CROSS TO COMMISSION | The Court of the Wicked | Matthew 26:57-68 | Arik Hayes

God bless you, you may be seated. Hey Danny B, how you doing, family? Good to see you. Good to see you. If you don't know Danny B, she's one of the people behind the scenes that makes this thing work. And we're real big here, not just you doing your role, but we care about your soul. That's my sister, we've got the knowledge of this as I've been on staff. And just want to honor people, amen? Just don't want to use people, you want to honor people. You want to honor people, you want to feel loved for that as the will of Christ in the body. Amen? Amen. All right, beloved. Welcome to 2018 Church. We are a church that is a house of prayer, presence, and proclamation, all three. That's the heart of the DNA of this church, and we'll continue to be like that until Christ comes back himself. I want to welcome my online community, digital disciples, those that are joining us across the camera, those that actually may have come and to visit, maybe in this experience, we want to welcome you. Shout out to the overflow. And shout out to the crowd in a minute. We love you, we appreciate you. And I want to welcome the unbeliever. Amen. There it is. There it is, we want that deeper than our culture. Why? Why? We were all once unbelievers. You don't get to be just naturally born into this thing. Right? You must be born again. And you must come in at the door. You sound like an old deacon. Well, I'm turning it into one. Right? But again, you should say it, and I didn't really have a reference for it. Right? But a scripture said, you must come in at the door. The door is Jesus. God. The true and living God, Almighty God, has offered a way for us to get to know Him, have access to Him, have a relationship with Him, be saved, be delivered, be restored, be redeemed. It has been offered. Okay? It's only been offered one way though. And that's to Jesus Christ. I want to keep saying that because you are, you are bombarded with so many other ways for spiritual enlightenment. So many ways. Horoscope, gyms, so many other religions. And the scripture says, anybody else that tries to get to God any other way, the scripture say this. I didn't make this up. Right? The scriptures call them a thief and a robber. If you try to get to God any other way, accept the door, a K.A. Jesus, that's really provided. And it's our hope, beloved. If you're here and you belong before you believe, or if you're checking us out through the screen, it's our hopes that sometime, we hope some of the later, but sometime, the Holy Spirit would prick your heart like you pricked ours. You would join us aboard the ark of safety as our pastor says often, right? Did you would join the kingdom of God? That you would walk with him on this earth? And we would enjoy eternal life here and in heaven, which is to know the true living God. That is our plan. That is our hope. That is our desire. That is our prayer. And I just want to take out time, which we customarily do, to honor the pastor of this eclacy of this house, Philip Anthony Nurture. Amen. Again, I want to give you space to honor when not trying to push you to do it. Right? But why? Why do you do that every time you preach? Why don't I tell you why? But sometimes it's just hard to even run your own life. We just talk like we families, but on a clock of spirits, if it's taught like we family today, sometimes it's hard to get out of bed and run your own life, be responsible for yourself, before marriage or children. No other connection is just you. Jesus. Just you. Nobody else. Just you. I don't feel like doing it today. Nobody dependent on you at all. Just you. I don't feel like doing it today. I imagine having a wife and four children and a church, I think, on average, we're looking between 6,500. Amen. Praise God. Locally, I imagine a digital disciple. I don't know how we even calculate how big our digital disciple community is. And to do that with consistency and grace and tenacity, I think that deserves honor. So that's why. All right. Beloved and as the church we're continuing to walk through the book of Matthews almost three years in in a series we've titled cross to commission. And I have the honor and privilege of preaching this sermon to you that I've titled the court of the wicked. Let me pray again for us, Holy Father, I just thank you for your scriptures, your truth, the bride of Christ, and the precious Holy Spirit. I seek to decrease that you were increasing me in this hour, that your will for this assignment would come to pass. Thank you for the internal nudges of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Spirit amongst the bride and even for the unbelievers that are here and those that will watch. I pray you encounter them that they will have a saving faith in the Lord Jesus to come aboard the ark of safety and walk in truth in the body of Christ. This is Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Frank, you mind hanging out with me, family? I appreciate you. People, family, this is no news last, but it's something I want to talk about today. There's evil in the world. There's just unadulterated evil, a people that seek to hurt people and damage them and harm them. Subjugate them and deceive them and poison them. There is evil in the world. So part of theological truth, there is holiness and there is evil. We've all encountered it in some way, shape or form. Some of us in this room have actually committed evil against other people. Some of us have had evil committed to us at the hands of other people. Some people either here or across this camera may still be