Take me back

It is so wonderful to be here and before my wife runs down, I

need to up on stage quickly with me just for two seconds because

it's always been a dream of mine to soon may flow in front of all

my friends. Here we go.

When you're working with a limited pallet, you take

whatever opportunity you can get people.

But as I stand here, so honored this morning and looking around,

I walked around the back during worship and just walked out into

the cube. Want to shout out everyone out

there and everyone online just taking in just the spectacular

nature of this church. 3 CI, you are a beautiful people.

Thank you. You're a beautiful, beautiful

people. I want to thank the elders and

the leaders for having us here. It is a risk to let a redhead

take a microphone because you might never get it back.

But I just want to just take before I leap into the word this

morning, take a moment just to honor my amazing friends, Rory

and Mel Dyer, who have been Fiona's pastor for the better

part of two decades. And, and I just get to say 3 CI

and Phillips's, we've got the best pastors in the world.

And I really believe that. And I say that with all honor

and say thank you for your your love.

You have pastored our family, pastored our church, pastored my

friends through highs, lows and three star.

I don't know if you know the gift that you have in the Dyers.

Can we honor the amazing Dyers today?

We love you guys. But as Rory said, my name is

Gabe Phillips and I know it might be a bit disappointing for

some of you. You, you arrived at church and

you saw a red dead in front and you thought Prince Harry is here

today and you is, is that Meghan Markle?

And maybe you thought it was Ed Sheeran after a diet.

And you're like, or, or, or most tight days, my wife likes to

wake up and she calls me mextimi, you know, from Grey's

Anatomy, you know, there we go. But only she can call me that.

But I, I have the privilege of being married to this beautiful

girl. And we've got 2 wonderful kids.

I think we've got a photo. If you want to see them in all

their glory, Nah, there we go on the side screen, just Olivia age

9 and Benji just about to go 7. And the incredible story of

Fiona and Gabe were that we met at church just in a meeting just

like that. She like this.

She arrived on that Sunday and she was standing on the right

hand side. I, I, I'm telling you the truth.

No word of a lie walked in. The Angel started to sing the

the light shone on her. My heart started to skip a beat

and I knew that is the girl I want to marry.

I knew it. I felt it was from the Lord.

She did not feel the same. But some of us here got more

clearly than others. It's a discipleship journey and

you're doing well now my love, well done.

But let me just say, there's an anointing in the right hand

corners of rooms. So if you're single, just go

stand there afterwards and let's just trust what God did for me,

He can do for you. Come on, any take us afterwards.

So I'll be there. We'll see.

Oh, anyway, there we go. Thank you.

But it is such a joy just to be here with you.

And I tell you when I think about that moment and it's it's

a moment that I go back to a lot.

Just this moment of when I first caught glimpse of this beauty

that just captivated my heart and captivates me every day.

Since I want to take us back to to different moments.

There's things where I think about often and I say these

phrases like take me back to my childhood when I didn't have to

buy gifts for my kids. They just woke up on Christmas

morning and they were there. Take me back.

Take me back to last season when Liverpool won the Premier League

title and went messing around mid table with the likes of Man

United and other riffraff. Take me back.

Take me back to when phones were the size of small children and

they had the capacity to see in five.

Please call me and had the iconic game that millennials and

Gen. ZS will never know the privilege

of playing. Snake 2.

You can keep your fortnights. I I don't want anything to do

with it. Snake two people take me back.

Take me back to when Lays made salt and vinegar chips.

Take me back to simpler times when we didn't have endless

choices of what you're watching. Tonight it was either Izzy Dingo

or Stephen Delon. Take me back, Take me back to

when MTV actually played music and take me back to where load

shielding wasn't something we feared but was just something

that happened after second morning cup of coffee.

Just wait, you'll get it. There it is.

Cheers. Lovely to be in church with you.

Take me back, Take me back. So why don't we?

I want to take us back today. So why don't you turn to your

neighbor very quickly and tell them take me back.

