03-30-24 The Persecuted Church - David Witt

Yeah, Randy brought an ample supply of books, and so you're welcome to dig in or, you know, if you want to use any of these books for ministry or to give out to somebody, you know, now's your chance, because they're there, as many as you want, for whatever you want to give. Particularly, this is an excellent book here, written by David Witt, called God's Grace Movement. It's about what the Lord has been doing over the last ten years or more in India, and then this one is called Fearless Love, also by David Witt, and about the work with the Muslims, and they're both very, very encouraging books, and these are a couple of mine here. This is the last one that I wrote on James and Jude, and of course the one that I wrote when I was kidnapped 40 years ago. But I first met David Witt, he was with Voice of the Martyrs, and he actually worked with Richard Wurmbrand, and he was working with Voice of the Martyrs, traveling around speaking in churches, and then traveling around the world and into places where Christians were being persecuted, and finding outstanding testimonies. And so he showed up in Columbia, and I was getting ready to fly out to eastern Columbia, and re-rising a Wycliffe missionary who'd been kidnapped by the guerrillas also, wanted to go with us. I found out afterwards that Wycliffe had told him that if he ever went back out there to Loma Linda, which is where he got kidnapped, and where we are running some major radio stations, that they would cancel his pension, because they didn't want to have him do anything risky, and they didn't want to have to deal with any more kidnappings. And so he got in the plane, and it was dry season, and the wind was really blowing strong. The dry season wind will be, you know, 35-40 miles an hour. And so when we got to out there, I had a choice. If I landed into the wind, which is what you're supposed to do, everybody would see the plane come in from town, and we'd have people flocking out to the airship, and they'd see Ray, and then it would get back to Wycliffe, and then we'd be in trouble. So I had two other people from Voice of the Martyrs in the plane with me and Ray, and then we'd sent David out by land with Alex. And then the plan was to switch the passengers, and then for me to keep going with David and with Ray, and leave the other two out there to come back with Alex. So I landed downwind in this 40-mile-an-hour downwind situation, which the plane, you know, you had to keep the airspeed above 70, so you add 70 to 40, and that meant we hit the ground at 110 miles an hour. On the run with it, it wasn't all that long. And so the minute we hit the ground, I decided I was going to put the tailwheel down so it gets some aerodynamic drag going. And the minute I put the tailwheel down, it's like the whole plane jumped over one plane width and almost went into the trees. So I'm standing on the brake, trying to figure out what happened. Well, put the tailwheel down on a root, and it blew the tailwheel. And so when the tailwheel came off the rim, it threw the plane sideways. Well, we got stopped, and so now we're trying to fix this tailwheel. And there was a little tire repair shop about a mile down the road, and somebody had been in there in a spray plane and blown the tailwheel. And the old inner tube from the spray plane was sitting there in the, it was one size too big, but after we put about, I think, 11 or 12 patches on it, we got it back on the plane, and it delayed us by about an hour. And so the next place, we were trying to see a Colombian intelligence captain to see if his colonel would let him go with me to a secret meeting with the guerrillas, because we were trying to negotiate the release of some American hostages. And so this captain was out in the middle of the war, and also, you know, taking him some books and Bibles for him and his men. And somebody had built a cell phone tower right in the approach of the airport, because if they built it any further out, the guerrillas would destroy it. So for the second time that day, I had to land downwind in that same wind. And so I gingerly, you know, put on the ground and then kept the tail in the air as long as I could, and gingerly set it down. And my friend comes out to meet us, and he says, boy, I'm sure glad you didn't land a few minutes earlier, because we just shot a sniper down at the end of the runway, who was sitting there with a brand new sniper rifle, who was going to shoot down whatever was the next airplane to land. And they said, you want to see the body? You want to see the rifle? I said, no, no, no, we don't need to see any of that. So we went up to their command post, and we're looking. And David is in short pants, and Ray was with me. And so we're busy evangelizing this colonel, who didn't like the idea of letting his intelligence captain go with me to meet with the guerrillas. And the guerrillas were attacking. And so they had two Cobra gunships sitting there, and we were in the middle of evangelizing the crews when they scrambled them, because the guerrillas had put some bombs, launched some gas cylinders under some tanks that they had, army tanks down at the end of the runway. And so there's a big shootout going on, and the guerrillas had managed to blow up a couple of tanks. And so they scrambled the helicopters. And there's this awful firefight going on right at the end of the runway we just landed on. And so I said, and then the weather starts looking like it's getting worse. And I said to David and Ray, we've got to get back and get out of here, because if we don't, if we get weathered in here, or if night catches us here, we'll lose the plane. These guys won't be able to defend the plane, even if we park it as close as we can to the military base. So we got on the plane, and overboosted the turbo to try and get the plane climbing as much as we can. They were shooting at us as we were leaving, but nothing hit us. And we got out and into Bogota from the back side. And it was clouded in. You're not supposed to fly instruments in single-engine planes. And so the controller was asking me what my visibility was, and I was answering him. We're stuck in the clouds going over major mountains. And I'm saying, well, my visibility, it's hard to say. It's kind of progressive, you know? And so we got to where we were going, and there's a big thunderstorm on one end of the field. And the nearest alternate is like 45 minutes away, and we have to go back through the clouds. But the lady in the tower knew me, and so she said, I'll authorize you to land under your responsibility, but you'll have to land with the wind. And so here we had a howling, quartering tailwind, just howling, blowing. And I landed gingerly one wheel, then the next one, then the third one. And then we stopped and turned off the runway, and the rain hit so hard that we couldn't see anything. We had to stay there parked for 15 or 20 minutes on the taxiway. We couldn't even see the taxi into the hangar. And so anyway, that was our first trip with David. Then, of course, I had to change the tailwheel when I got there, and so my uncle wrote me back, and he said, how come every time I see a picture of you in your airplane, the tailwheel's off? But then, a few years later, David started Spirit of Martyrdom, and Spirit of Martyrdom is a very unique organization in that it is people-oriented instead of project-oriented. And it's easy for big organizations to get so caught up in a project that they can ride roughshod over people, and David isn't that way. He has a heart for the people. And so he travels around the world looking for people that are being used by God under very difficult circumstances, with a lot of risk, and asks the Lord how to come alongside and be a service to those kind of leaders, whether they're in really difficult Muslim countries or Hindu countries or, like in our case, guerrilla terrorists. And so he's been a wonderful hope, encouragement, and so I want you to welcome David Witt. Well, they say foxholes make forever friends, right? So that was a good bonding moment between Russell and I, for sure. And, you know, Russell and I talked about it afterwards, and Russell mentioned it last night, because if your heart isn't in a place of contentment with Him, and if fear rules, we would have been disqualified to go in there, because there are a lot of risk factors going on, obviously flying right into the war zone. But because of that, we have a great story. God literally ripped off and, you know, took a tail-wing tire to delay us an hour and 15 minutes, so the perfect time to come after the sniper, so that the soldiers got all the Bibles that were in the plane, and then we got to be a witness to the generals there, or the leadership there, and then come back and tell the story that God's in control. And so today I hope to connect some of these parts for you, because I really appreciated last night's teaching by Roy, and that was just perfect foundation, I think, of understanding the problem, but then God has reversed that problem, but the blood of Christ now has brought us His essence, His Spirit, so that we are a new people. And now we're saved, the captive's free, so I really pray, and I want to just pray, ask the Lord to bless the message from His heart to my heart and mouth, and to your heart, and into life transformation, because that's why God brought us together. