Hope Church Sunday Podcast
Guest Speaker: Tom Deuschle
- Thanks for tuning in to the Hope Church Podcast. We hope that you're blessed and encouraged to walk out the gospel as you listen to this message. - We have a treat today in the house. Pastor Tom from Harari Zimbabwe is with us. And Pastor Tom, Pastor Celebration Church there, and he has been just a friend of this house for, I think, almost 20 years, if not a little bit more. And he has been such a gift to us. Pastor Gary, and he have been just best of friends for all this time, and I'm getting to be a little closer with him, which is really special. We got to hang out for a couple of hours yesterday and just hearing his heart. He's a man of wisdom. He's just a gift to the body of Christ. I believe he's gonna be a gift today, but what I love about him is he's a real father. And I believe that he has a word for us today. And so I want you to just put your hands together and give him a big welcome. Would you as he comes? (audience applauds) - Amen. Well, I don't like that idea of just being a real father, you know? I turned 70 this year. That's kind of cool, I think. Anybody know how that feels? (audience laughs) Been there, done that? Yeah. Well, now let's see what's going on here. I love computers. You know what they call us as the digital immigrants. (audience laughs) You know, this was open just a minute ago. You guys may get some weird message today if I have to suck it out of the air. (audience laughs) Guys, it's such a blessing always to be with Hope Church. And of course, Gary and I have had an amazing relationship. And it's amazing when you let God put your relationships together. And today, in the world, much of Christianity has moved away from relationship to transaction. We have transaction. We go to church and we tick the box. We get our cappuccino and we tick the box. You know, that's part of the church program today. And it's all transactional. What's good for me? How do I make myself feel comfortable? How do I make what's good, what's in it for me? And that's not how relationships work. Anybody who's been married knows that. Relationships are something that costs you something. They're something that God designed for us. And it's painful to be in a relationship. It's challenging to be in a relationship. And Gary and I met, it wasn't smooth sailing. It was costly. And our relationship has cost us a lot to be friends. It's costly to minister the gospel. And sometimes we think, oh, this is just an opportunity to speak or an opportunity to preach somewhere. I don't need an opportunity to preach somewhere. I don't want to come to hope church because I need to preach. I want to come out of a relationship that says, I believe that God brought us together for a purpose. Now, I have to say this, I am a bit miffed. I'm a bit jealous too. You're going to go to Guatemala and to Brazil and you haven't brought a team yet to Zimbabwe. (audience laughs) I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I mean, I have an attitude. (audience laughs) And you may need to pray for me, okay? But I do want to talk to you today about, I believe a message. And you don't mind if I just talk to you like I'm with my own congregation. 'Cause that's just how I'm going to do it anyway. (audience laughs) But I want to talk to you about a topic that we don't talk a lot about called discipleship. And yet it is the very core of relationship. It's the very core of what Jesus intended for you and I and for this church. In Mark 8, the 34th verse, and I'm going to talk about what is the price of discipleship, but in Mark 8, 34 through 38 it says, and when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said to them, "Whosoever will come after me." Are there any whosoever's here today? Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now that sounds like a heck of a lot of fun, doesn't it? (audience laughs) That sounds like that's gonna be a great sermon today. That sounds like, wow, I'm going to church to get blessed, to take up my cross. That's not too cool. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and for the gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man if he shall deen the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels. I read this and I am moved because as the approach of the Lord Jesus Christ, his return is imminent. It should be no wonder to you and I that the enemy of our soul is and will continue to deceive and to distract believers away from the things that are really foundational to the faith. Churches around the world are moving away from the gospel to entertainment. That's what I love about this church is that you have sound doctrine. By the way, the devil's tactics are not new. We've seen the enemies of God using them throughout history. His temptations are just packaged differently for the times that they're intended for. Evil makes things look trendy, fashionable, even seemingly spiritual so that they can gain a foothold in the people's lives. And it's really with this in mind, the enemy's trying to get your attention off of God and onto anything and everything else. Things, you know, he doesn't want you to think about the things that matter to God. James 4 says it this way, "From whence come wars and fighting among you? "Come they not hence from your lusts "that war in your own members? "You see you lust and you have not, "you kill and you desire them to desire to have "and cannot obtain. "You fight and you war, "yet you have not because you ask not. "And then when you do ask, you receive not "because you ask a miss "so that you can consume