It's only awkward if you sing next to your ex.

Take me back. But maybe I can pivot quickly

and say maybe more seriously today.

Maybe if you were honest and you're honest with the deep cry

of your heart, you'll say something like take me back

before I messed up my marriage. Take me back to before my

relationship fell apart. Take me back before I said that

careless phrase. Take me back before I wrote that

hurtful text. Take me back before I started

that habit that I now just can't kick.

Take me back before I had that fight.

Click that link. Lost that job, spent the money I

didn't have. Take me back.

So this morning I want to take us back.

Back to the OG gospel, not the fictionalized, romanticized,

glamorized Christian story that we might have been told or have

come to believe. But I want to take us back to

the OG story, the original story of the gospel, the all powerful,

all conquering, demon chasing, sin destroying, hell breaking

gospel of Jesus Christ. And I want to take us back there

by looking at the four gospel writers and how they started

their gospel narratives. So you're right for that.

Give me a wave if you're still awake this morning.

It's so lovely to see You Beautiful people.

So we want to start out in this pit stop at the gospel writer

Mark and Mark writes his gospel. He he starts in this fashion.

He says this is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the

Son of God, just as the prophet Isaiah had written, Look, I'm

sending my messenger ahead of you and he will prepare your

way. He has a voice shouting in the

wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord's

coming. Clear the road for him.

Mark starts his narrative, his gospel narrative, by taking the

people back to the prophet Isaiah.

He says, before we get going, I need before we start moving

forward with the story, I want to take you back to remind you

of what God has prophesied. And it's this remarkable start

because there's a people who have been longing and waiting

for a Messiah who would take them back to the fulfillment of

what God had promised. But for 400 years they've lived

in what is the the scholars will call the intertestimonial

period. But 400 years of perceived

silence from God, no new prophecies, no new scripture, no

new direction for their lives. And they've been living in this

perpetual silence, not knowing how we're going to ever move

forward. But it's in this moment that the

the gospel writer Mark is reminding us to that actually we

got to go back before we go forward.

We have to go back to what God has spoken.

Why? Because they were thinking that

maybe God has stopped speaking. But I would propose to you,

maybe God hadn't stopped speaking, but the people that

just stopped listening. And I want to remind our fickle

and fragile hearts this morning that I want to take us back to

what God has spoken. It is so easy to be seduced by

the news headlines of our days, by the words of the world that

allow them to become the dictator of our hearts.

But if I can implore you and encourage you today, is that

God's Word, God's Word never, never, never returns to Him

void. It always accomplishes what was

sent out to do. No matter how long the delay may

seem. His Word is always working, and

today I want to take us back to His Word.

His Word has never ended helpless or hopeless in your

life. And the enemy may have had His

say over your life, over your relationships, your faith this

year, but His Word will have the final say.

I believe it and I want to state it categorically from this

pulpit. His Word will have the final say

in your life. Amen.

But maybe the problem is not that we are too empty of God's

Word. Maybe it's we rather too full of

God of the world used to be mirror mirror on the wall.

Who's the fairest of them all these days I think it's more

akin to mirror mirror on Instagram.

Tell me who I really AM. Mirror mirror on Facebook tell

me how good I really look. And we start to go to these

devices and go to these sources of of of the words that need

affect our lives, but starts to shake us and leave us vulnerable

to what the enemy is wanting to do.

I remember a number of years ago when I was a very, very young

pastor, still a young pastor. Thank you very much.

But the rewind a number of years ago where I hit a speed bump in

my pastoral journey where I came face to face with a reality that

was way beyond my experience. A story of a couple who had it

was such debauchery and pain and brokenness and the story was

just was just so messy that I did not know what to do.

And as they shared their narrative with me with between

missed tears and pleadings and saying, pastor, can you help us?

I stemmed out of prayer. And I, I knew as I was praying

it, it was, it was bereft, it was weak, it was anemic.