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank You for Your divine appointment, Lord, that You, out of Your love, out of Your purpose, has brought us together, and that, Lord, You want to speak Your heart, and give Your perspective for the global church, for Your congregation, Your people around the world, that You're passionate about. So just help us now to understand what You're saying, to receive it, and to grow from it, and that there will be a great harvest from this time, God, ever forth, in Jesus' name, Amen. You know, I was thinking about, we're here because of a divine romance, of God's absolute love. Literally, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for God's love, because I'm here because of a wedding between the youngest son of Russell Dillon, married Ruthie, the Minoys, alright, and that's what got me up here. And the marriage ceremony is the picture of God's love for His church, and we are going to be married in heaven, by the way, but we're married to the groom, Jesus. And so there's this banqueting marriage about to happen, and we just had an amazing time, and because of that, Randy and Jackie got inspired to take advantage of this time and have this conference. I mean, that was rare. I knew your faith is rock solid, and powerful, and contagious. Who plans marriage with conference, you know, on Easter week? Yeah, kingdom people. So, and then why are you here? Because the love of Jesus, to meet people that you haven't met before. You know, this is a newer network for me, and I love networks. I'm involved in a lot of networks around the world that God's working, because as Russell mentioned, I get to travel the world. I've been to 56 nations in my lifetime, and I could, in any day, you know, during the year, I could go to probably 40 plus nations and have very legitimate, credible work of some great people I know. Because I love working with leaders, and leaders who are boots on the ground, who God has cleansed their heart, and they're not asking the question, is it safe? Because that's not a kingdom question. Because you see, when you're in the kingdom, the safety is in the will and obedience of Christ, and all the consequences of following Christ are to give him glory. And the ultimate is our life given, so it's win glory for God, and we get to be in heaven, and everybody else can follow in the example. And so that's the kind of leaders I work with who truly have a spirit of martyrdom, and that really is our name of our ministry that we encompass, because of really the story that God did in my own life. And so God just, and really in that story, I was captivated by Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who I did get to know personally, and the persecuted church, and they became my teachers. And you know how it is, whoever teaches you, whoever invests in you, whatever you sow, you reap, and the persecuted church then is who I began to serve, because they were my example, and they were my teachers. The little deal is I know that. I spent 14 years in youth ministry before going into serving the persecuted church for the last 26 years now. So a life of faith truly is a life of adventure. And so as I was praying this morning and today and preparing for this, the Lord just put upon my heart that the text I really want to give a global report in, in God's heart, and I think in the days that we're in, is if you want to look to Luke 24, 45 to 49, that we're going to work our way through of seeing God's heart and really what I believe He's doing. And again, this is a great place to start from where we left off last night, because pride is the essence of self-righteousness, and all of us in here, I think in one degree or another that I've gathered, are products that we've been saved from religious systems of self-righteousness into the glorious abundance of His love and kingdom. And I came, and I immediately felt love for many of you. It's the first time I've been to some of the, again, I have never met heterites who, in that community, and now love Jesus. And we haven't been going around talking about what doctrine or necessarily or what, you know, denomination. We've been going around, we've just been talking about Jesus. Sabina Wurmbrandt, one time we were at her house, and the conversation was kind of going askew towards the problems, you know, and the divisions and the politics and everything. And she just had the depth of love of few people I've ever met walking with Christ. And she said with a gentle smile that was received so well, she said, you know, shouldn't we just talk about Jesus? Isn't He just so much more pleasant? And the rebuke immediately went to our heart, and immediately we corrected our conversation, and we went right back to Jesus. And that's the way she was. Sabina was the kind of person, she would tell such a great story and had such love in her heart that you would get rebuked and feel good about it. I mean, that's the kind of love she had. And so let's look at then, right at the beginning there. And the context, I know this is being recorded, I'm such a mover, I'm like, just try to stay behind this mic here. That's difficult for me. I like to move. So the context here in the Scripture, remember, is the resurrection of Jesus. It's perfect on this week that we think about this. Yet the road to Emmaus, and remember Jesus lays out that He is the fulfillment of what? The Scriptures. For He lays out, He tells them, starting with the Law and the Prophets, all the Scriptures. Not some, all the Scriptures. Talking about Him, and He's the fulfillment of it. Think about that, guys. The Old Testament here, that's Jesus. And that's profound for us who grew up in Christian homes and very religious systems. Because it was Jesus plus. Not said directly, but we caught that. And we have the Old Testament as one system, and then the New Testament's kind of another system. And we kind of never work it out. It's all pretty moral system, and you just better be as good as you can, work as hard as you can. And with great hope, Jesus made a way. So in the combination, we had pretty good hope, right? But that's not what Jesus comes through. He comes and sets us free. And this is Luke's account of the synoptics of the Great Commission. And if you look at Matthew, Matthew's focus is go and make disciples of all nations, which we love. And Mark reiterates that, go and preach the gospel to all creation. But Luke, there's something interesting. He switches the focus from our responsibility and our response to Jesus' prophetic utterance and how it's going to happen. So these are the words, the plans of God himself through Christ. So pay attention. And it starts with, then Jesus opened their minds so that they might have the understanding of the scriptures. That's my story, and I've heard it's your story too. You see, I'm a recovering Pharisee because I'm a PPK. Or I sometimes say a PPPK, a poor Presbyterian pastor's kid. Father frozen chosen. And I think I'm proof that God could save anyone. And so I grew up in, you know, good reformed tradition and a father who truly was born again in the spirit and ultimately even touched by the Holy Spirit and led. And at five years old, I accepted the Lord. At 12 years old, I started a quiet time. At 13 years old, I had my call to ministry in the youth ministry, which I ended up spending 14 years in. Later, I was passionate about the Lord. I've never been drunk, never done drugs, never