City Central Church Podcast
Mighty To Save
Myron Bernard preaching about God coming to rescue the city of Tacoma.
So Bishop, way to go, bro, that's not easy. We love you. One quick thing I gotta say about Bishop is the other day I was at Sozo, and when you watch him with our kids, he is unreal. And it's just amazing. And one of the, I think the deceptions that we believed as a team, and I've said this, I'm guilty of saying, I was like, man, I'm glad we have Bishop on our team. He has such a relationship with those kids because of his story and his background, because he's black and I'm not, you know? And the Lord really just stopped me right there and he said, Myron, the reason Bishop has influence with those kids is because I've anointed his life. And so Bishop, I just wanna tell you before everyone here publicly that you are an anointed leader of God. You are a radical man of faith. (audience applauding) We love you. And we get to go to Kona together to do missions. (laughing) And the other thing that I'm really excited about tonight is we don't have a lapel mic, so I gotta hold this here. And if I get a little off with this, can you guys just remind me? Someone, don't be afraid to say microphone, okay? Hey, thank you, okay. So I'm gonna do my best to keep it right here. Jason was giving me tips. He's like, act like your TD Jakes 'cause he keeps it right here all the time, okay? So I might pace around a little bit up here. I'm just gonna have fun. The other thing that I'm really excited about, we have how many, about 80 of our family over seas, over an ocean, over somewhere else in some part of the world, what a blessing praise God, amen? (audience applauding) So with that, we're excited for what God's doing in other countries, but can I just add one thing here? One thing I believe the Lord wanted to say specifically is that God's still excited for what he wants to do here tonight. And I don't know if anyone else came in just feeling a little bit like it's time. Hey, let's just punt, let's just call it a night and just do a little deal. That's not what we wanna do tonight. And I'm not saying that just 'cause I'm preaching, I'm saying that because I really believe God still has a plan for what he wants to do tonight. Is that okay? Amen. So God, we invite your presence into this place tonight God. We want you in Jesus' name. And God, we're not content with religion tonight God. We're not content with putting on a song and a dance God. We're not content with having a nice little thing about this or a nice little thing about that or getting together for the sake of getting together. God, we want to get together to encounter you to meet you, to be a part of your family that I got. So Lord, we invite your presence in this room in Jesus' name, amen. So hey, something that was interesting, it's been a long time since I preached a new song. I think it's been at least a couple of years. But every time that I get to speak at new songs, something crazy happens in my family. And usually it's, oh, there's always tension between Holly and I, here comes my beautiful wife right now. Hi babe. And she's bringing my beautiful daughter. Come on up here Jubilee. (laughing) Hey, actually go sit right next to Mama and I'll call you up in just a second. That's okay, it's family night, she can play a show, right? So we usually get in a fight about something and there's usually, like the very first time I preached at new songs is the most random thing. Our house, we had like this closet and there's this big thing, a paint in the closet. And it was literally right before I'm leaving to go to a new song, like the paint just falls off the ground and it's like all over the carpet. You know, it's just paint in the entire carpet. You know, it's like, ah, well, it's time to go. So, looks like new carpet for that little section of carpet there. And then, yeah, so every time something weird happens, one year I think my mom was in town and that was just, it was really awkward 'cause she was manifesting something and... Anyways, today, so here's the deal today. Today, it's about noon, I'm outside of the house, getting some things done, but trying to be alone, get some time with the Lord, and they get a phone call from Holly. And she's like, um, got a little problem here. I'm like, okay. And she says, well, evidently Ezra, we're watching The Miller Kids this week 'cause Jannet's here in Hong Kong. And evidently Ezra went out into the garage and Poka is my dog. It's Jubilee's dog for her fifth birthday. She got a schnoodle, half schnauzer, half poodle. It's a very cute dog. One thing that we're training out of the dog is every time our dog sees Bishop barks like a maniac. But if Doug comes up, or anyone who's white, the dog's like, totally cool. So I'm like, oh my gosh, I have a racist dog. That's demonic, okay? So today, the dog follows Ezra into the garage. And for some reason, The Miller's have one of those like really thick, like, weather doors between their garage and their home. One of those ones that keeps like, you could blast like a jet engine at it and you wouldn't feel anything on the other side, you know? So the thing is like made of pure concrete, just about. And evidently, Ezra's walking back out of the garage, dog's tail is still in the doorway. Bang, right on the tail. So Poka comes just squealing. (screaming) You know, anyone who's ever