THE MISSION | WEEK 1

2017, Gabba, the name of Lawrence Ripple, true story, by the way, he walked into a bank, this was in Kansas City out in the United States, he had a note in his back, took the note out, went straight to the bank teller, slipped the note across the table, and all that was written on the note was, I have a gun, this is a robbery, give me money. And so, sure enough, the bank teller kind of quickly put together a little bit of money, it came up to about $3,000, equivalent about $60,000, Mr. Ripple took this money and calmly walked to the lobby of the bank and he just sat there, just waited. The weird thing about the story is that out of all the banks he could have gone to, he chose the one bank that was right next to the police station. So, it didn't take long, police came a few minutes later, they rocked up, arrested the guy, put him in a van, and well, in a car, van belongs to us, put him in a car, drove across the road, literally began to question the guy. The same question that you and I would ask this guy, now think about it, this is a guy who's 70 years old, 70 years old, doesn't have a criminal record, doesn't seem to be in desperate need of the money and Kelly is not desperately trying to avoid the cops. So, the simple question that you would ask, I would ask, they asked, Kelly was, like, what's up? Like, why are you doing this? Why did you do this? And his answer was simple, but his answer was profound. Here's what he says, "I would rather go to jail than be at home with my wife." Now, true story. Now, if your husband next to you is not smiling or making a comment, just search for banks around the area that are next to me. Now, as much as people in that room, probably were smirking, smiling, maybe some even laughing. Justice still needs to play his course because he did a crime. So, a couple of days later he has to stand before the judge, and everyone is thinking, "I'm on, you know, let's just give him the bare minimum." Then, like, a bare minimum would have been about 36, 37 months in prison because one of the things they also found when they searched him is that this guy actually didn't have a gun. He had nail clippers and like a head, a comb. That's it. And so, they were thinking, "Ah, he's going to give him the most basic minimal sentence." And the judge surprised everybody. The judge stood up in front of everybody, and here's what the judge says, "All right, cool, you've pleaded guilty. That's fine. I am sentencing you to six months' house arrest." Yeah. Straight up. Yeah. No syrup. And we're actually going to try this in our marriages this year. We're going to use this as a marriage. Just, we're going to see how it goes. Six months' house arrest. Go home and be stuck home. And I'm sure that they gave the guy, you know, those things that they gave the Kansas they take to prison. You know, the ones when you leave a certain air go, "Tit, tit, tit." Yeah. You can't leave the house. You're stuck. You must be here. Look her in the eye every day and figure your stuff out. You can't go anywhere. You can't leave six months. You're stuck right there. Now, I couldn't help but put myself in the guy's shoes. Not because I intend on going to jail because I don't want to be in my life because he's in the service. But if I had to try and invert the whole story, I couldn't help but think like how many times have I stood before the Holy Spirit? And regardless of what the reason might be, maybe it's because I've been throwing my own little tantrums because I'm irritated at the way that God is doing things, how he seems to be missing plans that I've made. Maybe at times I'm just in my own arrogance. I think I'm way too good for foolish wisdom. I try to overstep, press acceleration where I should break, press break where I should accelerate. I don't know. Sometimes, maybe I'm in that place, not because of what I've done, but because of someone else's doing what they've done. And I'm standing before the Holy Spirit and I get to hear the sentence. And my sentence is, "All right, listen, I'm going to put you for a period of time under God's arrest. Are you going to have to be bound up with him?" I don't want to be in God's arrest. I like him, but I don't want to be with him now, not like that, but I have no choice in the matter because somehow life has seemingly limited the choices and options I have that I have to be home. I have to be stuck with you. I don't want to do this. I don't want to have to figure out what it means to love you and for you to love me for better or for worse. I don't want this kind of condition. I am figuring out ways of moving as far as I can from the discomfort of your love, which I tend to call freedom. I want to move as far as I way from that kind of love that makes me bend my knee. I don't want to bend my knee. I want to be frustrated. I want to be offended. I want you to know that until you deal with the issue, I will remain irritated with you. Deal with it. And sometimes I get into those places not because of what I've done, but maybe something my children are going through. And I have to be bound up with God and navigate what for better or for worse