hung out with wild girls. I didn't have to rebel. I was zealous for the Lord, involved in evangelism and taught in many discipleship ways. I became a youth pastor and had one-fourth of the high school coming to my youth ministry and people responding to the gospel. And in the middle of that, 25 years old, the Lord came and said, you want to learn to do it my way? Because I was full of religion and I had and I was happy as a Pharisee, but I didn't have peace. I knew there was something missing. And I began to go into this this valley of seeking God, say, because all these kids were responding to the evangelical gospel saying that sinners prayer. But their lives weren't being transformed. And I knew there was more because I had a deep love for God and I just couldn't quite figure it out what was going on. And so God began to strip me for seven years. I was a harder case. God had to take a full seven year sanctification in my case. And during those times, I mean, there were times I was weeping and broken because I just said, God, whatever you want, have your way. And he began to show me the depravity of my own heart. And he began to show me exactly what Roy was talking about last night. That I was eating from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, evil. Eating the fruit of good, judging those eating the fruit of evil, thinking I was better than them. And God said, it's the same tree of rebellion. And I showed my pride and I was very opinionated, very doctrinal, very, you know, my way. And I was the judge of all things. And literally seven years. I don't have time to go into the details. But it was during that time that that was my moment. And Jesus began to open my mind to the scriptures. And through that time, seeing my own, I was a newlywed. And I began to that time to see how a horrible husband I was. Irritated and angry at times. And my wife just didn't see the brilliance of my direction and leadership in the home. And my children who are young toddlers, they didn't see my brilliance either of ruling my kingdom. And all this anger was coming up and frustration and discouragement and difficulty. At the same time, trying to run a ministry. And I just thought, whoa, it's me. And I said, God, let me out. And I began to see I was a slave to evangelical, spirit-filled Christianity. I know that sounds the weirdest thing in the world. But see, my pride, again, well, last night, my pride was still sticking along with my Christianity. And so I wasn't a broken person. I was a past athlete, disciplined. And so through that time, I began to see the depravity of my own soul. And I just cried out to God. I didn't know if there was any escape. This is why I literally thought I was going to hell. It's a long story. Because I began to read the scripture for the first time. I couldn't keep it. And then one day, later in the scripture, that's my life verse that Roy mentioned last night. I was dealing with all that pain in my life and all the missing the mark and just not seeing the love. Although I spoke love as a pastor, I saw that I had no love. I mean, it wasn't anything that I saw. The essence of the maturity and the fullness of Christ was not in me. So, bottom line, I came across it one day. I'd read it many times before, of course, but never with the eyes of the Holy Spirit. My eyes were open and Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified Christ. And the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit at that time and said, what tense? I said, past tense. I no longer live. Past tense. But Christ lives through me present tense. I said, God, I don't feel that. I see my sin and my depravity right before me all the time. And the Holy Spirit came sternly and said, who are you going to believe? Your opinions and your emotions are my word. For when two masters rule, one will rule over the other. You must choose. And that day I said, OK, God, if that's your word, that's what I'm going with. And that day the old man died and the religion died. Yeah, and I got set free of that drug. Hallelujah. Yeah, that's worth an applause to Jesus. And so, and this is what I see that God's doing around the world in greater ways than ever before. This Holy Spirit is coming and giving us illumination. Of course, in the scripture we see that it's the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises. That's per second that is giving us these deeper understanding of revelation, working in maturity as his congregation today. And the glory is in the world today, God's global church, that's what God is doing. He's opening up hearts and minds like never in history. In northwest Africa, our director there is Seydou, comes from a tradition of, on his father's side, Quranic teachers. So he was in line to be a Quranic teacher. And on his mother's side, his grandfather was the chief of the Fulani, and responsible for Islam for much of that area. The Fulani tribe are in 28 nations of Africa, the biggest tribe in Africa, and the ones responsible right now for the slaughter of all the Christians in Nigeria. So in 1997 was the pinnacle of it. Because his dad had taught him to seek knowledge, he had read at that point the Bible through nine times. And he said he loved the Bible because it was such great knowledge. He had never gotten that kind of knowledge. And then with his friends, he would spurt up all these things from the Bible. He wouldn't tell them it was from the Bible. They'd go, Seydou, you are so wise. And he just felt good about that. It was just filling his heart up. He was a wise man. And so he really, and the missionaries he had met, he was so touched by their lives and love and the conduct of their character that he was concerned about them going to hell. So finally, after his ninth reading of his relationship, and this was in five years, he ultimately reads the Bible ten times in five years, twice a year. And he goes to this missionary, and he invites the missionary. He says, you are such lovely people. He says, you need to become a Muslim so you don't go to hell. And he said, why don't you become a Muslim? And the missionary at that point goes, well, Seydou, he says, I can't become a Muslim because Islam is not true. There's many mistakes in the Qur'an. And Seydou says, at that point, his first time, he had gotten very angry. He says, if you're a white person, he says, you turn red. But he says, we black people, we turn blue. And he says, I turned very blue that day. He says, I was very upset. And he said, he went away from that house determined to show that missionary's wrong and all the mistakes in the Bible. And so this time, he went through the Bible his tenth time, and he was going to prove the Bible wrong. But this time now, he said, but when you go through the Bible, he had to go by the standard he knew, and it was the Qur'an in his head because he knew the Qur'an inside out in his head. As he went through the Bible, he said, he began to get scared because he couldn't find the mistakes in the Bible, and he began to recognize the mistakes in the Qur'an. And one of the major things he struggled with was he realized that in the Bible and the Qur'an actually goes along with this, is that Satan is kicked out from God's presence. And Satan did one mistake, and he was kicked out. And then he read Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve were in the perfect paradise of God. And for one mistake, they were kicked out. And he realized that he had made many mistakes in his lifetime, many sins. What's the chance of him getting into paradise with his many mistakes when Adam and Eve and Satan were kicked out for one? And he began to be convicted of his sin, and he knew he was in trouble. So in great angst and difficulty because of his identity in Christ and never in the history of that area in Islam or in his Qur'an had anybody ever left Islam and become a Christian. So it was a huge battle. But he knew he had to come to a conclusion. His heart wanted truth, and so he went into a fast and prayer. And during that time, he had a dream, and he dreamed, and the Lord Jesus Christ came to him and said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Sedu, come and follow me. And that was the transformation of his life as he prayed, Lord, show me who you are. Are you the God of the Bible? Are you the God of the Qur'an? And that was 1997. And so you see, God is opening up the eyes of the scriptures around the world. Russell