It was I was just praying, wrote scriptures.

But I, I left there feeling like I, I really had nothing to offer

this couple in their time of need.

And I felt very exposed and very shaken.

I did not know what to do. So I drove to the beachfront.

I don't know if you guys know what the beachfront is here in

Pretoria. It's just that I'm joking, guys.

I'm joking. The land of milk and honey up

here. Come on, who needs a mountain

when you've got the blue balls? Hey, come on.

But I was there on the beachfront in Cape Town and, and

I remember just thinking in that moment, what do I need?

How can I navigate this? My heart that is just being so

pulled in so many directions. And in that moment, I thought, I

need to phone somebody, but I don't want to phone somebody in

the church because then I'll betray the confidence of this

couple and what they shared with me.

And I just felt it was too tender to do that.

And I thought, there's there's only one person I can phone.

And I picked up the phone with a a shaking hand and I dialed

073993897 O And I put the phone to my ear and waited, trembling

with my lips trembling. And I heard on the other end of

that phone was my dad, Rowan Phillips, seated stage left,

answered that phone and he said, hello, my boy.

And I just those words, the damn wall broke and I just started

SOB. And I started SOB and I, I

explained the situation to him and I told him how, how weak I

was feeling. I said, actually, I don't think

I have what it takes, dad. And in that moment, my dad just

started to tell me and remind me of the call of God in my life,

remind me of who has spoken the words.

What has God said to you? Who sent you to Cape Town?

And in that moment, just courage finding because in that moment

when I did not know what to do, the Father came through.

And I want to remind you to you and I today that the voice of

the Father has to override the voices of this world.

So today I want to implore you, take me back to his word.

Take me back to what he has spoken.

Secondly, we go to the Gospel writer Matthew and Matthew, in a

sense, I can almost see him say, Mark, I see your Isaiah, but I

raise you and I want to take them a little bit further back.

And he says this, this is the record of the ancestors of Jesus

the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham.

Matthew says, actually, I want to take them a little bit

further back because they need to know something a little bit

deeper. And he takes us to this man

named Abraham, who was literally the father of the Jewish faith.

Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had father Abraham.

I'm one of them, and so are you. So let's all praise the Lord,

but quite literally, the nation of Israel came from Abraham.

The whole narrative came from Abraham, but his story does not

start on a mountain peak or or something grand.

It started actually in the sense of being birthed out of nothing,

birthed out of nothing, birth in Baroness, but birth as a result

of a promise that Abraham age 90, as the book of Romans

described him and his wife, they were as good as dead.

They'll never make it into a birthday card as good as dead.

But it's just, it's just the Bible pulls no punches

describing their state of being. But God said in that state where

you have nothing, you only have decades of barrenness, you've

got nothing. You've got no ability on your

own to sigh in the air to move the story forward.

But in this space, I'm making a promise to you.

You are going to be a father of many nations.

Matthew is reminding of people who might have forgotten this.

He says before we can go forward, I want to take you back

to what God has promised, not your efforts, not your

achievements, not even your promises, but what I have

spoken. A few years ago I was talking to

somebody who just got engaged, but then they came to me in a

moment of despair because their fiance had called off the

engagement and demanded the ring back.

And it was something so fragile as I sat with this girl and she

was just weeping and pouring her heart out and she was and it

was. You could feel the desperation

of the moment because that, that, that act of taking the

ring back as was not just a moment of, of a wedding being

postponed and, and the financial cost and the embarrassment of

sending out more communication, saying please don't come to the

wedding. And, and the, the, the hurt of

that moment. It was also just a surrendering

of a future that she had in mind.

It wasn't just a day. It was, it was actually this.

I had a future of, of holidays, of families, of children, of

legacy. And in that moment, giving it

back, the heartache of that promise being broken.

And so often we can be so shaken by situations like that in our

lives and different forms and fashions that we can forget the

promises of God. A little while back I was in an

airplane on a long haul flight and we hit a moment where there

was just incredible turbulence. Not your low level turbulence.

