynamics with hotel projects and mixed use projects at the Coastal Commission where you've heard the concerns today about intolerable commute distances and our initial thought, and certainly an issue that's come up in other mixed use projects more in Southern California in the not too distant past, where you've got like a hotel component or a Resi component with an onsite inclusionary BMR. The challenges with fair housing laws, long wait lists, there's no way to guarantee that those affordable units, that in some cases those developers are building actually can get set aside for hotel workers. So what we initially were like, okay, we will develop stuff off site. We will partner maybe with some other folks and try and actually deliver de-restricted units. But as we started thinking about the real, what that would do in terms of preventing us from actually taking care of some portion of our workers, that was not gonna be doable. So that's the sort of leasing thing. It is novel, it is creative. We're gonna have to hire a consultant to help us figure it out. I mean, we know it's doable because we worked on or I personally worked on a project in Menlo Park where there was a DA public benefit condition involving workforce teacher housing. So there were like different preferences and priorities. We worked with a group called Hello Housing to figure that out. So we are definitely gonna have to do something similar here. We are also mindful of not wanting to administratively burn it Bonnie's team because they've got their hands full. And so what we came up with was kind of a construct and a proposal, but in terms of how it's gonna work implementation wise, it's gonna require some thought and require some third party expertise. But that's where we were coming from with that too. I appreciate that. Thank you. Further, Ms. Brown? Good. Mr. Newsome, good afternoon. Thank you, Mary Keely. I have a just quick question for, I believe director Lipscomb. Do you have the estimate for the property tax as well? I know we've got one for DOT and sales tax, but you have an estimate for a property tax. Yeah, I mean, based on 150 million assessed valuation, 1% paying in property taxes and then was 16 cents in every dollar. I think that'll get us about 240,000 a year, at least starting out in year one. Madam Vice Mayor. I'm so sorry. I did have another question after I heard Councilmember Watkins question. The annual contributions that were suggested to go to Boys and Girls Club and the Santa Cruz Hostel, could those also be changed to annual contributions rather than a one time? I don't know if it's possible, but not at that high amount, but at a lower amount, but annually. I just think like over time, and I saw 50,000, I think 50,000, and I don't know if it's possible or if you can even speak to that, Mr. Lawler. We want to be helpful to the community. We'd love to find a way to make that. One of the ideas we had was to have an annual fundraising events at the facility for the Boys and Girls Club to help raise hopefully more than that. You know, we think one of the great things about having a downtown hotel, and we see this as it's a great venue for fundraising events of all types. And so we think that's, and we're open to possibly, if are you asking, are we replacing the one time with an annual? That's kind of what I was thinking, but maybe it wouldn't be that full 50,000. I don't have the exact amount, but I was thinking, have it just be an annual and contribution to both the hostel and the Boys and Girls Club? And I don't even know if that would be what they would want, but I was just thinking, if it was me, that's what I would want. And I know they're both nonprofits, so it's tax deductible as well, so. Well, it is if it's not a condition. Oh, if it's a condition, it's not tax deductible. That's right. I didn't know that. I just knew, okay. I'm gonna have to think about that. Mr. Butler, a question of you, if I could. The two city-owned lots that are part of this proposal, what my question is on this is, are either of those lots developable as affordable housing? The size of those two parcels would preclude any meaningful affordable housing development at roughly under 5,000 square feet apiece. An affordable housing developer would not be interested in building something to scale at that location. You typically need closer to a half acre, so it's well short. Thank you. Unless there are other questions clarifying nature, a motion would be in order. I'll make a motion, Markie Lee. I'd use one. I'd like to make the motion to accept the recommendation for 25.1 and 25.2 along with the added language if Ms. Bush can bring that forward. The additional. I'm not sure about your added language or that. Yes, my added language. So we're gonna have, so the motion so far is the recommendations as presented and now you're going to add additional. Along with the additional added direction to direct staff to deposit the sale proceeds and additional consideration into the affordable housing trust fund and also to direct staff to explore options for designating a portion of the sale proceeds, additional consideration and future transit occupancy tax revenue from the hotel for the following three affordable housing programs funded by the city and administered by city partners. So the security deposit program, the emergency rental assistance program and the landlord incentive program slash owner assurance program with the goal of broadening the reach of the programs and the level of assistance received by recipients and to make such program changes as necessary in order to achieve these goals in order to and the level assistance received by recipients and to make such programs as necessary in order to achieve these goals. Such changes may include but not be limited to the following conversion of program funding from loans to grants, increase of terms of assistance, increase funding when needed to provide assistance for additional recipients and lowering the threshold to qualify for assistance. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a second with a friendly amendment. Do I add that now? Let's get this first. So there is a motion and a second. Let me see if the gentleman wants to open on his motion and we'll be right back with you, sir. Thank you, Mark Healy. So I want to thank all those who came out and spoke today. I think this project will be a great addition to my district and by extension, our community. First, this project will provide 150 jobs in our community. So that's 150 more members of our community receiving a paycheck and households receiving a paycheck and potentially health insurance and other benefits such as 401K. But this project will also provide $2.4 million per year of much needed TOT tax into our city coffers or an estimated along with $240,000 in sales tax and $240,000 in property tax. So $2.8 million annually into our city coffers. And it will be a vital business to our downtown business community that will help contribute to a vibrant and thriving downtown. Now on top of these benefits, the developer as we've discussed has agreed to pay a $500,000 public benefit contribution, make a $50,000 contribution to the Downtown Boys and Curls Club that will go towards a new swimming pool for kids in our community to enjoy. A $50,000 contribution to the Electric City Charlie program that runs from downtown to the beach and $50,000 to the Santa Cruz Hostel community. So in total, the developers agreed to pay an additional $650,000 for upgrade in our community. They also will pay $227,000 contribution to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And the developer will also provide