What’s The Story? | Tyrone D Jones | Legacy Giving | Full Service

is from. Go to... Good morning, CTC. Welcome to another wonderful Sunday morning. Thank you for gathering with us. If you're here in the building, if you could do us a favor and kind of scoot in if there's chairs in the middle of the row that you're sitting in to allow for people coming in so they got somewhere to sit, we'd appreciate that. If you're joining us online, thank you for joining us. We love you so much. I'd like to share something with you guys before we get into service. Revelations 5, 13. John, the Apostle John is having a vision of heaven. And he says, I heard every creature in heaven and on earth. I'm sorry. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. We're on the earth. We're part of that course.

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb who was slain for us, be blessing and honor and glory and power. We don't have to wait till we're there to sing those songs to him, to give him that praise, to give him that worship. We can bless him and give him that right now. John said, I heard those who were on the earth saying it. Let's be those voices this morning. As we come before God, let's lift him up. Let's put him in his proper place. Let's open our hearts so that we're ready to hear the word today and get all that God has for us. But first let's give to him the gratitude and praise that we have. Would you pray with me? Father God, we thank you. We thank you for this day. We thank you for all that you've given us leading up to this year, Father. We thank you for the freedom and the availability to come and gather together as a body every single week, Lord. We thank you for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that you give our pastors and leadership, Lord, that they have a word for us

that is from you every single week, that you never sleep and you never slumber and you are always faithfully here to meet us, God. And today we lift our voices and we lift our eyes and we lift our hearts to praise you and to receive from you once again. Have your way in this place as we worship. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. There was a moment when the lights went out When death had claimed its victory The king of love had given up his life The darkest day in history They'd run across, they'd made for sinners For every curse his blood had toned One final breath and it was finished But not the end we could've known For the earth began to shake And the veil was torn But sacrifice was made As the heavens roared All hail King Jesus All hail the Lord of heaven and earth All hail Jesus All hail the Savior of the world Hey There was a moment when the sky lit up A flash of light breaking through We know it was always to cross eternities The king of life was on the move

We're in a dark old tomb Where our lord was laid A miraculous grave We're forever saved All hail king Jesus All hail lord of heaven and earth All hail king Jesus All hail the savior of the world All hail Jesus All hail lord of heaven and earth All hail Jesus All hail the savior of the world The savior of the world So let every knee Come bow before the king of kings Let every tongue Facing his light Lift up your shout Join with all of heaven Singing oh We're singing oh We cry out oh We're singing oh All hail king Jesus All hail the lord of heaven and earth All hail king Jesus All hail the savior of the world Come on church, let's give the lord another shout of grace Hallelujah, amen Well hey church, we got a baptism today

Let's turn our attention to the screen if somebody goes public with their faith My name is Jolisha I was raised in the church but I didn't know what it meant to live for Christ Before going to the church for the city, I watched services online I prayed when it was convenient and didn't give God my all My life was consumed by drugs and alcohol In late 2023, I had a mental breakdown I couldn't stop crying and I heard God clearly say to me Go ahead and say it, release it to me He knew that me confessing my troubles would be the first step to truly walking with him And at that moment, I opened my heart and told God the truth I said, God, I hate spending time with you because it requires a level of vulnerability that I'm scared to explore And in that breath, I felt his arms in such comfort and love I finally felt free And at that moment, I surrendered my life to Jesus Since committing my life to Christ, my life has been rich in love and grace and wonder I know that God never leaves my side And even though I have moments where I feel he isn't there I have peace that is beyond understanding I know that I am loved I know it isn't about perfection but progression in my walk with him Give God the time to make the shift for you to submit to his will It will be hard but once you give God the space to take over I promise it will be worth it Today I'm going public with my faith Jaleesha, Jesus said every disciple... You shall be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith today, I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And according to Scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Isn't God so good?

How can you believe that when we speak the name of Jesus, everything changes? When we speak over addiction, over darkness? Come on, let's just continue to worship. I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind because I know there is peace within your presence. I speak Jesus. I just want to speak the name of Jesus till every dark addiction starts to break declaring there is hope and there is freedom. I speak Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire. Come on, sing this out. I just want to speak the name of Jesus over fear and all anxiety to every soul held captive by depression. I speak Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire. Your name is power. Your name is healing.

Your name is life. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire. Come on, sing this. So shout Jesus from the mountains. Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family. I speak the holy name. Jesus. Jesus. Shout Jesus from the mountains. Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family. I speak the holy name. Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. We believe it. Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire. Your name. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is life. Break every stronghold.

Shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire. ♪ I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over every heart and every mind ♪ ♪ Cause I know there is peace within your presence ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ I always speak of your holy name ♪ ♪ I always speak of your powerful name ♪ ♪ Jesus, yeah ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ God, you're so faithful, Father ♪ ♪ We come before you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant ♪ ♪ Oh come ye, oh come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Oh come ye, oh come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Come and behold him, born the king of angels ♪ ♪ Oh come, let us adore him, oh come, let us adore him ♪ ♪ Oh come, let us adore him, oh come, let us adore him ♪ ♪ Oh come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord, yeah ♪ ♪ He is Christ the Lord, yeah ♪ ♪ Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation ♪

♪ Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above ♪ ♪ Glory to God, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh come, let us adore him, oh come, let us adore him ♪ ♪ Oh come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh come, let us adore him, oh come, let us adore him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh he is Christ the Lord, let his people sing ♪ Worthy, worthy are Your hands. Worthy, worthy are Your hands. When we greet Thee, born this happy morning, Jesus, to Thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. The Lord. His name shall be wonderful Counselor. His name shall be everlasting Father. His name shall be Prince of Peace. Come on, church, we sing. His name shall be Emmanuel. We'll praise Your name forever. We'll praise Your name forever. We'll praise Your name forever. Christ the Lord. Your name forever. We'll praise Your name forever. We'll praise Your name forever. Christ.