This was higher grade turbulence.

Things were shaking the, the, the, the luggage was shaking up

there on the, on the right hand side or the left hand side.

There. It was just people were finding

their Pentecostal roots at the back.

People were calling on the name of Jesus, rebuking the

turbulence. People were no longer ordering

vodkas. They're ordering holy water.

Please can I have holy waters. Neighbors were confessing to

each other their sins. It was that intense.

They were they were they were starting to rewrite wills.

If we go down and I need you to know this thing and was just

quite traumatic. And and then in that moment, my

eyes lifted as everything was shaking around us and people

were freaking out. I saw this glorified figure

called the air Hostess. And as my friend Mark Sneven

likes to tell us, he says there's something of God's

anointing on air hostesses. Because those air hostesses, as

the turbulence was going and those trolleys were out in that

moment, their smile never flickered.

They were going, their knees were going, and they'll stop and

go. Chicken or beef, Vegetarian

option. It was just remarkable.

Up on the top, it was all it was static underneath.

Beneath, everything was shaking. Everything was swaying, rattling

and rolling. But they were not perturbed.

I feel that walk was so good, I need to do it one more time.

Everything was shaking. Why?

Well, something was amazing. There's a revelation at the

moment, though everything was shaking.

They were not concerned because they've been there before, they

had done this many times before and they knew that actually no

matter what was shaking them externally, there was a pilot in

the front who says I'm going to lay in this plan, land this

plane no matter what. And it's AI think that needs to

become an air Hostess. Anointing needs to grip us as a

people again, that though if things start to shake us, we

actually really resolutely know that actually we know what God

has promised us. So I want to remind us that this

is a theological reality for us because we have a Father who

never breaks nor forgets His promises.

He's calls himself the promise keeper.

It's not just what he does, it's who he is.

It's a doctrinal word called the immutability of God.

The immutability of God, meaning he does not change.

Everything can be shaking, but he remains the same.

And maybe today I can tell you if I said this phrase, nothing

is impossible for God, all of you would go, Amen.

Let's try it one more time. Nothing is impossible for God.

But what if I follow up what I said except for one thing?

You'll be like, oh, heresy, get the phone out.

I knew it, redheads. He was doing so well.

Well, at least look at Scripture.

The scripture will be on the screen behind us.

In Two Timothy 2, verse 12, it says this.

When we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot

deny Himself. The one thing impossible for God

is that He cannot deny Himself. So when everything is shaking,

he cannot deny himself. He holds resolutely true to what

he has spoken. So Matthew takes us back to the

promise keeper, and I know disappointment is rife in the

air in 2026. Disappointment is rife.

But I want to remind us that the cure for disappointment is going

back to the promises of God. Hope deferred makes the heart

sick, but a long you fulfill the promise kept is a tree of life.

We want to go back to the promises of God.

So maybe today you're here and you've been dropped.

You've been dropped in any way which will form you.

You don't know how to navigate your way forward.

Everything is shaking. It feels like you're in the

midst of turbulence, that you don't know how to navigate your

way forward. I tell you today, the Father

never will drop you, no matter the turbulence.

He's never failed and He won't stop now.

So take me back to his promises. Pick up the next pit stop.

Our journey is the gospel writer Luke and I love thinking about

Luke going, watching the scene play outs and going, Mark, I

love your Isaiah. Oh, I love what you did with

Abraham. But boys, let me take a crack at

this. And Luke starts his gene energy

by going a little bit further and his iteration of the

genealogy, he works his way back, all the way back to Jesus

was the son of Adam. He takes them all the way past.

He bypasses all the lineages, all the way ghost doesn't stop

at Abraham. He goes all the way back into

the garden to the very beginning and says, actually, this story

is traced all the way back to the very beginning with Adam.

And this is beautiful reality because Adam for us represents

man's failure, yes, but also represents God's beautiful

original design and plan in a sense.