improvements to our Riverwalk with this project, with this project along with a, along with constructing new Paseo connecting the Riverwalk. Now, there has been some concern as we've heard over affordable housing in this project. And I think the added direction addresses these concerns. First, $2.55 million from the sale of the land for this project and a public benefit contribution provided by the developer will be directed to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And that's not something to sneeze at. That's a significant investment that can be used to construct much needed affordable housing, but this money can also be used to fund programs that help our workforce attain housing in our community and remain in their housing, such as the security deposit program, the landlord incentive program, which incentivizes landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers and has been very successful in our community, and the emergency eviction prevention program, which has been vital in helping community members in our community retain housing. And the added direction calls for this additional money to allow for these programs to be more generous and to apply to a larger swath of our community. And it also calls for a portion of the TOT tax generated from this program to be used for these programs so that they can remain more generous and allow more people to qualify for their benefits as we move forward. You know, I think this is a great project. They'll bring many great benefits to our community and I'm happy to support this project. So thank you. Ms. Calantari-Johnson is recognized. Thank you. So the friendly amendment that I wanted to propose is a request that, and I haven't sent this yet to you Bonnie and I will, the request of the developer and future hotel operator develop an employee parking plan in consultation with city staff prior to issuance of certificate of occupancy and that the plan permits the use of onsite parking spaces for hotel employees as capacity allows and that it solves for other low or no cost parking options for employees when onsite parking is not available. That's the first part. I'll email it to you. I don't have it. I will email it to you right now. Okay. We'll hold for just a second here. All right, I didn't do that. I had a time. It's okay. It's all right. Okay. All right. Just sent it. Got it. Okay. And there's the second part. Okay. Please proceed. Okay. And the second part, and I know council member Watkins was getting to this and maybe had some additional amendments but amend the condition providing a one time payment for the downtown trolley to provide an annual payment of 10,000 for a period of 10 years rather than one time payment of 50,000 and 10 years because that is the expected lifespan of our current trolley. That's how we landed on the 10 years. So let me first check to see if the maker of the motions in agreement with this. Yes. It's acceptable. So that is now the motion in chief. If you wish to open on your friendly amendment, feel free to do so. Great. Thank you. A lot of the points that council member Newsom made, I'm aligned with so I won't reiterate them. I hear the concerns of employees who have to travel long distances. We hope that we could change those conditions with what we're doing here in the city with affordable housing and with what council member Newsom has just put forward. And I know that we have some ways to go. I know that as part of this packet, we have alternative transportation options as well but the reality is that's not gonna work for everyone. And we're working on it on the Metro Board to make our transportation system more community responsive. But again, we have some work to do. So that's why I wanted to put this piece around employee parking to make sure that we think through that. And the trolley, I think council member Watkins spoke to it well. I don't know if you have any additions to add to it but I think this is a great project. I just wanna thank everyone who worked on this. I know it's been a long time to get to a point where this really is in the benefit of the community. It will bring new and old visitors back to our community. We heard about all of the revenue it'll generate that will go back to the community. So I just wanna thank all the work and I'm excited for the local discount and maybe I can take my family there. Through the debate or discussion. Council member Watkins. I'll just briefly say that I appreciate the motion. I appreciate the direction. I appreciate the additions. I agree. I think the 10,000 as suggested makes a lot of sense and it also meets the low cost visitor accommodation goals to be in compliance with the Coastal Act as well as our climate goals and experience for our visitors and our locals. So I think that's a great add. I appreciate that being added and then accepted. And yeah, look forward to seeing this move forward. For the debate or discussion. Ms. Brown. Yeah, I do have a number of comments. Actually it's 62 in the document but I'm not gonna go through all of those. But first I think I do have a kind of specific and then some general comments. So I just wanna talk about the $5 per square foot fee for a moment because that is a decision that a policy decision that the council made a little while ago. I can't remember this year. Or maybe it was last year. Recently that was an attempt to account for the extension of really density bonus heights and heights for non-residential projects. And it's very low for this project. It would get us half of an affordable housing unit in a density project, $250,000 around there. I believe and I was pleased that the council agreed to take the Coastal Commission's recommendation. I'm not sure we had much of a choice in that to make that $5 at minimum square foot charge. And this is a policy change that has a significant benefit to this developer and other developers in the future. So I think we should not gloss over that. We have that as one benefit, the sale of the properties, which I have significant concerns about selling property for this purpose. Those are benefits to the private sector. And now I'm getting into my general comments. I'll stop for a moment and I wanna ask if my colleagues might consider a friendly amendment to increase that $5 per square foot to $10 a square foot. That would get us one unit of affordable housing out of this project in addition to the four for the 20-year period that the developer is offering to subsidize. So I'd like to make that as a friendly amendment. There's a question to the maker of the motion. No. So thank you, I just had to ask. Will that go in the minutes? If it doesn't, then I wanna make it. Okay, thank you. So I'm gonna say a few other things now. A lot of people have spoken to what we're giving up as a result of selling this surplus land, an opportunity to build more affordable housing in our community. Yeah, we're doing a great job relative to other cities. And in the time I've been on this council, rents have more than doubled. So in terms of how that impacts people in our community, it's very hard for me to feel celebratory about that. And when we talk about, and the city doesn't really have much by way of a policy framework to leverage what I would consider to be public benefit in these projects. We don't have a policy framework for that. The city councils over the years have not opted to do that. No project labor agreements, no requirement that there be union jobs or apprentice is in these construction jobs, no neutrality in union organizing for the operator, and the service workers. We don't have any of that. And therefore I have very little