looks like with him. The Old Testament has a phrase for this, for being under God arrest. It uses the phrase like 66 times in the Bible. It comes up in Isaiah when the people of Israel know that they cannot escape exalt. They know they're going to go. It comes up in Psalm chapter 3 where David doesn't even know if he's going to make it through the night because he's saying, "Absolum wants to kill him." Do you want to know the phrases? Here it is. God arrest in the Bible. Here's the phrase being sustained by God. Being sustained by God has got nothing to do with gaining things from him. Being sustained by God is when we are placed in the kind of scenario with the backdrop of our lives is not good news. And somehow in the anger, frustration, confusion, we have to figure out for better or for worse. Of the next three weeks we're going to be in a series titled The Mission. This is going to be our series that kind of leads to our Matthew series that's going to happen for the whole year. We share this mission series with our every nation family that's in 84 nations around the world. Right now in every single puppet, every nation churches are getting ready to fast, but also they're getting ready to speak and preach and gather around the mission of God. This unfolding of God's desire to redeem all things to himself. But what tends to happen whenever we speak about the mission, we started the end. We love to start at the place that says, "This is what you must do to fulfill the mission as if you have the means in all your capabilities to fulfill the mission of God by yourself and the skills you have." But where we want to start, where we want to be in the next three weeks is talk about what kind of people must we be to fulfill the mission. The mission requires a kind of people. Two weeks time, Marcia's going to preach about how we need to be a people who are shaped by the words of God. Next week, Musa will speak to us about how we need to be a people who are sent by the purposes of God. And today, I want to talk about how we must be a people who are sustained by the presence of God. The world is too broken. Life is too crazy and the mission of God is too beautiful for you to not need help to accomplish it. You must be sustained by His presence. We have your bibles. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 13. We're going to read from, we're going to be in verse 17 to 22. As a way of beginning the year, I would love for us to stand as we read the word today in reverence to this infallible word. Exodus 13 verse 17 to 22. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the red sea. The people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you. And you shall carry up my bones with you from here. And they moved from Sikoth and in Camden, Eatham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way. And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and night. The pillar of cloud by day in the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before them. Did not depart from the people of God. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let my people go. No true words have ever been spoken. Let my people go. In fact, let me say it in a way that we all would love to say, let me go. I want to be free. I want to be who I want to be. I want to do what I want to do. And I'm not going to dog down the statement because it's true of me. I genuinely want to do what I want to do. I genuinely want to be who I want to be. But y'all translated you all won't let me. My wife won't let me. These kids to many of them won't let me. My dog this morning who I had to figure out what to do when it thunders so much because I hate this dog but I have to love this dog. I am up at three trying my level best to have good sleep so I can preach a sermon. But I'm up. I can't do the things I want to do but praise God for the privilege of being inconvenienced by love. I'm sad for those of you who don't have enough love to do what you want to do. Praise God for the kind of responsibilities that don't allow me to completely be the thing that I want to be. I've weighed too much responsibility to wild out when I want to wild out. Praise God for love and responsibility that keeps forcing me to recalibrate what I think identity is. What I think freedom is. What I think I want to do what I want to do is. Then when I walk in the mall with the intent of sinning, praying to God that everyone from every nation, Brian, sin has left Jobberg. That in that specific moment, well, I want to go and pay for that movie that I shouldn't watch. I see in the corner of my eye someone who doesn't have to shout this but chooses to shout this. Pause this if. Come on, man. Now, you could have whispered to me, giving me an opportunity to still wild out. But now that you've shouted it, everyone knows that this is the kind of pasta who watches these kind of movies. Thank you. You've placed upon me. I hope there are people who love you that much, who force you into a reimagining of what you determined to be freedom. Let my people go. We love this saying. It's poetic, it's prophetic, but it's profoundly incomplete because it's