Lucas saying, before we can go forward, I need to take you back

to God's design. Adam was the Son of God.

He's not taking us back to our point of sin.

He takes us back to our God design purpose.

And many of you here, like me, probably often forget the plans

and the promises of God in our lives because we're just trying

to make it through the next week, the next payment, the next

court date, the next meal prep, the next doctor's visit was

Dolly Parton. Beautifully said, working 9:00

to 5:00. What a way to make a living.

I was a great prophetic writer, Rihanna said.

Work, work, work, work, work, work.

You may have lost your identity, but I tell you today, three CI

he hasn't forgotten who you are or whose you are.

I was on another plane heading up from Cape Town to God's

country hunting and I was with my friend Wayne Bathurst, who is

one of the most special men I know.

And we got up in the plane. We were quite excited to travel

together. He was seated in 10 BI was in 10

C and I remember us arriving in the plane.

I sat down. I was so chuffed to be on the

plane. You know, we're going on a bit

of adventure. I put the, the headphones in, I

put the the luggage up. I started to peruse which I

which, which podcast I listened to for the two hour flight.

I opened up the menu and I started to work out.

What body part I'd need to sell to be able to afford the

Pringles and Coke combo? I had it all and I was just

ready. I was just relaxed.

This is going to be wonderful. And just at that moment, so I

was getting settled in, one of the last passengers walked in

and this guy walked in who was wearing the tightest vest you've

ever seen. He had muscles upon muscles.

There was no hair on his head. He had his bag over his

shoulder. He was looking angry from the

word go. It was a picture of John Cena

and Mike Tyson combined. It was not my brother.

No, it was not. But as he walked in, his eyes

were fixed on me. And all of a sudden, I felt

very, very small. It was like, you know, there's

the Mona Lisa picture that, you know, wherever you go, the eyes

follow you. Just I try, I try to look this

way. His eyes, just his eyes would

not leave me. And I knew, oh, he's coming to

me. And then and he got to me and he

slammed his bag down and said these words.

You're in my seat now. I am from Zimbabwe and

originally and Zimbabweans. We apologize for apologizing.

We just say I'm sorry for everything.

So I'm just sorry. So I I just agreed with him.

I said I'm so sorry, Sir. I'm doing the buckle of as quick

as I could. I'm I'm so sorry.

I was moving my bags. He was slamming his bag and

where my bag was. I was moving out the way.

He was already in my seat before I'd even got out of it.

Just I'm so sorry, Sir. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Please forgive me. But as this was all happening,

Wayne Bathurst on my left and 10 B was unfazed.

He was not rattled. He picked up the our tickets,

looked at them, looked at that guy's ticket and he said buddy

said Wayne Bathurst. Gabe Phillips, 10B10C said your

seat is 23 C, says your gate is 10 C At that moment, you've

never seen a big man look so small as he was all teeth and

gums. I apologize.

And in that moment, I found my voice.

I said, yeah, that's right back of the plane, buddy.

I sat down. I said Pringles for everybody.

So me. But I want to say in this moment

today, what is trying to incite you from your confidence and

your calling? What has intimidated you out of

the seat that God has rightfully placed you in the seat of

authority in your family, the seat of authority in your

business. The purpose that God has called

you to in your workplace, in your your, your student

environment. He's called you with a purpose.

But actually we flowed or drifted away from that.

So we allow the enemy to cram and push his way into our seats

and being intimidated of our seats that actually we've given

over this authority. But I want to remind you today,

as Luke does, he takes us back and says, this Adam, son of God,

son of God, he does not address you as Sinner.

He does not address you as failure.

He does not address you as disappointment.

He does not address address you as an addict, as drunkard or as

vile. He calls you son beautiful.

Take me back to his purposes. If Denzel can come help me on

the keys to finish up. Otherwise I will preach till

midday. Mark takes us back to the

prophecies, back to Isaiah. Matthew takes us back to the

promises Abraham, Luke takes us back to the purposes Adam.