dealing with it. I pray that God deliver you from it. With that evil, man, there's a certain feeling of disappointment and dismay and discouragement when evil is committed at hands of the people that are supposed to protect you. But dealing with evil is one thing. Dillon with evil is one thing, but dealing with evil coming from your parent is different. Dillon with abuse is one thing, but at the hands of your mother or father, that's different. Dillon with violence is one thing, but dealing with violence at the hands of a crooked cop is different. Having a child be bullied or having a child be harmed is one thing. But when you pack them up, you give them some lunch money or give them lunch and you send them on the way and they sit in the classroom of a teacher that harms them or abuses them. That's different. Why? Because these people, you give a level of trust. Nobody's sending their children off to actually be abused. Nobody's going into the medical system to sit in front of a doctor that has announced expecting to be to be to be mishandled. Nobody's coming to church to be lied to from a pastor or suffer spiritual abuse. It's a thing. Because the people that should be pushing righteousness, holiness, goodness, health, you put trust in them. When you suffer at the hands of them, it cuts differently. So our Lord and Savior finds himself in a similar situation here as we go through the scriptures. We'll be going through Matthew 26th chapter 57 through 68. I'll jump into 57. Before I do that, I'll just piggyback on what L'Hine Hill was preaching last week. If you heard it, he was preaching. He was preaching. He was talking about Christ saying that he had access. He appealed to the Father and have leeches of angels come and make quick work with this whole thing. But he chose not to. And he saw at the end of that passage all of the disciples deserve to him. All of them fled. So as we jumped into verse 57, I need to set this up. He was alone. And I just want to drop this off. Maybe you can handle it. Hopefully you'll be able to get something from it. Yes, we push community. We push brothers and sisters. We push the one and others. But sometimes in this walk, you may find yourself alone. You may not have planned it. You may have. Depending on somebody, small group, you said the text, need a little help. Nobody show up. Do we plan for that? No. But I need to let you know that. If no one shows up, we still need to stand solid in Christ. I know it's a tough man. I want to handle this firmly, but gently at the same time. Listen, man, in this primetime for Christ to get church hurt and stop being the Savior for five years and not go to the cross. Isn't that a prime example of church hurt? The people he poured into, did miracles with, went up, fed, ate with, and houses and everything. They stole who he was. He revealed what the church was. It's my crew gone. And now he's alone. That's why he's our idol, man. You know what he did? He stood solid on who he is. All right, verse 57. Then those who it sees Jesus led him to Kayafus, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. Kayafus. And I can be honest, I never even saw it until I started studying this. Kayafus was the high priest. A lot of times we're looking at, you know, we read the high priestess in the Old Testament, right? The sentence from Aaron, actually got appointed that, right? But this guy, Kayafus, it came and he was a high priest at the time where actually the Roman government would appoint them. That sound crazy. That's like the governor of Georgia coming appointing the next pastor of this church. Now, that sound crooked to me already. And the first time we heard of him is when he actually planned, had a plot to kill Jesus. Now we're dropping in for his time to execute that plan. Verse 58, and Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest. And going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end. Verse 59. It's now the chief priest and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death. Let's stop. If you've been around church any time and you heard the 10 commandments once or twice, that may jump out at you. They said they were seeking false testimony. How about the 10 commandments that said in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, it's the next to the last commandment, it says neither shout thou bare false witness against thy neighbor. Stop. How are you a whole high priest with a whole Sanhedrin council looking at actively trying to do a high, just trying to find a false witness? What are we doing? It's one thing to fall in the sin, fam. It's another thing as a high priest to be like, hey, come be a false witness. Come break one of the 10 commandments. Come on. Matter of fact, you know, it's going to be the victim of your crime. Christ. So wicked court. We do verse 16, 61 together. Verse 60 said, after all they're trying to get a false witness, they found none. So many false witnesses came forward. It says at last two came forward. And let me stop there. I'm going to give you a little background as they did research. So it's weird because they said they found none and then they found two. So let me clear up any type of confusion. It's weird because they're blatantly trying to do evil, but they're still trying to do it with righteous demands. Does that make sense? So they're looking for people that are actually going to lie, but they're still trying to make the lies line up. In the dead of night by the way, it was actually illegal for them to meet at that time. So they're in the dead of night trying to get people to come and lie and have the lies match up. And then 