heard a dog cry, it's just, you're like, oh my gosh, is your throat okay? Do you need water? And so Holly comes downstairs, gets the dog out of there and she says, hey, I think, I don't know. I don't know, maybe the tail's broken. And I'm, now I'm not home 'cause I'm out trying to get some alone time with God and I'm thinking myself, oh my goodness, come on. Tail breaking, you know, do we have to have some major random weird thing every time? It just has to be that way, you know? So I'm thinking to myself like, and I don't say this, but you know, this is how guys think. And so you guys are gonna hate me. I'm pretty sure all of our sound equipment got stolen, right, so we can't record this. But I was just thinking to myself, well, get some duct tape. Come on, if you're honest, you're thinking the kingdom of God needs a preacher tonight, doesn't need a dog in the emergency room, which is why Holly and I had a period of time where we got to live with Bruce and Paulette. And Paulette has these two Yorkshire terriers, these two little Yorkies. And she pampers these things like, I gotta say, that woman has got some faith, it's, you know, she brushes their teeth, Paula, I'm sorry, I'm sharing this, I had to out you. Now I'm gonna out Bruce even worse, 'cause Bruce, he had to take care of him for a few days and he had to brush their teeth every day. Paulette gets home, did you brush their teeth every day, Bruce? Of course I did. Live is gonna hell, Revelation 218, man. (laughing) He came back, he repented to his wife, said that. So anyways, evidently it's in the Bible that you're supposed to take care of your animals. It is biblical because when you look at a dog, a dog needs you for everything in a lot of cases. My dog, especially 'cause it's a poodle, it's not like it could ever kill anything in the wild, okay? So now you're wondering, why is he talking about his dog right now? I guarantee you, I promise this has something spiritual, so don't miss it. It might be hard to find some point, okay? (laughing) Did you miss it, Gretchen, you missed it. Okay, no, he's kidding. So here's the point is that I spent from basically noon till four at the dog emergency room, the 24/7 dog emergency room. And evidently it's like the busiest day they've ever had, they had one doctor on call. And after an hour of sitting there, they check 'em in, you're expecting to hear in a little bit, like hey, we checked with the tail, everything's okay, or we took some x-rays, it's broken, you need a cast, like I don't know, like maybe you better take it home and get some duct tape, I don't know what I was expecting to hear. After an hour, I go up back to the window and I'm like, you know, we checked our dog in a while, don't you? Oh yeah, you know, I think there's four or five animals in front of you, so it might be a couple hours. And at this point I'm like, oh my goodness. You know, so my Bible's in the car, I can't find my wall, that Holly and I are kind of frustrated with each other 'cause I'm like, I can't believe we took a dog here today. You know, and like, and so bottom line is I spent the entire day waiting for this dog. And it turns out that the tail is just fine. (audience cheering) Amen, good old polka, polka's okay. So here's my point, the Lord spoke to me after this and said, you know, you know when you have something like that happen and you're like, this is too much of a random thing to just be random like that. So you gotta bow your head and say, Lord, what was the point of that? And, yeah, come on. And the Lord looks at me and he says this, he says, you agreed to own that dog, did you not? I said, yes. And so if the dog is broken, do you take it to the emergency room like your wife suggests, or do you just think it'll take care of itself? Oh man, I know where you're going with this. So our message tonight and the message I wanna talk to us about as a body is let's look at the city of Tacoma. Did we or did we not as a body long ago say that we will own the city of Tacoma? And if we look at our city, are we the type of people who are great like my wife that say, this needs a doctor? Someone needs to take care of this broken helpless thing. Say the word helpless. My dog in that moment was helpless. Whether she was okay or not is irrelevant. She was crying out for help, and it was obvious that something was wrong. I'm glad that she's okay because I didn't wanna spend $400 to get a cast on a dog's tail. So praise God for that, right? But the point is bigger than that, that we said to the Lord, we would own this city. We looked at the Lord. I remember in Spanaway, before we came down, we would sing wonderful songs. Let's blow the roof off 'cause he's brought the fire. And we'd sing all these songs about being part of a city and owning a city. And here we are. And this isn't a message like we're doing anything wrong. Can I just state that out loud? I believe that there's some of us here that said to the Lord, should I go to Hong Kong? And God said, no, I want you to be here. That's what the Lord said to me. Come on, like it's easy. All your friends are going to Hong Kong, gonna meet some world leaders in the Christian faith. Everyone cool is there. Well, what am I supposed to do? I want you to stand to coma. Why don't you just put university on my back? (audience laughing) Now, okay, that's a nasty attitude, but it's an attitude some of