He's Christ the Lord. He's Christ the Lord. Your name. His name shall be wonderful Counselor. His name shall be everlasting Father. His name shall be Prince of Peace and mighty God. His name shall be Emmanuel. Come on, Tumingo, let's shout a praise to the one who deserves it. Amen, amen, amen. Hallelujah. What a wonderful time of worship, church. Let's go into a minute, Tumingo. Greet somebody that you haven't met before. Find your seats, and we'll prepare for the message right after. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Just keep talking for a minute. We're good. Go ahead. Get to know another person, you know. Well, good morning. It is good to be before you this morning. Are you blessed to be in church today? Can I make a confession here for a moment before I go into these verbals? I can.

My parents are out of town. My attitude gets worse. My attitude gets worse. My attitude gets worse. It's a little off sometimes when it's time to put the Christmas songs in the worship sets because I'm still ready to sing what a God and all these things, you know, and all that. But then when I start to hear those lyrics, it does something in me every single time. And Pastor Phillip, thank you for choosing to do those Christmas songs every year. You're great. You look good in that jacket. What a day. So before we go into the message today, I hope you feel welcomed here. I hope you have been greeted. I hope you feel like family here today. I do want to prepare to give a few important verbals, a few important announcements before we go too far. One of them is gonna actually be with a video, but I wanna set up the video. Pastor Bob McGregor is a person that's been here a number of times. He is a mentor and a spiritual father to our pastor, but he's also one of the overseers of the fellowship that we are part of as a church MFI. He's been here many times,

and he's actually going to be coming next month in January, and he's gonna be preaching for our first Wednesday gathering, but he's also gonna be putting on a mental health seminar. And I can tell you, I've sat in those courses before, and there's no other way I can describe it besides life-changing. It was life-changing to hear the way he addressed mental health, depression, anxiety, addiction, and the different things that many of us face, both people out of the church and in the church. I don't think it should be a secret that we face those things. And so before I say any more, I would like to show that video. So please turn your attention to the screen. Did you know that I suffered for 20 years at least from what is commonly known as a mood disorder or being emotionally disturbed with fear, anxiety, and depression that literally robbed me of being present in the things I needed to be present about and be focused on the people and situations that really needed my attention over the years as a father, as a husband, as a leader in the body of Christ. And I am burdened now because of that to do a seminar called Healing Fear, Anxiety, and Depression in the Church. You may look at me and you see sometimes

that I'm on a public platform speaking and teaching the Bible, that I didn't suffer from some of these things. I got my act together. But really, it was really contrary to the truth is I suffered much even as I was developing into the ministry I have today. But I learned skills, skills on how to overcome certain thought patterns and belief systems that were false in my mind. And that has led me to put together this particular seminar to give the skills how they also can overcome. Sometimes just rebuking the enemy. Sometimes just doing devotions and reading your Bible or quoting scripture or even declaring your identity in Christ is insufficient in some of the things that people are facing. There are brain patterns in their mind. There are continual thought patterns that they need to learn how they can change in their mind. And that has to do with changing their view of reality. This seminar addresses those things and addresses how adverse childhood experiences that create toxic stress affect our thinking even as adults and how to overcome those toxic thoughts. I have experienced and found freedom in Christ through the skills that God has taught me over the years and I wanna share them with the body of Christ.

So we are looking forward to that. The registration is only $40. I can tell you this, spending $40 and three days in that course will save you much more money than the counseling that you can get for weeks at a time and all these things. So January 8th through the 10th, you can sign up for that through tapping the disc in front of you. You can go to the Church Center app or you can visit the Connect table. Like I've said before, I have done this course and I'm sure my wife will encourage me to do it again. And so also I want to make you aware of the holiday schedule. We are excited to be able to have the opportunity to offer three Christmas Eve services. So Christmas Eve, we will gather here in the building. It's one of the times that no matter where that lands on the calendar, we like to have evening services. And those will be 4 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, December 24th. You'll also get a card on the way out, an invite card that tells you those times. And then on December 28th, something that we've been doing for quite a while now, the last Sunday of the month, of the year, I apologize, the last Sunday of the year, we do what we call Church at Home.

So you'll be able to gather with your family and you can worship with your fork in your hand, you know, and that French toast in front of you. It's just a cool opportunity to worship with family and friends in an intimate setting. The service is always a full service. The worship team will play. and our pastor will preach a message, but we'll be having church at home on December 28th, and you'll be able to watch those at 8.30, 10 a.m. or 11.30, and then we'll offer that in Spanish at 1 p.m. So please mark your calendars, don't skip out. I know there's a lot of different things going on over the holiday season, but please don't skip out on the opportunity to gather with believers both in person and digitally for the holiday season. We're thankful for your giving. We've been talking about legacy over the past couple weeks, and it's a good opportunity for us to even thank you, not just for your legacy giving and your year-end gift, but just for those of you who've been faithfully tithing. It's biblical, we believe it comes with a promise, and we never wanna miss the opportunity to say thank you. Thank you for your giving. If you've never given before, you can give in the boxes at the exits, you can give on the app, you can give by tapping the disc and following the prompts there, but you're an incredibly generous church, and we're thankful for that.