it upon your own lusts. "See, the spirit of this age has people consuming "so that they can lavish upon themselves "everything that they yearn for. "Everything, we're chasing these elusive worldly goals "and people are spending their lives pursuing "that which is perishing. "Much of the modern day church, unfortunately, "is caught up and it's distracted by a secular, "kind of self-help, personal growth message. "It's now become the mainstream. "It's no longer the gospel that's the mainstream. "It's kind of this be the best you can kind of gospel. "And in many circles, we've traded a self-help gospel "for the word of God. "The ways of the world have so crept into the church "that there are so many books being written about our, "that many of the books that are written by "are so called, men of God. "Can't be distinguished from secular, personal help "and corporate growth gurus that are in the marketplace today. "We're being inundated with a plethora "of so-called biblical teachings, "proclaiming worldly messages of tolerance, "inclusion for the sake of getting people "inside the doors of the church. "The logic behind this kind of preaching and teaching "is that if we can get them to come, "if we can just get them into the seats, "then maybe we can get them saved." I've never seen compromise save anyone. In some cases, we moved away from preaching to the gospel. There will be just quote a couple of verses of scripture, often paraphrases that fit our narrative, or the idea that we're trying to espouse from our message. And now much of what's being preached is in many churches at large, is being rejected by many of the respected church leaders of our day. There is a divide coming. There's something happening. There is a judgment that's coming. A judgment that's coming upon the church. I think we're seeing it not only in America, but throughout the world. How many of our lauded church leaders have stumbled, fallen, misstepped. Part of our problem in the churches, not even around what's being taught. It's in what's being left out. You see, the idea now being espoused by many denominations and even some of our so-called spiritual churches, is to say that the most effective way that we can minister to say the homosexual, or the foreign dictator, or the idle worshipper, is to get them into the church building so that we can make them comfortable. Somebody once told me, "Pass it, have you come to preach comfort to the afflicted?" I said, "No, I've come to preach affliction to the comfortable." (audience laughing) (indistinct chatter) If we do this, if we try to make everybody comfortable, and it's to kind of break down the walls and separate us, but we have to be careful. Because when sin infiltrates a church, when sin infiltrates our soul groups, it opens a door for compromise. The idea that somehow a sin or rubbing shoulders with Christians will win them over, or that they'll feel love to our stylish music or our trendy messages and change their life is a mistake. Nowhere in the word of God, did the Lord allow that kind of activity in the community of his people. It has never been acceptable by God for the people of the world to continue to practice their sin while they're making up their minds whether or not they want to be a part of his body. Now every sinner is welcome. You can come as you are, but you cannot remain as you can. You cannot find the idea of mingling with unbelievers in the Bible. Hebrews 3, 15 says, "Today if you hear his voice, "harden not your heart as in the day of provocation, "today is the day of your salvation." God always presses the point in our lives. Now he'll tolerate a little bit, he'll let you search, he'll let you, but there comes a moment in time when he says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." See we have to be careful now more than ever to preach the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have unregenerate people sitting in churches all over the world enjoying the benefits and the blessings of the fellowship of God's people, but many do not understand that they are in a desperate situation because of their sinful lives. We have to preach salvation to sinners. To do so is it just, to not do so I should say, is it injustice to the word of God and to the Holy Spirit? Much of the Old Testament must be describing God's absolute disgust. And he saw his people mingling and being mixed with the people of the world and participating in their sinfulness. God never allowed Israel to mingle. He never allowed them to have within their walls the peoples of the world. I know this may sound like a hard message, but it's not, this is a loving message. He knew Israel could never withstand that kind of contact and that he'd fall prey, that Israel would fall prey to the tactics of Satan and his people every time. And they did it. Israel fell prey every single time they mingled. In fact, in 2 Corinthians it says it this way, and the word of God constantly exhorts us. He says in 2 Corinthians 6, 17, "Wherefore come out from amongst them, be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch the unclean thing and I will receive you." That's the blessing I want upon my church. It's the blessing I want upon my life and that's the blessing I want upon this church. You see, we're deceived if we believe that we are stronger today than they were in the Old Testament. Throughout the Old Testament we see patterns of Israel falling prey to the infiltration of worldliness and the worldly nations around them. And the result was always the same. You could read it through and through, it says, "And again