not what God said. God never said, let my people go. God said, let my people go so that they might worship me. In other words, you are able to leave Egypt and still not be free. In other words, for some of us who have lived out the, let my people go. You are still in a process of freedom. You haven't arrived. Watch. He doesn't even say, let my people go so that they can go to the promised land. The fulfillment of your goals are not freedom. He says, let my people go so that they might worship me. That I might be out of debt. But what I don't understand is that throughout the Bible, the Bible assumes everyone will be in debt to someone. Praise God, you don't owe African bank. But life requires you to owe someone. And what he's saying is, if you owe me is freedom. But if you owe anyone else, you can't be free. Let my people go is an incomplete statement. It is indicative of a nation that thinks it's been let go. Watch us now. How let go are you? To be out of a seeming apartheid system is not the goal of freedom. It is to go to the mountain and worship. That's freedom. That's the place of freedom. It's not even my sermon, but that was nice anyway. Let my people go. Let my people go. We all desire this freedom. But what I want to show you in this text is that on this journey of freedom, God is going to sustain these folks. And to be sustained by the presence of God looks like something. It feels like something, but it sounds like something. Three things I want to talk about. What does it look like to be sustained by the presence? What does it feel like to be sustained by the presence? What does it sound like? What do a people who know that they are being sustained by God sound like? What does it look like? When the Bible tells us that Pharaoh had let the people go, the statement is not entirely true, Pharaoh didn't want to let the people go. Reluctantly let the people go. Pharaoh was forced to let the people go, not because of what the people did, but because of what God did. The freedom that they are about to journey into is not as a result of their hyperdiscipline. It's not as a result of how much word they know. It's not as a result of the kind of obedience that they've had that has actually brought them to the place of the journey of freedom. The genesis of the freedom is what God has done for them. This is true for you, lest you believe you are here because of you. I always love it when people tell a rags to riches stories, and we all know it's coming up. It's like you're when I was young, it was rough, and we know you're about to lead to the crescendo. And I always think, I wonder, like we all started their own place. Why don't we start? You know, in the beginning, God created things good. And then it was bad because of me and us. And then in the badness, it felt worse, and grace not just appeared, but I only realized now that grace has always been there. That's what being sustained sometimes is like. You know in hindsight. But the way it actually looks like, God gives us a description in Exodus chapter 19 verse 4. Here's what he says. He's actually speaking to the people and he said, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know that I sustained. You know that I carried you on Eagle's wings and brought you not to the promised land to myself." Okay, so the word sustained is the word to uphold. It's the word to carry. It's the word to bore something. The idea in the Bible of being sustained by God is when God allows His faithfulness to fully carry the weight of your life, not His power. If faithfulness, yeah, it carries the fullness of your life, your desires, your belongings, your fears. That's what it looks like. It's going to carry you. It's the same word that's used for pregnancy. That someone doesn't have their feet on the ground. They can't carry themselves. They have to be poor. Someone has to bore them and carry. And the only way that that individual can actually live is that they need the one who carries to be alive. He has to live. He has the kind of aliveness that breeds faithfulness in the circumstance. When God sustains you, He brings you into conflict with His faithfulness, the faithfulness you are doubting. That's His point. He wants to bring you into the profound conflict of I don't know if you're still going to do this. He wants to bring you into the reality of all the things you think, but you politely don't say, but deep down inside, I don't know. I've been trying for this kid. I've been trying for this job, trying, and in the sentencing of God's rest, I have to figure it out. Lord, carries me, whereby I can no longer use my strength to mock out my steps. In other words, Israel, what God is saying to the people of Israel is that I want you to look at your history. And when you look at your history, trace your steps and you'll notice that there are moments where you can see your footprints and then there are moments when they disappeared. It was me. I was carrying you on ego's wings. And when you see them reappear, when I've allowed you to let your strength partner with my grace, no, that the gap in between was me sustaining you, daughter. It was me sustaining