and I were just in January in the Piroa tribe. It's a tribe about 100,000 down in Venezuela. And on the border region is one of the most dangerous regions of the world today and nefarious activities going on and illegal trade between Venezuela and Colombia and cartels and on and on. It just goes on and on. And so to even work in that environment, obviously you need to be led by the Holy Spirit. And you need to have a clear calling. And the payoff better be good, right? You sacrifice and risk to the degree of the payoff. You see what I'm saying? Just us going down there to, you know, pat on the back of a bunch of Christians, just making them feel good, I'm not sure if it's worth the risk. But you see what's happening in the Piroa. It was a divine appointment just three years ago. A guy, a missionary, had finished the translation of the Piroa language, New Testament, some Old Testament. He had been kicked out of Venezuela in 2008 and he had completed that translation for the rest of the time by being pre-Auroras to Mexico. And all those years invested. They got to finally the completion of it. And their mission organization told them that they couldn't print it because they had to reverse engineer it, which they had already done. And he was even part of that committee all the way. And usually they would have to even go back to them to do it. And on top of it, they would have to commission print it themselves. They would copyright it and they would sell it. And so, you know, some of these Piroa Indians who have been part of the translation team begin to weep. Finally, after 27 years, God's Word in our own language. Well, lo and behold, one of the guys who helped at the end is a guy named Rick Ariannis, who is on staff with us, but 20 years before at his church, local church in California, they started supporting this missionary. And this missionary knew Rick's skill as an IBM retired guy and helped him format everything. And so he joined them in the last two months of formatting, got everything ready. Literally, we were ready to print the Bible when they were given that word. And Rick never gets mad. And he was mad because he was there at the phone call. So he immediately emails me and says, Hey David, can we, can SOM help collect the funds and print this Bible in Venezuela? I thought, well, Russell's already there. We already are trying to get three million Bibles into Venezuela, which is our goal and vision right now. So I said, well, why not? It makes all the sense in the world to me. And the word got back to them. They began to rejoice. And then I connected Tim Walker, who's the missionary, to Russell. And today Tim will even talk about that. That's one of the greatest gifts of his life is connecting with Russell, because it opened up, in a sense, the heavenly blessings in the Piroa tribe. And so we, just two years ago, we were able to distribute Bibles to their tribe, ultimately being 35,000, so one for every family. And it started and continues to nurture a revival there. So we were there in January for their first conference. And here they are, 1,500 leaders. And they start at 7 in the morning with their Bibles and their notepads. And they hardly went to break. One break they announced for 15 minutes. They were back in five minutes. I've rarely seen that kind of zeal and hunger for the Lord, except in a few different places around the world, like even in India, that I see that God is working a deep revival. You see, God is opening their eyes to the Scriptures. I'd tell you more before, because although they'd had a few believers there and been growing in the faith for 40 years or so, but it hadn't stuck until the word of God had come. And so it's the passion of Spirit of Martyrdom International is that everything we do is connected to the word of God. We do practical help. We do, you know, clean water, clean message, water plants. We do agriculture at times in North Africa, in Asia, in the Americas. But everything we do is through the word of God. And there's three ways we want to connect the word of God. It's the printed word of God right here, the Jubilee Bibles, what we're getting at because it's such a clean, great version. In Spanish and English we have it, but then in other versions of other languages, whatever's translated. And then second of all is the audio word of God, MP3 players on the radio, the Internet. And then thirdly, and I think in some ways the most important too, is the incarnational word of God. It's you. It's us preaching the word. How can they hear unless someone preaches? How can someone preach unless someone's sent? And so we're empowering these tribal people in remote areas around the world with the word of God so that they can preach and build up the word of God. And so God is beginning to open their minds and their hearts. And so then Jesus goes on to say, and Jesus said to them, thus it is written, so the next verse there, thus it is written that the Christ, the Messiah, right, must suffer and on the third day rise for the dead. And this, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations starting in Jerusalem. Wow, that's rich right there. And, you know, one of the things that we have to remember as the church is apostate and we're in those days of apostasy of many believers who even have been pillars of leaders and leaders of movements and denominations and on and on, is that where the cross is taken out and where there's no cross is no gospel at all. And a crossless gospel is a powerless gospel. But why I love the persecuted church is because where there is a cross and a crucifixion, there's always a resurrected power. It's our story. We've been crucified in Christ. We no longer live, but Christ lives through us. And, you know, Russell being captured in the five months, and I hope most of you have read that book, Rescue the Captors, that that was obviously his crucifixion. And Russell told me, you know, he's ultimately a natural introvert and he would hardly speak a word before being taken into the jungle. But after that crucifixion experience and dying to himself, God gave him a message and I'm a witness of it. He hasn't stopped talking yet because he has the message of Christ now and he's on fire. And that's the resurrected power. That was really the beginning of his ministry of effectual transformation in these very difficult and dangerous lands. And Richard Wormbrat testified to that. He talked about that he wouldn't exchange his 14 years in prison for anything. In fact, he said that when he got out after 14 years in prison, he said, Lord, thank you for 14 beautiful years in prison with you. He said he wouldn't exchange it for anything. He said because they're the most beautiful faces that he's ever seen, the faces of Christ in prison. I think of Abdu in Mauritania, Mauritania where we work. That's the church that is highly persecuted, extremely small in numbers, a few hundred true believers. And Abdu last year was smuggling Bibles into the border and captured with Bibles. And in Mauritania, by the law, it's apostate laws. There's 13 nations around the world that have it on their books that if you leave Islam, you're going to be put to death. And in Mauritania, if you're sharing the gospel, it's a minimum of 10 years in prison or put to death. And Abdu was then put in prison. And in the lies of within 48 hours you're supposed to see a judge, but the judge wouldn't see him. We found out because the judge later we found out the judge wouldn't see him because the judge knew that the day and the moment he saw him, he had to put him to death. And that was a problem because he knew this was going to cause an international incident. It would. It would be the Christian West and human rights abuses against the Islamic East, and it would be a major international incident. So that judge didn't want this to explode. But the judge had a problem. And the problem was that his arrest papers, Abdu had the worst on the arrest of papers because apostasy technically by the law in the Quran and in Mauritania because the Sharia law there is that the Muslim, apostate Muslim, is given three days to repent and come back to Islam. And then after that, if they don't repent, they're put to death. But he, in his arrest papers, it was unrepentant apostate. And so that meant he had to be killed immediately on that day. And the only reason we knew this is because Sadu and I went to the border. We met with his