61, after the two came forward and they said, because they were still looking for two witnesses that agreed, they said together. This man said, speaking of Christ, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Okay, two things, right? That's a huge deal back in that time. The temple was like the home of God. We were just talking about that. So to say this, you're actually going to destroy the temple was a big deal. That is the thing Christ didn't say that. What he actually said is in John 219, I'm just going to say it, it's not going to be a couple on the screen. What Christ actually said was, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. He was actually talking about his own body. So here at the Son of the living God, that's like, oh, we got you. They have nothing because they're twisting around his words. They're trying to find the Neel and the Hastach. That's something that they can have in the fence and that's you be able to put them to death. Now this is what's important to us. They want to get them on one thing because they want to actually put them to death. It's important that if Christ broke one law, he is then disqualified from dying on the cross and being, I say, so we play around with the word perfection here. Nobody's close to perfect, right? Christ actually had to walk a perfect line for 33 years and they tried to get them and they still failed here. Give me verse 62. So he heard the lie from the two people and in the high priest that he stood up, which tells me he was sitting down. He stood up and said, Caiaphas, he said, have you no answer to make? He's talking to Christ. What is it that these men testify against you? First part of verse 63, he said, but Jesus remained silent. As I read the scriptures and Christ is supposed to be our true idol of our heart, one of the things I love about him and there are many is that Christ always came off. Cool. It's like you just want to rattle him. You just want to say anything like you never saw him flustered and trying to get someone. The man died. It was like, if you came here, you could have saved Lazarus. He got to him on his own time. That is never in a rush. How can we take that, extrapolate the point? Many of us deal with anxiety at a level that we should not. I deal with anxiety. I'm trying to see around corners. I got that revelation. I need to trust the one who can. Yes, not the wrong, but planning to the point, I got to know everything you never will. How much research do you have to do to know everything? If that's your goal, aren't you about to be stressed out? He was quiet. He was quiet. And in the second part of 63, the high priest takes it to another level. It says, and the high priest said to him in verse 63, I assure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. I just want to give you a quick translation. He's basically saying, swear to God and tell us whether you are the Christ. Does that sound like something a high priest should be saying to the living Son of God? Second of all, watch your mouth. You ain't got to be deeply religious to say to be like, swear to God, some of us got smitten in the face for much less. Swear to God, you better clean that up. Here he is, a whole high priest. Talking to the Son of the living God, adjouring him, ordering him. To tell me whether you are the Son of God and swear to God by it. Could I just point out again the restraint of Christ? What I was doing when you were made. Who are you talking to? I'm not even a two-year-old son, rolling up on me, talking like that. Can you tune in? I can barely talk. Just gibbering. Boy! Are you crazy? Who are you talking to? I say that to him too. We tune in half. Don't judge me. Who are you talking to? Hey! Look at Christ's response here. And I love it. 64. Jesus said to him, let's walk through it slowly. You have said so. But I tell you from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Now, beloved, if you wouldn't mind, give me a little time to unpack this. It's a couple things I want to come out of this verse. Because it's pregnant with a couple of things. One, why are you overreimpressing me? You have already said unto the Son of the living God. That's what Christ said. You have said so. Why are you pressing me? Put on your shame, try out in front of people. You already believe it. Second point. I'll read it again. But I tell you from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. You've heard me say from the stage, right? That's where you need to be able to grow. That primarily, Christ came to bring us a new name for God for us to be able to call him Father. Okay? Jehovah, Jehovah, Nese, Jehovah, Sivknu, Jehovah, Rafa. The names of God and the Old Testament, he steal that. But I'm saying primarily, he gave us the name Father. Like now, through the blood of Christ, we're able to be adopted. Right? Adopted by the Spirit of adoption now. We can call the Almighty God by the gospel and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We'll be able to call him Father, Abba, Daddy. It's actually a better translation there. You've heard me say that. I never saw this. We have another name to call him. It's at the right hand of power. Now, look at that in your Bible. That p is capitalized. So now we're not talking about power as a thing. What's going on about power as a person? No, let me state it. Your dad's name is power. And guess who told you it was true? Jesus Christ Himself. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. That changed when I got that. That changed the way I prayed. Because you prayed different when you know your praying to power. Ask anything in my name. Believe you will receive it. Why? Why? Because my father's name is power. I'm going to tell you. I was coming back from Ohio. My parents, the parental, my in-laws, they live in Ohio. We were coming back. I was doing sermon prep when I was going. I came back and I was like, it really, because revelation will change you. Not just information about God. I read the Bible from the back. Cool. Do you have a revelation of who he is given by the spirit of God? I asked the question. There are scholars that read the Bible all the time. Do you have a revelation of who he is? Have you had an encounter of who he is through the scriptures? It's Saturday after Thanksgiving. Now, Sunday after Thanksgiving, I want to say it's actually the worst day to travel. We won't get on Saturday and everything will be okay. Well, it wasn't. I was driving and we were coming from Ohio, coming back to Southern Atlanta. All of a sudden, the Google maps, the estimated time of arrival, it'll change from green and you know that this is often, it'll change the orange and then it'll change to red on you. Now, take me out, fam. It's already a solid nine hours with no stocks. And we got four children in here. But they're the worst, but I'm actually not bad, but I'm saying it's six people in this car. I'm ready to get home. And it started climbing. It was climbing. And it was climbing to it got like an hour more than originally stated. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it was my youngest baby. She said, can you pray? Shout out to formations, by the way. Because I pray, but they're becoming out. Daddy, can you pray? Should remind me to pray sometimes. So daddy, can you pray? I was like, I can. I'm all stressed out. And I just got the revelation that my father's name is Power. So when you got revelation, it changes how you move. And I'm like, I think I said something before. I said something along the lines of, and God, unbelieving that you would take this additional time and get rid of most of it. This is next to the worst day to travel. I just kept moving. And family, I kept driving. And it led us off. And do you know that of the hour that was added approximately like 40 to 42 minutes came off? Yes. Now, something you're going to hear that way. You don't know. There's always going to be a reason you can explain and wait God's grace. God will move. The devil on yourself. Well, it could have been something else. Maybe. You can try and explain the way all of God's blessings. What I do know is that I pray to Power. It's something happened. That's what I do know. That's a small example, man. I'm going to encourage you as homework. Forget, speak truth to Power. Pray to your father whose name is Power and expect something to happen. And I'm going to throw something else out there for you. He can change you and the situation at the same time. Don't you limit him or put him in a box. Yeah, I need to mature. He'll change me. Go! He can do both. You can see his face and his hand. They're connected at his heart. And it's for you. That's good. I'm going to say it again. I'm going to say it again. You can see his face and his hand. They're connected at his heart. At his heart and it's for you in Christ Jesus. And this is the last thing here. This is the high priest talking to the one who will become the high priest. I almost named this, Meet Your Replacement. This is what's diabolical. They're scheming. They're meeting in the dead of night. They're having multiple days and nights. They're high. They're looking for false witnesses. He doesn't even know he's being used by God. To help do one of his last sacrifices. Because before Christ was a high priest, he was the Lamb of God. So he's actually taking this time. And his deceit and his evil, he's helping to usher the Lamb of God. Which was actually one of his responsibilities. Because on the day of the tome, the most high priest goes into the Holy of Holy. And he presents the Lamb on behalf of the people and himself. It's a good time to insert what the devil meant for him. The devil meant for evil. God turned it around. He turned it around. In the middle of their play, he turned it around. He's trying to trap him. He just made a way for all. He turned it around. He's helping to sacrifice the Lamb of God. So that then he will become our high priest. And he will be the Lamb of God. And he will be the Lamb of God. And he will be the Lamb of God. And he will be the Lamb of God. I got a little time. I'll give it to you one more. He as a high priest would be aware of prophecy. So revelations 17 is as behold, he is coming with the clouds. The Lord is taking his name with him. The Lord is taking his name with him. The Lord is taking his name with him. The Lord is taking his name with him. The Lord is taking his name with him. The Lord is taking his name with him. Christ into a corner and have them fold. I love that about him. I idolized that about him. He a solid character, even on Podep, he did not fold. Help us have that character, oh God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As the Slipel man, we can walk in that too. How many y'all remember steaming, getting stoned in a New Testament? Did he run? No. And it says they stoned him. How do you know about something? That Jesus in heaven stood up to receive him. The Cypher don't fold. Don't fold the Cypher. You have the great sustainer at your back. You are seated in Christ God. Even death cannot steal anything from you. Nothing can be taken away from you. That cannot be restored. He is the one. He is the one that sustains. And your weakest hour you call on him. Your weakest hour don't you fold. You put steel