that I can put forward that I think is reasonable and even reasonable things are not supported by my colleagues. So I am just gonna say here that we, what I see is the city accepting gentrification and displacement as acceptable outcome from our non-polices. And I don't support that. What is happening to the hollowing out of our community as a result of the cost escalation for development. Every move we make increases land values, which means that it's gonna be impossible on other parcels for us to get affordability if the land costs are high, right? And it goes on and on. And so I'm not gonna go through all of that. But particularly because there is not a meaningful commitment to helping to support our affordable housing needs in this community. I can't support it. I can't support the sale of public land for what I consider. I think I have a very different perspective on what's public benefit. A lot of what I see here is like customer benefit. Maybe some benefit and benefit to the city in the form of tax revenues, but it's not really public benefit. We've also heard from the bike community that the new Paseo is gonna make it, they're not gonna be able to use it to access the levy. So it's gonna actually, for some people, it's gonna make access more challenging for their purposes. So again, I could go on, I'm not gonna do that. I appreciate the, and I'd vote yes on the amendments that you made, but I can't support this proposal. And I'm sure I'll think of something else I should have said, but that's, I'll leave it there. To the debate or discussion, the vice mayor is recognized. I had said before that I had some comments that I'd like to say. I think that the public benefit, the SAU workers were here earlier, that TOT tax revenue will help pay for their compensation. I am sorry that the workers that came and spoke today have to commute long hours. I know people in all income ranges, actually almost everyone I know, aside from me, commutes over an hour a day to work, to live here. I looked up, this week is one of the spring break weeks. I looked up some hotel rooms just here in town and I was surprised to find there was 39 rooms available. There was two of them priced over $300, four of them over 200, six of them over 150, six of them over 100. And with under 100, there was 21 rooms available. Some of them around $55 a night, including the hostel, which was $35 a night. There's camping available at state and private campgrounds, less than a 10 minute drive. So in terms of affordability, I feel like Santa Cruz is very much still a blue collar destination. And I don't see anything wrong with kind of, I feel like it's almost the opposite. By having some higher end accommodation, some people wanna pay that. They wanna enjoy luxury, whatever it is. And I don't even think this is gonna be anywhere near no offense, it's not gonna be Pebble Beach. It's gonna be something that maybe somebody that has more money, wants to come and stay at a nicer place, fine. Let's get the tax revenue, let's have them come dine at our restaurants and having two or three hotels around town that charge more, I don't see anything wrong with that. I think that if anything, it's gonna be diversifying like our city's portfolio and who can come. And if we don't have this, they're just gonna drive on past.  And so that's where I disagree with you and I do not think it's deviating from our values and I think that there's options available for people in all income levels in our town and I appreciate that. For the debate or discussion, Ms. Calantari-Johnson. I just wanna add to what the vice mayor was saying. I don't know how others define public benefit but Boys and Girls Club and a public park that we couldn't otherwise, but in our community, I view as public benefit. And the four affordable housing units and the $5 a square feet, those are substantial pieces that we're bringing with this project. So I just wanna add that to what the vice mayor was saying. For the debate or discussion. Seeing none, the clerk will call the roll. Council member Neusen. Aye. Brown. No. Vodkent. Aye. Calantari-Johnson. Aye. Vice mayor Golder. Aye. Mayor Keely. Aye. Motion passes and it's awarded. Mr. Condati, for the business to come before the body. There's none. There's none. Ms. Bush, for the business to come before the body, there's none. A motion to adjourn to be in order. The vice mayor moves. Second. Ms. Watkins, second. It's not available. Those in favor signify by saying, I oppose. Motion carries. It's awarded. We stand adjourned. Don't consider gifts because here's the thing.


Hey, man, so keep your place there in Psalm 139. So tonight we're finishing up a three-part sermon series. We're looking at the omnicharacteristics or the all-encompassing characteristics of God. So we looked in the first sermon, we looked at how God is all-knowing. We think that we have a lot of knowledge today, and we do a lot of things, create artificial intelligence and things like this, and we think that we just know everything. But not only do we not have all knowledge, but we certainly don't know out of that knowledge what's true and what's not, but God has all knowledge and knows the truth. So we looked at that in the first part of this sermon series, in the second sermon series, we looked at how God is, what's the second one? Come on, help me out, I'm blanking here. So God is all-knowing, God is all-powerful. God has all-power, and he can do anything. So that's hard for people to kind of comprehend, and we focused on if God is all-powerful, then why does he let bad things happen? That's a lot of unsafe people will ask that about God. And we looked at how God being all-powerful with the fact, combined with the fact that he has given us free will is why he allows things that go on today to go on, and that everything will be punished, justice will be perfect, and God does judge nations and people on this earth as well, but we looked at that in the second sermon, but tonight we're gonna look at Psalm chapter 139, we're gonna look down at verse number seven, and we're gonna look at how God is omnipresent, meaning what does that mean? He is in all places, or he is everywhere. Look at Psalm chapter 139, and look at verse number seven. The Bible says, wither shall I go from thy spirit, or wither shall I flee from thy presence. So the Bible here is saying is that God has the ability to be present everywhere. He can be present everywhere at the same time. Now that's a concept, it's really interesting in Psalm 139, if you look at the verse above that, in verse number six, but God or somebody or some being, being in the same, being in many different places at the same time is very hard for us to understand, understanding how God could be dealing with one person over here, while he's also dealing with somebody on the other side of the world over here at the exact same time. That's hard for the human mind to kind of wrap their head around, but the Bible actually answers the question in one verse above where he says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, it cannot attain to it. So God is higher than us, he is above us. We don't have to understand everything about God. There's many things about God, like the trinity and the mechanics of that, how those are just very hard concepts for us to comprehend, but all we have to do is just accept what the Bible says. We don't have to figure everything out because we can't figure everything out about God because he's higher, he's above what we're capable of. In Matthew 18, verse number 20, I'll just read it to you. The Bible says for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. So the Bible here is saying when two or three people, so look, God is in the midst of us now. So we're talking about how God is present, and if there's another church that preaches the true gospel of Jesus Christ that's meeting at this exact same time, which I know there is, then God is there too. He is in the presence of them, he is in the presence of us. God has the ability to be everywhere, anywhere he wants to be at the same time. No, I'm just kidding. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at this, we're gonna look at what that means for us, what's the practical application of that? We'll get God's omnipresence, God's all presence, practical application tonight. So the first thing I wanna show you is that God is everywhere, he can be anywhere he wants to be at the same time. The first thing I wanna go into tonight is what this doesn't mean. This doesn't mean just the fact that God is everywhere if you just read verse seven again, it says, whether shall I free from thy presence? It's saying, and even in verse number, I think it was verse number 12, look down at verse number 12, the Bible says, yea, the darkness highteth not from thee, talking about God, but the night shall shineeth as day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. Meaning, you're not getting away from God, you're not gonna hide from God in the dark, you're not gonna hide from God anywhere. God, the night and the day are all the same. So it's, he can be present in the night, present in the day, all of that. But here's what it doesn't mean. Just because God is everywhere and can be in every place at one time, anywhere he wants to be, that doesn't mean that God is everything. That you hear what I'm saying? It doesn't mean that God is the world, and God is nature, and God is all these different things, which is this is what people will push and will teach today, is that, oh, God is in everything. You see a tree and that's God, no, that's not God, okay? That is the creation of God. This is, as a matter of fact, this is kind of where, I don't really like the idea of intelligent design because intelligent design can kind of move in this weird type of new age direction, but this is one of the directions, one of the definitions of pantheism is basically this idea that God is nature, that God is the universe, God is the sun, the moon, and the stars. That is God, whenever you see that. Look, it's this new age, weird, cultural, new religion, but it's actually based in paganism of all kinds throughout ancient history. As a matter of fact, I remember just reading up on, we were really into historical Western history, and especially where we grew up in North Dakota, we would go to a lot of, they had like Indian villages and all kinds of places you could go and study the history of the Native American tribes and all these different things. And you could go and you could see the history of kind of the West and everything when it was settled. And look, ancient paganism was the religion of the Native Americans. It was, I remember the Sioux tribe, which is kind of the big tribe where I was from, where I was around, they literally worshiped like, they believed that the earth itself had a spirit. You know, that the earth had a spirit and all the animals had a spirit and God, their God was in all of these different things. But look, this is even for the Native Americans, that paganism, that's nothing new.  Now, turn to Romans chapter one. But look, this kind of leads into this paganism, this paganism kind of leads into this secular philosophy of literally worshiping the earth today. I mean, that's where this all comes from. This is where all that drives into. But this is not what the omnipresence of God means. This is not what it means. God is not nature, God is not in the trees, God is not in the animals. Look at Romans chapter one and look at verse number 20. It's blurring a line that the Bible is very clear to draw. Look at verse 20 in Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one, talking about people that have walked away from God, they walked away from the knowledge of God, they want nothing to do with God, they hate God and God actually gave them up. These are the wickedest people that you could see, that you could know. God actually gave these people up and they're what the Bible calls reprobate. God gave them over to reprobate minds. Look at verse number 20. Describing this process of someone getting into a point where God would reject them, the Bible says, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So the creation and the animals and the trees and the sun and the moon and the stars and all these different things and everything that you see beautifully made in the world today is evidence of the power of God. It is not God, it is evidence of God. That's what the Bible is teaching here. And it's the Bible is saying that no one is without excuse. No one has an excuse because they can all see it. Yet instead, some people go and they worship it. They worship their creation. Look at verse number 21. It says because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of an uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and to creeping things. They're worshiping now the animals. They're worshiping now the nature, the animals, the four-footed beasts, the creeping things. And look at verse number 24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness to the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their bodies between themselves. Look at verse 25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worship. So this is not the truth, what I'm about to say. They worship and serve the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen. So look, earth worship and the worship of the creation. I don't care if it's plants, animals, whatever it is. That is a reprobate feature right there. That is a wicked feature right there. Now look, I've explained this before and this isn't the purpose of the sermon, but the creation is evidence of God's power. It's not to be worshiped.  That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that we should not be worshiping the earth. We should not be worshiping the creation. It's the creation. We should be worshiping the Creator, not the creation. And the creation is not the Creator. That's the point of the introduction here. So that's what it, God being everywhere, that's what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that God is the creation itself. There's a very clear line drawn in Romans chapter one. And it's not one that we wanna go anywhere near because it's a line that is crossed by very wicked reprobate people, all right. Look at verse number, go to Proverbs chapter 15. So the question is, what does it mean? What does it mean for us that God is everywhere and can be everywhere? There's two applications that I wanna give you tonight about this. The first one, look at Proverbs chapter 15 and look at verse number three. So Psalm 139 said that you can't get away from the presence of the Lord. God's presence is everywhere. You can't hide from God in the dark. You can't hide from God in the daytime. The dark in the day is the same thing to him. God's present everywhere. But look at Proverbs chapter 15 and let's zero down on this a little bit more to see how this applies to us. Verse number three. The Bible says this in Proverbs 15 verse number three. It says the eyes of the Lord are in what? Look at that. It says the eyes of the Lord are in every place. Beholding the evil and the good. That's a really powerful verse right there. Have you just think about that for a second? I mean that verse kind of encompasses what God's presence everywhere really means for us. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Beholding the evil and the good. So God, what does this mean? God sees everything is what this means. Look at Jeremiah 23. I'll just, you turn to Luke chapter 12. I'll read for you Jeremiah 23 verse number 24. The Bible says in Jeremiah 23, 24, you're going to Luke 12. Can any hide himself in the secret places that I shall not see him say at the Lord? Do not I feel heaven and earth say at the Lord? Meaning no one can hide from me. I what? God is saying I see everything. So God's presence, the first thing I want to point out is that God's presence means to us that God sees everything that we do, everything. Whether it be good or whether it be bad. Look, it's best to get in this mindset as a Christian. It is best to live your life in this mindset. People unfortunately, even Christians, they get in the mindset where they want to control what people see. They want to control what people see about themselves. They want to try to frame themselves in the best picture they want to, you know. But here's the thing, God sees the real picture. God is the most important person that you need to see the real picture and he sees everything.  Look at Luke chapter 12. So it's best to operate your life knowing that God sees everything you do because he does. Look at Luke 12, one. The Bible says this in Luke 12, one. It says in the meantime, when they're gathered together in innumerable multitude of people, it's so much that they trod one upon another, meaning there was so many people pressing upon each other. He began to send his disciples, first of all, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye of spoken in darkness shall be heard in light, and whatsoever ye of spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house tops. So Luke chapter 12 is pointing out the bad, the evil of Proverbs chapter 15. So it's saying that if you say and speak things, using the Pharisees here as an example, if you say and speak things in private, that these things are going to be known. These things are gonna be known. I mean, if you are whispering and you are talking behind people's backs and all these different things, it's gonna be known. It's gonna be brought forth, so don't do it.  That's a worst thing. I mean, the Bible basically in Matthew 18, just that Matthew 18 process that I've preached about before, the Bible is basically saying, like, be a man about it. I mean, I'm the pastor of the church and I want people to be respectful to me and I don't want people to be, but I would much rather have somebody come up to me and just be like, pastor, your preaching is no good. Like, that would be really rude and that would just be like, you know, that wouldn't be great, but the point is I would much rather have that happen than have somebody whispering behind my back. Think about it, think about yourself in that position. The worst thing, especially for a man, I think, well, no, it's bad for women too, but I mean, when I think about man and what a man should be, like go whisper behind somebody's back, but look, the thing is folks, this is a real cultural problem today.  It ends up coming into the church, but it's a problem outside the church. People think it's normal. People think it's normal to just go and like, just trash people behind their back, you know, whether it just be, you know, somebody at work trying to get themselves ahead or trashing the boss or trashing a coworker or whatever, or, you know, forming alliances or whatever people do, people think it's normal online, whatever it is, but the Bible says that, you know, this should not happen, but here's what you need to understand, God sees it. So why is a Christian as a Christian, you should never do it because it's not gonna go, it's not gonna stay secret. Hello, you see people do it as Christians, you're just like, what are you thinking? Do you not know basic Bible doctrine? Like these things are gonna be brought to light and then how are you gonna look? Then how are you gonna feel?  You're like, it's a big thing. So look, it's a terrible thing. The Bible basically says, if you got a problem with somebody, the first thing you should do, first Corinthians chapter six says, just let it go. Suffer yourself to be defrauded.  We don't do that anymore though because people are so like, they're behind a keyboard, they're behind a screen and they're just so comfortable with this culture that has been pushed in the last 20 years. I don't think it used to be this way. I think men used to talk face to face. I think men used to handle problems face to face, good or bad ways, but face to face. That's how it used to be. Now it's just this whispering little weasel culture that we have and it's no good and we should be nowhere near it. And number one, it's not biblical, but number two, God sees it anyway. So it's a double idiocy if a Christian does it. It's going to be known, period. The sad fact is, if people were thinking this way, just the idea that God, it's going to be known. God is going to shine the light on it. If people were thinking that way, like people would get into so much less trouble. Just think about that for a second. Here's something that I think about this a lot. And most of you have young kids, but you all need to be thinking about this when you have young kids. You need to be thinking about this. I am really glad that the internet wasn't around when I was a teenager. Say, ha, ha, ha, no, I'm serious. One thing that people need to realize, and you need to educate your children and you need to repeat and repeat and repeat, is people need to realize like, people need to treat email. They need to treat text messages. They need to treat social media like just everybody is looking at it. Every single text message you sent, look, I know I have done this to some of you.  So just don't ever send anything inappropriate. You ever text the wrong person? I do that all the time. It's embarrassing how many times I do it. I like text, but I don't know, text inappropriate things. So it's kind of like, oh, sorry, Patrick Menez, that was for my wife. But it was like, could you pick up this or just talking normally? Where people text, if every, just pretend like everybody's looking at it all the time.  And they need to realize that every single thing that they text, they send, they put on social media, social media, just maybe not even have them on social media ever.  I mean, it's like, is there anything good about social media? I don't know. Maybe there is and I know that people can watch sermons and I get that and I don't really consider YouTube sermons that don't allow comments, social media. But social media, I saw a news article a week ago or two weeks ago where the head of Metta or Facebook, whatever it used to be called, was in front of Congress. And this surprised me, I didn't know this was a big deal, but he was in front of Congress and he was just getting beat down by all these congressmen which is, you know, they're all just grandstanding and whatever, but I guess there was a bunch of parents in the, I think maybe it was the House of Representatives, I don't know who it was. But anyway, I think it was a bunch, there was a bunch of parents of families, a bunch of kids that had their kids that committed suicide. I mean, these kids are getting on social media and they're being, you know, they're putting stuff on social media and then they're being embarrassed and all these different things on social media and who knows what else is going on, but kids are killing themselves over this.  