daughter, got all the details, went home. Sadu and I were praying, interceding about it. I got back to the United States. Sadu calls me the next day and says, David, the Lord kept me up all night. And he just reminded me the way we treat the Lisa brothers, the way we treat Christ, and that when we visit those in prison, it's Christ. And he says, I need to go into Mauritania. Now this is a Muslim background believer in Senegal. And I said, oh, Sadu. I said, that's really painful to me because you're an asset and a value like I can't even describe of what he's leading in Senegal. But I said, Sadu, the problem is, as we're telling you right now, out of everybody I know in Africa, you're the guy that could probably do it. And so we had literally tens of thousands of people praying in our networks around the world. It's a long story. I can't even go into the details. But bottom line, Sadu marches in in authority and confidence and power right into Mauritania, goes to the prison after visitation hours. The head guard is there. They start talking. He's from Fulani, too. They speak Fulani together. His namesake, the guard's father is Sadu, same name. And Sadu's father is Abdu, same name. And immediately Sadu realizes this is a clean-hearted guy. And the guy talks about how Abdu is such a righteous man, didn't deserve to be in prison. So he said, you can come on in. So they bring him into the guard station. At that point, Sadu actually took a picture, a selfie together with Abdu, his daughter, and sent it to me. And I was like in shock. I've been in a lot of prisons in my lifetime, and they never let you bring your cell phone in, let alone take a picture. And I realized, whoa, God is moving here. And the guard saw the love between Sadu and Abdu. Abdu thought there was no way he could ever get out. And even the guard goes, yeah, you know, there's only one law in Martinian. It's the law of money. And Abdu says, yeah, Sadu, I don't think it's going to be possible. It's going to be too much money, and we don't have that much money. And Sadu, full of the Holy Spirit, not a guy full of riches, but full of faith, he goes, looks straight at Abdu. He goes, Abdu, I don't care how much it costs. The Lord Jesus is getting you out of prison. And the guard was so inspired by this. Oh, and then they went on to talk about how many people were praying, and he told Abdu, he said tens of thousands were praying. And he talked about India. I mean, our Indian network is about 2 million. And he said there are tens of thousands of people praying. And he goes, really? And Abdu was just so touched by that. To make a long story short, the guard then, at that point, is inspired, said the only way it's going to work is if you meet the judge, the two judges involved, and the lawyer. And he said, I know them all, and you don't speak their language. You need me. Here's my cell number. I'll take you tomorrow morning. And the next morning, that guard, his own time, took Sadu to all the people involved. And ten days later, Abdu walked out of prison. And today, there is no record in Martini of him ever being arrested because God is sponge to the whole thing. Hallelujah. Yeah. That's God. And that's Jesus going ahead of us and opening their eyes and mind and convicting them in the scripture for repentance. Change of heart, change of mind. And we see the Martins. We just had a team come back from that area of the world. And Martini is coming on fire for the first time. And God's separating now the chaff and the wheat. I don't have time to go into it. There's a movement of Christ, of Muslims coming to Christ and maturing in Christ, first time in history. Never happened. And we're getting to live in those days. I think of Brother Raju, again, we think of, you know, in India, again, that courageous spirit of the word of God and of Christ. And Raju, last year, was arrested for preaching Christ in India. And India is getting extreme in persecution. Probably the next five to ten years, India will no longer be a democracy and be a Hindu nation alone with even more extreme discrimination and persecution against Christians. So we need to stand with our family there. Anyway, Raju, just a crazy radical testimony. He hated Christians, persecuted Christians. And then he got saved. His family got saved. His actual brother was martyred. And then he ended up directly forgiving even those who murdered his brother. And there's just so many details of the story that I just don't have time. But I just want to focus on this part of the story. So he's preaching the gospel. And the police arrest him for preaching the gospel. And they say put him in prison. And they want the inmates to, you know, mess him up and, you know, make his life hard. And so they put him in prison. But Raju was just full of Jesus. And so he's excited. These guys have never heard about Jesus. And sure enough, they got in there and said, why are you in? Oh, for preaching Jesus. And he began to share the gospel with the inmates. And everybody was so hungry to hear it that he began to disciple them. Well, that made the police mad. Said, why are you preaching Jesus? They said, what do you mean? Of all people, why are you asking? You arrested me for preaching Jesus. And these people are asking me why I'm in prison. So I'm telling them. So they continued to move him around during the time. So he got moved around from cell to cell. And in 17 days that he was in prison, he led 15 Indians to Christ. And finally, after 17 days, they kicked him out because they said he had brought a bad spirit to the prison. And after he left, they brought a Hindu priest to sweep out the spirits. But now he left 15 believers in there. And when I interviewed him, two of them had been released, and they're coming to the house church he's at and being discipled by him. Isn't that amazing? So that's the courageous spirit of Christ. But Christ goes on. And look at the heart of what Christ says the message is that's going to go to all the nations. That I think is profound to me. It's, catch those words, repentance for the remission or the forgiveness of sins in his name, Christ's name, to all the nations. That's a lot packed right there. So when you think about repentance, how do you define that? Think about that. You can just do it in your mind. How's repentance? And, you know, a lot of times, again, the more popular day is more the Hebrew, which is to turn around. But the Greek here literally means to change one's mind. So the message that Christ gave is to change one's mind for the forgiveness of sins. So what are we changing our mind about? This should impact us greatly. Because if we follow that, what happens there and going right back to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we to become for the perhaps forgiveness, we have to change our mind about our righteousness. And change our mind about Jesus righteousness. And we exchange lives. Because it's his power. Again, Russell said it well, how grace is the power to ultimately accomplish what we can't do in our own flesh. And that's what Christ does for us. That he gives us his new nature and his new life. And so that's so God is changing the mind of us. He's changing the mind around the world. Back in India, who was RSS, a train hated Christians. And that's a radical militant wing of Hinduism growing in the nationalism and religious fervor in India. And so he was part of the protection of the Hindu religion in India. And they would go around and beat Christians and even kill them. And he shared his testimony with me. And this one day this evangelist pastor leader came to this village, this Hindu, 100% Hindu village. Started preaching to Christ. They heard about it. He and two other buddies came. And they literally took a machete and literally cut this guy to pieces. Killed him. And he said he had no guilt. And felt actually good about it, self-righteous, that he was serving Hinduism. But he said what happened in the next few days, he couldn't get sleep. And he was beginning to dream about it. And he began to think, oh my God. He thought, I've done something wrong. I must have disturbed the gods. And he began to suffer in his soul and be convicted. And this one Christian, who he knew worked at this tea shop. He knew he was a Christian. That guy knew he was RSS. He came by. And the Christian greeted him friendly, which caught him off guard because they're our enemies. And he had abused him. And