in your back. Even if he does not deliver me, he is still able. He's still able. But he shows up in this circumstance or not to be absent from the body is to be present from the Lord. We can walk in a confidence that the world can't shake. They can't imitate. I am his and his mind. And you know how you get that confidence? I am going to give it to you. You want to know how to get that confidence? You do something real, diabolical and wild. And just read your Bible. You was waiting. I tricked you. He is the source. The living world. The living world. You can meet him right here. Right here. Read the sounds. The Lord is my shepherd. I am going to take some time. I sound not right. He made me lie down in green pastures. He lead me but I still want us. He restored my soul. He restored my soul. He restored my soul. He restored my soul. I admit. Lurus Gauron! I just met him. You act like if he didn't show up in a ball of light, he didn't come. No, no, no, no, no. Here comes Christ. You ain't that busy to not meet with the living God. Neither am I. Get to know him. Turn down your plate. Hit it, he have a suck. Turn down your screen. Ha, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, say. So, clue yourself. Steal away. And get to know him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's how you get it. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody that's really gotten to know him, did it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have the scriptures and the spirit. Yeah. With nobody else around. This is how you can walk along. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I have to deliver to Jesus. I'm all of that. Here he goes. He is. Give me 65. Then the high priest tore his robes, Caiaphas, and said, he has uttered blasphemy. What further witness is do we need? You have not heard his blasphemy. Verse 66. In the Sanhedrin Council, elders chief priests, the answer, he deserves death. They tried to jam them up. They couldn't do it. They had to misrepresent his words and get to it, to even somewhat agree. He is the one that knows thoughts and said, you already said that on the son of the living God. You don't think Christ could have gotten out of that. You don't think he could have argued his way out of that? But he didn't. I'll tell you a quick story. I'm from Jacksonville, North Carolina. I live with my grandmother until I was 13 years old. Unfortunately, my grandmother, she was actually a housekeeper. I think she was getting dropped off. It was a day that actually I wasn't even at school. It's been a while, so the details are a little fuzzy. But I think she tried to step on the curve and she liked missed it and she felt real hard. She broke her hip. Older people, brittle bones, and stuff like that, it worked against it. And grandma was feisty, right? To the point where when the physical therapist came and they say, all right, well, let's do your physical therapy. She's trying to work with her. She's more than that. She's actually insulting them. So much so that my mother, her daughter, would be like embarrassed. Like, you can't say that to the people they hear to help you. She didn't care. That was my grandma. It got to the point where she actually went to a nursing home. I was probably 17, 19 years old, something like that. And I remember going to see a nursing home. I went to school, went to high school, went to Jacksonville High. And I don't know really, I do know what possessed me to say it. But it wasn't like I was a big towering figure. Like I was probably half my weight. Never been a tough guy. But I meant what I was about to say. And it's probably been over about 25 years to give me some grace and try to remember. But I said something along the lines of, if anything happened to her, I'ma turn this place upside down. I'm not advising you to say that, but I'm telling you the story. Okay. Because she didn't play about me. And I don't play about her. Because I knew, if I turned the corner, and I saw something while going on in that room, and she was in there, I can't speak for nobody else grandma. But I knew it was about to be bad in this place. Because I was about to be temporarily insane. Again, I'm not a tough guy. I'm just telling you where I was. Because it's something in me. And another part of the story, she actually started to develop dementia in all time. So she's out of it. She's defenseless. And even to this day, it's hard for me to even watch news. I hardly ever watch it. But I have the great ability to put some of the most tragic stories of some of the most defensive, defenseless communities in front of you, children, elderly people. They just put it in front of you, and I can't deal with it. I understand that there's sex trafficking in America, there's actually a global thing. But I can't stare at it long. I have to divert my attention. Don't judge me. It's just hard for me to deal with evil. Especially amongst people that are defenseless. It's just hard for me to stomach it. If that being said, I'm closing for it. Give me your love of our 67. After this day, he deserves death. This is where I'll save your whip through. And I'm gonna say this beloved, and hear my heart. We recognize and we honor what he did on the cross. But a lot of us skip this. Right? We know last couple chapters here. We're not gonna run through these scriptures. We're gonna walk slowly. We're gonna talk about this. Lord, help me. Jesus. Jesus. 