God Is Love - Dr. Efrem Smith | Midtown Church Sacramento

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More about Pastor Efrem

Rev. Dr. Efrem Smith is a pastor, consultant, speaker, and author. He is passionate about life transformation, multiethnic development, healthy churches, and community development. Within his church congregation he is known as Pastor Efrem, Pastor E, and Dr. E.

Pastor Efrem was the founding pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multi-ethnic church in Minneapolis, MN, He served as the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He also served as the President of World Impact, an urban missions organization. Currently, Pastor Efrem is the Co-lead Pastor of Midtown Church, a thriving and multi-ethnic community in Sacramento, California. He is also Co-Owner of Influential LLC, a speaking, consulting, and coaching ministry. Pastor Efrem is the author of Raising Up Young Heroes, The Hip Hop Church, Jump, The Post-Black and Post-White Church, Killing Us Softly, and Church for Everyone.

Pastor Efrem is a graduate of Saint John's University and Luther Theological Seminary. He completed the Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from Ashland Theological Seminary. Pastor Efrem is married to Donecia, and they have two daughters, Jaeda and Mireya. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

My name is from Smith. I'm one of the pastors of Raman here. Happy Father's Day. If you're mummy, can you mother dang it stinging them up? Can we get them all the dangers in the house and sting and dump? Happy Father's Day that all mother dad's in here. All mother dads in the overflow. All mother dads watching online. My dad who's watching online. Happy Father's Day, Dad. Love you. I want to do two things real quick before I uh get into the sermon. So, one, uh, you heard from um from Levi during the announcements. We'd love for you to stop by the table where you can grab uh one of these right here and have it on your wrist this week and be praying for one of the young people that's going to camp and just be praying for them all week this week as we prepare for our summers of camps. And so I already got my person that I'm praying for all this week. So please stop by there and do that. And we're expecting God to do incredible things with children, with teenagers through all of our camps and our summer initiatives. Also, I want to just say real briefly, we already had our time of offering and generosity. Uh, we're not doing that again, but what I am saying is that our fiscal ministry year goes July 1 to June 30th. So we are getting ready to close out our 2025-26 ministry fiscal season. And so in this last month of June, uh, if you're able to, we would ask that you would give a little above what you would normally give so that we can close out uh this ministry season. Our budget is a little over $5 million, so that we are a uh multi-campus, multicultural, intergenerational church that is uh using these resources so that the lost are found, the hurting are helped, the broken are blessed, and so we're able to do this through your prayers, your serving, and your giving. So uh just want to put that out there that you would pray about uh whatever God would lead you to give above what you normally would give in the month of June. With that, I want to go into our sermon series: God is. God is. We are spending the entire summer looking at the characteristics, the nature of God by the names that are mentioned about God, the words that are used to describe God in the Bible. If you've missed uh the sermon so far, we're just like three weeks into this series, but if you've missed the sermons before, you can go on our website, our YouTube channel, you can go on our podcast, and you can watch or listen to the sermons in this series. And we hope that this will be an opportunity for you to dive deeper into the Bible yourself as we look at the words, the names that describe God. I don't know if you remember this. The first time that you said, I love. Maybe you were four years old, maybe you were five years old, maybe you remember the first thing that came after the very first time you said I love. Now I know we'd all like to say, I gotta get it. Like, I love Jesus, I love God, I love, but I mean, if you're honest though, the first thing you said was, I love ice cream. I love McDonald's, I love a cheeseburger. Uh, you know, that that's probably the first thing I I love some French fries. And then maybe later, as you you you moved that love from ice cream and and chicken nuggets and fries and pizza, so then that love that you had for that became love to a person. I love my mom, I love my dad, I love my siblings, I love my friends, and then maybe eventually you felt that I'm falling in love. But regardless of where you started with your I love, God before that said, I love you. God is love, but love is not just something that God says through the Bible. Love is not just something that God does, but God is love. The essence of God is love. At the core of who God is, at the foundation of who God is, God is love. Now I recognize that there are things that are done in the name of God, there are things that are said in the name of God, there are things that are expressed, that are written about, that has God's name on it that might lead you to believe that God is not love, that God is a God of war, that God is a God of violence, that God is at the at the foundation of who God is, God is angry, God is upset, God is waiting for you to get it right. But no, a theme that runs through scripture. If you allow the Bible to really make its way not just into your thinking, but into the deepest parts of who you are, if we really get to the context of the story that is