the Christian began to say, I can see something is disturbing you. What's wrong? And he said the Christian treated him with such goodness and gentleness and love. He said it disarmed him. And he began to just tell the story about how last week he had come and he murdered this Christian. And he thinks now he's done something wrong. And he confessed the whole thing. And the Christian said, there is a way you can cleanse your heart and mind. It's through the blood of Jesus. And he began to share that way. And the guy just began to weep. And right there in one week after killing a Christian, he repented. He changed his mind about his own righteousness and about the righteousness of Christ. And India is the least reached nation in the world with over 1,600 tribes and languages there. And God is bringing a force to India like never before. And gaining in this revival we see happening around the world. And where is it happening? You know, again, we all see it through a keyhole, right? I don't see everything. But I'll tell you my perspective. God is working among the tribal ethnic people. Remember, that word there in Greek is ethnos, every tribe. God's passion is every tribe, every language shall be at the throne to bring him glory. And that's what he's bringing. He's bringing proclamation. We all feel the urgency. We're at that latter times, that end times. But God has an absolute passion to bring forth the fruit of righteousness from every nation. And so what we see, what Russell and I talked about and all the other directors, everywhere that God's working is in the tribal people, the remote people, the more uneducated people, the more impoverished areas. And I was just talking to a brother, I think Roy, you and I were talking about, right? It's interesting how we talk about in the beginning days, the revival and much of the gospel was around cities, right? Jerusalem and Rome and Athens and all these major cities around the world. But now in this latter day, God is fulfilling his heart. And remember, God has a tender heart. And God has a, he gives favor, right? Grace is favor, but he gives grace and favor in certain ways and in certain days. And who's this grace favor from? Remember? The orphans, the widows, the oppressed, the poor and the persecuted. And when you consider the persecuted many times will qualify on all five of it that I just mentioned, that gets God's attention. And one of the reasons I'm so passionate about the persecuted and unreached areas of the world, because they have never heard the gospel once. And the few that God has now raised up in these latter days to be the mighty force of God's message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, they're willing to pay the price, but they lack the tools. And yes, I am not against sharing the gospel here in the United States. We need to share wherever we are, because wherever we are is our message. But we've got to have a heart for the tender things of God. And when we are in unity of the suffering church, the crucified church, we then share in their power. We share in their faith and their love and their hope. And that's why I think this is the day that God is forming in our heart a unity and a love, because he's coming back to that unified, empowered, blameless, spotless, mature bride of sons of God and daughters of God in fullness of authority and reflecting his image and likeness, that Jesus has returned that glory, because that's what he presents to the Father. Amen? And so then one of the things that we point out is 40%, just get in your mind, 40% of the world is unreached. But that is rapidly being targeted right now. I don't have time to go into details of all that's going on, but there's some organizations now thinking even by 2030 or 2035, we will have down to around 1,000 languages. The question is, do those 1,000 languages left still need it, because there's major languages. But it's coming down home stretch of getting the word and communication to these areas. But just having it in print, as Russell could talk about, as we talked about, this is not the truth, ultimately. This is the truth about the truth. And so it becomes then the duty and the work of his church to walk in the operation of the Holy Spirit to bring forth the illumination of the demonstration that it's Jesus that opens the eyes of Scripture. But Scripture is what prepares the soil for revival, and Scripture is what sustains revival and maturity. So that's why, again, Scripture is key to the maturity and the walk and the call of Christ in these latter days. So 3%, less, way less than 3% of all resources are by Christ. Money put into buildings, in the offering, human resources of full-time, part-time workers go to the 40% most persecuted and least reached around the world. And so one of our passions is, let's change that portfolio. Because the return on investment is massive. And, you know, remember, Jesus came out of all people as Jews. And Richard Wernbrenner told me, and he said this way, he says, and I can tell you that, because I'm a Jew. And he said, one thing I'll tell you about us Jews is we're very frugal with our resources. So you need to remember that you are in the pocket of a Jewish God, and He will spend you well. And I think that's profound. That God will spend us well, and that God wants us to live rightly, to live soberly, to live with vision. And so our passion right now is some of the things that God's allowing us to do to bring forth this message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin to, in His name, to all the nations. As Mexico, the vision is we're working towards is radio connection. And Russell's really helped with our director down there for a thousand miles of unreached tribal people in those mountains who have hid away for years because of the conquistadors and the oppression of Spain coming in, the forced slavery and the forced Catholicism, and they're locked into spiritual occultism up there in the mountains, and they live in fear and oppression and disease, and it's on and on. But as the gospel's going into these tribes, they're literally being set free. One of the tribes I talked to, I said, it's a question I ask a lot of times in interviews. I've interviewed hundreds of believers through my lifetime in these restricted, persecuted areas, and these are cartel-controlled areas, very difficult in Mexico. Anyway, I asked this one tribe, I said, what's the main thing that changed? And this tribe had been controlled by shaman, witchcraft, and I've had many different answers. This first time I got this, he said, oh, I said, what changed the most when you all received Jesus? And they said, oh, well, we got healthy. I said, what do you mean? He says, we were all diseased and dying off, but when the gospel came in, all of a sudden the demons were cast out, and we got our health back. And the first thing that usually happens when an Indian comes to Jesus is they get healthier. Now that's practical health. And there's a lot of people that argue, right, why do they need to bring the gospel, you know, bring a medicine of food? Well, you know what? They need them both. And certainly God wants to meet the physical soul, but if we don't meet the spiritual soul, we've doomed it to hell. And with help, we always have to proclaim. And in Columbia, you know, Russell's done this amazing work with this radio array throughout Columbia and these remote areas in proclaiming the gospel. And by God's grace right now, we're trying to beef up some of those radio stations because the drug production is the highest it's ever been now in the history of Columbia. And while the gospel has touched so many lives and their work, and we can go on and on about life's change, there's still a raging battle, and many stuck in the drug trade and violence and the cycle of it. And in Venezuela, as Russell was sharing, most of the Venezuelans who identify as Christians don't have a Bible. And our Bible smuggler down there has found there's been congregations that literally even the pastor didn't have a Bible, or very few of the congregations. And the Lord's beginning to change that. And so we started out with one million Bibles. More Venezuelans said, no, no, again, it's not just one million. You've got to put it in the heart. Two million. It went two million. And then we just put three million. And now they're just going. The gospel's grown so much. The last survey was 15 million or 17 