67 said, then they split in his face. And struck him. And some slapped him. He was 68. And they said, saying, prophesied to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you? I'm gonna hold you, Phil. This thing brought me to tears early this week. Real talk. It brought me to tears. Because this is the tough thing I was talking about the defenseless communities. Christ wasn't defenseless. He rendered himself defenseless. He chose to take his power and put it down. And choose not to use. Now how would he do something like that? If you were in there, wouldn't you be like me? Somebody, do something! Do something, man. Peter bustin' there, do something. Don't let him do it like that. What? Don't let him do it like that, Phil. Don't let him do it like that. They can't treat us safe. They can't treat us safe. They can't let that go down like that. Until somehow we wrap our minds around, the fact that he did it on purpose. Christ skipped no steps along the crucifixion process. He didn't mail it in. He was fully God and fully man. And let me talk to the men and some women who are either sensitive to hypersensitive to disrespect like I battle with. You probably heard me say, man, cussing at me is just a little bit lower. I said a little bit lower than spitting on me. Either one of the things happened, somebody needs to help me arrest my flesh. Go call Elder Milton. Go call Elder Milton. Go call Elder Milton. Go call Elder Milton. Go call Elder Milton. Go call Elder Milton. He did it for you. He stayed in the pocket of persecution for you. At any given time, he could have made quick work of all this. He could have appealed to his father, his father, whose name is Power, to dispatch some angels. His name is Legion's. Really, one angel can do quick work with his whole situation. Just one. He had Legion's available. I don't have no quick points here, fam. But we're gonna honor this, too. You know, when you get angry and you wanna stand and get into your flesh, he understands that anger. That's why in the scriptures, you can say, be angry, but do not sin. Like he didn't. Imagine being there when men was actually made. Since the scriptures, all things were made through Christ. And then that creation, or creations, spitting on you, punching you, and slapping you, all the while mocking you. Prophecy to us now, who wasn't? It was because of you. So we could call God Almighty, Father. If he gets out of this trial, or he wins the trial, and he doesn't go to the next step, there's no salvation on the cross. I guess I've had one point. Do we live honor in that? Or do we say, nah, God, that's too much. Or do we say, nah, God, that's too much. I don't wanna get all social media for six months. I don't feel like reading today. I don't feel like forgiving my spouse. I don't feel like forgiving my child. I don't feel like forgiving my parent. Nah, I'm cool on that. I catch you on another day. Look at what he did before he even got to the cross. Beloved. We gonna honor that. By your head, let me pray for us. Holy Father, I thank you for giving us descriptions. Thank you for giving us each other. The Holy Spirit. us each other. The Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. God, we thank you for the one that will come back when the clouds. The most high priest in Christ Jesus. Thank you for being our Father and one who is named power. Help us not just come in and out of experiences like this and get ahead in knowledge. God, help us lean into revelation of who you really are so that it will change how we walk in the earth. We love you. Help us even love you back the way you deserve. So Jesus, name me prayer. Amen. Come let's you go. Play the play. All the wonderful play. You love, you love, you love, all the marvelous love. Let the redeems sing the song. Places below to the side. The play, the play, the play. All the wonderful play. You love, you love, you love, all the marvelous love. Let the redeems sing the song. Places below to the side. The play, the play, the play. All the wonderful play. All right family, we have a special message from our pastor, Pastor Philip. Please direct your attention to the screen. Well, so 28, 19 family, trust that you all are doing well. I know it is the end of the gathering and that you are ready to get to your cars and get to your homes. But before you leave today, I just want to share something with you that is very important to my heart. I just want to ask that you will listen carefully because it involves you. And I remember the very first message I ever preached as a senior pastor. I was 12 years ago. I'm an old ministry in the inflicted re church. And I remember the very first Sunday preaching and I think it to myself. I have no money in my personal account. We have no money in the church account. And my wife and I, I couldn't believe it was just launched that ministry. My faith and we had nothing. And just preaching and being faithful to God. And that week, a man who would become a mentor to me, a bishop, he called me. He saw the ministry on Facebook. Asked me to come do dinner with him. And I went and we had dinner and he poured on to me. He was an older man of God. And that dinner was over. He slid a envelope across the table. And that envelope was a check for 45,000 dollars. And if it was not for that gift, our ministry would not have survived. If it was not for that gift, my wife and I would not have been able to buy food or groceries or take care of our family. If it was not for that gift, I would not be here today. And I remember the significance of that gift when our ministry was small when it was young. Any impact of that marriage generosity here in my life. That changed my life. That marked my life. And ever since then, I've always had this dream personally as a lead pastor to being a position where we could do the same for other