Commitment to Truth

Cedrick Brown: He said, "Bye." Hopefully, he comes back, Mom. He does a doubleheader sometimes as well. They do. A lot of our kids do doubleheaders because their parents serve. Thank you, parents, for serving. It's awesome. Does anybody—how many of you know we have a medical clinic? Okay, some of you. I encourage you, if you need medical assistance, to make sure you connect with our medical clinic. We partner with Rowan Medical School. Wonderful young men and women. Every time they're here, I try my best to stop in to say hi to them. Great people. Just young men and women who I believe genuinely have a heart to serve others.

It would be great if you stop in to be served, but also to just stop in and say, "Hey, I'm with the church. Just want to say hi and thank you." Hopefully, in July, we're going to have some of them come to introduce themselves so you can kind of see them and hopefully, they can explain further what they're doing. That's just another way of us as a church being on mission as we talk about the sermon series. Also, remember we have the basketball tournament that's the first Saturday, I think, in June, which is next Saturday.

The point being, there are tons of places and ways you can serve, as you probably heard. I just want to encourage everybody to just hop in somewhere to be involved and to lend a hand because many hands make light work. Exactly right. The more people are involved, there's greater work that we could do together and the lighter the work can become for all of us. It's important again as we're starting this new sermon series I've entitled for you On Mission, and specifically The 99%. Let's pray and ask God for His help.

Our Father, we thank You so much for the finished work of Jesus. We thank You it is by Him, because of Him, and through Him in His finished work that we are even to assemble here as the body of Christ and He as the head of the church. Lord, I now pray that You would help me to help Your people just to play my small role in this, to know that Your word is true and Your word is able to transform and it never returns void.

I pray that Your word will fall on good ground and bear much fruit. I even pray for those who will hear the word for the first time that the enemy will not snatch it away. I pray for those who hear it and receive it with joy that when they encounter tribulation and persecution for the word's sake, that the word of God will take root. I pray for all of us, Lord, because the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things can easily enter into our hearts and choke the word of God.

So today, God, we pray You preserve all of us, all of our hearts, that we may have good soil and Your word will fall on good ground and bear much fruit—30, 60, 100-fold into the next generation. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

According to LifeWay Research, the vast majority of evangelical Christians is estimated at over 99% work in a secular job market rather than any vocational or pastoral church staff ministry. Thus, the essence and the purpose of this sermon series is this: to encourage the other 99% of the body of Christ who are not in vocational or career ministry to live missionally from Monday through Saturday.

In other words, there is something specifically that you do, you do well, and God has called and created you to do that you should be on mission doing, honestly, more of the time than we spend together with each other. Sunday morning is just a tune-up. You're just getting tuned up and encouraged to go back out and do it all over again.

So the challenge would be is to understand that the greatest mission field, the largest mission field, is not taking a trip overseas. It's living day in and day out here where you are in your life, in your current place of work, in your home. As you may be a stay-at-home mom and you're ministering to your kids, all you're doing is preparing future missionaries.

So all of us in whatever we do, even if you're retired, believe it or not, you don't hang up your cleats and say, "I'm just riding off into the sunset." You still have tread on the tires to do amazing kingdom work. Matter of fact, it's even statistically proven that when you're retired, you actually have more time to do ministry. So it's not a time to just hang it up, but it's actually more to finish well and finish strong after retirement.

As a reminder, this is some of the biblical truth that we're uncovering during our time together throughout this entire series. The first is we covered it last week: whatever you do, it's all for the glory of God. Secondly, that you are salt, you're light, and you are fragrance. Number three is that we want to move from insignificance to importance because there are some of us who may feel that what they do day in and day out is insignificant.

But we want to embrace the scriptures where it shows us in the life of Mordecai—we get into that later—that he went from insignificance to very much importance. We will go on in this series to understand what is your "why." We hear that term a lot these days. What's your "why?" Why are you waking up? Why are you living? Why you do what you do?

Then number five, we will just note how to live missionally day in and day out. What does it look like to live missionally for the gospel of Jesus Christ? Lastly, we'll cover you are commissioned. During this time, I just want to remind you that we're going to commission you into the marketplace. Wherever you go, we're going to pray for you, anoint you with oil, and commission you to do the work for the kingdom of God.