us can have. And I think that God wants to say to us, if I've called you here, it's none less than the one who has called overseas. If I've called you to plant your seeds here, if I've called you to plant what you are about here, it doesn't matter if one person recognizes what you are, who you are, what you do, what you don't do, or does it matter that God has a purpose for you here? Amen? So the first thing I want to talk about is the concept of being insulated. Say the word insulated. Where is Samantha up there? Oh, okay. Hey, Jared, when Samantha runs around, could you just grab her and send her right up here? I'm taking care of the millikids this week, and I love Samantha. She's one of my favorite little girls ever. And so we're going to interview Samantha as soon as she can get up here because she's amazing. So while I'm talking about that, I guess I could bring up my daughter. Where's my daughter? She's in the bathroom too. (audience laughs) That's good. I'm surprised everyone didn't go. It is mostly women here, right? (audience cheers) Oh my goodness! (audience laughs) My wife just gave me a dirty look. Okay, we'll pray through that one later. Isn't it great that we have a lot of women here today? Come on, that's pretty awesome. (audience cheers) Still waiting, still waiting. Okay, well, let me get started on the concept then. The concept of being insulated. I think when we are really honest with our lives, you know what line I'm loving right now is the line especially considering this economy. And I feel like I'm going to start adding that on to anything like, wow, my shoes are really tight, especially considering this economy. You could really apply it to anything you want. It's a great tagline of like, something's bad, just, oh, the economy, you know? Like, well, I'll look at the weather, especially considering this economy, right? Samantha, could you come up and join me real quick? And then I'm gonna have you just second, Jubilee. Yeah! (audience cheers) Hi, how are you? - Good. - Okay, I'm gonna interview you. You ready? You can lie or tell the truth, but I would recommend the truth, okay? Who's cooler? Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus? - I hate them both. - Oh, wow! She's honest! Kay, what about Jonas Brothers or Naked Brothers Van? - Jonas Brothers. - Absolutely. Kay, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? - Chocolate. - Chocolate is decent. Not the best, but it's good. A train is traveling north at 45 miles per hour. Another train is a, no, I'm just kidding, I'm not gonna do that with you. Samantha, how old are you? - 10. - What grade are you going into? - Jake. - What's your favorite subject in school? - Bible. - What is something you're looking forward to this summer? - I'm not going to school. (audience laughing) - Isn't Samantha amazing? Give it up for Samantha! (audience cheering) - Just a second, Juby. She's so excited, I'm not forgetting you, okay? So I want you to think about this. Samantha is going into the sixth grade, right? That's pretty awesome, that's a big achievement. One of the things my wife told me, my wife taught the life skills class at Raymond Hall and most of the girls who are brought into Raymond Hall for becoming prostitutes are sixth graders. And so I wanted to show you Samantha because this is a picture of God's daughter in purity and God's child. And I know you guys know Darren, if he was here, he'd be gushing, right? 'Cause he loves his child, all you could say is Samantha's cooling, he'd be like, no, but she is very cool. Samantha Nelson are both smiling, they know that's their dad. But any loving father looks at a daughter, anyone who's ever had a daughter or a sister can look at that and say, that's so beautiful. We can be so excited for this young girl to be entering into school. And then when we take our eyes and put them on the city and you hear a stat that says that girls in the sixth grade, Samantha's age are being recruited to be prostitutes. Shouldn't something in our hearts break just a little bit? Shouldn't something prick us enough to say something is seriously wrong with our city? And if our city was helpless like a dog, wouldn't we say, someone needs to pick this up and carry it to the doctor 'cause this is not right, this is not okay. And I think it's easy for us to become insulated on our lives and it's not because we have a nasty attitude towards the broken, it's not because all of you guys, none of you guys have ever said, I don't wanna see the broken, I don't wanna look at it, I don't wanna acknowledge that it happens. But when we're honest, our lives are blessed. We've been given the opportunity to serve an amazing king and he's poured out thing after thing after thing after thing in our life where we should be saying, hallelujah God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And in the process of that, when we fail to give thanks to God, if we don't recognize that we live in an amazing position and that God has given us so much because he's expecting us to give away. And when we fail to recognize that he's asking us to give away, then we become blind and insulated to what's really going on. See, it's unless you go and you hear a story of a sixth grader, the other day for Sozo, we were doing something at first that I thought it was gonna be kind of silly. I thought we were gonna do these like an awards