people. And throughout the years, we have been generous here there, but never really had the resources to impact lives on the level of always dream to be able to do that. Until now. Until now. And I want to share with you something that's happened to share that is very special to me personally. And especially to me personally, because there is an air of my life that I have a struggle. We all have struggles. I have struggles plural. One of the areas I struggle in my life is I struggle to receive. It's very difficult for me to receive. So, you know, like birthday parties and honors and these things are very difficult for me. I find great joy in generosity. Right? And anybody who knows me personally, my wife, my staff, my children, I love to give things away to other people. I love to bless other people. And I find great joy in easing the sufferings of other people. Something about that brings me great joy. And a 2018-19 as a ministry, it's going to be three years old on December 31st. This ministry that we share together, called 2019 is only three years old. It is still a baby. And just a year ago, and just last year, we did not have the resources to really be a blessing to other people or any kind of level. This year, God has done something very special. You know, ministry, and you have been a part of this. And I just want to share with you what God has done. And I wrote these down. So, I will have some accuracy and fillack of not sharing too much information for the sake of anonymity. I won't mention the names of these organizations. But I just want you to hear what I'm about to say. Okay? In this calendar year of 2025, we have supported 10 churches, nine of them inside the United States of America. One church in India where Christians are being persecuted and put to death, we have supported 10 churches have helped them get off the ground. We are helping them right now with monthly gifts. We are keeping 10 churches afloat gospel churches that God has planted. Right now, as I'm talking to you, we are supporting two missionary families on two different continents. Right now, as I'm talking to, we have supported a Christian ship, a cruise ship that's out there right now in the ocean that is doing gospel ministry in the middle of the ocean. We have made that possible for ministry. Right now, as I'm talking to you, we have supported five families this year and have elevated them from suffering to help her food on their table. And we have gone above and beyond for those families. Right now, as I'm talking to you, there's a powerful podcast in London. We have paid for the whole season of that podcast. So they're spreading the gospel in a place that is spiritually dark. In fact, in a place we're going to do our very first 28-19 crusade at the end of January, that first weekend in February. Right now, as I'm talking to, we have supported two Christian companies that are doing big work for the gospel inside the United States of America. And right now, as I'm talking to you, we have provided an outreach admissions organization on the continent of Africa and another one in the Caribbean. We have supported all of these ministries this year and because of your faithfulness and giving, because of your faithfulness and generosity, I just want to report you what you have done. We have done together. Now, for some of you, this number may seem small. I get it. There's a lot of ballers in the church, and a lot of ballers in Atlanta. This is important to me. And I pray we'll be able to increase this, but I just want you to hear. I want to thank you. At this year as a Christian family, we've been able to give away over one million dollars of outreach support to all of these organizations. And we can celebrate that as a church, right? We're given away over one million dollars to support all of these outreach ministries, churches, Christian businesses, podcasts, and organizations over one million dollars given away. And we can celebrate that as a church. And so I want to take this opportunity personally to extend to you my most heartfelt gratitude for partnering with us in the spread of the gospel. It's the single mom who sold 20 dollars from every check. It's the businessman who sold us just a little bit more. It's all of us working together with the little amounts that we are doing. And God has put it in our hearts. You know, I never beat you up about money. We only take up offerings on Sunday, but I just want to take this opportunity. I just want to take this opportunity to personally thank you for believing in the ministry of 2019 supporting the ministry of 2019 to be faithful when you're giving for being generous and for helping me to accomplish a vision has been on my heart. 12 years to be able to give help the body of Christ at that level. And what God's grace will be able to increase that in the year to come in the years to come. So thank you 2019. Thank you to the brothers and sisters. Thank you to all of our digital disciples. Everybody was faithful given in Atlanta across the country around the world. Thank you so much for caring, for supporting the spread of the gospel. Because of you, all these ministries have been impacted and because of you, thousands of lives have been impacted through these ministries are reward as above us, reward us in heaven. We are adding souls to the kingdom. We are storing up treasuries for ourselves in heaven. Jesus has glorified the brightest drinker and this is only beginning. Thank you so much. Continue to be faithful again. Continue to be generous. Less make an even greater difference. Make sure I love you all and bless you all. Come on, Christ.