you. What it looks like is that you must be carried by God. In 2026, there are moments where your feet won't touch the ground. It's going to have to take you, you're going to have to carry your ego's wings. The branch of my sermon is going to be the next point that not only does being sustained by God look like being carried, being bored, bored, but it also, we need to understand what it feels like to be sustained by His presence. As I've said originally, being sustained by the presence of God tends to be something we understand in hindsight. We look back at the end of 2025 and go, "Yo, you ever had those seasons where it feels like a blur?" And you're trying to remember, "Okay, how did I get out of this?" Like, "No, no, not just how did I get out." You know? Because I know how. It's left, work up, wait a minute. But how did I get out of this? Okay. My kid was sick way too many times. Lost a job. Didn't have a job for two years. How did I make it after two years? And I'm still here. And the blurriness of life, we can only conclude. I must have been sustained by God. That's why I saw in 3 verse 5, David said, "I know my son is trying to kill me, but tonight I slept and I awoke for he sustained me." What he's saying is when I went to bed at night, I didn't think I'm going to wake up. But the moment I woke up at 3 in the morning, I knew it. For six hours, my doubt was fighting with these faithfulness. He sustained me. It's only reason I was able to wake up. We love to think that being sustained by God feels like ease, feels like comfort, feels like things going right. Let me show you in the scripture what it actually feels like. It goes on to say, "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the wilderness, by the way of the land of the Philistines." By the way, this is partly where we get the concept of, "Leave me not into temptation." You'll see why. Because part of temptation is not about just doing the things I shouldn't do. Part of temptation is going down a route I think I can handle. Watch. He says, "God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near." It's a shorter route. It's obvious. It's easy. It's care. For God said, "Less the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt." But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. The word there is Hamas. They went up out of Egypt, Hamas, going towards Gaza. Literally, they were going towards Gaza. Don't send me emails about Gaza. I'm not going to respond. No. It's got nothing to do with the sermon. That's literally what this word means. The people of Israel were Hamas. Watch. What God is saying, they think that they free. And now we're about to experience who's going to determine who uses the freedom. They want to use the freedom to go the short route, the obvious route, the right route. It makes sense. I'm not even saying the short route is wrong. If there's a short route that makes sense, take it. You do it all the time. It makes sense. But instead, God chooses that, no, no, no, no. There's a better way for them to use their freedom. The question is, are they going to trust me? Okay? And so God goes, no, no, no. Hold on. I'm going to get them to go the other way. Instead of going this way, he takes them up the North to literally towards Gaza. They're making the way towards the way of the Philistines. The Philistines, where regarded as one of the most profound fighters of the time. Now, on your way towards the way of the Philistines or the area of the Philistines, they used to be garrisons. Just because Egypt is here, the way that Egypt would set itself up in order to protect itself, it would have different spots where they'll be profound, disciplined soldiers, making sure that if people try to come into Egypt, they start with those soldiers first. So the people of Israel would have had to go out, deal with those soldiers, then go into where the Philistines are, fight with them. And here's what God is saying is, these guys think that just because they are Hamas, they will make it. I know you feel ready for 2026, Jorongha, nam dirate. But the kind of God we have is not trying to make plans based on your readiness. He understands that even when you feel well equipped for the task, the kind of task he must give you. So he says, no, trust me, code this way. Because I know you're, you're going to get in there, you who are actually not fighters, but are slaves in fighting clothes, are going to stand up with veteran fighters and when they smack you, you are not going to trust me enough to do this for you there. You see, the most miraculous thing about Exodus is not the fact that God did the 10 signs of all these plagues that he sent. The most miraculous thing about Exodus is how quickly they forgot. That's the most miraculous thing about your life right now. You have clearly forgotten the exact moments were God sustained you in 2025. The anxiety you are navigating is without the remembrance that you keep telling us in your rags to riches story. Do you remember what he did for you? So what does it feel like to be sustained? Number one, it feels like living in a lost minute change. It feels like a detour. It