And I've said this many times about the internet but you just need to make sure that you know what's going on on the internet in your house. And it just, it's best though, it's best though that they just, they don't feel they have a need for it.  You know, and that's not something that, you know, these parents that lost kids, like those kids eventually found out that whatever they put on the internet, I don't know the situations but it wasn't gonna be deleted. It was just gonna be around forever. It's a really dangerous thing. It's a really dangerous thing. So for us as adults, just remember, everything you send into this space just pretend like everybody's watching. Everybody that you know is watching, the government's watching, be paranoid. Hey, here's where your conspiracy theories will help you out in your life, all right? Be paranoid and be like the government's spying on me. I better be super appropriate right now. Just be that person. It'll be good for you, all right?  If you do things that you think are, you're keeping secret, all right? Turn to Matthew chapter six. So he says that I see everything evil and good, right? So he sees the good things too. So what's the application of that? Turn to Matthew chapter six. Look at verse number one. Matthew chapter six, look at verse number one. The Bible says, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven.  I'm going out and I'm soul winning and I'm doing good things at church and all these different things. God's just saying here, like, you don't have to go boast about it. He's like, you don't have to go boast about the good things because why? Because God's saying, hey, I know the good things that you're doing. I see what you're doing and you're gonna be rewarded for every single thing that you do. So you don't have to go out and be like, hey, look at how great I am. Look at how spiritual I am. Look at how awesome I am. Because if you are doing good things, God sees it. And he's going to reward it.  You're literally taking rewards away from yourself. All right, so look, the good things God sees too. And he'll take care of those good things. So just don't let your right hand know what your left hand's doing. Just do good things, do what you're supposed to do, and you know, be quiet about it. But when I ask you about soul winning, this isn't what I'm talking about. Okay, I wanna know how soul winning goes when you go out soul winning. That's not what I'm talking about. But I'm just saying that God sees the good things too. So the first point is this. God sees everything, good and evil. So just keep that in mind. As a Christian, we should know this. And we should operate this way. Turn to Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 17, I'm sorry. Turn to Acts chapter 17. So the first thing, the first application of God being everywhere, having the ability to be everywhere is that he sees everything. The second one is this. The second application to us and why it matters for us that God can be everywhere at one time is that that means that God is available to us. Like for real, God is available to us. Look at Acts chapter 17. Look at verse number 27. The Bible says in Acts 17, 27, is that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us. So the Bible here is saying is that God is not far from you. God is the ability to be with you and if you feel after him and you seek him. All right, look, God is available to you. This is a very real thing. A lot of people don't, you know, a lot of people I think dismiss this thought. You know, a lot of unsaved people would say, oh, you believe in some magic man in the sky. No, God is real and he is available to anybody that is seeking him. First of all, for salvation. And that's a real thing. All you have to do is just go soul winning and you will see this. You will see this, I mean, the proof that people that are seeking find the Lord will be proven to you in soul winning. It'll be proven to you personally, just like all the time. I mean, just constantly. We had it proven to us yesterday. Just people that are seeking just find. It's God sets up, God uses us to set up these appointments. You've all had these situations where you come to somebody's door, you knock on their door and you ask them if they wanna hear the gospel or if they know if they're going to heaven. Like, we're just talking about this. And I was just thinking about this. And I was just went through this thing and I've really been bothered about this question. Yes, there's plenty of people that say I'm not interested but the ones that are have been seeking for one reason or another and that's why you're there. But look, even beyond salvation, God is available to us. All we have to do is seek. I mean, he's not far away. The Bible is saying here. He is right here. And guess what? He'll work for you. He will work for you. Turn to Isaiah chapter 57. Turn to Isaiah chapter 57. He will work for you if you have the right heart towards him. Look at Isaiah chapter 57. And look at verse number 15. Isaiah chapter 57 and verse number 15. There's another kind of cool proof of the Bible here in Isaiah 57, 15, the miracle of the Bible. The Bible says in Isaiah 57, 15, it says, for thus say at the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity. That inhabiteth eternity. So that's interesting, right? So what are we talking about? We're talking about the omnipresence of God, how God can be everywhere at the same time. But let me just add a dimension to that. God can be everywhere at the same time at any time. You're like, that's what the Bible just said right there. The Bible said he inhabits eternity, meaning this sermon that I'm preaching right now applies to everyone that's ever lived. This sermon that is coming from the Bible because God, he inhabits all times. You don't inhabit all times. You inhabit like that. But God inhabits all times in any place in those times. And then the Bible says whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So the Bible here is saying just as Acts chapter 17 was saying those that seek him and have the right heart towards him, anyone that's ever lived at any time, God will be there for them. That's what the Bible is saying. For real. So now how do we apply this to our lives?  I really wanna point out that there's two sides of this coin for you this evening. This can be good for you what I just told you or it can be bad for you what I just told you. God sees everything, he's really there and he really moves. It's bad if there's things that you don't want him to see. That's how it's bad. I mean, if there's all these secret sins that you have, there's all these secret plans that you have. There's literally places where your heart is not right and God knows about it. Maybe you're motivated by the wrong things. Maybe God even knows since he inhabits all times. God even knows how those things that are in your heart right now will affect you down the road. And that's why it gives you that Holy Spirit to intercede for you because many times and if you pray a lot and then you look back at your prayers and how they were answered, you will start to see how the Holy Spirit interceded for you. You'll start to see how the Holy Spirit, as I talked about this morning, literally changed the wording of your prayer. Literally said that, yeah, God, he thinks that he needs this but he really needs this. And you'll see that in the answers to those prayers. Maybe you think that you need money. Maybe you think that you need something in this material world and God just really wants to show you that no, no, no, you just need to get your spiritual life right. And then he gives you the things that gets your spiritual life right and then everything else just kind of falls into place as you get your spiritual life right, start reading the Bible, following the Bible, things like that. So the point is this, it can be bad if there's things that you don't want God to see because God does see them. He does see them and he's going to move against those things because he wants you to be as profitable as possible. He's got a soldier in this fight and he wants to keep that soldier in this fight. So he doesn't really care about the things in this world, he cares about keeping you in this spiritual life, all right? But look, the good is this. The good is that you have access to a God that's present, turned to Philippians chapter two. Not, look, you don't have, the good news is this and I've always said this and I feel very strongly about this and it's absolutely biblical but leadership, you cannot lead from afar. Leadership and this, I'm talking about any kind of leadership.  