the children of Israel did evil in the side of the Lord." And again God would hand them over to their evil desires. And again they'd finally get to the bottom and they'd repent and God would redeem them. And this was a pattern throughout the scriptures. I'm speaking not about the church in America 'cause I know you don't have this problem. I'm really speaking about the church in Zimbabwe, okay? And the church in Zimbabwe we cannot allow ourselves to adopt the practices of the postmodern, post-Christian era that allows unrepentant people to come in and comfortably practice their sinfulness inside of the church in the name of tolerance and inclusion all for the purpose of filling up a building. Social media is filled with accounts of compromised leaders in the organized church. We see homosexuality at ever-increasing levels. That's a sin, so is adultery. We see divorce amongst our leaders. It's now accepted as the norm. Is there any wonder that we're seeing more divorce now amongst Christians than there is in the world? And I grant you, I understand the reason why is because the people in the world are no longer getting married. They're just living together. So at least we're trying to do it right by still getting married. But there's a reason that this is creeping into the church. If all we ever talk about from the Word of God is about the power and the prosperity and the blessing that we find in the Word of God, and it is in there without a call to holiness and to righteousness, then we're contributing to the demise of the church. When people hear our message centered only on power and they're never confronted with their sin and they feel nothing, but they can return home after a church service in Colhaba with a partner that they're not married to, then I might tell you something, we're not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know, the last time I checked the Bible says this isn't supposed to happen. Ephesians 5 says this, "But fornication and all uncleanness "are covetousness, let it not be even named among you "as is fitting for the saints. "Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, "which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. "For this you know, no fornicator, no unclean person, "cover this man who is an idolater "has any inheritance with the kingdom of God and Christ." Galatians 5, 19, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, leciviness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, revelings in the setsites, of which I tell you before, and I also have told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. E, you see my fear. And unfortunately, I know too much, I've been around too long. And I've had my own tests and trials, don't get me wrong, but my fear is that we're slipping into a slumber that we may never shake ourselves from. Why? I believe we've allowed ourselves to become tolerant accepting of behavior and lifestyles that are offensive to God. Void of the practice of accountability. Void of the practice of repentance. Void of any sorrow over sin. Void of any self-discipline. And we've adapted and adopted a worldly philosophy of don't ask, don't tell. That's killing us. You know, there's a constant barrage of compromising substitutes now for holiness and for righteous living. Many are complicit in the church now. Substituting the philosophies of men for the standard of the truth of the word of God. Even Hollywood and the giants of the music industry begin to be the source of that are offering our compromised substitutes for the Christian, as the Christian mainstream. And we're seeing that more and more. I don't know if you're seeing what's happening here in America, but all of our Christian artists seem to be wanting non-Christian artists to be singing on their albums with them and crossing over. And I'm saying, well, what are we doing? Why are we trying to be worldly when we should be the standard? The so-called contemporary Christian music industry and the movie industry is growing rapidly. And the world is standing back. And while they count their money, they're laughing at the Christian community because of how gullible and how led astray we've become. You've got to know that the world is laughing at Christians as they make movies full of half-truths, deceptions, they devise marketing schemes that target one of the largest and richest markets in the world. You and I, the Christian community. We are the largest market. The world's not interested in God. It's definitely not interested in Jesus' claim to exclusiveness. They don't want to see Christ or know Christ as the way, the truths and the life. There's legislation in your country right here, being passed, calling that anything contrary to the woke secular humanistic agendas, it's called hate speech. (congregation laughing) Do you know how dangerous this is? No, I may be stepping on a few toes and maybe this message is even guilty of trying to slay some of your sacred cows. But I'm just trying to sensitize the church to how easy it is to come to a place of compromise. What's even scarier to me is the fact that many people who are not actively pursuing the biblical model of life don't even realize what's going on. They're just blind. I'm speaking from a point of view of what we're experienced in Africa. We watch you, we watch the American church and African people are enamored with America. And we take everything you do with finesse and we do it very, very crudely. We don't have the finesse. We don't have the money to throw at things. So we look at what you do with finesse and can pull off because you can put big money and flashing lights behind it. Our leaders do it and it just looks so Gody. Right on our bonky, a friend of mine, great preacher, led over 12 million souls to the Lord in Africa. Just before he died, here's his lament. He said, the church in Africa is a thousand miles wide, but only an inch deep in its understanding. Now I'm raising these issues because we're seeing the compromise and the immaturity of the post-modern pop culture church that's being foisted upon Africa right now. Why is it that the entertainers from around the world especially America are now all coming to Africa? 