feels like being in a moment where my good plan that I have planned specifically is now completely changed in front of me without what seemingly feels to be my permission. And I'm supposed to believe that this is divine detour, a divine wisdom that I don't understand, and I keep having preachers who pretend they understand. I don't want this plan. I've got a plan, stick to my plan. Why are you changing the plan? What sustenance from God feels like is a plan changed in front of you? That's what it feels like. sustenance doesn't feel like this is comfortable. sustenance feels like what happened to what we decided. When this year, for some of you, it started the 2nd of Jan. Because on the 1st of Jan you already made all your goals and you thought you're gonna wake up at 5. Go for a jog, read the Bible before you get to your phone. And on the 2nd of Jan, you woke up when straight to your phone, when straight to YouTube, flip, flip, flip, did you run? No, you didn't. But you watched other people run on YouTube and you're already going, man, my plan has failed and changed. Maybe that's one that's caused by us. When your plans change in 2026, consider it be sustained. Okay, Lord, you have chosen that I don't walk this one with my feet. You've chosen that the way this one is going to happen is I'm going to be carried through this one. Being sustained by God feels like it's not just detours, it's dead bones. Here's what the Bible says. Verse 19, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear God will surely visit you. Listen, I don't know what to speak like this and maybe I should speak like this more often. This is a prophetic word I believe for us. Was that a visit? God will visit us this year. I don't I don't even care to know how. I don't care. I'm trained to believe that the way he visits me will feel like more. He's going to visit me. I don't even care if it means less. He's going to visit us. God will surely visit you and he shall carry. You shall carry my bones with you from here. So watch, God carried the people of Israel. Moses is going to carry the bones of Joseph to the place of promise. Okay, so in order to understand this, we have to kind of understand what happened in the previous chapter. When the people of Israel were about to leave remissies in Egypt, they were tossed by God to plan their Egypt. More specifically, God told Moses to tell the women, "Hey, go do the things." So the man took all the herds, all the sheep, all the horses, whatever, and they were kind of walking with them. Then you had these slave-like pretender fighters who were putting on this new armor that they just got in from Egypt. Then you had the woman going door-to-door, just knocking. Hey, man, jewelry time. Silver, gold. We know it was women because they also got clothes. You guys don't believe me. Here it is. Exodus chapter 12, verse 33. It's not even up, you can remember. It says, it says, what, epithets are ticked. There it is, verse 35. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them for their osteogemsions for silver, gold, jewelry, and for clothing. I would have done the same clothing in Egypt, dope, silk, satin. You name it. Ladies collecting. So ladies, we've got all the jewelry. They've got all the clothes. Man, herding the sheep. We've got this pretend fighter slave guys having all these weapons and the leader having bones in a world where spiritual leaders carry the silver. Oh my, how we long for a world where spiritual leaders can carry dead bones. I plead to a world that has made pastors damn celebrities. In what name are pastors allowed to stop serving so that you might serve them? Well, why do you have plans to buy me a car? For what? Did not I have got a car? Let's go make these disciples and die and go home. What do we want? Why do we keep finding ways to follow those who carry silver and gold? Now, fine. You need a prosperity. So here we go. God will bless you. He will increase you. There it is. I am all for it. I want prosperity for you. Do you understand? I genuinely believe prosperity is coming for you. I do. I also know suffering is coming for you. I'm not prophesying it. I've just read enough history and read enough Bible to know that you need both to figure out what you love. If God only allows the good, what choice is He giving you except to love? Difficulty according to the scriptures ought to be expected. The question is when the difficulty and the power and the privilege comes, what will I do? It's all it is. So there you go. Prosperity servant boom, bam, got it. But maybe the church, in an environment where hundreds of thousands are trying to make their way to the promise, maybe the church ought to be the ones who carry the dead bones, dead bones, dead bones. The dead bones come from Genesis chapter 50 verse 24 where Joseph looks at the people and he says, listen, listen, I remember when my body was carried, not because I wanted it to. It was carried for me into Egypt. It took me in as a slave and brought me there. I beg of you, carry my bones into the promise. You do that for me. And even in Genesis 48, when he looks back at the way that they carried him into