A (14:41)
I see one of the elders is looking at me and calling to himself a child. He put the child in the midst of them and said, truly, I say unto you, unless you turn, repent and become sanctification, transformation like children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. That the Lord is saying, there are people who will be in church their whole life and never make it into glory. They would have went to conferences and read books and listened to podcasts and sermons and never make it into glory. What a terrifying thing. To sit in a seat every Sunday only to die and wake up on the other side for the Lord to say, I never knew you. You worker of you and I had no real relationship. You was churchy, but you was not intimate with me. Some of y'all feel bad for atheists. I feel bad for people who have a false assurance with the title Christian. But you have no relationship with the Lord at all. For nowhere in this book did he ever call us adults of God. He called us watch. Children of God. And he says we must be converted to be like little children. Trusting, humble, lowly, meek. He said, if we're not like that, we'll never enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then he says, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So the Lord says, greatness is synonymous with humility. In the world, we say greatness is synonymous with prestige, power, influence. Following social media ig, we think people are great because of Fill in the blank. No, the Lord said, purge the church from that foolishness. Greatness is humility. Not platforms, not microphones, not books and conferences. People are great who are childlike in nature is what he said. Then he said, whoever receives one such child and my name receives me. So now he's using a child to typecast followers of Christ. He's not talking about a child now. He's talking about you and I, sons and daughters of the Father. And he says, whoever receives such a one man, how you treat another follower of Christ is how you treat Christ himself, is what he's saying. Then he says, watch. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it will be better for him that he have a millstone fastened around his neck. Neck. And he'd be drowned in the depths of the sea. So the Lord is reminding us people will commit sins, but you better not be the cause of people committing sin. That in the context of biblical community, let people wild out all they want, but you better not be the cause of people wiling out. This is for the seductress trying to trap boys in the church with your breasts hanging out all the time. This is for dudes taking women out of town in Mexico and you're not married with one hotel room. This is for people who are sowing seeds of discord in the church and tearing up the church. This is for people that tear up teams with slander. This is for all of you trying to build your own ministry inside of this ministry to lead people astray. This is for every person who you are the cause. I know that's your boyfriend or girlfriend, but she he is the cause of you being in sin all the time. Not really. You're storing up wrath for yourself for the Day of Judgment. The Lord said, do not be the cause of any other Christian being led into sin. He said, it will be better for you to be dead than being a person he blames for somebody else falling into sin. It'll be better for you to not be breathing. The Lord said, it'll be better for you to not be breathing than you be the cause of somebody else committing sin. How many times you're going to pass the blunt to another brother or sister that instead of using prayer for your stress, you use drugs for your stress, not knowing that in that moment the Lord is saying, listen, it'd be better for you to be dead than pass that off to your brother or sister. Like, why do we act like he can't see? Like we be trying to hide. Like any hiding spot you have is so dope that he can't see. And he's given us this teaching about ethics and values because he's trying to protect us listen. From hurting ourselves and hurting each other. Because he knows that sin is destructive and it is dangerous and it is damaging to his children and in his love for you is why he's calling us to take sin serious, is why he said in verse eight and if your hand off your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands to enter into be thrown into the fires of hell, is what he is saying. If you hands and foot, if you're committing sins, any sins that you are involved in, sins of commission, cut it off. The Lord is saying, this is not cutesy. It is not demure. It's not for you to treat it like it's a pet. No, he said, don't make it like it's demure, it's cutesy. No, hate your sin is what he's saying. Deal aggressively with your sin. Too many people say I'm a Christian, play around with sin, it's cutesy's demure. Don't know you're headed to damnation your unrepentance so don't treat it as cutesy. Don't make it demure. Don't sweep it under a rug, don't put it in a closet recognize he said cut it off. Deal aggressively with your sin. He says, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It's Better for you to enter life with one eye than for two eyes to go into hell. That is sins of the heart. The eye is the lamp of the body from the Sermon on the Mount. So deal with the sins that you are doing. Deal with the sins of the heart. Unforgiveness, pride, lust, anger, rage, jealousy, covetousness. Wring that stuff out of your heart, right? He's telling us that because he doesn't want us to sin. He said, woe to the world. That is a pronouncement of judgment to the world for sins. And he says, woe to the person through whom sins comes. Watch this. And on the backside of him talking to us about taking sin seriously, now follow the text. Because when this