But all the while I see John just watching this.

And John goes, I love what you did there guys.

But John says, I think we've got to go a little way further back.

He says come with me. And John says, let me start my

Gospel this way. In the beginning was the word

and the word was God. The word was with God.

In the beginning was the word. This is the beauty of what John

is doing in this narrative. He is reminding us he's saying

before what the enemy spoke over your life, before the broken

promises, before the sin that you gave yourself over to almost

buried you and left you for dead.

He was he was He doesn't want to take you back to a better

version of yourself. Gabe 2 point O give it another

go. No, because he knows you'll

you'll just fail again. You'll disappoint yourself all

over again. He is going to take us back to

him. The prophecies, the promises,

the purposes are all beautiful, but if we don't get this, we

have nothing. He wants to take us back to the

person of God himself, Christ Jesus.

Not the fictionalized, romanticized, glamorized

Christian story, but the all conquering, demon destroying

sin, sin destroying hell, emptying worlds, shaking, life

changing glory. That is Jesus.

It has always been about Jesus. It'll always be about Jesus.

But too often we drift from this narrative.

But today I've come all the way to take you back to him, Him,

Him. It's Jesus plus nothing, minus

nothing. It's Him.

Matthew tells us that Jesus is the Messiah.

Mark tells us that Jesus is the miracle worker.

Luke tells us that he is the Son of Man.

John says he is the Son of God. The writer 2 Acts tells us that

he's the giver of the Holy Ghost and fire.

In Romans he says Jesus is the justifier in one.

In Two Corinthians he tells us he's the only one who can

sanctify us and make us holy. In Galatians he tells us he's

the only one who can break the curse of the law of us

completely. In Ephesians, He's our man and

glory and the measurable riches in himself.

In Philippians, he's our joy and he's the peace that passes all

understanding. In Colossians, he's the image of

the invisible God. This is the Jesus that we need

to know in one. In the two Thessalonians, he's

the soon and returning king in one.

In two Timothy, he's the only mediator between God and man.

In Titus, he's our faithful Pastor Philemon.

He's the friend that sits closer than the brother.

When you feel you've got nowhere to go, everything is shaken, he

says he's the one that'll never leave you.

In the book of Hebrews, he is our high priest and he's the

sacrifice, the blood that speaks a better word.

In James, he's the great physician of our souls, that

there's no sickness that he cannot overcome.

In one and two, Peter, he's the chief shepherd of our souls.

In one 2-3 John, he is love. And Jude, he's the defender of

the truth. And in Revelation, he's the king

of kings and he's the Lord of Lords.

Take me back to this Jesus. I remember the moment in the

middle of load shedding when those lights went off and the

street lights went off. The whirring fan went off, the

the noise went off. At a home our little kids who

for a long time had started to develop this idea that they had

worked out that Dad was not my only name.

And they found it humorous that that actually my daughter could

not believe that my name was Gabs.

She had shouted just in the same tone her mom was shouted when I

was late for something. Gabs.

And she thought it was very cute and very funny.

My little boy worked out. But my name is Gabriel Stephen

Phillips. So he called me Gabriel Elephant

Phillips. Just his vocab wasn't as good as

it is now. But it's all all funny and

humorous until that night when the load shielding would happen

in the midst of that darkness, in the midst of that moment

where where everything went quiet, where everything else

went dark. And they were very exposed.

In the midst of that moment. My kids were not shouting out

Gabs. They were not shouting out

Gabriel Elephant Phillips. There was one name.

They'll cry out and they'll say Dad.

And let me tell you, me as a weak, fragile, not perfect dad.

But I'd get out of that bed every single time and come

running, maybe stepping on a few loose Lego pieces on the way

through. But I'd come every time they'd

call Dad in the midst of darkness, out come running.

I want to say to you so ma'am, that there's a father.