Egypt, he goes, I, when I look back at this whole thing, I mean, it was God sustaining this thing. The way I've made sense of why that had to happen, the way it happened. He was doing something that required my feet to be off the ground. All right, so the way it feels like at times to be sustained by God is detours. But it also feels like carrying dead bones. What do you mean by dead bones? Joseph says, guys, no matter what happens, make sure you take me in there. Moses being the leader grabs the dead bones and whilst everyone carries means, significance and wealth, he carries promise. I'm coming off the husbands this year. I'm not saying it in like a rough way. Because to be honest, I think the world is way too rough on you. Yeah, let me tell you, this marriage, do you know how many times this guy is dead this to his wife? You'll find your wife going to a bank very soon. I'm coming off the husbands because I am, I am, I am saddened not at the side, not just at the silence of men engaging the abuses. I'm saddened at the silence of men being told, "Norda, you're okay." Saddened. We've been left to figure this thing out by ourselves. By me, who is going to tell us we are okay? I'm coming off to you this year because I've come to the realization you don't remove responsibility for men. You must give these guys this stuff. If you want to create them, if you want to build them, if you want to make them, give them the stuff and then say to them, "That was great." That was okay. What? Have the privilege of being close enough to men to support them when they fail? Then we might have a chance of a generation that doesn't have to spend time telling men to tell people to stop abusing. Maybe we might have a chance where your sons, my sons, your daughters, my daughters can come into a world where men are not afraid to grab a hold of responsibility and place it on their shoulders. Coming off to you, listen, I'm telling you now that this reality for us as a people is that we need more people to carry dead bones. We need more people to walk in the presence of other people's wealth and feel content with promise. We need more people, church, whatever, ladies, you know, you know, we're always going to come. You remain that rock we need, but I'm telling you now, we need more people who don't feel that wealth is a marker of ultimate freedom. We need more people who can live with the dead bones and be content in the midst of everyone else's success and keep moving on to promise. You know, when you say certain things and then you look up and then you see like your parents, parents like figures, you're like, yeah, maybe I said that too strong. My muscles are cold. I feel like I can't turn too strong down the mat. They'll take it easy. Dead bones. If God's promise is only fulfilled when you leave Egypt, what's the point of taking the bones? If God's promise is only fulfilled when you get your degree, what's the point of taking the bone? If God's promise is only fulfilled when you get out of debt, what's the point of carrying the bones? Carry the bones this year. That's what it feels like, by the way, that in 2026, one of the ways you're going to know that you are being sustained is when you find yourself in moments where you stick out of the crowd. The moments in your life, this year, where you stick out like a short time and it feels like you should have progressed further and should be where they are. In those moments, pause and go, ah, he's sustaining. Oh, that's what's up. Well, when I feel that thing inside of me that says, oh, my friends have far more advanced than me. Oh, he's sustaining. Lastly, not only do you need dead bones, but to feel what being sustained by God looks like you need to walk in the desert, walk in the desert, walk in the desert. How many of you ever walked in the desert? Deserts are hot, very hot. Now, I want you to think about how hot it is and then you're traveling with over hundreds of thousands of people. And when it's dark, it's pitch black dark. You have been in those hotels that they've got those block out curtains where you plan to wake up at five and you wake up at 10. You miss breakfast. Why? Because the curtains have blocked out everything. Now, imagine walking in the desert and all there is is sun moon and stars, dark, pitch black, afro. So here's what's going to happen. Those who are going to experience being sustained by God this year are going to find themselves walking in moments where the pressure, the heat is too much. When the heat is too much this year and being sustained, we're going to find ourselves walking in environments where darkness is so thick. I can't see my next step. And certainty is more certain. When you feel uncertain, abundance of some guys right now told me that they pregnant, they have no idea the profoundness of uncertainty that is coming to their lives. Daily, just wondering. She breathing or even have no idea. You let that child go that morning, like, okay, have a great day at school. You have no, like what on earth is going to happen today? The beauty of that uncertainty means I'm being sustained now. I've got eight hours until I see this