And so I wanna pray, I wanna pray for our pastor and Lady V, they are suffering for the gospel in Maui right now, and so just a hedge of protection over them, but it's cool, they're ministering and celebrating their anniversary week, so that's exciting. And then I'll pray and get ready to dive into the message. So if you'll bow your heads with me. Lord, thank you so much for the opportunity to be in your house today. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness, mercy, and grace on our lives. Lord, we're thankful that we get to gather here in freedom. We get to gather here and worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, for every volunteer, for every person that has made a choice to be here with all the different places they can be, Lord, I pray that you bless them. Lord, I pray that you meet them right where they are. For those that are watching online, Lord, I pray that your presence is tangible. Lord, I pray for those who may be stressed in this season, for those who may be starting to get a bit overwhelmed by all the comings and goings and highs and lows of the holidays, Lord, I pray a peace over them, their mind and their hearts. Lord, we lift up our government and their leaders. Lord, we trust that your hand is on our leadership. We trust that your plan will always prevail. So we lift you up in these things.

God, I pray that as we prepare to hear the word that we receive it with good soil, good soil. We pray for our pastor and Lady V, keep them safe. Let them enjoy their time of celebration. Let them enjoy their time with Candy and OJ. We thank you for Citizen Church and for what they're allowing them to do together in that place. And Lord, with everything that we pray and everything that we do, we give you the glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet. I'm gonna read a very brief passage of scripture. And really it's more of a setup. I'm not gonna take a deep dive into this specific passage, but it's a setup and prep for where we're going today. Second Corinthians chapter three. Second Corinthians chapter three, if you'll turn there, and we're gonna read verses two through three. Last week, we talked about legacy and our pastor talked about his story and his grandfather, my great-grandfather, planting a church and preaching to empty rooms and how that kind of faithfulness and obedience has landed us. And when I say us, I don't mean my family, but us as a church where we are now. And it's given us a picture of how God has plans from generation to generation.

And then we talked about the four different lanes that are heavy on the heart, the big rocks, we can say, that are heavy on the heart of our leadership and not heavy in a sad way, but heavy on the heart. But these are the things that we want to pursue. These are the things that we believe that we're graced for. And so I really just wanna piggyback on that message and I'm gonna tell some stories from the lanes today. But I wanna start off with this passage. Second Corinthians chapter three, verse two through three, and it says this, the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. This is the apostle Paul really giving an explanation of why he doesn't need to send out extra credentials. This is the apostle Paul when people are wondering, what, when he's writing this second letter to the church of Corinth, how are you able to say that? What have you done? And I love that Paul is saying, the letter of recommendation we need is you yours. Look at what God is doing in the church. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts. Everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. Clearly you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This letter is written not with pen and ink, but with the spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. I love that passage.

I love the fact that that is so relevant here today. We talk about it when it comes to the investment of the word with the investment of prayer, the investment in the community. We say this, even when we talk about generosity and giving, we get to say, you don't have to wonder what we're doing with your. investment. It's evident in the community, it's evident globally, it's evident in the ministry that's going forth and the truth is we've seen in so many lives of the thousands of lives that call this this church home, people don't have to wonder if you've surrendered your life to Jesus because it's evident by the way that you live. I love that so many people in this room are going along with what John the Baptist said, prove by the way you live that you've repented and turned your life to God. Thank you for being a church that does that. I want to pray one more time. Lord, thank you for your word. Speak to us clearly. Lord, let our lives continue to be a letter of evidence of your goodness and grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Go ahead and take your seats. So for those who don't know me, I come to this church for a long time and for a while I was really heavily involved in NextGen. I still help oversee our NextGen but I was a youth pastor for youth and young adults for almost 10 years and I will tell you this, I don't believe there's any question you ask when you lead a NextGen. I don't believe there's any question you ask more than the one I'm about to ask. There's, you know, there's questions that come to my mind like, what were you thinking? Or do your parents know about this? But I don't think there's a question I've asked more than this simple little question. So what's the story here? Whether it's their decisions or who all of a sudden they're sitting with at youth or who they're holding hands with at camp or whatever else, it's just so common. So what's the story here? Your buddies are over there, her buddies are over here and all of a sudden you guys are, what do we got going on? But it's funny because that is a common question that we either

ask or think often in situations. I don't know about you, maybe I just need more grace on my life because there's times I walk into someone's house and I see a piece of furniture and I wonder what's the story here? Like I'm really hoping that was grandpa's couch or something because there's no way. Or you see a piece of art, I'll be honest with you, there's times where a person will color their hair a certain way or chop it. There has to be a story there. What's the story here? One of our elders, there's times where all of us that are ministry leaders, we meet with our elders and their nice way of questioning a decision is they'll ask the story. So I see that so-and-so's leading now, what's the story there? I think it's just a common question, it's a common thought for us. What's the story? Even with family dynamics and different things and I can make this joke because I'm a part of a blended family. Sometimes you see a family and they're all different colors and shades and everything and you think to yourself, I'm going to assume there's a story there. Right? Or sometimes the math isn't mathing. Like they have like a 28-year-old and a two-year-old and it's like, hmm. So hers and his and ours, there's a story there. But here's the truth. We can ask that question, what's the story? And I love the fact that people tell the story. When people ask my wife and I, what's our story? We start off with the truth, MySpace, okay? But even the story of family dynamics and locations, I hate this question but I love giving an answer. Whenever I travel for ministry or travel for fun or whatever, people always ask me, so how did you end up in Yuma? First of all, I always tell them, fix your voice and your face. I love my city. And then I'll give them the story. But here's the truth. Stories have the ability to give context and clarity. Stories have the ability to inspire. Stories have the ability to answer questions. And stories have the ability to empower culture. Oftentimes you hear the story of something and it makes you shift in your mindset to where now you want to empower the culture of what's going on because you heard the story. And we're looking here in the story, in this passage of Scripture as the Apostle Paul is talking to the church of Corinth. I love how he's saying that you are the story and it's your