ceremony. So I started writing out awards for some of our kids and some of them were kind of silly, some of them were kind of fun. And it's when we were making some that were kind of silly and the Lord just set a stop in my heart said stop. You're like, okay Lord, what do you want to say? It was I have an awards ceremony plan, but I want you to pray over each kid and find the award that they're supposed to get. Say, okay, great, amen, I'm in. So you start to write out awards for each kid and I got the revelation team for all the, we had like 15 new kids that night. So I'm like, okay, Holly, Chrissy, you guys just go in that corner and pray over each of those kids, find out what God wants to give them. We have a sixth grade girl there and the Lord called her an orchid. He said she's a beautiful orchid, she's elegant and she gives great glory to him. She's never heard anything like that before in a life. She gets the award and she comes and talks to Doug Johnson afterwards. And Doug's, you know, we're kind of tongue in cheek with these things. You almost feel silly giving someone something like that because I've never met you before, but this is what God says about you. And she looks at Doug and she goes, I want you to know something. I was being recruited today to become a prostitute, but God's telling me I'm an orchid and I'm beautiful and I'm elegant. So I'm not gonna do it 'cause I'm better than that. (audience applauds) And I think one of the things that we forget to understand is that we have been given so much truth and so much love that it's normal for us. And when you take someone who has never heard truth, who has never felt experience understood God's love for them and you tell them one simple truth that God has designed you elegant, that God has created you beautiful, that he has a plan for your life, then it can forever change their life. And we are insulated to the brokenness of our society. Does this make sense? And it's not because we have wrong hearts, it's not because we chose to come out one day and say, I just wanna have a cold heart. It's because of the reality of what is out there, our culture shields us from it, our eyes are shielded from it, our lives are just devoid of experiencing it, okay? The other one I wanna bring up is my favorite little flower. Jubilee, can you come up here? (audience applauds) How are you doing? Good. Hey, can I interview you? Okay, what's your favorite color? I couldn't tell. Um, what's your favorite thing to do with mommy? Color. Color. What do you, what's something you like about your brother? Funny. He's funny. (audience laughs) You're given one minor's here. Kind of a hard, hard interview. Send you on 60 minutes or something, see if they can get anything out of you. Okay, Jubilee, tell me, tell me one thing that you really love about the summertime. How do you like swimming? You like swimming, 'cause you're a good swimmer, huh? Hey, what happened to your tooth? Boxed. I went to the big park and pushed it up. Knocked it out, huh? Show everyone, say cheese. (audience cheers) You are extremely precious, can I have a kiss? (audience applauds) Give it up for my wonderful little girl. (audience cheers) So, I felt like what the Lord wanted me to share tonight is this, that I could have come up here and had a bunch of statistics and we've all had statistics on what our world is really like. I could have come up here and said to you about told you stories or whatever, but I want you to realize that every statistic and every story is a real person with a real face. And so, if I hit my daughter, and I was listening to a story of the day and just said her earliest memories are being thrown against a wall of literally her body being up in the air and hitting a wall. I'm thinking to myself, that's my daughter's age. How would that break her? How would that destroy her? And I feel like the one thing that God really wanted me to understand is this, is that he sees everything. He is not insulated. He's not distant from the hurt. It's not like he's blinded to it. He can't go to his work that day and forget about it. He can't ever stop the cries in his ears and each of those are his jubilee. That's his Samantha. That's his little girl. That's his daughter that he's aching for. And so, here we sit, saying God, we believe in Tacoma. God, we believe you want to do something in Tacoma. God, we believe you have a plan for Tacoma. And God's saying, I need watchmen on the wall. See, this last year for Holly and I, this is, it's about a year ago that we started doing Sozo. And you don't ever talk like this, but when you start doing a ministry, there's a lot of arrogance there that you don't admit is there. And so, in my arrogance, as a part of me that feels like, "Man, we're really going to make a play here. We're really going to do something. We're going to get some kids saved. We're going to change a community. We're going to take this thing behind the school yard, give it a beat now is what we're going to do, right? And Holly, don't say what other things I've said, but I'm just kidding. You don't talk like that, but if you're being honest with yourself, there's an arrogance in your heart of like, "Hey, look what I'm going to do." And I feel like what the Lord's really begun to show me after one whole year, this whole first year. God's given some fruit. God's done some amazing things. There's