kid. People sustain me. Be like those parents who arrive 30 minutes before just walking around your car. Kid comes out, she has no idea why you so happy because you are shouting at her in the morning. Comes like you're like, oh, get in the car. Until such a time that that feeling comes akin to you, your doubt is no longer in conflict with faithfulness. Sustained you, you're sustaining me. But even in the desert, you've made provision for me that in the heat of the day, there's a pillar of cloud. And all I need to do in the moments where I feel pressure. I must find this cloud in the word in community. I must find this cloud in prayer. I must find this cloud. Lord, I just want to remain in the shade that only you can provide in the desert place. In the thickness of darkness, I'm following the fire. I'm following the fire. I'm praying. I'm not concerned about whether or not I'm going to make it. I'm just trying to make sure that I don't stop walking. It's not my concern. I know I'm going to make it. I just want to make sure that I can keep walking. That's why the scripture says, watch. It says, the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night, so that they might travel day and night. The whole point of this year is not that you won't have nights. It's not that you won't have high pressure moments. It's so that you won't stop walking in pressure and in uncertainty. All right, I said all of this to bring the sermon to this end. What does it look like to be sustained by God carries you, holds you. What does it feel like to be sustained by God? Detours, dead bones, deserts. But what do a people who know that they're being sustained? Even though they don't know, let's know it when they in it. But what do a people who know that they're being sustained by God sound like? I said all of this, I can say this one point. There's so many things I'm probably going to ask you this year. I beg you to not forget this one thing. Okay, now to set it up, let me say this. If you had to read the book of Exodus for the very first time, not having attended church, not having heard any sermons, outside the Ten Commandments, what is one of the things you would go, "You, I better not do this." Absolutely. If you read Genesis and Exodus, the one thing that would make you terrified to do is to complain. Because every time people complained, something bad happened. And by bad, I mean, people died. More accurately, you can't kill by the Lord. Philippians 2 verse 14, if you remember anything, here it is. This year, this is it. Do all things without complaining. Try this as your goal, Andrew Huberman. Try this as your goal this year. Can you do all things without complaining? What do a people who know they're being sustained by God sound like? Here's how they sound like. They're angry, but they don't complain. They grieve, but they don't complain. They fight, but they don't complain. They lament, which is to come before God and say, "Why did you do this? Where have you been? Why didn't you?" But they don't complain. You see, because lamenting still speaks to God. Complaining speaks about God. Don't you complain. I beg of you. Don't complain, don't complain. This year, 2026, I'm not going to give you some random theme for the year. Five years, we've had one simple theme. Every and no God make him known. I don't know if that's going to change, but that's what it is. If you want a theme, there's no theme, but I'm hoping you get this word. Don't complain. Don't complain. And if you said that as a goal, watch the amount of times you want to. It's going to allow you to realize what's already there, but we've excused it as this is authentic relationship with the maker. No, I call authentic, we are seeing now. No, no. We have said with him, "Shab, shab, be angry." Because when he does the desert thing, it's not nice that thing. When he does the dead bones thing, it's not nice that thing. When he does the detour thing, it's not nice that thing, but don't complain. If I had time, I wish I could give you a whole sermon on how we don't believe we are sustained by God when we're doing well. How many times are you able to look at your success in your, in the happy day and go, "Oh, this happy day was because it wouldn't sustain me." That's why the Bible says, "There is a wealth that comes that you actually can't enjoy." Because it's rid of God. You even need God's sustenance to enjoy this money you've worked so hard for, that you're desperately longing for the people back home to know you have. Until they know, and then you're like, "No, I don't want them to know." All right. Next three weeks, we're going to be, are you guys okay? I'm done. I'm good. Next three weeks, we're going to be fasting. We do this every year. All around our every nation family, people take a week to fast. We take three weeks. It's not because we're trying to be weird. We recognize the community we had filled with many young people. I think it is so critical that we build a habit while we are fasting. As a community, we do this every year, three weeks in the beginning of the year to take time to fast and to God. On our website and on our app, you're going