story that is empowering what is going on amongst you in the church. And your story is actually empowering my credentials as a leader of the church. My credentials are being empowered by the way that you're living. My credentials are being empowered. My relevance, maybe you can even say that the Apostle Paul saying is being empowered because of the stories that you tell in the story that you're living. Everybody in this room, just like in this passage of 2 Corinthians, everyone has a story. Every story is significant. Every story is relevant. Every story is unique. And the truth is that's what makes us a great church. That's what makes the kingdom of God so beautiful is that none of us have the same story. In fact, even talking Talking one more time about next-gen ministry, and really just ministry in general, it's an easy moment to correct when someone is getting ready for going public with their faith for baptism, or they're maybe stepping into ministry or whatever else, and they say, I feel bad because I don't have a testimony. And I ask, what do you mean by that? And they're like, well, I just, I've had a pretty good life. I haven't had the stories that's gonna make everyone cry if they put it up on the screen. And I think to myself, you don't have to have nine stints in rehab to have a story. You don't have to be a person with just this lineage of brokenness in order to have a story. The truth is, some of your stories is actually the story of God's grace and mercy on your life to protect you from so many of those things

that you could have gone through. And that's just as much a picture of God's goodness and grace as a person who did have to go through all of the public brokenness. And I say public brokenness because all of us have brokenness. But the public brokenness, the public challenges, everyone has a story. And Paul is saying that as you've been impacted by Christ, it's the way that you live on the other end of that that helps people understand that it's Christ that's in the middle of that story. It's Christ that is the shift and the change in that story. That's why when we prompt people to tell their testimony or when we're talking to someone about their walk with Jesus, the story doesn't hit a point of the ultimate significance until we hear a life surrender to Jesus. You can say life got better. You can say your marriage was restored. You can say you got the job and all of that is great. But the truth is that story isn't what we're listening for. And the truth is that story doesn't have any change in eternity until we hear a life surrender to Jesus. And Paul is saying, you guys are a great picture of that. And so I wanna share some stories and tell some stories and show some stories today from the four lanes that we talked about last week when it comes to global missions, local missions,

next gen and leadership development and in the capital projects and expansion, the four lanes that we really been talking about when it comes to our legacy giving and our legacy heart and thoughts in terms of CTC ministry. And the truth is in order to, and even to steal the language from last week's message, we're sharing these stories just to gain a greater understanding of purpose, commitment and investment. Purpose, commitment and investment. This first lane I'm gonna share from is global missions. You may have received an email this week and you may have been listening to the message from last week or reading the notes from last week. And you understand that we've been to so many different countries around the world and we have as much involvement as possible with a number of countries, a number of continents. But the truth is you don't always get the opportunity to hear the stories from the people who have had boots on the ground. And we're thankful for that passage that we're being able to honor that passage. It says in Mark 16, 15, when Jesus said, go into all the world, preach the good news to everyone. So I wanna share a story here briefly of some of my very best friends in the world, John and Leah Stratz who are here today over there with their baby, little Henry.

And they had an opportunity to go to Slovakia and this is their story. I've been coming to CTC since like 2012. And I started coming when Leah and I first started dating. She had been coming here since she was middle school, high school age. So I've been here for 13 years or so. And you guys met through like a campus ministry. Through a campus ministry called Crew at AWC. And where do you serve? Where does she serve? We both serve on the safety team and then I serve on the pastoral assistant team as well. You're on the security side, she's on the medical side as a nurse. And then you've been a PA for years now. You talked about going on the mission, but what made you decide that that was the specific mission? We'd always had it in the back of our mind that we wanted to go on a mission trip. This one came out, this one was in Europe. And when we heard that it was a working mission trip where we'd be building a garden for a local church in Slovakia so that they could grow their own food to supply for their feeding program, for their children feeding program. When we heard that, I think it just kind of spoke to us. Leah likes to garden and grow vegetables and stuff. I like building things.

So it being a working trip that we were gonna be working with our hands, building things. Very good. Really interested us. The funny part is you did a lot of the skilled labor stuff, but some of the stories you came back with, you're like, dude, I prayed for people and we worked the altars. That was something that was outside of your normal, I guess we can say. We'll talk about that. One of the biggest impacts that I had and that I saw there was just being able to worship alongside the Roma people. You know, just being there for the people and praying for them and just seeing their heart for God was really a cool opportunity to be able to experience. One thing that we've been trying to help people recognize, the ones who may not. step foot on one of these missions, but support the missions by way of prayer, by way of financial investment or whatever else. We want them to understand the global impact CTC is making on that side of the world and different nations and continents that we go to. How did that expand your understanding of the global church? When we first got there, we showed up to the church

and there were pallets of like cinder blocks and cement and stuff that we were gonna be building this garden with. The local pastors there of the church, you know, came out, greeted us, we're talking, and they're like, you know, thank you for this. CTC, like, you guys bought this. Like, you paid for this. This is here because of you. That was a really, like, that was like a light bulb moment in my head. Like, man, like, CTC doesn't just talk about going and doing things or wanting to help other churches. They're like, we love CTC, we love Arizona. And they're in Slovakia, you know. The pastors and their families, especially, you know, at those churches were unbelievable. Like, as soon as we met, just instant friends, all of us, everybody. You had a very unique impacting moment while you were there. Can you share about it a bit? The last day of the trip, you know, I found out from some of my friends, my coworkers, that where we worked was closing. They had closed that day. Wow. You know, we were all laid off, jobless.