million? Fifteen million. The last survey the government did in two years, they did a survey two years before. It was nine million. And they just redid the survey a few months ago. It's now 15 million Venezuelans are identifying as Christians. Wow. And guess what? Where do they get a Bible? Hallelujah. Amen. Where do they get a Bible? Well, it's Jesus and his people. They're willing to risk smuggling in. We just even had two of our smugglers arrested just a couple months ago. And they got out. But the government's now trying to hold 6,000 Bibles. And God has some of the agents. And Russell's working on that. I mean, it's a constant battle for truth and righteousness. But God's winning the battle. And lives are being changed. Back in India, their vision now is for one million congregations. They've grown since 2011. They've planted about 80,000 congregations. But the need is so great that they're just praying for God-sized work. And, you know, Pastor Wurmberg has a great quote. I love this quote. He says, if something's believable, man did it. When it's unbelievable, God did it. So we like to pray unbelievable prayers. And they've trained now that year, we've been able to train 13,000 workers. And there's a revival going on there across hundreds of ethnic groups now, unreached ethnic groups. And so God's beginning to transform the landscape. And in Bangladesh, our work there, our director is just really passionate about getting God's word out and distribute it. And the largest Muslim gathering in the world is in Bangladesh every year, about 4 to 6 million. And they always put teams there in the midst of 4 to 6 million Muslims who are fundamentally devout, and they're just handing out God's word. Isn't that beautiful? That's the spirit of martyrdom. That's the spirit of faith. That's a transformed life. Because, right, where does Christ go now in 48? We are his witnesses. That word is martus. He says we are his witnesses of these things. And so Christ is now getting the great commission, but in a very unique way here. He is commissioning with identity, with purpose. The word martus in Greek is where we get our modern word, martyr. You hear the ring, right? Most often translated as witness. And so God has given us the spirit of martus, of witness, of martyrs. We are his martyrs. That's why every believer in Jesus Christ is a leader. Kids, girls, as young as you are right now, you are leaders. Don't let anybody tell you different. Young men, you are leaders. Older men, you are leaders. Older women, you are leaders. Because Christ is in you, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ cannot be not a leader and a leader at the same time. Have you been crucified with Christ and he lives now or not? Make that decision, because if he is the Lord of your life, he is making you a leader. And he calls us to be salt and light in this world. And he calls us to be faithful unto death. Therefore, have a martus, credible witness unto death. So that when people see our lives, they walk away, they say, surely there must be a God. Because that is supernatural. Amen? So Kamala in India lost her husband last year. We've had four house church pledgers martyred in our network. Which is humbling to me, because I've shaken the hand of all of them. And we commission them every time and we take a martyr's vow. In fact, we've now commissioned 13,000, like I said. And we commissioned with Revelation 2 verse, oh man, Revelation 2, 10 is it? But it's these words, you can find it, it's in chapter 2. I like to quote Hebrews here. Somewhere in the scriptures it says, okay? So anyway, it's in Revelation 2. Anyway, and we have to do this. We have to raise their hand to the right hand to surrender to Christ. Their hand on their throat to represent their death. And they pray the prayer of Revelation 2. Be faithful unto death to receive that crown of life. It's a beautiful moment of surrender. And many times we say, we don't know if you're going to be back next year. Or we'll ever see you again, but we'll see you in heaven. And they charge out of those graduations with like a laser focus. It's about Jesus. And I haven't been more around a joyful, passionate group of people than in India. And so Kamala again lost her husband. And the Lord had prepared her. And her husband was being threatened by the militants that they would kill him. And so he even prepared his sons, two sons, and his wife and said, I will be martyred soon, but you are to carry on the work. A week before she said, the Holy Spirit spoke to her and said to her, I am with you. Be not afraid. And she said on that night, the gunmen, four gunmen came, masked, to the door. Her husband came to the door and four shots right to his chest. And he died and bled out right there in their home, right at the doorstep. And I said, Kamala, I said, did you, I mean, what was the experience like? What did you feel? She said, the Lord reminded me of his words, that he is with me and to be at peace. And I had peace. Kamala, have you been able to forgive those Muslims who killed your husband? She said, I have no bitterness. I never did. Even when it happened, I knew it was God's calling. And I said, Kamala, tell me about that. She said, well, my husband was killed on Friday. I buried him on Saturday, and I led the services on Sunday. And all the people of our village ever since then have been saying, what kind of God does that woman serve? Her husband's killed. She forgives her enemies, and she's going around with a smile and joy in her heart. And she said, more people are coming to Christ now. Her husband has been martyred when we did our ministry together. And I was humbled. I thought, could you disciple me, Kamala? Power, she's a powerhouse. I was, I almost thought she, to be frank again, let me address the American mind. Because I was there too. I was thinking about it in my mind. Is she repressing depression? And I said, Kamala, was there any time of depression or, you know, mourning? She said, no, I've had such peace. Except there was one night I wept through the night. The Lord comforted me, but that's the only time that I've had deep grief. I'm like, wow. So, and I don't, honestly, I don't think that's human. And I think for most people, to be frank, I don't want to, I don't want to delineate human suffering of pain, guys. If you've been through pain, don't think that that's the normal experience. But I'm just saying what Christ can do and heal it. You know, people have said of Russell that it's amazing that he doesn't have PTSD for being a hostage and taking even other types. And could he do the work? And Russell wonderfully has clearly said he believes the only reason for that is because the clarity of God's spirit in his mind and heart and emotions to keep him in good mental health. That is our protection and our hope. And so last of all, let's just summarize it here. Sending the promise of the Father, so the promise of the Holy Spirit. Because it's the Holy Spirit's job now to illuminate it into truth and righteousness. When we talk about so much of what Jesus has done, Jesus lives in our heart, right? It's technically the Holy Spirit. We're filled with him because Jesus is the right hand of the Father. And so Jesus sends that to know that we are sealed, guaranteed as children of him. Isn't that amazing? When you do good, you realize it's impossible to do good without God. Jesus clarified that, right? Do you realize every good act you do was the design and authorship of Christ himself? And the more good you do, the more obviously he's doing a great work in you because it's impossible to be good without God. You are loved and you are designed and you are the passion of Christ himself. Again, Luke recorded this, remember? Luke's recording of Jesus and remembering is that Jesus was all about this message of repentance from his suffering was so that the world could be forgiven and engrafted back and brought to the Father. We are passionately loved so much that Christ died for us and we are the reward now of his suffering. So, I pray that you would be drawn by the Holy Spirit this morning to simply say, God, have your way. This conference has been about just stirring you up for your calling. We are in the latter days. You have a purpose. You're a part of God fulfilling his righteousness, his glory here and around the world to repair and bring healing and hold us to the bride of Christ that Christ is returning