I encourage you, honestly, don't miss any of this series, but come back and, honestly, encourage others to come back who are in our church and who are not even of our church so that you can be an encouragement to them and they can also be encouraged to know that whatever they do has purpose and whatever they do is meaningful when it comes to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Makes sense?

If you can open with me now to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five is where we're going to start off today and we're going to uncover that you are, we are, salt, light, and a very, very sweet fragrance in a very smelly world. Matthew chapter five, just beginning with verse 13, it says, "You are the salt of the earth." Understand one key word. It says, "You are."

If you've put your faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ today, you are. It doesn't say you're possibly, doesn't say when you feel like it, doesn't say when you're perfectly ready, but it says you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

The first point we're going to cover today is that you are salt in the earth. Historically, let me give you some usage of salt. Food preservation. It says before refrigeration, salt was used to prevent food from decay. It was used to cure bacon, fish, and other things to be stored for a long period of time.

If you ever go on a mission trip—I went to Honduras one time—they were curing their food by hanging it outdoors and some flies were parking there for a moment. That was the food that we were going to eat. Even in that part of Honduras up in the mountains, there was no refrigeration. Matter of fact, they even served me—I never had it before—hot cereal. You know why? Because there was no pasteurization of milk. So they heated it up, poured it over the cornflakes, and I had hot cornflakes.

It was also used for currency and trade. Salt was used as money. Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, which is believed to be the origin of the word "salary." Medicinal reasons. Ancient physicians used salt to soothe sore throats—my mom used to use that as well for us as a kid—gargle your throat with salt. It also is used to treat wounds and it was also an ingredient for digestive medicine.

For industrial purposes, it was used to tan leather and in desert areas to dry out animal dung to use as fuel. Lastly, it was used for flavoring. It has been used to enhance the taste of food, reduce bitterness, and as Romans did with vegetables, gave the rise to the term "salad." I found that out today as well, as I studied.

When you look at us being the salt of the earth, if we're salt, then God apparently is now using us to influence the world. He's using us to preserve, make His presence salty or tasteful. He is using us today as salt in the earth. Now, the word "earth" here found in verse 13 is the inhabited earth, the abode of man and animals. So there's no confusing as it relates to where we're supposed to be salty. It's where we live and where we are today is where we're supposed to be salt.

In Acts chapter 17 verses six and eight, it describes the influence of our saltiness in the earth. Listen to this. This is when the gospel was spreading into Jerusalem and Judea and heading to the outermost parts of the world. It says they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have upset"—the word "upset" means stirred up or unsettled—"the world have come here."

This is what the King James says: "Turned this world upside down." In other words, one of our responsibilities on the earth is to stir things, not to fight with each other but to stir. In what way? It says this, and Jason had welcomed them and they act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is no other king but Jesus, which says to you and I, no presidential candidate is your king.

If you like them or not, they are not your king. They're not the person you identify with. It is clear that the only way that the church was able to stir the world and turn the world meaningfully, really right side up, was because they knew who their king was. That's what salty people understand: that we serve a King of Kings and a King that is not of this kingdom. He has His own kingdom.

So our challenge is we influence the earth because we have another king. The times we lose our influence is when we forget that and we acquiesce to the world's system and we acquiesce to the cares of the world and the deceitfulness that is found in the world. Because we have another King, we recognize His name is Jesus and we act like men and women who are part of the kingdom.

You also find in verse 13, as because we're servants of a different King, we cannot become men and women who are tasteless. Luke chapter 14 verse 34 and 35 gives a clear warning if we become tasteless or foolish. Because this word "tasteless," you know what it means? It's to be foolish and to act foolishly. Do you realize that's one of the biggest problems with the church today? We act foolishly.

Therefore, salt is good. But if even salt has become tasteless—foolish—with what will it be seasoned? It is useless, tasteless, either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown out. He who has an ear, let him hear. Those are strong words. Not disconnecting that we're the salt. If we become tasteless, we might as well just be heaped up with some manure.

When we become tasteless or, again, I want to more emphasize the Greek word of tasteless, when we become foolish and we succumb to the world and we start acting like the world that we live in, we become foolish. You know what begins to happen? We lose our influence because salt is influential. What it touches, it impacts. What it touches, it preserves. What it touches, it becomes tasteful.