A place that you've been for? For 10 years, 10 years. Yeah, on the other side of the world, finding out I was gonna come home. Pregnant wife, holiday season, like, no job. I don't think I would have been able to process everything as well if I wasn't there. Being on that trip, when it happened, told me, like, God's in control. If someone's on the fence about either going on a global mission or even supporting global missions, what would you say to encourage them? The Bible says tithe, but CTC makes it easy because you can see exactly what happens with your money. And if you're unsure, if you're on the fence, just go and see. See the people whose lives are affected on a daily basis, who are already thankful for you, already praying for you before you even get there because you've already done so much for their lives. I know it's made a huge impact on my heart and really just making people's lives better on a daily basis. John, thank you, man. We love you. We honor you. Now, one thing I do wanna say about the videos that we show today, they are clips of the interviews, but those interviews are actually gonna be, in its entirety, are gonna be made available.

So we will let you know when those are available. They'll be on the YouTube and sent out via constant contact. But we're thankful for the opportunity to be a part of what God's doing on the other side of the world. And some of you, if you never stepped foot in any of these countries, you can say that you have a significant impact as well just by praying towards those missions, giving towards those missions, and even when those teams come home, loving on those teams as they return. The next lane I want to discuss is local missions. Local missions. And many of you understand that we've had an opportunity to be a part of so many different endeavors, so many different opportunities in terms of giving backpacks to students and in terms of Serve Day. Many of you guys have been a part of those days where we're paying for the gas of people and paying for their groceries. And those are the things that we do in mass, but truthfully, there's stuff going on every single week. I can't even calculate how many different bills that we've paid, not only for people, but for organizations, for other churches. It's just been our honor and privilege, truthfully, to be a part of what God is doing. I remember years ago, CTC won the Heart of Yuma Award

for being the best place to volunteer in Yuma simply because the organization had found out this is not just a place that cares about what's going on in the walls of the church. This is a place that cares and loves on the people of Yuma, the people of Yuma County. And I wanna share two quick, not stories, but two quick statements from people that are on the receiving end of those things. One of them is a principal here in town at OC Johnson. She, along with a number of other schools, get what we call our Power Packs. And you've heard about Power Packs before, but if you haven't, I just want to explain. It is a backpack full of non-perishable food. And there are a number of students in the schools, and I think we're in Roosevelt, Woodard, Gila Vista, OC Johnson, and Rio Colorado school, and there's a number of students who are given those backpacks every Friday as they leave school. And the reason why they're given those backpacks every Friday as they leave school is because it has been reported that that student may or may not have food to eat throughout the weekend. So that student relies on breakfast and lunch at the school throughout the week. And so we as a church, we made a decision. We don't want them to have to wonder

where food is coming from when they're not on the school campus. Now the truth is, the CTC provides 160 of those backpacks every single week, 160 of those backpacks every single week. You guys are doing a little golf clap but my kids are the ones who get, I'm just kidding. But can you imagine what that feels like and what that means not only to the student but to the parents when the child brings home food and say, mom and dad, I'm good. CTC, we're okay. They took care of us. You don't have to stress. You don't have to cry. You don't have to wonder if I'm going to eat this weekend. And one of the recipients is OC Johnson School and they have 45 students that get the backpacks and she wrote this statement. We at OC Johnson School are the recipients of the powerpacks from Church for the City. With the powerpacks we are able to provide weekend food for 45 students. This is not just food to some of our kiddos but security and comfort. Our students look forward to receiving their powerpacks on Friday afternoon and they are very grateful to the church for providing them with these powerpacks. Security and comfort because you say yes to giving towards something that you may not pack yourself. Something that you may not deliver yourself but an opportunity to be a part of something that's greater than ourselves. And there's one more thing I want to read that has to do with our local missions. I won't use names in this and I apologize if I get emotional but it says this. Dear brothers and sisters, my name is blank and this is my testimony. As a little boy I would go to church for the city. I was a regular attender but due to me being in a group home I started the street life and stopped attending. I surrounded myself with people that I know that would bring me down but I still decided

to hang around them. Later on I would find myself getting shot and stabbed on multiple occasions. But one thing I've noticed is I was always called on God. I started catching charges due to being in the street gang and facing 10 to 13 years in prison and I was devastated. So the only thing I can do is cry out to God. He gave me the ability to actually start even sharing the word and some of those prayers with the other inmates in my unit. I even began to do a Bible study. I began to do this with visits with, and he listed a CTC member that was visiting him at the jail. And I told him what was going on so we prayed. A few days later I was sitting in the courtroom feeling worried so I prayed to God asking for forgiveness of my actions. And then I heard as I'm asking for that forgiveness the judge say, I will be dropping three charges and you will be given the plea of two and a half years of prison with time served instead of the 10 to 13 years. I immediately started thanking God for this blessing as a 19 year old facing 10 to 13 years. It was stressful, but due to putting my trust and belief in the Lord, I'll be coming home soon and a part of the church, church for the city family. Since I've opened up my heart to God and learned to trust in him, I've learned that God will always love us with his unconditional love despite what we do. This makes me emotional because I remember being his new pastor and the times him in this building worshiping along with us and I knew he was going home to incredibly challenging things and he was in and out of the group home because his family members were fighting for him and fighting over him. And when he sent this letter, it made me think of this when it comes to our, when it comes to local missions, what if we would have spared the expense to where he couldn't watch the services?