being told through the cultures presented in the Bible, God is love. Go with me to 1 John chapter 4, beginning with verse 7. Says this first John chapter 4, verse 7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. From this text, I want to preach to you on the title, God is Love. God is love. God, I pray that you would preach. I pray, God, that uh you would speak and I would just be the vehicle that you're using to say what you want to say to these your beloved children, my beloved sisters and brothers. God, I want to be obedient to your word. So please let it be done. In Jesus' name, amen. God is love. You know, uh we start out by saying, I love you, and then as human beings, we get into relationships, we get into situations where we believe we are in love and we want to express love. We we've fallen in love, we we want to love somebody, and the issue is if we can really be honest as human beings, we we have an easier time falling in love than we do sustaining love. I mean, the the data's clear out here uh in in our nation, especially. You know, it's like we we it's easier to say I love you, it's easier to fall in love, it's it's easier to think I'm in love than it is to live out love long term. This is especially true if you've experienced heartbreak. You can attest to that. To sustain love over the long haul, we actually need something that we can't produce in our own power. Those of you that have heard me preach for a while, you've heard me say this. There are certain things that human beings can just produce in our own power. Envy, jealousy, hatred, unforgiveness. We can do that. Sustained anger. We don't need to pray for that. We don't need to join a small group. We don't need to join a church. We don't need accountability. I can just look at somebody and say, sir, I don't like you. See? See how easy that was? I didn't need to join a small group. I didn't need to pray. I didn't need to say, Lord, help me not like this brother sitting on the front row that I don't really know real good, but I've seen his face before, and so I don't like him. Like, see, I didn't thank you for helping me in the sermon, but uh much love, much love. I don't want no problems, you know. Much love, much love. Uh but what I what I'm trying to say is that I I don't need God, I don't need something supernatural, I don't need something divine, I don't need something beyond me to be jealous or envious or hateful or discriminatory. Uh uh, but but to but but to love mercy, to do justice, to walk humbly, to express who God is in my life day to day, I need something beyond me. I need the love of God. I've said this before, but I I'm learning over time that the best I can do is just wake up every day and say, God, I give you permission to love through me, love my wife through me, love my daughters through me, love my coworkers through me, love my friends through me, love my neighbors through me, love my enemies through me. Because I don't have the power on my own to sustain that kind of love. And that's where understanding the love of God begins. It begins with realizing how much you need God's love to love. And because I so desperately need God's love to love, that's the beginning of my understanding of how amazing, how awesome God's love is. Because love is not just something that God does, it's who God is. And that's where we find ourselves here in our main text for today. We're in 1 John. And 1 John chapter 4 specifically is talking about a love that human beings can't produce on their own. Uh, 1 John, no surprise, is written by a guy named John. But because there's a bunch of Johns out there, there's a specific John who wrote this. This is the John who was the disciple of Jesus, who wrote the Gospel of John, also wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. This dude really has something about naming all his letters in the Bible after himself. He really wanted you to know who wrote it. Just so you know, the Gospel of John. Uh-huh. Yeah, now other letter, 1 John. Other one I wrote, 2 John, other one I wrote, 3 John. Then he got humble and wrote Revelation. And you might not think that Revelation is about love. Some people don't even want to dive into Revelation because it's like, oh, this is the final judgment. This is the end times. Is this the apocalypse? Is this what is this one the book of Eli? Is this what what's going on here in Revelation? I mean, it's talking about angels and demons and beasts and dragons and figures that head look like a lion, but they got wings and they got multiple eyes, and there's somebody with a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and there's somebody whose whose skin is like bronze, and there's like what is that about? And you know what the interesting thing is? Even with all that, still talking about God's love. Even revelation ends with all things being right. No war, no famine, no poverty, no disease, no sickness, no hatred, no violence to solve conflict. But Jesus coming back and making all things right. Revelation is a symbolic love song of how all things are set right in the end forever. But specifically here, let's talk a little more about John. Why would John spend so much time writing about God and love? Because he saw himself as the one dearly loved by God. John says, I'm the guy that was dearly loved by Jesus. So he's not just writing about what he thinks about God, but what he's convinced about God. Because of his own personal experience with Jesus, with Christ, with the Son of God, with God. Now, here in 1 John chapter 4, a lot of love language here. The word love is used multiple times. Now, maybe you've heard before that in Grecian culture and in the culture at the time in which he's writing, and Roman culture in which he's