We can't be people who lose our influence. When we lose our influence, we're no good. We're also the light. If you continue to look at Matthew chapter five verses 14, 15, and 16, it says, "You're the light of the world." Remember, you can underscore "you are" because He is not giving us an opportunity for our own opinion of who we are.

He's not saying that you and I, once you go to theological seminary or you walk with Jesus for a period of time or you get baptized or you do some other exterior work. He's saying that when you know Me and you're Mine, you are. You're salt and you are light, if you like it or not.

He says, "You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp"—and remember historically context, it was lighting a lamp meaning it's a flame—"nor does anyone light a lamp or you could say a candle and then put it under a basket. What would happen? It'd burn. Set your house on fire. So you won't do this, but on the lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your God who is in heaven."

The word "light" here is defined as a heavenly light such as what surrounds angels when they appear on earth. Think about that for a minute. When angels appear on the earth, there's this light that encompasses them that says, "Oh, you somebody special." Similarly, it's almost like God is saying when you walk on this earth, there should be something bright or something noticeable about you as it is with angels.

When angels show up, they have immediate impact. When angels show up, it's not like, "Oh, guess that's an angel." Everywhere in scripture when there's an angel, there's homage, there's like, "Whoa, a representative of the Lord has appeared." That should be the same way with us. Again, just to reemphasize the word "world" is further defined as the inhabitants of the earth, meaning again, men, women, and the human family.

It's saying to you and I, we're in this earth, upon this earth, and we are to make impact in the lives of people, in the lives of humanity. It's super important because as followers of Christ, sometimes we get lulled to sleep to think that I have no responsibility to humanity. Especially if you come to know Christ, your life is transformed, your marriage is better, your family is better, you're healed emotionally, spiritually, physically, you're running on all cylinders. It's very easy to just navigate life, go through life, and forget about all humanity.

"I got my degree now and I'm going to start making money, it's all about me. I'm about to retire, move to Florida because that's what everybody does." We forget all about humanity. "I want to move to this very nice neighborhood because I want my children to have more." It's cool, but don't forget humanity. "God, I need a better job and when I get a better job, I can—" but we forget about humanity.

It's clearly saying to you and I that we are the light who are supposed to show up like the glow of an angel and affect and impact humanity. To summarize these two words, it should be this: we inhabit the earth to exist as light for all humanity, not merely to just wake up and go to work and make money and go to sleep and wake up and make money and buy nice things and go to sleep and do it all over again.

Therefore, as light in this very dark world, we can't try to hide because you read the text, it says don't do what? First of all, it says you cannot be hidden. Secondly, don't try to be hidden. I remember early in my walk with Christ, I used to try to hide a lot. It's kind of like Peter. Remember when Peter, Jesus said to Peter that you're going to deny me three times. The third time, what did he start doing? Cursing and swearing. Why? It's because the person said, "You sound like one of them."

Think about that. "You sound like one of them." "Oh, blank, blank, blank, blank, blank," so that I won't now sound like one of them. I want to challenge young men and women who are here today, that's very, very customary when you have the tension of peer pressure. I just want to not stick out and be different, so I'm going to blend in and start dressing a certain way, talking a certain way, trying to add some swag. You follow me?

But at the end of the day, you are defaming the reputation of Jesus. Adults, we're no better because we also have peer pressure on the job. "Hey man, you want to hang out? Let's go to the bar afterwards. Want to meet up with us?" We have the pressure. We have the pressure of, "Hey, you want to fudge that?"

The words "cannot be hidden" mean you cannot be concealed, you cannot escape notice. I can't tell you how many times again when I was younger, I tried to escape notice and was found out every time. There would be people randomly would say, "Why are you here? You're different." It's like, "Why you got to say that? Now I feel all guilty for being here." Anybody experience that? "Why you here? You a little different. Why you—" you can't be hidden.

The words "put under" or the word "put" in particular means this: to lay off or aside your light. In other words, it's kind of like saying when we put ourselves under a bushel, we try to hide. What we're doing is really laying it aside, or more specifically, to wear or carry no longer your light. When we try to hide and mask it, it's almost like we're trying to disrobe who we are in Christ or who Christ is in us because He's the light who shines through us.