amazing kids here that we love. There's amazing connections that have happened. Kids have been saved. Kids are being discipled. Kids are being led in their callings. Amazing things are happening. I'm not going to diminish what the Lord's done, but really the fundamental biggest victory for me is this. My heart has changed because I didn't know it. I didn't know it was there, but I had like an igloo chest of insulation right above my heart. And when you go and you experience a life that's much more broken than yours, God begins to tear away the insulation. And you have to stare the brokenness in the eye, and you have to have an answer for it. You can't look at that, and if it fails to elicit a response in any normal person's life, that person isn't really alive. That anyone who hears, like sixth grade, I remember sixth grade, to think what kind of person in their head would think I want to pay to have sex with a child? What kind of person would do that? And to acknowledge the depravity, the hurt, the brokenness of lives when you have to see it face to face is a different story. And so this last year for me has been about removing my insulation so my heart can really feel what God feels. It wasn't so I could change the world. It wasn't so I could have all these points on the board. It wasn't so I could say, "Did this, this, this, this, and this." It was all for me to say, "Oh my gosh, Lord, your heart breaks for this city." And so it would be easy if I could just say, and I think maybe we've insinuated this without ever stating it out loud. And if we've insinuated it, I apologize on the half of Sosa or any other mystery that has done this, that you need to do this. I mean, you almost felt that. You can be honest, right, we're all family. Of just like, "Hey, this is what we gotta do. "We gotta do it, we gotta do it, we gotta do it." And it's easy to feel that way 'cause when you're in the middle of a fight and you see, there's any there I can't carry, there's any there I can't carry, there's any there I can't carry, there's any there I can't carry, and she had this happen in her life today and oh my gosh, she's going to jail for what? Oh, are you kidding me? And the court went like that. Oh no, and then this happened, and then this happened. Hey, Lucario, how you doing, brother? Hey, it comes to it right up front here. (audience applauds) Did you guys win today? Yeah. Lucario's my friend, he's going to be helping us in a little bit. So, when you see it again and again and again, and you feel that weight, then there's a part of you that says, "Everyone needs to help carry this." It's like if we were rolling a boulder here and there are four of us pushing it, then I'd say, "Come on, everybody, help us push this boulder." And the response from the new song from City Central has been amazing. Yes, let's push, let's all do it, let's all do it. But I feel like, look, everyone has a different calling. Everyone is called the different things. Some of us tonight, we're called to go to Hong Kong. Some of us tonight, we're called to be here. Some of us are called to social. Some of us are called to young children. Some of us are called to adults. Some of us are called to college ministry. Some of us are called all over the city. So, we can't all say we all have to do this. But I think what God really wanted to simplify for us tonight is this. God is looking for watchmen on the wall who will gain his heart by crying out over the city. And so, what Esther said at the beginning of the service was perfect. You know what, I'm gonna challenge the ladies, okay? Ladies, if your husband is gone and he comes home, would you please say to him, can you please watch the children tonight so I can go pray? Would you press your husband with your desire to cry out for the city? Mother's hearts are needed to cry out over a city. And would you put a little fire underneath your husband's buns? Make it, you know, you wanna know how to really motivate your husband? Don't make him feel like he's failing. Don't, you know, the Bible says don't be a competitive wife. But put a little of, yeah, I think this is my fourth time going to prayer this week. Oh, you've done twice, okay. Just see what your husband does to that. Don't see, see if it makes him a man a little more motivated to pray. And I guarantee you, if my wife said to me, hey, I'm going to go pray tonight at 4 a.m. Do you know how blessed I would be as a husband when my wife initiates that I'm on fire for God? So I'm encouraging all the ladies. One, your prayers are powerful and effective. Two, you have a heart of compassion. You're the type of people that would say this is a helpless thing that must be raised up to be healed. Well, I'm the type of person who says do we have any duct tape, right? So I believe God is calling us. You know, when we had prayer one night a week, there's reasons why, hey, hey, look, this is not gonna work for some schedules. But right now, prayer is open 24/7, or this week since we have a bunch of our leadership gone, then we have it all day long until 8 p.m. even if it's for 45 minutes, before or after dinner. You get home from work, you say, babe, let's get subway. Get McDonald's for the kids, do whatever, but we're gonna go pray. And we all enter into the prayer room. And I believe that it's for a couple of different reasons. One, it's so that way we can give