is written, there are no chapters and verses. It's one complete thought on the heels of Jesus telling us, family, children, deal aggressively with your sin. That is, don't play around with it. I'm watching as it is killing y'all, destroying your relationships, your marriages, your friends, friendships. For some of y'all, sin has cost you opportunities that you were supposed to have. You've lost jobs because of sin. You've ruined seasons because of sin. I know the pain of this personally for myself. Is why he's telling men, deal with it aggressively because it's robbing you of the best life possible. It hurts people and causes them. Watch. To run away from God. Now follow the logic Jesus. See the wisdom and wonder in his teaching on the heels of telling the church, man, protect each other from sin. Watch this. He comes what he says Next in Matthew 18:10. See, here is our verses. That you do not despise one of these little ones. Stop. I want to draw your attention to a few things. In part A of this verse, he says, see that you don't despise one of these little ones. Which little ones? Not children. Followers of Christ, now the Lord gives you and I not a suggestion. Pay attention. He gives us a commandment. Here is the commandment. Do not do nothing. Despise followers of Christ who you see struggling with sin or fell into some bad circumstance or going through some distress. You see them in a bad season. He said, when you see members of your community going through hardship, dealing with sin, they made a mistake, they fell away. Watch. Don't despise them in that moment. To despise is to devalue another human being. It's to say, dang it, she had another baby out of wedlock. She's not valuable to Jesus, man. He keeps falling into the same sin. He's not valuable to Jesus. It's for us to look at people that we don't like and say, surely God don't like this person. Look at the way she dressed. Look at her bundle. It's not even sewn in right. Look how she be dressing when she come to the gathering. Look how surely the Lord don't love that sister right there. She from Bankhead. There's no way the Lord will ever use anybody from Bankhead. She from Clayco. No. The Lord would never use nobody from Clayco. It's us moving in the community. Watch. And having hatred in our heart, disdain in our heart. Watch this word contempt in our heart for other brothers and sisters. This is us being so pro black that you anti white. You got your little African thing hanging around your neck and you think, because, oh, it was a white man's religion and they had us in slavery and they misused the Bible. So now you a Christian, but you hate white people. You, you use your melanin as a platform for idolatry. And so you so pro black, you hate white people. That's looking at a brother or sister with contempt. Or you, you so evangelical, you so white, you hate black people, you racist. And you don't like them because of something they could not control. Like the Lord didn't give us Ephesians through Paul, that divided, that line was destroyed, that he said he formed in us one complete body. You Christian. But you, you hate somebody because they don't have melanin in their skin. You, you anti white, you anti Hispanic of the person sitting on your row. So you look at them with contempt because of your past or what your grandmother told you. You think they're not valuable to Jesus. Watch. And. And what the Lord is trying to do. Listen, follow the text. The whole chapter is about how to keep us safe inside the context of community and try to teach us to stop hurting, hurting one another. And what the Lord was saying right here in this text is, I want you all to live amongst each other in such a way. Watch this word. That you do not keep dishonoring brothers and sisters. You hate them for what? You have no reason. It's like people always trying to come at me on Instagram. Why are you always wearing black? It's hot. Man of God, why don't you have a conversation with me? This is the Lord saying, pray more than you judge. Pray more than you slander. Pray more than you critique. Stop moving around the church and just hating people for no reason. I don't like her. So you Just hate her for no reason. I don't like him. So you just hate him for no reason. This is you moving through the body and just have hatred for somebody on the end of that row for no other reason than what's in your flesh. Watch. And for as much as you're giving pushback against this man, if we would lean into the teachings of Jesus, we would feel something in church that feels more loving and more accepting and more godly than all of the drama we keep feeling right now. The church is full of drama because we despise one another. We fight and we hate on one another. And we in DMs tearing down somebody on your team. Watch. Because we despise one another. To despise is to devalue. It's to say somebody's not important. It's to say God would never use them. It's to see them as less. As important as the way God sees them. You make a judgment on them based on some mistake, some failure. It's to look at the single mother and be like, man, she ain't no good. It's to look at the dude that dress urban like there's no way God is going to use him. It's to look at people and for nothing but the flesh. Us. To just devalue another human being is to not see the imago day in their face that all of us was created in the image of God. It's to not see their worth and value is to not see their dignity and listen. And some of this has been keep going. Some of this has been proliferated because a celebrity, I hate that in the church where you exalt some big name because they got some big following, but walk right past a single mother in the lobby that she means nothing to Jesus. She got 50 people on her Instagram. This