You have to be there. Leadership from afar, this is like in my career, it's like the engineer who's just never been out in the field. It's like the engineer who just makes drawings, he's like, he just makes drawings and does things in the office and he just sends it out to the people in the field but he never goes out to the field. He's not gonna be a good engineer or she or whoever is not gonna be a good engineer because you have to be there to see what's actually happening. Leadership is present and this is the kind of leader that God shows us that he is as well. Look at Philippians chapter two, look at verse number five. The Bible says, let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. God didn't just come down and just put some power down here, he actually came down here and did it himself. He was God but he came down and made himself a man and being found as fascist as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Wherefore God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four, look at verse number 15. Look at Hebrews chapter four and verse number 15. You say, well yeah but God doesn't know what I'm going through right now. God doesn't know the things that I'm dealing with in my life right now. No, we don't have that kind of leader. We don't have the kind of leader, this is why Jesus came. We don't have the kind of leader that doesn't understand what we're going through. We don't have the kind of God that is leading us that doesn't understand. First of all, he knows what you're going through better than you do. He knows exactly what's going on you because he's all knowing and he sees everything even though I guarantee you don't see everything. He sees everything that you want him to see and everything that you don't want him to see but look at Hebrews four, 15. It says what we have not in high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. So we say this all the time. We say that Jesus was with sin. That's how it could be that perfect sacrifice and we use the example out soul winning like, well, this is my brother Jeff here and brother Jeff, he might die for me but Jeff, brother Jeff can't die for my sins because he has his own sins to pay for. The sacrifice wouldn't be acceptable. So yes, Jesus was definitely without sin but he had the temptation of the flesh. It's not like he put some magical power on where he just didn't feel any of the temptations that we feel, he just didn't get into them like we do. So he was tempted, he went through all the pain, all the suffering and more than we will ever go through. So we don't have the kind of leader that's just leading from afar and sending people into some battle that they themselves would never be willing to go through. That's not a good leader. You should never send somebody to do something that you would not be willing to do yourself. And that is the kind of leader that God was to us. We just, I mean, we don't have that type of God that is just this lead from afar, push us into this fire and not care what's going on. He went through it, he's there with us and look, he went through life as a man and went through way worse things than we will ever go through. Look at 1 Timothy chapter two and look at verse number five. So look, we don't have that type of God. So what does that mean? We have access to a God that is present, a God that is actually there. You should use that, you should use that in your life. He's there, he's all powerful, he's all knowing, he sees everything, use it. Look at 1 Timothy 2.5. The Bible says there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ, Jesus. You don't even need anybody to help you make the phone call. You don't need a priest, you don't need a pastor to, I mean, look, I'll give you advice and I'll help you out whenever I can. But look, you can just pray to God anytime you want. You can just pray to this present God that has all power and all knowledge that sees everything anytime you want. You don't need anybody else. He's there. And look, this God can and will and wants to make things happen for you. He doesn't miss anything. He's not unaware of what you're going through. He sees your problems before you see them. Think about that. You think about the problems that you have now. God saw those problems before you saw them. You say, so what do I do about this? Turn to Romans chapter eight. Turn to Romans chapter eight. I'm gonna tell you tonight, as we wrap things up here, but I'm gonna tell you how to utilize this. I'm gonna tell you how to utilize this present God that knows everything that has all power to utilize this to the maximum capability in your life as a Christian. Why wouldn't you use this? Romans chapter eight, look at verse 28, which is a very popular verse that nobody understands. All right, it's very popular verse. People have it on bumper stickers. People paraphrase it. People put it on the refrigerator. All these other things. Most people aren't even saved that have it on the refrigerator and have this saying. They have no idea what it means. Some people think it's Calvinist. I mean, it's just, people just make a mess of this great verse. The Bible says in Luke 646, you're in Romans eight. It says, and why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say. Now look at Romans chapter eight and verse number 28. Romans chapter eight and verse number 28, the Bible says this. It says, pay attention now. The Bible says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. So it was like, see, you have to be called. Well, you have to, so many of the problems that people have with misinterpreting Bible verses is because they think about English as it is as they learned it or as they didn't learn it. One of those ways. The Bible here is saying somebody, I mean, the word called here, it means somebody who picked up the phone. Does that make sense? Like the phone rang and you picked it up.   You were called. God wants everybody to be called. God wants everybody to be saved. They called, duh, past tense. You took the call. This is what it means.   