What if we wouldn't have made it available both in jail and in prison for him to still worship, to still hear the word, to still hear that he is loved? What if we didn't make it available for him to be able to know that God has a plan and purpose for his life? There's so many statistics you see and you hear from people in the system and I'm so thankful that though maybe there was things that he was still challenged with when he was no longer attending here, but there was a God deposit made in him. And the God deposit was made not only here, but that deposit was still watered and that deposit was still built from people going and visiting him in person, but also him having access to watch the CTC services right there where he is in the prison and the jails. And we're looking forward to embracing him with open arms when he gets out and comes back and worships with us here in person. The next lane I want to talk about is next gen and leadership. It says, I'm sorry, I want to read this verse in Matthew chapter 25 about local missions. It says, for I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. I love that passage because Jesus talks about when you did that for those, you did it for me. When it comes to next gen leadership, a verse says in Psalm 100 verse five, it says, for the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever and his faithfulness continues to each generation. I love the fact that here at CTC, we put intentionality and effort into our next gen. all the way from preschool to Bible college. We have a preschool here on our campus that's open five days a week. We have a Bible college.

In fact, if you are interested in taking courses next semester, those classes are actually live. Pastor Phillip is gonna be preaching. He's gonna be teaching a Holy Spirit course. He's taught it before. It is lights out incredible. It is a great course. He's gonna be teaching that this upcoming semester. And then Pastor Abel is gonna be teaching a Old Testament survey. Students love when Pastor Abel teaches. The truth is that is just such a great lane for him. And so if you want to register for those courses, remember you can take them for credit or you can just take them to audit just to learn more of the biblical information from those. You can tap the disc or you can stop by the Connect table to sign up for those courses or to find out more information. But I do wanna show you a video from a family that has been heavily involved in our NextGen ministry for years and now that they're actually giving back to it. And so please enjoy this video. We got here in 2017. A year, year and a half prior to that, we had left a church. God told us it was time to leave, so we left.

We just kind of went all over Yuma looking at churches and attending churches. And we finally found a church and we attended that church for about six months and then I needed to have a back surgery. And I was in bed for six, eight months. And then Delaney's childhood friend had invited her to youth. She was coming and she was just coming home and talking about youth, this youth group that she was going to. And then before we knew it, she was serving a kids ministry. She was invited to like a leadership conference. She was the youngest. After my back surgery recovery, we're getting ready to go back to the church and Delaney said, can you guys go to CTC? And I said, no, we are finally going to a church. We've attended for a while. We need to go. And when I saw the look of disappointment and hurt on her face, I was like, what am I doing? I kid you not. I mean, the minute we walked through these doors, I get goosebumps. This place is different. Of course, you know, I had a plan. I'm like, look, we're just going to go and get fed. Pastor was praying for the other local churches.

I mean, that just blew my mind. Wow, this is what we're supposed to be doing. After the sermon, I'm like, nope, this is it. We were just so comfortable. We wanted to serve and we got to serve. What areas do you guys serve in? I serve connect team, baptism, support, and care ministries and youth. And I'm a pastoral assistant, sometimes security. Yeah, youth and care and support team. Now, just for the listeners, can you describe the dynamic of your home? So Delaney is 20. Oh gosh. And Job is 18. Why and how did you guys trust the NextGen Ministries? Once we came to CTC, I mean, just, you could feel the culture in here. It was a very safe landing spot for us. Exactly what we needed. What's really cool about Job is because of youth, he has built such strong relationships. And he has youth leaders that are now adults that still look over him and watch him and check on him. And to me, that was always my biggest fear, knowing that he had special needs. Like, are they going to love him the same? And he totally gets loved the same and treated the same. You guys specifically made a choice to begin to serve in NextGen.

Why did you make a choice to be involved yourself as leaders? God. It's funny because God was speaking to her at the same time. He's speaking to me. In small groups, you got young boys opening up and they're talking about the lack of a father figure. That's it. It got me real hard. You know what I'm saying? I was raised by a good man. And, you know, I try to be the best father I can for Joe. So, you know, it just really grabbed at me. So, you know, I could feel God really pushing me. Beautiful. It's just sad to see guys without a good father figure. That's it. I'm like, hey, you know, I can probably be that. What would you say that you guys see right now in this younger generation that older generations may not be aware of, may not see? When you come into church on a Sunday morning, you see the youth. Beautiful. And like I said, they're serving because they want to serve. They're running our church. And then if it's not our youth, it's our adults that were raised in youth. That's it.

And they have the heart to serve. Right. They have the heart to love. Right. They have the heart to give back. And that started in youth. I am so thankful that you guys are willing to be fathers and mothers to this next generation. I think we're in an age where they can find a lot of voices, whether it's online or in person, but to find someone who's going to be a father and mother figure in person, wrap their arms around them, pray for them, love them, encourage them, know what's actually going on in their life. That is what's most needed. And I think that's what's making the greatest impact. So thank both of you guys. And I love you both. And thank you so much for being here. That's super cool. Thank you. We're thankful for James and Amy Grace. I don't think they're sitting in this service, but that little middle school cheerleader that convinced her parents to come all those years ago, Delaney, she's sitting right over there. Wave your hand, girl. So proud of you. Love you so much.

And we're thankful. We're thankful for the Next Gen Ministry. I'm just thankful for youth, but what starts in our preschool and what goes through our kids' ministry, Jolene and Eli are doing such an incredible job in kids' ministry, and Freddie and Elisa are doing just great things in the youth and young adult ministry, and all of these people have great volunteers and teams around them and staffs around them, and I wanna say this about when you're leading in kids' ministry. Here's the deal. You don't know who you're leading, and the truth is we have one goal. Our one goal is to make sure that we're going and making disciples. That's the goal, but when we talk about leadership development, here's one thing that we do at CTC. We don't find leaders. We do our best to make leaders, okay? Now, there's certain people who do come in with leadership abilities, someone like an Angie Cedillo who's the leader of our hospitality ministry. She came to this church as an adult, and she was molded and shaped, and we're so grateful for what she leads, but here's the deal. When Drew Henderson came here as a nine-year-old, we didn't know that he would someday lead our safety ministry.