person got a million people on Instagram. And because you hold them in high regard, you hold this one in low regard. You despise this one because she ain't important. Like that one. The Lord said, stop behaving that way, man. Come on. What are we talking about? Celebrity makes us value more people more highly than others. I'm not more important than Don, my assistant. Am I more valuable than him because I'm on a platform and he's sitting in a chair? So the Lord is warning his church, listen, y'all will have a better time together and you would enjoy each other better and it would feel better when you come to church that you're not always dealing with church hurt all the Time. And finally you get to a church that teach you the scriptures without trying to sugarcoat what Jesus is saying, without making you feel comfortable in your sin, until you finally get to a place where they will confront you in your sin and say, stop being nasty and stop hating people unnecessarily. Stop demising. Do not demise. Do not despise another brother or sister. Verse 10, part B. For I tell you, why is God so serious about this command? For I tell you that in heaven, the angels always see the face of the Father who is in heaven. Okay, preacher, I don't get it. I want to draw your attention to the word for. The word for is a transitional word that anchors the last thing Christ said to what he's saying right now. It connects the two. The word for means reason or purpose. Watch. Do not despise another brother and sister for. Or that is, do not despise another brother and sister because. Do not look down on another brother and sister like they have no value. Because. And then he makes a case for why they have value. He says, for I tell you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Now watch. Jesus is giving us access into an unseen realm that you and I can't see. He's teaching us that in heaven. Watch this. There are angelic beings that stay before God. Watch this. On behalf of the sons and daughters of God. We know that angels are created beings. We know that some are more powerful than others. We know some deliver messages. We know some execute judgments. And now we learn here from Jesus about an unseen realm that the Lord actually created angels that watch over the Christian church in the world. Now, this is not a doctrine for your little guardian angel on your shoulder. That's not what this is, what the Lord is saying. Watch this. They stayed before his face. Watch this. That there are angels in heaven that are always pleading your case when you fall into sin, when you. Gosh, when you make mistakes, when you fall short. There are angels in heaven that be pleading your case. Like yo people are saying, look what Philip did. And there is an angel saying, lord, be merciful to Philip. Look what Tanisha did. And there are angels in heaven saying, be merciful to Tanisha. The Lord is saying, man, his children are so valuable. Wow, they are so valuable that I even assigned angelic beings to watch over them and to plead their case in heaven. So when you're in the basement feeling insecure and unworthy, man, there's angelic beings calling your name before the Father, Lord, man, don't give up on Tawana. Don't give up on Tanisha. Don't give up on John. Don't give up on Sarah. Lord have mercy on them, Lord. They're trying, man. There are angels in heaven that are pleading your case before the Father. Then these angelic beings, man, they watch, they intervene in the lives of his children. The unknown writer of Hebrews. I'm almost done. Said In Hebrews chapter one and verse 14, around there, he said, man, angels was created to serve the sons and daughters of God. Y'all don't believe that. Back it up with the text. Acts, chapter 12. Back it up with the text. You want proof? You want evidence? Acts, chapter 12, verse 1. Acts, written by Luke, who recorded the first 30 years of church history. Luke said about that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to to the church. Watch this. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. So he killed James. The Jews is happy. He said, who else can I kill? Oh, yes, I'm going to murder Peter also. You want evidence? Whoever said that? Okay, watch verse four. And when it had seized him. Watch. He put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover, to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison. Watch. Peter was kept in prison. Peter could not get out. Pay attention. Peter's in prison. He cannot get out. Now, you don't know Peter personally. You just saw on Instagram, Peter got locked up in prison. So now you tear down Peter, you see him as unworthy. You see him as unvaluable. That was that dude that betrayed Jesus three times, denied him, didn't know him. Now he's in prison. I see what's going on. Surely that dude is no longer valuable to the Lord. That's what we do, right? Despise these little ones. Watch the back half of verse five. So Peter was kept in prison. Watch this word. But earnest prayer for him was being made to God by the church. Pray more than you judge. Pray more than you critique. Surely that dude that denied Jesus three times, man, he's finished. He's no longer valuable to the Lord. He's in prison. But instead of. But instead of despising him because of his circumstance, like nobody ain't been jammed up in sin and needed grace. Oh, oh, no. You was born on the altar and been perfect your whole life. Like you never been in a jam and needed help. But instead of Despising him. The church was praying for him. How does the lord respond? Verse 6. Now, when Herod was about to bring him out on the very night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and sentries before the door were gone in the prison. And behold, I like this part right here. You think