writing, you know, there's different words for love, like, you know, there's Eros. Uh that's talking more about, well, we're in church, so it is a, it's a, that's a different kind of deeper kind of, well, eros, you just, you, yeah. Anyway, that love, that erotic love. That that's what it's talking about. You, you know, that that love that doesn't go to the deeper places that actually will sustain a real loving relationship over time. Like you can't, you can't sustain over time a covenant love relationship just on Eros love. Uh, there's also uh uh uh filio, the the love like brotherly love, sisterly love. The love that's supposed to show up in a family, but there's agape love. And that's what this text is talking about. Agape is the unconditional love of God, no matter what. You are loved by God. And this and and this being loved by God doesn't start with, oh, because of what you did, God loves you. Because you got all things right, God loves you. No, this is like when you got it all wrong, God loves you. When you were broken and felt lost and all alone, God loves you. When it don't feel like God loves you, God loves you. There's nothing you can do about it, you can't change it, you can't block it. That you are loved by God. It's unconditional, it's not based on something you do for God. It's not transactional, it's transformational. The love of God, no matter what. That's agape. And then there's another Greek word here, agapeo. That is the love of God on you, the love of God rooted in you, the love of God moving through you to other people. God's love, not the love you can produce, but God's love moving through your life. That is agapeo. That that is the love of God. So uh if if you want to know more about agape love, a good place to go, I'll just go there uh the quickly, is is is Romans. Romans chapter 8. This is a guy named Paul writes this Romans 8, verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Why is he saying this? Because at this point, Christians are being slaughtered for following Jesus within the Roman Empire. They're being crucified like Jesus, they're being crucified upside down, they're being beheaded, they're being burned alive. At best, if they're lucky, they're just being arrested and beaten and sent on their way. And what he's trying to say is even though this is the climate in which we're living, even though we're facing persecution for following Jesus, it doesn't separate us from the love of God. No beating, no crucifixion, no beheading, no incarceration, nothing will separate us from the love of God. This is good news for us today. If those people that believed in Jesus back then can cling to the love of God in the midst of all that suffering, then you and I today, even though we're gonna feel some pain and we're gonna feel some frustration, we can say, no anxiety, no depression, no loneliness, no isolation, no anger, can no enemies, no people hating on me, no people lying on me, can separate me from the love of God. Because what Satan wants to do is use hardship to get you and I to believe that God does not exist. But in the midst of hardship, we go, nothing, nothing you can say to me will separate me from knowing that I am the beloved of God. In verse 37, Paul says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. He says, We're still victorious. How can that be? When the Roman Empire is crucifying you and beheading you, beating you. And Paul's saying, we still win. For I'm convinced, this is why he can say, even though they're crucifying us, we still win. Because he's like, I'm convinced that neither death nor life, he's like if they kill us, it still won't stop us. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, things in the visible or invisible realm, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. That's agape love. So the big question of this sermon is what kind of love comes from God? Or as as the old folks I knew used to saying, what kind of love is this? I'm glad you want to know. One, it's a greater love. That's why we need it. Because God's love is greater than anything we can produce on our own. A greater love. 1 John chapter 3, beginning with verse 1, it says, See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure. There's a lot to say here, but I want to start with that last sentence. If you understand that you are being right now, you are being lavished by God's love. You are the object of God's love. It is possible that you can have a relationship with God where you can believe in the depths of who you are. You're being shaped, you're being molded, you're being healed, you're being corrected, you're being set right, you're being matured, you're being developed by the love of God. It says it's purifying. What that to get to the this real deep with that, some people are looking to fall in love to be completed and be made right. And what God wants you to know is before you go into a relationship with another human being, hoping that human being makes you whole, makes you right, sets you straight. It's better if you go into the relationship knowing that you're already whole, you're already beloved, you're already purposed. I have value. I don't need you to give me value because I'm already valuable. You don't know what you're getting. I'm expensive. I ain't cheap. You can't get me on clearance. Some of y'all, that might be a word. Stop posting yourself for 60% off. Y'all don't want to hear me. Y'all, y'all don't wanna hear me. You are not a clearance rack Christian. You're expensive. Somebody oughta have to save up to get you. Let me get back to the notes. It's a greater love. A greater love. It's a love that comes from a heavenly father. What is distinctive about the God that we believe in is the God we believe in is called