glory to God, the glory that he's due. Two, it's so that way our hearts can change, that we can't all go and be face to face with the broken. There's some of us that are called to that and some that you got other things you're supposed to do. But biblically, I can build a perfect case. You get Bruce up here, he's the lawyer that says, we are all called to grieve, to mourn, to wail for the brokenness in our city. Amen? I'm just gonna give you one verse. I had a couple plan, but I don't think I need to do all of them. Let's see, I'm reading in Ezekiel. I don't think you have to turn there, 'cause this was something that Brian texted out when he was making a prayer request, but this is Ezekiel 9. He says, then I heard him call out in a loud voice. This is a vision that Ezekiel's having over the city of God. Bring the guards of the city here, each with a weapon in his hand. And I saw six men coming from the direct direction of the upper gate. So again, this is in a vision which faces north, each with the deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim where I'd been and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man, clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark, listen on this. Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it. So I want you to think about Tacoma now. What are we called to be as a body, as a people group, as believers in this city? We are called to grieve. We are called to mourn. We are called to wail over the dark, over the hurt, over the brokenness of our city. And when we do so, when we function in obedience to God, it's a choice at first because it's a biblical truth that we're supposed to obey in. But when it happens, when we obey, God imparts his heart into ours. And I believe this. God is going to display his glory into coma. We all agree on this, amen? But I believe this, that his glory is so he can receive honor, but also so he can be a light, he can be a hope, he can be a beacon to the broken in the city. I for one am desperate. You know, if you were to imagine me carrying a backpack right now, this is literally what my year has felt like. Every need that I feel, every painful story, every issue, and there are big issues that come across every day, there's a new text message, there's a new phone call about this happened, or this happened, or this happened, and it goes into my backpack, a rock, a weight. Couple months, it's feeling heavy. Six months later, it's heavier, a year later, and I can barely walk. And what God is saying, you cannot carry that weight. How can I restore all of these lives? I am a man, but if I can carry this weight into God's glory, into the presence of God, and lifted up to him, then wouldn't God say, I will answer that prayer. I will come for my city, I will come for the broken children, I will come for the loss, I will come for the hurting. And I believe that that is what our God wants to do. He's asking each of us to say, I have a burden in my heart, I'm burning with passion for the loss, I'm burning with passion for a school, I'm burning with passion for a family, I'm burning with passion for a community. God have mercy that we would call our God this week, the rescuer that he came and he rescued. So here's one thing I'm gonna do, look how you'll come up here and join me brother. You good? This is my friend, look how we talked last night. You got your phone on? Okay, good. 'Cause I was at a wedding last week, you guys just starting the deal. Pastor's up there and I was like, ♪ Brr, brr, brr, brr ♪ Amateur, it was his rookie night, oh my goodness. (laughing) You'll hear that on tape. Okay, so, but I was hanging out with Licario last night and I just gotta tell you guys a little bit about Licario. Licario is massively called as a leader. And I haven't shared this with anyone, but this is really what God said to me. That Licario was gonna be a pastor. And if you know anything about Licario's story, Licario has gone through a lot, Licario has experienced a lot, but God's always been John something in his ear. And so his story has been one about like, man, I know God wants me to do that, but I'm doing this right now. I'm doing this right now. I got this right now. And there's been some confusion about his identity. And Bishop and I, we sat down with you last night and said, we know who God made to you be. And he's finding out who God made him to be. But one of the things that God was mighty to save him. So Licario, we did a song that we know, that song Mighty to Save. And when you sing this song, you can sing it like God was mighty to save me. And he was, he saved me and it was mighty. But we can also sing this song in a different lens. And I want you to think about this as Licario sings it. Our God is mighty to save Tacoma. Our God is mighty to save the hilltop. He's mighty to save the east side. He's mighty to save the bloods. He's mighty to save the crypts. He's mighty to save each and every broken family. The word say savior, he can move a mountain. Now it was a mountain when he saved me. My sin was overwhelming. But furthermore, it is no bigger mountain to rock this city with the power of God. And so I asked Licario to come up here and sing this song. And while he sings it, maybe we could agree in our spirits that the song isn't for me, it's not a prayer over my life anymore, that this song is a prayer over our city. [ Silence ]