No, no matter how dark it gets, that when we call on his name,

he comes running. Every time He has given us a

name that's above every other name that we can call and we can

cling to and run to the righteous, run into the strong

tower and they are safe that we can run to that name.

Take me back. I land by telling maybe one more

narrative. A couple in our church called

Lionel and Kath Magor, who we met because they did our pre

marriage counseling. But when we did our pre marriage

counseling, we we realized in that moment that there was there

was just something odd about it. And I would say so to my wife as

we left, but we just couldn't put our finger on it because

they were highly esteemed leaders in the church.

They were amazing people. But what we realized was that

months later, it came out that all the way through this that

Kev had been involved in a extramarital relationship on the

side that nobody knew of. And she'd been in a relationship

with another woman, a lesbian affair that had been going on

for a long time and got exposed. And that exposure wrecked such

havoc on the family. It was like an atomic bomb going

off in the family, destroying the family, destroying the

confidence of a church because we looked at him as leaders and

try to reconcile. How do we navigate this story?

And she hardened her heart and she went into that relationship

headlong and she gave herself fully to this other story, this

other narrative. But as she went on this journey,

her sin promised much but delivered little as over the

years the business started failed, the relationship failed,

her heart felt exposed and her health failed.

And she came to the very depths of herself and her narrative got

to a point where she ended up coming to the Bloberg

beachfront. She parked her car there.

And one night, she stared at the ocean, contemplating getting

out, walking to the water and ending it all.

But as she got out the car that fateful night, a man walked past

you she had never seen before and who she's never seen since,

looked in her eyes and said, what are you doing here?

Go home. In that moment, she just felt

there was the voice of the father speaking to her through

this man. So she treamingly got back in

the car and drove to her mom's house who she had not engaged

with in any meaningful way for over 5-6 years.

And as she arrived there, she knocked on the door that night

and her mother greeted her and she said, mom, I need to come

home. Her mother greeted her, who

she'd been praying for for for all that time and wept with her

and brought her in, gave her a bed on the couch.

And what started was this stumbling restoration journey.

She started to meet with Fee and I and we started to walk through

this journey with her. And she was just so grateful

what God was doing. She got baptized a few months

later, she got baptized by her teenage son.

In one one of the most remarkable moments, she actually

invited her ex-husband who had she had got divorced from to the

baptism to witness this moment. And she shared a story.

And even in that moment between amidst tears, she apologized to

him, but he was so broken, he couldn't even lift his eyes up.

He just nodded. He couldn't even look at her.

And it was a beautiful story that God was doing.

And we sat there with her and, and after a while she said,

listen, if this is all that God ever restores me, I don't need

the business. I don't need success.

If it's just Jesus, if it's just him, it's, it's more than

enough. But then she said, but I have

this itch in my heart. Do you think Lionel, my husband

might take me back? And then I said, externally, I

said, hey, anything's possible with God.

But internally, if I'm honest, I said hell to the no because we

had walked the journey with him and we had seen the devastation

that her actions had caused, the absolute ravaging of his own

identity and who he was as a man.

And, and I was like, there's no ways that that bridge is going

to go, come back, but we can trust God.

A little while later, she sent us a text like a giggling

teenager. Mother of three sends us this

text saying, Lionel sent me a message this morning saying,

would we go for a walk together on the beach?

What should I do? So I expertly replied, go for

the walk on the beach. You're welcome posturing

one-on-one. But then what happened was over

the next few weeks, months, this couple started to fall in love

again after a decade of divorce, a decade of divorce, a decade of

trauma, of sin, of brokenness. They started to find each other

again as two teenagers. And we started walking this

journey. And I remember the moment came

when they started, said we want to get remarried.

And we met with them at a restaurant called Bootleggers on

the Beachfront. And then I started to speak and

she said, I don't want to make a big deal of this because we've

done it once before. So can we just do a small

ceremony? I'll just wear jeans and AT

shirt, we'll just do it before you and God.