this is a fairy tale? Behold a strong word that means, pay attention. Behold. Watch. He said, an angel of what? An angel of what? Always making appeals on your behalf. An angel of the Lord stood next to Peter. Gosh, he stood next to Peter. He stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He punched Peter in the face. That's the Philip Anthony Mitchell translation. Struck him in the jaw. He punched Peter in the face, saying, get up quickly. That's why you have to follow instructions. That's why the scripture teaches us, you better be careful how you treat strangers. Because oftentimes you entertain angels unaware. That old person you met in the bathroom that told you to get your life right, because God got something for you in another season and you blowed them off. Like you wasn't talking to an angel that was trying to give you instructions. The homeless person that gave you a word, he punched Peter in the face and he said, get up. And his chains fell off. Man, I like when God get involved. Chains break when God. Chains be breaking when God get involved. Jesus, I know I'm not the only one that's ever felt bound by something. And then God got involved and chains broke off and fell on the floor. And we said to the devil, no more. I'm free in this area right here. Do I got any free people in the room right now? Has anybody ever hear the sound of chains hitting the floor when God got involved. Don't do that no more. Don't go there no more. Don't smoke that no more. Ain't bound by that no more. God got involved and changed. Just broke off, just fell on the floor. And the angel said to him, dress yourself. Put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and fold. Follow me. I like that word, follow me. You don't have to figure it out on your own. Just follow me. Spending too much time trying to figure out everything on your own. Just follow him. I'm almost done. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they passed by the first and second guard, they came out the iron gate leading into the city and it opened. Because when God get involved, doors open. And it opened for them its own accord. And they went out from the street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, oh, snap. Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me. Rescued me. You see that word, rescued me. That is God intervening in a circumstance you could not handle on your own. Rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people. Now watch. Do you think the Lord would go through all that trouble to send an angel if Peter was not valuable? And it's the same thing he does for you and our family. You can look over your shoulder and see how many times, man, angelic beings have intervened in your life. You was in a car crash, and the angel held you to the seat that you didn't fly through a windshield. Man. I think about times God intervened in my life even before I was saved, man. When a friend and I drove off a cliff drunk on our way to a gunfight in Durham, North Carolina. Trunk full of guns, straight off a cliff to the bottom of the ravine, walk out without a scratch. The Lord knowing that this day will come for me when I'll be serving him right here, man. He held me as the car toppled down that ravine all the way to the bottom to make sure I did not die before my time. Oh, my. Is anybody thankful for the intervention of God in your life? You don't even realize how many times angelic beings have interacted with your life, given you words of instruction, protected you in car accidents. Bullets could have killed some of you and still alive. Some of you should have been in a box. But you're only alive because of the intervention of some angelic being in your life. Now look at me. Do you think God would go through all of that to assign angels to his church if you was not valuable to him? So follow the text. I'm about to be done. No, I can't. They want to get to the restaurant. I can't take my time. It's 12:45. I already know. It's the third gathering. They want to get to the restaurant. I already know. We're here for the Lord, not just for a gathering. So you think the Lord did this for Peter because he was perfect and never made a mistake and never found himself in a jam? No. The Lord is saying, don't despise any childlike follower of Christ because they are very valuable and precious to me. And the evidence of that is that I went through great lengths to even watch this, assign angelic beings to watch over their lives. He Would not do that if you was not valuable. Now, I'm about to finish, but pay attention. This is in the context of believers who have fallen into sin, who have made some mistakes, who have wandered away from the church, who have gotten into issues and they feel embarrassed and they run. This is for the believers who find themselves in a position of distress and automatically we look down upon them because of where they are, instead of seeing that even in the middle of that mess, they are valuable to God. So the Lord would strengthen his argument by giving one of the most famous parables in the Scriptures. When he gives this parable in Luke, it is for the unbeliever. When he gives the parable in Matthew, it is for the believer. So he closes this section with these final words. He gives a parable, a story to strengthen his argument. Verse 12. What do you think he said to them? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? Somebody should just say thank you. Like the Lord ain't come get some of you when you wandered away from Him. Like I'm the only one that's ever been in a season. When you wandered away from the Lord Jesus Christ and he came and got you personally for himself. He sent somebody to come find you. Now pay attention as I close. The Lord is using language from Palestine, pictorial language that the people can understand. He calls you a sheep. I. I don't want to embarrass you, but you do know a sheep is one of the most unintelligent animals on the planet. That is, they are stupid creatures. They fight each other, they bust their heads on walls. Sheeps are prone to. They could barely survive without a shepherd. They need a voice to guide them. They need a voice to feed them. They need to be protected by a shepherd, is why they. They barely survive without the shepherd. Now pay attention. Watch. Sheep in first century Palestine was so valuable, it was worth a lot of money. To lose a sheep would be like to lose half your salary in a year, especially if you work for somebody. So you knew if a sheep got away, man, you took that other group and you push them into a ravine and you run to go find that sheep that is lost. Watch. The Lord is trying. So the person who wanders from me in their sin, their failure and their mistake is so valuable, man, I will go after them personally for myself. Watch. Say, preacher, I don't get it. Watch. You know what the Lord is calling us to. He's not only calling us. Follow the text. To humility and childlikeness. I'm done, Frank. He's not only calling us Humility and Child Watch. He's calling the church Watch. To have a pastoral heart. So that when we see brothers and sisters wander because of sin or mistakes, we don't just treat them like they don't exist. You don't get it, do you? This is you being in a squad. I'm closing. This is you being in a squad, a small group and one of your girlfriends disappear. She has some new boyfriend, and now she ain't showing up anymore, man. He's busting it down. And now she don't want to pray because she feels ungodly and she feels like God can't. Of course God is not listening to her because she's in sin and she's getting piped down. And now she ain't coming to squad, and then nobody's looking for no. What the Lord said is, get in the Uber, get in the lift, get in the car, he says, and go to her house, bang on her door and say, girl, where you been? Let's bang. Pray about this. Let's talk about this. Let's help you. Watch. Go back to the Father. What the Lord is saying. He wants his church watch to have a pastoral heart. They was on your team and they not showing up anymore. Go and find them. They was in your small group and they're not showing up anymore. Go and find. Find them, man. That married couple that stopped coming that I used to have dinner with, man. Go and find them. Watch. And the Lord ain't talking about people that he needs to put out of the church that's coming in the next half of Matthew 18. He ain't talking about rebellious people. He's not talking about those he pruned out of the church. He's not talking about Hebrew Israelites standing in the parking lot of 2819, giving out your little fig tracks, leading people to false doctrine. Now. He ain't talking about those people that need to get ran out the church if they don't get saved or get right now. He ain't talking about them. I'm talking to you. He's not talking about them. He's talking about humble, childlike Christians who just find themselves in a bad season, a bad moment, and while they wander from Christ because they feel guilty, they feel ashamed, they feel unworthy, he calls the church to shepherd itself. Watch, man. There's over 3,000 people that attend 2819 every week. There is no way myself, one man, and the elders and our spiritual care team can keep watch over that many people. It's impossible. Watch. The Lord knew this the church that he's writing to. I hate mega churches. The first sermon that Peter preached, 3,000 souls is added to the church. Now they have a church of 3120 people and they only have seven elders and a group of apostles. They can't watch over the entire church for themselves, so they got to go back to the teaching of Christ to remind them. Y'all must shepherd each other. That is watch people disappear. Go and get them. They're not coming to church anymore. Go and get them. That is. Watch this word. Watch this word. Keep the family together, fight together, push against sin together so that we all arrive in glory together so nobody get left behind. See, and some of you, this ain't important to you, right? This ain't important to you because you ain't never wandered. But I told a story on a podcast this week right before I got saved, when I was suicidal, I was sitting in my apartment, Durham, North Carolina, shotgun on my lap, drinking a fifth of Hennessy to get myself drunk enough that I would have the courage to pull the trigger. And when I get to the point where I could pull the trigger and I got the barrel facing my chin, man, this girl, her name was Tiffany, I can't find her. She used to twist my locks. She was a Christian. I stopped showing up for my appointments. I stopped going to get my locs done. Now Tiffany, watch is wondering, where is Philip? And so she just comes randomly. That very night, she comes to visit me at my house. My door is unlocked by the providence of God. And Tiffany walks through the door on that night. She sees me sitting there with the shotgun in my lap, with tears in my eyes. She walks up to me, she takes my hand, and she sits down on the floor next to me. She does not say a word. But the ministry of presence, the Lord saw in me what I could not see in myself. He saw a day that I would serve Him. He saw a day where I would preach for Him. He saw a day where I would be a herald for Him. And he saw in me. He saw in me value that people could not see in me. And sent one of his children, he sent Tiffany to my apartment, that if he did not send her that night, I would not be standing here. And then it would be two years later, two years into my Christian walk. I would hurt God. I would fall into sin. I would