Remember, if you are a believer, light lives in you, so you can't go anywhere from it. He lives in you. So you can't run. Therefore, you and I are created to shine, not hide. So no matter how hard we try, we cannot conceal our identity. It's kind of like Superman. He tried to be Clark Kent, but every time he saw a need, he disrobed. Who he really was began to come out.

But we must be men and women who realize we live in a dark world who needs Jesus. We can't play like Clark Kent. We're created to be Superman. We also find as light in this dark world, we shine not merely just to say look at us, but it is to look at Him. We shine to glorify God. The word "glorify" in verse 16, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven by your good works," it means this: to magnify, celebrate, and honor God the Father.

So whatever works and whatever we do in whatever sphere of influence, both publicly and privately, we magnify, celebrate, and honor God. It also means to make Him glorious. It also goes on to say this: to make Him renowned, to cause the dignity and worth of some person or, in this case, God, to become manifest and known and acknowledged.

Think about that for a minute. When we shine our lights before man, they see our good works. It ultimately causes God to be manifest among us. So, can we apply that to the world? How many times do you hear followers of Jesus Christ say things or post things like, "Well, I wish the world would get better. I can't believe how bad the world is"? Well, you know why? It's because we lost our saltiness and we hiding our light. It's just as clear as that.

If you want things to get better in your home, guess what? You got to be real salty in a good way. In a good way. Because I know today, salty can be like a bad way. Don't be salty with your husband and then now you—it's like, come on now. That doesn't give you license to sin, but we're to be something that tastes good.

How many of our loved ones and friends don't know Jesus is because we've lost our saltiness and we're hiding our light? Think about this: how many family members would be transformed if you show up to the next family picnic and you're not carrying a bottle of wine or a six-pack? I will guarantee you right off the bat they'd say, "What's up with you? You okay? You don't drink anymore?"

I can't tell you how much I used to get that when I worked in the marketplace. I would say, "No, I don't need anything." My employees knew that Cedric just ordered him a cranberry juice and lime. Many of them would venture out to say, "Well, you don't drink at all?" I was like, "No." I said, "But let me tell you, I used to drink. Matter of fact, I would probably drink you under the table and I would drink so much that I probably was a borderline alcoholic because I would drink and sometimes not even know if I was drunk or not."

So I would tell them that. I would just like, here, but something happened to me on the inside. That was my lead-in to the gospel because I chose to be a little different than everybody else. Philippians chapter two verse 14 and 15 describes how and why we do everything we do. Listen to what it says: "Do all things without grumbling and disputing so that you will be proven yourselves," it says, "to be blameless and innocent."

This word "proven yourselves" or "proven" means this: that you come upon the stage. Think about that for a minute. When you and I do things without grumbling or disputing, you and I begin to become people that He puts on a platform because everybody grumbles and complains.

So can you imagine today if you showed up to work and stopped grumbling and complaining? It would immediately put you on a platform, not merely for yourself. Listen to what Philippians two goes on to say: "to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world."

You're choosing not to be like everyone else, sets you on a platform to appear as lights to a dying world. When we shine, we brighten everyone's world and we bring attention to God as His beloved children. Then in Ephesians chapter five verse 13 through 16 gives us more reasons to shine as lights.

It says, "But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason, it says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days in which we live are evil."

Whenever there's an opportunity for us to shine, we got to shine. We got to make the most of the opportunity to make Christ visible to everybody around us. We can't shrink back. Again, am I telling you today that He builds this platform and you just stand up and wag your bible and get a megaphone? No. Most of the time, people just wonder why you're different. You could just say, "Once I was blind, but now I see." And they ask you, "Well, why were you so blind?"

And you tell them why you were so blind and then you tell them how you now see. It is that very easy. You don't have to chapter and verse them yet. You bring that later when they want to become committed disciples. But most of the time, they just need to hear the realism of the gospel what is called orthopraxy. You know what that means? Is all the orthodoxy that you believe in the text is what you practice day in and day out.

One of the biggest turn-offs to non-believers is you are strong in your orthodoxy but you don't have any orthopraxy. In other words, you don't live what you believe or you say you believe. That's a big problem in the church and we become the greatest enemy to the cross because of it.