When Miranda Lerma came here as a eight-year-old, we didn't know that someday she would run our guest services ministry. When Chris Lerma came here at the end of elementary school, we didn't know that he'd someday be the head of production. We didn't know that Freddie and Alisa, when they came here in high school, that they would someday run youth and young adults. We definitely didn't know when Matt Davis was born here that he would someday be leading back there with our audio ministry, but you know what we did? We just did our best to make disciples and shape leaders, make disciples and shape leaders, and as you give and as you serve with those areas, you are being a part of the process of making disciples and shaping leaders. The last I want to talk about is capital projects and expansion. In Isaiah 54, verse two, I really do believe this is a now word for us here at CTC. It says, enlarge the place of your tent, stretch the tent curtains wide, do not hold back, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. We're growing, we need to grow. It's time to grow, and we're not growing and expanding with a hope of what God is doing. We're growing and expanding because of what God is doing. We have three services here because of what God is doing. We're knocking down walls upstairs for our kids ministry because of what God is doing.

I want to show some pictures here real quick. We're going to just fly through these. This was our first building that we were in. The window that is uncovered, I can promise you this. I used to pass people through that window, the kids, when we were up there, and kids, because our kids ministry was there, and we didn't want to interrupt the adults because we needed a breather. So I'm not kidding, we would open that window, and I was only in first grade, and I would just pass my siblings and my cousins out that window, and it's like, okay, this is what we're doing for activity today. And so when they complain, or if anybody says anything about our playground budget, remember, our playground was a window. But, and go to the next building. We were in that building next. That was the first time we actually had an in-ground baptismal, so we was excited that we can actually do baptisms right there in that building. Go to the next one. Then, we're thankful, there's actually a church in this building to this day still, but before we got in there, it was actually like a meat market, and so we were having classes and groups in these large, like meat freezer looking things, but that's when we were able to start having groups

throughout the week, so the first time we were having men's group and women's group at our church was in that building. Go to the next one. Oh, actually, so we actually had to meet at St. Paul's there for a while. We used to have church at 12 after their services because our building was being constructed. The inside, we were gutting a building, but that's when we started to break up our kids' ministry because we actually had multiple rooms, so now we can have nursery here and kids here and middle school there. Go to the next one. Lord Jesus, if you own or work for this company, I'm sorry for putting you out there like that, but that was the building that was prior to this one, and that green space, that was our first time having a lobby, which at the time, it was old school. We called it a foyer, but that's when we started to really be able to have these guest services and guest connect experiences, and there was other churches, Generations, Legacy, that would use that building at times, but let me tell you something about all those, and please take that junk down. One thing that we saw with every one of those buildings, God showed up, lives were changed, and each time we went to the next building, God added to our programming.

He added to our impact. He added to what we were able to do. Now, truthfully, I'm coming to a close, and I probably need another 20 minutes, but I'm gonna take a very fast deep dive through Acts chapter seven. Acts chapter seven is the story of Stephen. It's the story of Stephen, and he's known as the first martyr listed in the New Testament church. Stephen was known, in Acts chapter six, it says that he was full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith, and in fact, the disciples were saying, we're doing too much right now. We're running a soup kitchen. We're trying to take care of widows. We need to devote ourselves to the teaching of the word and to prayer, so let's choose some people that can actually do ministry with us, and Stephen was one of those, and soon after, Stephen was actually arrested because of some lies that. were told about him by some of the leaders of the church, some of the leaders of the Jewish council. And so they took him before the council, and very briefly, I just wanna share, Stephen started to tell the story. Stephen talked about Abraham and the covenant that was made by God. And then he talked about Isaac and Jacob, and he talked about Joseph,

and the fact that Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery, and eventually those same brothers had to come back to him in the temple, back to him in the palace, and he was able to actually bring nourishment and freedom to his family by way of God's hand on his life when he was sold into slavery. And then he goes on to talk about the fact that Moses was then awakened by God, awakened by God because the people of Israel became captive in Egypt, and Moses, despite the fact that he didn't feel well-equipped, Moses was sent back to the palace to free the people of Israel from captivity in Egypt. And then it says that there was a rebellion in the wilderness as Moses is leading, and they begin to have this mindset that like maybe captivity was better. And soon Moses built what they called the tabernacle, and we've been talking, it's interesting that we've been talking about that what seems to be week after week lately. He built the tabernacle so that people can start to experience the tangible presence of God right here on earth. David comes to the scene later, and David actually begins to express, and to teach, and to lead in this form of worship that's different and gives more glory to God, and that actually begins to bring different elements.