And her husband stood up. A man who had been so decimated

by the sin stood up. And I remember it as if it's

yesterday, hit the table. And he said, no, we'll have a

massive celebration. And with tears he said, and you

will wear white and he says, what will happen?

You'll come from the back, but there's no one here to walk you

down the aisle. So you'll wait for me.

I'll stand at the front, but then I'll walk to the back and

I'll fetch you at the back and we'll walk in together because

that's what Jesus did for you. I'd never heard the gospel

preached more better in my life. So I just started to SOB into my

coffee. And when I sob it's an ugly cry.

So I was pastorally no help for the rest of the meeting.

My wife took over beautifully and said just excuse him.

But what was worse or best depending on the way you look at

it was the actual wedding. When this took place.

The church was full and she walks in the back and everyone

in the as she arrived and he walked the back everyone started

to sob. I started to sob.

It was the worst wedding I've ever done because I could not

get a word out. But it was the best wedding I've

ever done because I've never seen a clearer depiction of what

Jesus can do. That which was dead came alive.

This is what God can do. So I want to tell you today,

take me back to the one who always takes me back.

Take me back to the one who always takes me back.

Can we stand to our feet? I'm very aware in this room,

behind the Sunday best dress, behind the smiles.

And how are you, brother? How's your week been?

There's a lot of pain. Maybe you've run far, far, far.

Maybe nobody even knows it and your heart is given over to your

fear, your disappointment, your sin.

From the Father's heart to yours today.

Jesus always takes you back. He always takes you back.

Maybe 2025 ruined you and you're still living in the shadow of

that. Maybe your marriage, your

habits, your lies, your devastation, your sin, it's just

so broken. And today you say, I wish I

could have a redo. I can't give you a redo, but I

can invite you to repent. Repent means turning back,

turning back to the one who's always been there for you.

Today is your day. So ma'am, to come home.

But before we pray, our Love Is All to close our eyes.

And if you're comfortable, can you lift your hands as high as

you can? When we lift our hands, it's a

biblical response, but we're reminding ourselves as we lift

our hands of our fragility. We can only reach so far.

We can only surrender so much. But as we lift our hands, I am

very aware that there is a divine, mighty outstretched arm

from heaven that wants to meet you at your point of need today.

Meet you at your point of lack, Meet you at your point of faith,

however fickle it may be. Can you pray this over your

life? Can you say take me back?

Take me back to the One who always takes me back?

Can we shout that one more time? Say, take me back to the One who

always takes me back. Father, right now in this room,

I thank you that you are taking us back to what you have spoken,

maybe what the enemy has shoved us out of the seat of, and we

have given up our purpose. We've given up on what God has

called us to. I thank you.

There's a reminder today of a of a Father who has not given up on

us, that even though when we are faithless, you remain faithful,

for you cannot deny yourself. I thank you, Father God.

You're the God that's been pursuing us, been hunting us

down, been seeking after us. And I thank you that you are

here today to welcome us back, back to the purposes of God.

It's not snakes and ladders. It's not all the way back to the

beginning. No, it's back to where did we

leave off? Let's pick up and start walking

again. Thank you Father, you're doing a

deep work, but right now in this room, I really feel there's

moments of decision, people who need to make a decision.

This is the day for me to return to the fullness of God return.

I've been living far. Maybe you've never done this

before. You've never given your life to

Christ. You've lived in sin, you've

lived in rebellion, you've lived in brokenness, you've lived in

an apathy. And you said I need, I need to

get back to God. But it's felt like 1,000,000

miles today. There's a God who's come close

to you and saying come back, come back, come back.

Or maybe you've done this 100 times and you feel so guilty

because you said I've just, I've broken that promise so often.

I've prayed this sort of prayer so often, but I feel even

further away because of that. I don't care whether it's your

first time or hundredth time. I'm not counting and neither is

heaven because heaven's no longer counting.

Man sins against them.