father in the book that we read. He's not just a deity, he's a daddy. The God that we serve. And you don't even have to get too stuck on daddy or father, because yes, God is father, but God has characteristics and traits that would that would also you would experience God as a mother. And and we should be careful not to too rigidly try to take God and like reduce God to a man or reduce God to a woman because we are made in God's image. God is not made in ours. So God can be a parent. It's a great love. And the reason we need this great love is sin separates us from God. Which means sin makes us feel like God is either far away or non-existent. And what God's love through Christ does is it's a love that turns spiritual separation into spiritual sonship and daughtership. You are no longer the separated, you are not an orphan. You are you you you you are loved by God, a greater love. Point two a sacrificial love. What kind of love comes from God? What kind of love is this? A sacrificial love. 1 John 3, beginning with verse 16. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. It's a sacrificial love because Christ Jesus laid down his life for us. This is the part of the Bible, like most parts of the Bible, where you can't just bring a Western mindset into it to understand it. Because the Western mindset, the the the mindset that dominates the culture of the United States of America, we need stuff to make sense. And when things don't make sense, we go, what is that all about? Or we just write it off, or we don't see how transformative it is. And so to understand something that is more eastern in its writing, more southern globally, and not so western, uh, we we have to be okay with things that sit in tension together that seem like they shouldn't go together. Like God is one God, but God is a Trinity. How can that be at the same time? That there's one God, only one God, but yet this God is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That's important to hold together. We have to hold that tension together to understand how great a love this is. You have to believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God that came here, but also is God. And you got to hold that intention because if you understand that Jesus is the ultimate understanding of who God is, if you want to know the nature of God, the characteristics of God, the agenda of God, you have to look at Jesus. You you can't just stop at first and second Kings. You can't just stop at first and second Chronicles in the Old Testament, because then you'll just think it's a God of war, a God of violence, a God that's angry with me, and I gotta sacrifice something so that this God won't be mad at me. No, no, no, no. Jesus shows us that God is love. I'm gonna nerd out theologically just for a second. Just give me a moment here. So I I I've been outside of the Bible. I I've been uh you know influenced and informed by the theology and writings and sermons of Martin Luther King Jr., uh, the writings, the sermons, the theology of Dr. John Perkins, who is somebody I looked up to that passed away about a month or so ago. Uh uh I've been influenced by the theology of pastor and theologian Cheryl J. Sanders, who pastors in Washington, D.C., and she's also the head of the Howard Divinity School in Washington, D.C. And I'm also influenced by a friend of mine, the Reverend Dr. Greg Boyd, who's a pastor and theologian in Minnesota. And what is common with these folks that influence me is how heavy their theology is on the love of God. On the of under you can't truly understand God without understanding the love of God. And the problem is there are things that are done in the name of Jesus that are unloving and hateful and wicked and violent that have nothing to do with Jesus. They have nothing to do with God, but we they put Jesus' name on it, and I don't get to how that happened. But this is this is this is how you know how transformative and sacrificial God's love is. You gotta think, in the culture in which John is writing, Caesar, the head of the Roman Empire, would have thought he was a god. Way before him, Pharaoh in Egypt would have thought he was a god. King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon would have thought he was God. The king of Persia, the king of Assyria, the king of Greece, all of those leaders of empires would have believed they weren't just kings, they were gods. And what they would do to show that they were a god is they would kill you. They would persecute you to show their God power. And so, how would you know that Egypt was powerful? How would you know that Pharaoh is like God? He would enslave you because I'm God. He would take your country, kill all the women, kill all the children, take all of your resources because I'm like God. I can do that. I'm more than just a political leader, I I'm I'm God. And because of that, I can do these kind of things, and you will worship me. And so here's the real God. And how is the real God different than Pharaoh, different than Nebuchadnezzar, different from Darius, different from Artaxerxes, different from Caesar? Instead of shedding the blood of others, God comes down and sheds his own blood. Instead of showing power from a palace, God comes down from the kingdom of God and reduces himself to one of us and allows himself to be beaten, flogged, incarcerated, spit on, crucified for us. If you can't tell the difference between the false gods of the world and the false leaders of the world and the one true God, after you hear that, I don't know what else to tell you. God doesn't come and shed the blood of sinners. God sheds his own blood and dies for sinners. That's the love of God. That's what God does. Sacrifices his only begotten son. Presents God's own