'Cause they found another market. How many of you know that Africa is bigger than Russia, United States, China, all of Europe, and five other countries put together? I know your map doesn't look that big, but go look at the real map of Africa. It's a huge market, 1.2 billion people. And it's not about the love of Jesus, I can tell you, it's about the love of the market. Most of the people coming to Africa are not accountable to anyone. We have pop musicians called Christians that have more power from their platform than the pastors do, than the bishops do. All of a sudden they become a tremendous voice for terrible teaching, terrible things they say. They have no Bible in them, but they now have become this huge voice because of their musical gift in town. And they become a spokesperson for the body of Christ to Africa. Folks, we need to clean our churches up. What we're seeing today and all the things that feed this process can be summed up in the complete ignorance and lack of one area in the Christian life, it's called discipleship. We have not made disciples, we have people that are converts to Christ, but not disciples of Jesus. Much of the church has lost touch with the value and the essential surrounding the ministry of personal spiritual discipleship. Now, I can talk all morning and I'd probably offend everybody if I keep talking about all the tactics and compromising elements that are out there that feed this growing neglect of discipleship. And I don't want to offend anybody. That's not my purpose here, that's not my desire. My desire is to bring us to a place where we understand and then begin to put into place and practice in our lives the foundations that help us become great disciples of Jesus Christ. Many of you already have elements of great discipleship and I can see that and that's why I love coming to this church. So you know what I'm talking about. The responsibility of a disciple doesn't stop, however, with just being discipled. Decipaling is the process that the Lord modeled with his 12 disciples, when he walked under, for three years on his earthly ministry, he walked with 12 men and only 12 men and he discipled them and his disciples changed the whole world. Decipalship is, as soon as this process I should say, of his teaching, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. It was through that that we're all made into his image. And to the intent of disciples, or the intent of discipleship is for those being discipled, that we would focus our life to manifest his purpose, his will, his word and his plans on earth as it is in heaven. So let me just give you three quick points of maybe four. What is the purpose of our life? Pretty easy, what is the purpose of our life? Well, it's to bring pleasure to God and glory to God, who loved us and died for us. Psalm 147, 11 says, "The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy." And again in Psalm 149, "For the Lord takes pleasure in his people, he will beautify the humble with salvation." You see, God wants us to bring pleasure to him. And we do that when we find our purpose in life. The purpose of our life is to bring pleasure to the glory to the one who created us. Secondly, it almost sounds like a catechism, doesn't it? Second, what is the will of God? Well, Romans 12.2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." See, this verse describes the very, very basics, the very basic idea behind being a disciple, non-conformity to worldly lifestyles, non-conformity to the philosophies of this world, having a mind that is being renewed and transformed by the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, living a life that reveals the transformation, the transformation power of a genuine and supernatural encounter and relationship as a living God. The third is, and it's a core discipleship focus, is the Word of God. What is the Word of God? What is it? See, today we have a whole movement in the body of Christ that says, "Hey, you can get a Word of God from anywhere but the Bible. I have a Word for you, brother. I have a Word for you." That's not the Word of God. That may be too much pizza. I'm not gonna let my life be led by your Word for me, and I appreciate that Word, and it lines up with the Word of God, as it confirms what God's saying to me, I'll receive it. But you're not gonna guide my life, for sure. Put this simply, it's the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. It's not the Word of God found in some self-help program of the number one best-selling Christian book. It's not the Word of God as improved by the number one box office Hollywood head of the season. See, discipleship is the Word of God. God simply applied daily and lived out consistently over a span of a person's life. Hosea warned us, he said, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge." Unfortunately, many Christians are not disciplined in the study of the Word of God, and therefore they're susceptible to sickness and the numbing effects