They're all in the Bible. If you pick up the phone, you've done been called. You're called. It doesn't, don't create some weird religion out of it. It just means that you're doing what God, you say, Pastor Brzezernski, I don't know. How could you even know? Because the Bible literally defines what called means here. Look at the verse again. It says, for them that love God, to them who are called. It doesn't say to them that love God and to them who are called. It says, to them who are called. Those are the two, those equal each other. So people that love God are people that are called. It means the same thing. He's literally defining what this characteristic of this person is in two different ways. So it's no, there's no possible way you can misunderstand it. What does it mean to love God? Well, in John 14-15, if you love me, keep my commandments. So you can be saved and not love God. Yes. Because love is action. It isn't some butterfly weird feeling, whoo. That's not love. That's what they tell you love is today. It's not lust. That's what they tell you love is today. Love is action. Love is, and it's the action of literally sacrifice. So love is actually doing what God wants you to do. So if you're saved, and then you're doing what the Bible says you love God. If you're saved and you forgot about the Bible and you walked away from the Bible, you're still saved, you're just not loving God. You're just not somebody who is loving God. You're not taking action towards God and what he wants you to do, meaning you don't love him. Because if you love me, keep my commandments. God is saying, just what I just read for you in Luke 6-46. He says, why call you me Lord, Lord, and not do the things that I say? If you love me, keep my commandments. He's saying the same thing in a different way. He literally defines whether or not you love him. You're like, well, I feel like I love him. Well, see James 2. How did it do for your buddy who's freezing to death and starving to death? And you're like, love me, buddy. And you let him freeze to death. That's not love as the Bible defines it. If you love God, you are somebody that is following and keeping his commandments. And that is the same as being called according to his purpose. They mean the same thing. There's not an and there. For those that love God, those that are called according to his purpose, the same thing. So what does this mean? It says we know that all things work together for those type of people. So we have an all powerful, we have an all present, we have an all knowing God that sees everything, that's here with us, that's near us, that wants us to call him, that wants us to pray to him, that wants to come in and help us that can do anything. And all we have to do is do the things that he says. So the point I'm trying to get you to say through that long winded explanation is give God every reason to help you. And he will. I mean, look, is it, we know that all things might work together for those that love God to them who are called according to his purpose? No, it says we know that all things work together. Look, that's one of those promises. That's a huge promise. That is a huge promise.   Do what he says. Do what he wants you to do. I mean, it's a powerful thing. It's a powerful thing. I mean, you think about it. He's there for you when you pray. He just wants you to be doing what he asks you to do. And then he'll make everything work out for you. You're like, well, I don't know what I need. Well, he's gonna intercede for you. Look at the verses before this. Look at the two verses before this and tell me this is an accident that these are in the Bible in this order. Look at verse number 26 of Romans 8.26. 8.28 is what we just read. We just read that major promise and now we know who the promise is for. It's for people who are saved and for actually being disciples they're following the Lord Jesus Christ in their life. Now look at verse number 26. It says likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. So you got problems, right? You're somebody that's got infirmities, you've got issues, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. You're like, you know, this is a case for a lot of people. This has been a case for me in my life. You're just like, I don't know what to do. I don't know. You know, I know that there's problems here. I know that things aren't going well but if I knew how to fix it, I'd fix it. You know, a lot of times you might not know how to get yourself out of the situation that you're in. It says likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself make an intercession for us. So you just go and you just pray to God and say, God, I got problems here. All you have to do is be like, God, I got problems here. God, I'm just gonna do whatever. I'm just gonna, I got problems here but I'm gonna continue to just follow you and do what you want me to do. Could you help me with these problems? That's it. And the spirit will go to God and say, well, here's the issue. He's got this problem, this problem, this problem and then the Holy Spirit and God the Father, they'll work it out and they'll figure out the mechanics of how to fix whatever's wrong with you. That's what the Bible's saying here and he searches the hearts. He that searches the hearts knoweth what mine is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints. Who are the saints? Is that these famous people or whatever? No, that's you. That's anybody that's saved. So the spirit makes intercession for you according to the will of God. So all you have to do, no matter what is going on in your life, the Christian life is not easy but it is super simple. All you have to do, whatever's going on in your life is just do what you did yesterday. Is just do what God wants you to do, that's it. But you know what, it's really hard to continue in the Christian life when I think that I need to go out and do all this stuff to try to fix my own problems. No, you just can make sure you're doing what God wants you to do. Make sure that you are loving God actively and then just pray for help and God promises that he will work it out. That's it. It's simple. It's hard to do though because it takes faith. It takes faith because we're sitting here with these kind of people.   And look, it might not be exactly what you thought you needed but I guarantee it will be what you really needed. And he will move and you will see it. I'm here to report to you. He will move and you will see it. And you will look back and you will see what he did. And you will realize that he was right. It's a beautiful thing. So you say, well, you know, I'm not really seeing it. Well, I mean, what do you do in your life that's preventing God from moving for you? That's what I would ask you tonight. Listen to the spirit inside you and guess what? I think you know, if there's something that is preventing God from blessing you or from answering a problem that you have or a question that you have or fixing something in your life, listen to the spirit inside you. Those are the easy things to understand because that spirit, when you grieve it, you know.  Turn to Lamentations chapter three and we'll end it here. Just get it right, listen to the spirit, get it right, get back to doing what God wants you to do and then look at Lamentations chapter three in verse number 25. The Bible says this, the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Are you seeing a pattern here? People that are seeking after God that are following God that are following his commandments that are loving the Lord, the Lord is good to them. But just get everything that you can get right, right. Give God every reason to bless you and then just wait for him and he will take care of it. So look to wrap things up tonight. To wrap things up tonight, just you gotta understand this whole sermon series is the point of the sermon series is this.  God has the power to do anything that we need done and God sees everything that is going on. He sees things that we don't even see. I mean, so people would just be better off if they just always realized that God was always looking in their life. Because guess what? He is, he is. So get everything that you can right, pray to God to help you. He sees everything and he definitely has the power to fix it. Let's power heads and have a word of prayer.