self as the ultimate sacrifice for us. He laid down his life. Caesar wasn't gonna do that. Caesar, Nebuchadnezzar, King Out of Xerxes, they're protecting their sons so their sons can one day have the throne. They're not gonna sacrifice their son. Because politicians don't love you like that. This is no offense to politicians, none at all. But I'm I'm I'm I'm waiting for the one that said, you know what I'll do? I'll sacrifice my own son to get the economy right. You would think that was crazy anyway. You would go, what? That what that that's that's wrong. What what can I just tell you this? I love y'all. But if I had to sacrifice one of my daughters so y'all could go to heaven, you wouldn't get in. Hell would be full. Because I love y'all, but I ain't God. I love y'all, but I ain't got that kind of love. But God does the most radical, revolutionary, transformative thing that can be done from a God, from a king, a sacrificial love. What kind of love comes from God? A greater love, a sacrificial love, and this sacrificial love, can I just say this before I get to point three? This is the kind of love on some level should flow through us. We don't have to go to a cross and have nails put in our hands, but we at least be a servant, be generous, be kind, sacrificial love. Our generosity should not be primarily about a tax deduction, and our servanthood shouldn't be for volunteer credits. It ought to be out of the sacrificial love that is living in us that provides for others in need. So, three, what kind of love comes from God? A communal, community-building love. That's what's being talked about here in 1 John chapter 4, where I started, verse 7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a phrase, I think he coined this, I'm not sure, but um beloved community. That's ultimately what he was fighting for. That there would be an experience of beloved community, that the love of God, the King in his own words, says that this radical love found in Jesus, this reconciling love, that would lead enemies to become friends. This love that is depicted in the Bible is about bringing social enemies into spiritual families. That's what church should be. Out there, there are systems and structures and ideologies that force us into be enemies, to not like each other. So now when families get together at Thanksgiving, there's certain things you can't talk about because your family members were turned into enemies. That's what the world does. The world turns family members into enemies. God turns enemies into family members. Martin Luther King Jr.'s agenda and his vision of the beloved community was not just about the people that were suffering under Jim Crow. He also believed in a love that would transform the people that were perpetrating Jim Crow. A communal love. Not just a me, me, me, God love me, God loves me. Yes, God loves you. But we don't truly experience God's love until we experience God loving us. Not just me, but we. As I come to my close, it's a love for the world. That's why John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes upon him would not perish but have everlasting life. But I also want you to know that even in the Old Testament, in Psalm 136, Psalm 136 is like a love song. You know, I've learned, sisters and brothers, over time, every slow song ain't a love song. I used to be fooled. I used to think when a slow song comes on, this one I'm gonna ask Donisha to dance, because it's a love song. And if you listen to the lyrics of some of these slow songs, oh weed ain't got nothing to do with love. It just slowed down ratchet. Just took ratchet and slowed it down. We was at the club and then I don't just make that up. But it just because a song is slow doesn't mean it's about love. And just because somebody uses Jesus' name doesn't mean it's about Jesus' true agenda. And in Psalm 136, I love it. I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but it's like it's it's got these lines, and after every line it says, His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, his love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, his love endures forever. To him who alone does great wonders, his love endures forever. Who by his understanding made the heavens, his love endures forever, who spread out the earth upon the waters, his love endures forever, who made the great lights, his love endures forever, the sun to govern the day. This is a song about God's love enduring no matter what. Speaking of slow songs, when Donesha and I were dating, and um I would mess up. And she would break up with me, and I was trying to win her back. And I didn't have the words. I don't know about you, brothers, but I don't know why. I got I got words to preach, I got words in a sports debate. You know, if you want to debate, you know, LeBron and Jordan, I can tell you what you're debating that for. You gotta go like Jordan Kobe before you can even get to LeBron. Like, I'm good at debating like that. You gotta say Kareem Abdul Jabbar before you even get to LeBron. But that's just me, that's just me. Like, I can talk like that, but I had a hard time, you know, years ago expressing love verbally to Danisha. So, what I would do is when I was calling her to try to get her back, if she would answer the phone, I would just put the phone to my boom box. Because I didn't know how to get her back, so I just put the phone here and now. I promise to love faithfully. Ya hola. You still there? I couldn't come up with the I felt it on the inside, but I I needed the boom box to sing it. And I just came by here to tell you that the church is supposed to be the boom box of God. Church is supposed to sing the songs of God. God could sing it himself if he wanted to. God can sing healing himself if he