Lastly for today, we are a fragrance wherever we are. We're this wonderful sweet fragrance. Listen to Second Corinthians chapter two verses 14 through 17. It says this: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one an aroma from death to death and to another an aroma from life to life, and who is adequate for these things?"

Nobody. Because it goes back in the other verses and says that it is aroma of Christ through us. So no one is adequate among themselves or in and of themselves. The adequacy comes through whom? Christ and Christ alone, right? That being said, the word "fragrance" means this: a sweet smell, a sweet odor, spoken of the smell of sacrifices agreeably to the notion that God smells and is pleased with the odor of sacrifices, a thing that is well-pleasing to God.

When we live as salt, light, and a sweet fragrance, the aroma reaches the nostrils of God. Here's some specific reasons why people wear scents like colognes and perfumes. Listen. Self-expression and identity. Memory. In other words, it says our sense of smell is strongly linked to the brain's limbic system and controls emotions and memory.

Attractiveness and social perception. Fragrances can enhance perceived attractiveness and make a strong positive first impression. Remember Pepe Le Pew? Some of you—if you've never seen that, young people, just Google it and you'll see Pepe Le Pew. Scent plays a major role in human social interaction and can make individuals feel more desirable.

Mood boosting and aromatherapy. Aromatherapy principles show that certain scents can help reduce stress, ease anxiety, or boost energy. Applying a favorite fragrance can serve as a mental pick-me-up throughout the day. Grooming and hygiene. Historically and fundamentally, fragrances are used to signal cleanliness.

But if you're a teenager, you probably just put it on, you don't even take a bath. Boy, you take a bath? No. They complement daily hygiene and mask natural body odors to keep you feeling fresh. So because scent reacts uniquely with individual skin chemistry, you ever had that problem, you go to a perfume counter, ladies, and it smells different on your friend than it does your body? So it says two people wearing the same fragrance will often smell slightly different.

How do we apply all this? I believe this is the uniqueness of Christ in and through you. In other words, there will be people that will be attracted to Christ through you that will never know Christ because of me. There's places you go, people you know, places that people that you know go to frequently. I show up, it's just another dude. You show up, it's a sweet fragrance. It becomes something that interests them about Christ.

So my challenge to you is this: that for whatever reason you're putting on Jesus, let it always be because you want to attract others to Him. Know that you have a unique smell and scent that comes through Christ into the room that you walk into that gives you unique opportunity to reach people that I would never, ever be able to reach.

Let us remember these couple of things. Let's remember whenever we are, wherever we are—excuse me—we embody the aroma of Christ. So wherever you go, you're going to smell like Him because He lives in you. He says we are fragrance. Ephesians chapter five verse one and two challenges us to imitate the sacrificial life of Christ, which is a fragrant aroma.

Listen to what it says: "Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." If you want to smell good, you got to act like Christ. You see, the aroma we bring with us or, you could say, leave behind—because you ever have someone have cologne and their cologne just stays in the room while they left—should ultimately turn hearts towards Christ.

Then lastly here, you see wherever we are, we should never, ever act like the many. It says, "For we all," this again is Second Corinthians chapter two, "for we all are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God." Ephesians four, 17 through 32, affirms that we are no longer to be like the many.

"So this I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God," listen to this, "because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness."

What I've personally learned over the years is to maintain a sweet fragrance of Christ is that we can never, ever let our hearts become hard and callous. Here's the deceptive part of this: you can say today that you're not hard and callous towards God, but if you're hard and callous towards people, you're hard and callous towards God.

Thus, the importance of forgiveness, letting stuff go, not holding onto it, not letting pains from the past to linger, because it will convolute the smell of Christ. People then will say, contrarily, "What's up with her? She's mean. She's hard. Why's she so snippy?" It's because there's something wrong with the heart. "Why's he so proudful? Why's he so arrogant? Why's he such a bully?" Well, it's because there's something wrong with the heart.

We are a fragrant aroma, so we absolutely cannot act like the many. It's very easy to succumb to that, right? Because all you need is the right group, because misery loves company. All you need is the right group at the right time with your guards down, and before you know it, you're acting like the many.

We are the salt in the earth. We're the light in a very dark world. We're a fragrance wherever we go. Amen. I want to end with this verse as a prayer in First Peter chapter two verse 12. If you can just bow your heads with me. "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation."