And he desired to build the temple, but he didn't, but Solomon was able to build that temple, and it's the exact temple, it's the exact temple that these Jewish leaders right here worshiped, but they were worshiping this temple, but not worshiping the living God. And Stephen's saying all these things to them. These are the stories, and at the end of this moment, at the end of this time, Stephen looks up, he looks up to the heavens, and he says, I see the heavens opening. And he says, I see, I see the heavens opening, and I see Jesus, the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of the Father. Why is that so significant? Because in other verses, what does it say? That Jesus is seated on the right hand of the Father. But in this moment, Jesus, knowing that Stephen is about to be martyred and brutally killed, is standing next to the Father in a standing ovation, but also, I love how R.C. Sproul says this, but also as an advocate to say, that's our guy right there. And Stephen, but here's the thing about Stephen, how and why did he tell those stories? Why was he willing to tell those stories, and why was it important that he told those stories? Because this is what we have to understand. It's the stories we hear, the stories we tell, and the freedom we experience for ourselves

that builds our allegiance. Allegiance to the God that we serve, allegiance to his people, allegiance to his plan, allegiance to his house. Stephen wanted to look them dead in the face and help them to understand, it's those stories and the freedom I'm living that makes me willing to give my life for this. You can kill me right now because of the stories that I've told and the freedom I've experienced for myself. I feel the same way, I think about that when I pledge allegiance to the United States, I think about the fact that in World War II, World War III, the Civil War, and all these different things in the civil rights movement, I wasn't there for those things. But it's the stories I hear and the freedom I experienced for myself that causes me to pledge allegiance. Allegiance, allegiance to our God because of the stories we tell and the stories we hear. And today we were able to hear the stories from right here in our home church, CTC. Stories that cause us to understand that we're a part of something greater than ourselves, a part of something greater than anything we can do under our own power, with our own budgets, with our own minds, with our own hearts. Being a part of the global church, being a part of a church that has a heart for our city, it's proven day after day, you can stand to your feet.

And so if you're here today, and one, you've never made a decision to surrender your life to Jesus, to pledge your allegiance to Him, to accept that free gift of salvation, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus on the cross is what makes that available to you and to me. If you've never made that decision, that's the start. That's where it all begins. That's where the story shifts. I love the fact that Jolisha telling her story talked about the fact that she experienced a new level of freedom, a new level of understanding after surrendering her life and all of the brokenness in her life to Jesus. And I also wanna challenge those who maybe have said yes to Jesus, but now want to make a decision of their investment and their commitment, and maybe it's time for you to join a serve team. Maybe it's time for you to actually give that gift and that legacy gift, and maybe it's time for you to be a part of the church. we give to one of the specific lanes. For those of you who don't tithe, I wanna tell you this, I don't want to encourage you to do anything that God doesn't attach a promise to. Tithing comes with a promise. And so I ask you today to make a decision

to say yes to Jesus, yes to his plans, yes to his ways, and yes to his house. Prayer team, you can come as I close. If you need prayer today, we wanna invite you to the altars. If there's things going on in your family, if you're stressed by the season, if you're stressed, if there's things going on in your heart and your mind, if you wanna even pray over the fact that you want to decide to give, you want to give, but you're anxious, nervous, the prayer team's ready. They wanna pray with you, pray for you. And for those of you who, you're just going from step to step, next step to next step, thought to thought, and you're seeing the goodness of God, I do, I wanna pray what it says in Psalms, that his goodness and mercy continues to follow you all the days of your life. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you so much, Lord, for your truth. We thank you, God, that you are a God that knows every element of our life. You know every thought, you know every heart. Lord, you know every story in this room. We're thankful that we get to tell the stories of your goodness. We get to tell the stories even of the challenges,

but we're thankful most of all, God, that you are the writer of the story. You are the finisher of the story. You're the author and perfecter of our faith. So we ask, Lord, for every single person, both in this room and watching online, Lord, that they will have a continuous understanding of who you are and what you've done, that they have a continuous understanding. For those who haven't surrendered their life to you, Lord Jesus, I pray that you work in their hearts right now, Lord, work in their hearts right now, that they don't leave this place without complete surrender to your plan. And Lord, for those who are praying over and considering the opportunity to give towards legacy or even to start tithing, Lord, I pray a peace and comfort over their minds and hearts, that they can trust you with what you've entrusted them with. We love you, we honor you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Wow, good word. Like Pastor Ty said, there's our prayer team up here. If you have any needs, anything you'd like them to pray for, those altars are open, feel free to come up. I just wanna say, listening to this sermon, being a part of this church for several years now, the verse that comes to my mind is, God said, if you'd have been faithful and little, I would give much, and I feel grateful to be part of a church that has been faithful and little

and has continued that faithfulness at every step when God has given more and God has given more, the heart of faithfulness has not changed. I love what Ty said about, what's your next step? If you're not sure what that is and you're not sure how to find that, you can tap the disc on the back of your chair, we have a connect table up front, we've got folks up there that would be happy to come alongside you and help you find out what that is for you. We've got small groups that would love to come alongside you, do life with you, so please, come be a part of the house, the family, in a very real way, not just on Sundays, but every day through the week. It's a wonderful time to be a part of this church and a part of this kingdom, and I encourage you to. If you haven't heard yet, our pastor wrote a book called Gripped by Hope, out in the lobby, if you'd like a copy of that, you can also order that as well. We're gonna go ahead and sing one more song, and you guys are free to go ahead after that, and we will see you next week. Have a great Sunday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ♪ Exalted Lord of all ♪ ♪ His name shall be ♪ ♪ Wonderful Counselor ♪ ♪ His name shall be ♪ ♪ Everlasting Father ♪ ♪ His name shall be ♪ ♪ Prince of Peace and Mighty God ♪ ♪ His name shall be Emmanuel ♪ ♪ We'll praise your name forever ♪ ♪ We'll praise your name forever ♪ ♪ We'll praise your name forever ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ We'll praise your name forever ♪ ♪ We'll praise your name forever ♪ Forever we'll praise your name Forever Christ the Lord Forever is Christ the Lord His name shall be Wonderful Counselor His name shall be Everlasting Father

His name shall be Prince of Peace And mighty God His name shall be Emmanuel God bless you church, we love you so much and we'll see you next week