wanted to, but the church at its best is the boom box, it's the amplifier, it's the speaker box of in this world. It's the love below, it's it's it's the love of God down here in this broken world. It's the speaker box of God. And so, what God's people need to be is not out here judging people, not here trying to be Christian nationalists. We ought to be out here singing God's song of healing and deliverance and salvation and sanctification and in truth and in forgiveness and love and in patience and kindness and gentleness. We ought to be the speaker box of God. A love supreme, a love supreme, a love, you hear me, brother Fred. A love supreme, a love supreme. So the altar call today, is it okay, sisters? It's it's Father's Day. I want to I want to prioritize the brothers for a moment. Maybe there's some brothers here today and you need the love of God upon you, more deeply rooted in you, and moving through you so you can grow, continue to grow and develop to the daddy that God's called you to be. Because sometimes being a dad, you feel like you're trying to pass something on that wasn't given to you. I mean, I'm fortunate. I I I grew up in a house. I I felt the love of a grandfather, I felt the love of a dad, I felt the love of uncles. I'm I'm I'm fortunate. I'm fortunate. That ain't everybody's story. And even when it is your story, it doesn't mean that you're perfect at living that out when you become a husband, when you become a dad. When when when when you're just trying to figure out who you are as a man. And so I just opened the altar. Brothers, come. If today is your day to experience God's love anew, afresh. Maybe you're one of those brothers that you you you try to you try to carry it all in your own strength. You you've been trying to carry the whole burden on your back, on your shoulder, and you're trying to show how strong you are, and you're trying to show that I can, I can, I can figure this out, I can do this. And it's hard to admit because you don't want people to think you're weak. You don't want people to think you ain't grown. You don't want people to think you ain't a man, but sometimes you have to realize I can't produce in this hour what is needed. I can't produce what my wife needs, I can't produce what my kids need. I can't produce what's needed at work. And so I gotta bring it to God. I gotta I gotta bring it down here to the altar and say, God, I I recommit to being your beloved son in this broken world. I don't care how old you are, you might be 10 years old, 11 years old, 14 years old, 15 years old. You bring who you are to this altar right now. My God, my God, my God, my God. And these are the ones it's hard for me not to get emotional. Because I know, brothers, if this ain't you, it's it's okay, but I know for me, for too long I've carried aches and trauma and weight and burdens. I let the enemy convince me that I had to figure it all out, that I had to solve it, that I that I that I didn't need therapy, that I didn't need a counselor, that I didn't need a spiritual director, that I didn't need accountability, that I didn't need people to check me, that I didn't need people in my face, that I didn't need, and I realized I needed so much so I can be the man that God's created me to be. And God will meet you, brother, one step at a time. He'll meet you one step at a time. So, God, I lift up these brothers. We've experienced men walking in here angry and didn't even stay long enough for God to do something on the inside of who they are. But I'm so glad that these brothers right here stayed, and then they did something so courageous that it's not easy to do. To walk that aisle and come to this altar and put it all before you. I know we got another service, but I feel like we're not supposed to rush this moment. Matter of fact, I don't even feel like yet all the brothers that are supposed to be up here are up here yet. So I'm gonna, it's no pressure, but I'm gonna wait it out a little bit. I'm gonna I'm gonna wait it out a little bit because I think God is trying to do something. I think God's trying to do something. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Jesus. Jesus. Somebody's house is gonna experience revival. Satan is mad right now. Something new is about to happen to the parents. God is telling me to wait it out. God is telling me to wait just a little bit longer. I don't know if there's people coming from the overflow room right now. I don't know if there's people coming from the lobby right now. What what what what okay, yeah, yeah. I'ma wait it out. I'ma I'ma wait it out, I'ma wait it out. I'ma wait it out because there might be somebody coming from the lobby. Okay, brother, I see you, I see you, I see you, I see you, brother, I see you, young man, I see you, young man, I see you, young man. I see God is saying, wait it out. We ain't so programmed in Midtown that the spirit can't move here. They can wait, 1230 will be alright. I'm telling you, whatever the ache is, whatever the trauma is, God is a healer. God will show you and I how to live as the man we were always created to be. Curses are broken in Jesus' name. Satan's plans are thwarted in Jesus' name. Your real identity now will rise. You are not what you do, you are the beloved son of God. Your identity is not in your job, your identity is not in your bank account, your identity is not in what your fathers did or did not do. Your identity is not in your education level. Your identity is you are the beloved son of God, you are the beloved son of God, and the healing begins now. So, God, I thank you for this moment, and I pray right now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that we would rise because it is never too late to say yes to the love of God. Amen. God bless y'all.