for. Now, your question is, is just seek the Lord, know him, that you might follow in him in obedience. Because as a disciple, there's three words. It's simple, guys. If you study the scripture, I promise you, this is discipleship. Hear and obey. That is being a disciple. Because, remember, the faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. My sheep know my voice and I know them because I lay my life down. There's 1,600 times for word hear. There's only in the King James Bible for read, write down or anything. It's 65 times. So what is the emphasis for a disciple is you hear. If someone says they know Christ, they're reading the Bible. My question is, that's great, you're reading it. What are you hearing? And if I really want to know a disciple, I say, what has the Lord spoken to you? And I want to hear that they can tell me what the Lord speaks to them. Because if they can't tell me what the Lord speaks to them, I don't want to judge them. They're helping me understand where they are. They're really not born of the Spirit of God. Because a child will know his father's voice. Amen? And if you're in here today and not knowing or not sure of that voice, then I'm telling you, you're here because God wants you to know his father's voice. He loves you. He wants an intimate relationship. He's jealous for you. And that's why he forced you to get here in one way or another. You're here for his glory. And you're here to be engrafted with your family around the world because there's no denominations in heaven. Sabina Wurmbrandt, I was asked, what do you think of denominations? And she said, well, anything that even hints of the word demon in the word, she said, I like to stay away from. So praise the Lord. All right. Well, let me wrap this up. I want to do some ministry together and for us to now process this, because I think the Lord's done some good work in our heart, and we're here for each other. And remember, you're all leaders. You're all priests. This is a priesthood of believers. I don't know Jesus necessarily more than you or have more of Jesus. We all have the same Jesus. We're on different paths. And, again, I guess levels of maturity. But we all have something to contribute of what we're hearing from God and speak to each other from the youngest to the oldest. And we need to practice that now. And I want you to start opening up your hearts to what and ask these questions. And I'm going to have you get in little groups in a second. But the first thing is from this talk and tonight thus far with Roy and myself, and you're about to be, your socks will be blessed when Russell comes up, because every time I hear Russell, I get another jewel, and there's depth and riches. But for right now, let's start processing what God's telling us. What did you learn about God? From what I just talked about, again, obviously in Luke 24 there, but even more in the stories, what did God speak to you? What did you learn about God, his nature, his heart? Second of all, where did you learn about yourself? What is God revealing through the preaching of the word, the teaching, and God's testimonies around the world? And thirdly, what is God now leading you to apply and obey? Those are the three questions you're about to go through. But let's pray. And then one other thing, too, is I want to, because this is what I teach to our staff. I preach this all the time, so I'm going to tell you. You know what the kingdom of God is? There's three rules of it. It's kind of difficult, so try to hold on to this. Here it is. Here's the first one. It's relationships. All right? Got the first one? You know what the second one is? Relationships. And you know what the third one is? Relationships. Relationships with God and with each other. There's one law. It's the law of love. When we go to judgment, we will be judged for one thing, how much we love God and each other. So keep it simple. It's relationships. And so, therefore, what I'm after is I would really urge you to sign up for our newsletter. We don't send letters out, you don't give, and this poor African child's going to die. We don't do that. That's because it's God's work. That's what it's about. But if you don't sign up, believe me, we have no relationship, because you're not going to hear from us, and we're not going to hear from you. You're going to forget about us. So, please, I'm leaving just right at lunch. I have to catch a plane to get home because I have some responsibility at home. And so this is the time I want to encourage you, if you want to start getting our newsletter and Russell's updates specifically, please sign up on the card, and we're going to keep you updated. And you just pray, and you just do what God tells you to do. So I just want to advertise that. Let's pray, and then I'm going to have you discuss. So, Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for this precious family of mine. Lord, I felt their love. I know their love. Because, Lord, I recognize the love of you in them, their words, their adoration, their praise, their worship. Lord, we're in a safe place because you're here. And this is the safety God that I've seen around the world in reviving our persecuted brothers and sisters. Why there's so much joy is because when they have you, they're safe. Even in the midst of persecution, beating, difficulty, prison, and death. Because, Father, there is peace, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is abundance. So I just thank you, Father, for the Lord speaking to us today. And I just thank you for the young to the old, Lord, that you are producing leaders here. You're producing a new generation in these latter days. For your power to be demonstrated that we be clothed on high with the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord. So, Lord, I pray for even more power to be released right now in each and every believer. To receive from you what's most on your heart. Lord, to heal their hurts. Because, Lord, you want us to get past our hurts because there's too many other hurting people around us. And the sooner we get past our hurts, Lord, the more we can help others. So, Lord, I pray for healing of hearts right now, just in the name of Jesus, to be released. I pray for faith to be released, Lord, on each and every person, God. Of whatever they're facing, their fear, that it be filled up with your love. And, Lord, I pray for now gifting and anointing, Lord, of confidence, Lord, upon the gifting and the calling of every believer here. Because, Lord, you have equipped every believer here to be a part of the whole, of the solution and the hope. To be confident in their calling and to go forth. I thank you for the calling of the nations even in here, Lord. I know there's some you're speaking to. And there's others, Lord, just the support of it. We need all parts, God. The support units, the sending units. And, Lord, ultimately we need to stand with the nationals in these persecuted areas. So, we thank you for that. That we send our love to them and support. And that their stories and their heart has been heard today, God. And you are glorified. So, Lord, lift up those who are suffering in difficulty today, God. That, Lord, you are accomplishing your work. I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. So, let me orchestrate this. So, I want you guys to get in little huddles right now. Because let's worship and testify. That's worship. Remember, worship is anything that we bring to God to show that he is worthy of our praise. He's worthy of our discussion. Singing is just one part of worship, right? But we're going to worship. But worship is a huddle of maybe three to five, six. Just make natural groups so you can hear each other. Right where you're sitting, kind of bring your chairs around each other. Go ahead and do that right now. Kind of look around and make a natural group. And not too big, because I want you guys to be able to hear each other and share. And from little to all, you're important and involved, okay? And, again, here's the first question. And you guys can dive right in. And keep it concise. Because we want everybody to have a time to share. And then I'll remind you. I'm going to give you about five, seven minutes on each one. But what did you learn about God today? What did you learn about God? And even last night. So share what you learned about God. And then we'll move to the next question, okay? Go ahead. Start sharing.