to find two guides. One guide is going to be for adults. It's going to walk you through different scriptures and thoughts and ideas. Also, it's going to help you know how to fast so you don't break yourself. And there's another guide just for families. If you have kids, I am pleading with you, fast with them. There's a whole guide for families so you can deliberately. So you as adults, you're going to fast for three weeks. We are asking for your kids to fast one week. Whether they fasting, we have some people fasting peanut butter. I'm hoping some people are fast lying. Like your kids to fast at least one week and walk with them through the content. Just do it. Do it. Okay. And so I'm going to play a video and I'm going to give you some instructions about prayer coming up over the next couple of weeks. And so this video from Steve Marl, every nation, President, sharing to all our every nation churches. And they're off the few instructions and we'll be done. Thank you. Our every nation global family around the world starts every year with a week of prayer, fasting, and consecration. And when I say that word, consecration, I think about God's word to Joshua in Joshua chapter three verse five. Consecrate yourself for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among you. We're believing that God will do that among us. Now our theme for our global 2026 prayer fasting and consecration week is the mission of God. And our prayers all around the world will be focused on three big prayer asks that have to do with global mission Psalm 28. Ask me and I'll give you the nations. We're going to ask God for nations. But the next step when we ask for God for nations, we need workers. Jesus said to ask the Lord of the Harvest and send out workers into his harvest field. So we're going to ask for nations. We're asking for workers, short term workers, lifelong workers. We want to see a mission force happen from our churches and communities all around the world. And then we're going to go to loop 13 and ask for the Holy Spirit. And Jesus promised if we ask the father for the Holy Spirit, he won't give us something else. We'll get a Holy Spirit. We'll get the Holy Spirit's gifts and presents and power. And that is essential for global mission. I'm looking forward to a week of prayer fasting and consecration with hundreds of thousands of every nation people all over the world. Because remember, God has something great planned for tomorrow among us. Alrighty. So on your app, on the website, get the guides. And then we're going to be having online prayers in the morning on Thursdays from six until seven. We'll give you all those details. And because of venue restraints or constraints, we don't have the use of the venue this week for prayer or in the last week. So on the second week, from the 12th to, which is Monday, all the way through to the 15th, which is Thursday, we're going to be having prayer every night. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we're praying that they manage to give us Friday as well. But we're going to be praying right here from the 12th, not this coming Monday, but the following Monday, half past six until eight 12th all the way through to the 15th. So join us for those prayer gatherings before I do the blessing and we're ending on time, by the way. I think it was Christmas Eve or went to hospital and I wasn't feeling great like my chest was weird. And so I co was busy driving around like different places of the reading. Come on, I was like, so hey, I'm going to go check myself in, we'll see what's up. So I went there and if you have chest pains, like these guys go crazy, it was people everywhere. And I'm like, no, I'm like, I'm sure what, and I keep asking how much is cost. It puts stuff all of me, you know, everything, you know, man. And while I was there, I bumped into a lady who comes to every nation, I said, one of the doctors, I'm like, what's up? It's like, man, it's so good to see you. It's like, you know, I've been depressed for like four to six weeks, six months, showed me a picture of the amount of weight she had gained. I said, like, man, I feel so much better. I feel like I'm back to myself. She walks out of there. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. Now the guy comes in who's actually my doctor at the time. He checks me out and then this lady who comes to every nation, Brian goes, hey, that guy who was your doctor, he's planning on planning a church and he really wants to speak to you. He's been following some of the every nation, Brian's and stuff. He wants to plan a church. Your guy comes like, yo, can I get you now? I'm like, absolutely, my church planters are my friends. What if in the moment of being sustained? There is grace inside, not for you, but through you. What if a people who don't complain, who God has chosen to sustain must have their eyes ready in the midst of sustenance to bless? Do it this year, pride out. May God meet you. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you. And be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. Give you peace. Now and forever. Love you guys. See you next week. Bless you.