Lord, we just pray today that we will keep our behavior excellent wherever we go, especially to those who do not know You. So that in the very thing they may try to slander us as men and women who do wrong, they may, because of our good deeds, our works, when they observe them, they will glorify You, God, when You visit them one day. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Can we give the Lord a handclap today? We have tools for you. We have Google cards, and Ray and Lorraine, could you gather maybe yourself and some of the VIP team in the foyer? Give out Google cards. We have these Google cards. All they really do is just simply say, "Hey, here's some information about our church." You don't have to say anything. You can just leave it behind.

We have these "On Mission" cards. I don't know if anybody got any of these when you came in. Write your three people. I just finished my three people, and one of the three people I had a chance to lead to the Lord last week. Crazy scenario, but God is faithful. You know, this morning before I even came down here, I texted all three of them and just said, "Hey, thinking of you, praying for you."

Just as simple as that. Thinking of you, praying for you. I just say that because do not let the enemy make you think it's really that hard. All we need to do is be men and women who plant seeds, water seeds, plant seeds, water seeds. God is the one who gives the increase.

The Evangelism Explosion training is coming on the 13th, right? So not this coming Saturday, the next Saturday, at the Family Center, which is only a mile away. So encourage you, if you want to know how to share your faith even more in detail, great opportunity to go there and just to learn and grow.

You also should have gotten one of these on the way in. If you didn't, make sure you get one. This all will make sense as we continue the sermon series. It's called Job and Occupation Categories. This is going to become vitally important as we head towards the end of the sermon series.

So I encourage you to kind of find your job category. If you don't see your job category in here, because this, of course, is not exhaustive, just email the church office and say, "Hey, I didn't see my job category. Here's my job category," and we'll update it. We didn't print many of these today intentionally because it's a first publish. So just see if your job description is in here. If it isn't, we'll make sure we add it.

Because at the end, we want to make sure we're praying for you. Then it'll make sense as we navigate the next couple of sermon series. I'll follow up with an info card to say to now tell me what your category is. You follow me? Look through here, see if your category is in here. Next couple of weeks, we'll start disseminating a card of some kind that says can you give us your name, your information, and let us know what category you fit in. Makes sense?

If you're retired, you fit a category and it just reminds me, I don't know if we put retired in here. If we didn't, please forgive me. Let me see. It's there. Yeah, there it is. Other and special category. All right. Makes sense? So let's stand to our feet, please. For the sake of time, Pastor Jose, as always, we don't collect an offering traditionally, but these are the ways you can give.

As the Lord leads you, we just encourage you to give accordingly. What you give helps us continue to go into all the world and do amazing things that we're doing. Amen. So love you and appreciate you. Lord, we thank You so much for this offering. I thank You so much for the generosity of Your people up into this point.

But God, I also pray that You would stir the hearts that maybe those who have not given that they will feel safe and confident enough to allow us to steward what You have so graciously given. Lord, I pray You keep all of us accountable to the resources that Your people entrust to us. Lord, that it would only be used to glorify You, Jesus, and draw people to a more intimate knowledge of You. Not a kingdom unto ourselves, but to establish Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven for all nations and tribes and tongues. We pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Guest (Male): (Singing) Through You, I can do anything. I can do all things. 'Cause it's You gives me strength. Nothing is impossible through You. Blind eyes are open. Strongholds are broken. I am living by faith. Nothing is impossible!

I'm not gonna live by what I see. I'm not gonna live by what I feel. Deep down I know that You're here with me. And I know that You can do anything.

Through You, I can do anything. I can do all things. 'Cause it's You gives me strength. Nothing is impossible through You. Blind eyes are open. Strongholds are broken. I am living by faith. Nothing is impossible!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

Through You, I can do anything. I can do all things. 'Cause it's You gives me strength. Nothing is impossible through You. Blind eyes are open. Strongholds are broken. I am living by faith. Nothing is impossible!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

I believe! I believe! I believe! I believe in You!

Cedrick Brown: Thank You, Jesus. You're dismissed. The pantry has some food downstairs if anybody's interested in grabbing something from the pantry. Go down the exit. Thank you. (Talking to person off-mic) Last minute, it's like—last minute, it's like a text message. Yeah. (Noise of congregation leaving).