hurt him badly. I would hurt people. I would be in a season of darkness thinking I'm done, I'm over with man. There's nothing God is doing in my life. And then God sends one, one man to come find me. He's sitting in the room right over there. He's sitting in the room right over there. Nobody came to find me except this one man right here. And the Lord used him to remind me that I was valuable. Two times in my life, God sent somebody to bring me back. This is the way he wants us to love one another. You see your brother or sister gripped in a dark season, gripped in sin, running from God in rebellion. Man, go bang on their door, send the text, call them, go say, man, listen man, you can do better than this. I know you feel unworthy. I know you feel like you failed. I know you feel like it's over. But come back to Christ. Come back to the fellowship, come back to church. Woo them back and remind them that they are valuable. And then he says in verse 13, and if he finds the sheep, truly I say to you man, he rejoices over it. Than over the 99 that never went astray. That is man. Watch the word. If you see that word, that's a clause that gives us an uncomfortable margin for saying some people may not be found, some people will be apostate, they will not come back. They're going to love their sin until they die and go to hell. And maybe you won't find them. And that's to say some of them may leave and end up under another shepherd in other another flock. And that's okay, but to the best of your ability, go rescue the brother and sister who was your friend, who's hurting, who wander. Why are they straying and you're not going to get them. Keep the family of God together. Why is this important? Listen to me. Look at me with your young eyes, millennials and Gen Z's. Listen to me. I know you're young and you think you popping. I want to warn you, time is running out. I know you don't read and I know you can't connect the Bible to the news. So you're not aware that time is running out. We don't have all this time left. The Lord is going to return soon and what we need to be doing right now is serving Christ with a whole heart, turning away from sin, dealing with sin and staying together, staying in church, in the group, on the team, in the squad. Don't be out there trying to do life by yourself. Stay together. Why is this important verse 14. So it is not the will of the Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. That it is not God's heart, that any one of them who wanders would completely shipwreck their life. Go and get them. Go and get them. And I know some of you think like, man, that's too much for me. Like I ain't got time to be rescuing people. Really, you don't got time, man, you were separated from the flock because of sin. And then God sent the greatest missionary in the world from heaven he came from heaven. He lived a perfect life. He died for your sin, was resurrected. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, he came after you and reconciled you back to the Father. He came after you and wooed you back into the fellowship of God. He wooed you back. He came and got you when you was in the club and wooed you back into the fellowship of God and made you a singer and that everybody loves your music now. Cuz God took what people saw as not valuable and anointed it and used it for his glory. And what the Lord did for so many of you in this room, he came after you and brought you back to the Father. He reconciled you. So who are we to not do that for others? Go and get them. Go and get them. Don't let anybody wander from the flock. As soon as they come up missing, go and get them. Go and find them. Them. Find them. Find them and bring them back. Jesus is going to return soon. Keep the family together. Eternal God, and of a wise father. Lord, I have done what you've told me to do. And Lord, now I pray God. Lord, the weight of the Word will come to bear on the hearts and souls of your sons and daughters. I pray God, you will pour out on us, God, a pastoral spirit that we would care deeply about our brothers and sisters, that we would start looking down upon them and hating them. Father, for no reason but God, I pray God, with a shepherd kind of love, God, we would do all we can to fight against sin, to be childlike, to be humble God, and to keep the family together. Father, bring back the wanderer, bring back the prodigal son and daughter who belongs under this banner. Rescue the one who's in darkness right now. Rescue the son, the daughter that's in darkness right now. And Father, I pray God right now for some unsaved person under the sound of my voice that you would woo them right now to yourself, save, set free and deliver and bring them back into fellowship with You I pray this over them right now. In the mighty and the majestic, the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Somebody said, please don't move. Please don't move. Stand up. Colin, come here. Colin, come up here. This is the man who came and got me. If it wasn't for this man, I probably wouldn't be here today. When I thought the Lord was finished with me, when everybody else crucified me and ridiculed me and saw no value in me, this man came and found me in the darkest season of my life to remind me that God was not finished with my life. Took me to Jamaica, his country of origin, to just love on me and shepherd me and remind me that I still had worth and value. I wonder how many other people, man, that God will be using for the future that y'all won't go and get. So, Colin, in front of everybody, I honor you. I love you. I thank you with all of my heart. He drove here from North Carolina to be here this morning. Thank you. I don't know. Is there anything you want to say to them? Or you good? Somebody bring me a microphone. Yeah.