of all kinds of things on their spiritual life. You know, it's a pastor. I get tired of working with people that are sick. Oh, not sick physically. Yes, sick physically too, but sick and soul. And you can see, how much of the Word, you can never hear the Word of God come out of them. They don't have anything in them. They're not disciplined, they're not disciples. See, God calls on our lives. His calling on our lives is unstoppable. His purpose remains unquenchable. Let me tell you that. Even in the face of discouragement, we have to be determined to persevere in our faith. And our faith can only come by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Jeremiah said it this way, then he said, I will not make mention of him nor speak of him anymore in his name, but his word was in my heart and burning fire that was shut up in my bones. And I was weary of forbearing and I could not stay. I could not help but speak. I've learned something, when you get that Word of God in you, you can't help but be a vocal person. You can't help but speak what's inside of you. And I love around people that speak the Word. Gary and I were talking the other day and we just couldn't help but feed each other the Word of God. Feed each other the Word of God. You know, you strengthen each other when you feed on the Word of God. There are many today in the church that are suffering, both physically and spiritual sicknesses. Why aren't our diseases treated with the same urgency and with the same immediacy as we see in this passage? I believe it's because we lack sufficient knowledge of the Word of God. Far more serious than physical illness is the spiritual sicknesses plaguing so many of our believers. Why? Because it affects your eternity. In most cases, people are sick today because we lack the discipline to obey and to do what is right. Finally, the intended discipleship is to focus on the plan of God. What is God's plan? What is the plan of God for our lives? Ephesians 4, 14, through 16. That we henceforth that no more be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. And by the slight of men and the craftiness, the cunning craftiness whereby they lay and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fiddly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the measure of every part makes increase in the body to that if I give itself in love. There's the picture of the church. That's why we need relationship, not transaction. I don't go to church. I am the church. I don't go to a cell group. I am part of that cell. I do my life with those people. Those are the people that can ask me the hard questions. Those are the people that know me. I don't have a transaction with Gary. Hey, I have a relationship. We actually talk to each other. We actually love each other. We actually get into each other's faces. We've cried together. We've walked together. We've worked together. We serve each other. And it's real. And you can see it. I don't have to tell you that. You can see it. So the twofold answer that God has for us and the plan of God for our lives for those of us that claim that Jesus Christ is Lord is that we grow up in the teachings and the lifestyle of Jesus Christ. And number two, that we give our life in service for the cause of his body. Those are the two things we're supposed to do. A lack of service within the body of Christ is a sign of a lack of maturity. The only process that you can grow up is discipleship. Those who are mature in the body of Christ are those who have learned how to serve someone besides themselves. They're no longer looking at what's in it for me. They're saying, how can I serve others as let Christ be seen through me? The Lord gave three commandments that will manifest in every believer's life who has a heart and a desire to follow him. The first question we must answer is whether or not our heart is really to follow after Jesus Christ. Once you've settled that answer, then to that question in our own heart, then the rest of your life can be lived out serving him. If the answer is no, if we have either an apathy towards God or I could care less attitude about Jesus, then we can expect to put ourselves in a position to live a life that will deny Christ for ourselves. God wants us to deny ourselves for him. See, some people are so self-absorbed that they can't deny themselves our lives, what we want, our desires, our goals, our achievements, our possessions. When we can't live without any of the things of this world and the message of the cross becomes foolishness, and who would ever want to be caught carrying one anyway? I don't want to carry our cross. See, laying inside our lives and carrying the cross leads to death on the cross. That path is impossible for the unbeliever or the nominal believer. It's offensive. The cross will offend you. The life of becoming a disciple of Jesus is not for the faint of heart. Throughout history, Christians have been looked upon as weak, the blind leading the blind. The gospel is depicted as only for the extremely needy, for desperate people, people that are not strong. That's until you attempt to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow in Jesus' footsteps. Then we know this. It becomes impossible. And from the point of the world's point of view, to do these things and to live a life or that life, is why we see today the watered-down versions of the gospel. We have to water it down if we're doing it. But if God's doing it, if we're really living the cross, death life, it's impossible. And it's by His grace that we do it. A gospel that never addresses habitual sins and iniquities, in people's lives, is one that finds it easier to lower the standard in an attempt to obtain what we can never obtain on our own, which is the ability to save souls. This kind of life simply leads to a dead end. Let me close with this. Jesus said in Mark chapter 8 and verse 35, "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it." Then he tries to reason. And in verse 36, he says, "What profit? What will it profit about if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What's this going to profit you if you gain everything but you lost your soul?" Jesus says that there's nothing in this world worth having if it causes you to lose your soul. Jesus then asks a very pointed question in verse 37. And I think this puts it in perspective. "What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Ask yourself that today. What would you trade for eternal life in Christ? What would you trade? What is it that you would trade? If you had the power to get anything you wanted in this world, would you trade it for money? How much money would it take? What's your price? Enough money so that you would never need another thing as long as you live in this life? Would you trade eternal life for success? How about for popularity? Think of all the things that people crowd their lives with that could possibly cost their soul. You see, we can answer that and say that our heart truly desires to seek after Jesus Christ to be a disciple of Jesus. That he says that that desire will be evidenced by certain qualities in our lives. First, he'll say he'll see that letting deny himself. That's hard today in a world that is all about satisfying ourselves. Number two, second, let him take up his cross. And number three, let him follow me. Folks, this is the bedrock of Christianity. This is the bedrock of everything that we've believed and everything we're supposed to believe. Are we disciples? Let me ask one last question. I believe that everybody here is a disciple. But here's my question. If you're the disciple of Jesus Christ, that the rest of the world is going to model itself after, how are you doing? Paul said this, follow me like I follow Christ. If I follow you, how am I going to do at the end of my life? If you're my example, if you're the epistle I get to read. If you're the disciple, if you're the disciple, you, how am I going to do? How are you doing? Now, this is not an easy message, is it? But you know what? God's calling us back to being not converts, not church scores, disciples, disciplined followers of Jesus Christ. The reason I'm talking to you this way is because I love you. I love this church. I'm living this. I have a whole group of people in Africa. We have to have each other. There are perilous times coming. You're going to need really close relationships. We're going to need to be disciples. I love you. My time is up. I want Pastor to come and minister, come. [APPLAUSE] Could you all stand with me this morning? I want to invite our ministry team to come on down, and if you just would come quickly, team. And just want to end with this moment of being able to pray with anyone in the room. Maybe you're here, and you're not a disciple of Jesus. Maybe you've been far from him. Maybe you've walked away from the Lord. Maybe you've never known him. I want to tell you Jesus is here. Can I hear any men on that today? And he loves you, and one of our team would love to be available to pray with you today if your heart is like responding to him in that way. Maybe you're here, and the Word of God pierced your heart, and you're like, man, there's some things in my life I need to get right. There are some places of compromise. There are some places where holiness is not ruling and raining in me. I want to tell you today is a day where you can confess, and you can turn, and I believe streams of refreshing will come to you. Can I hear any men on that as well? That's the good news of Jesus when you confess. He's faithful, and he's just to forgive you and cleanse you. But confession happens in community. It happens in relationship. I don't believe it's just enough to just to walk out and do it in private. I believe you have to talk with someone. I think that that's where healing really comes. And so if that's you today, I want to invite you to come forward when we dismiss for prayer. How many of you glad you came today? I am too. Pastor Tom, thank you so much. He's already gone. Hey, he's gone. I'll tell you, I think they have something like 15,000 people that they minister to in Zimbabwe and their churches. He's a pastor of over 300 churches. God is doing a huge work there. We've been a part of that. I would love for us today to just so into that ministry. If that's in your heart to give today, the ushers will be at the door. You can also give online. It'll have a pull down that says Zimbabwe on it. And you can give them that way. But I would love to bless Pastor Tom with an offering. How many think that would be a good thing to do as the church? Bless him, bless that ministry there. I want to pray for you as we go. Father, I pray even right now as the Word of God has-- it's sharp, it's piercing. I pray that we would not walk out of here and hear and not respond. But we would be like the wise builder that hears and does and acts upon what we've heard. I pray that we would grow because of what we've heard today. And we would refuse to push it to the side, but we'd let it go deep and planted in us to grow up righteousness. And I pray that in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Come for prayer if you need it today.