Recharge Your Testimony

Teah Bailey · Tidal Church Moncton · August 14, 2022 · Recharge series

Teah Bailey shares his testimony of moving from addiction and despair to a calling in Christian hip hop, anchored in 1 Peter 2:9. He invites the church to support artists and mission work that reaches people who might never walk through church doors.

More from Teah Bailey · The Recharge series

Topics: Identity, Purpose, Mission & Outreach

Transcript

[0:01] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. You guys are good if I sit down, right? I promise I'm gonna do some more work for you before the morning's out, but I figure leading up to that, I'm gonna sit down for a sec. Yeah, so this is exciting, huh? Getting to share among the Wesleyan with my family. I'm pretty excited. We're gonna go a couple of different ways with this, and I'm excited for each part of this journey we're about to go on. But either way, I'm just gonna get right into it and just, first of all, tell you how excited I am to be here with you. There's parts of my story that most of you know, and there's parts that some of you don't.

[0:47] What I will say is what you'll find, and how I share my testimony, is that I don't spend a lot of time on the negative stuff that came first. Only reason is that I believe that I am a new creation. And so I share enough for you to be able to appreciate how far God's brought me. But I don't hang out there anymore. So if that's all right with you, I just wanted to make sure that you knew before you got here and prepared yourself for this whole movie that you were possibly going to hear. It's not gonna happen. Google works very well, and all of my stuff is on there. So getting back to that, I'll give you some background stuff. So I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am the oldest of some kids.

[1:37] I'm still working at what the exact number is. So I'll get there when I get there, but I'm the oldest from what I understand, and you know, I was mostly raised by my grandparents, but not for my mother not trying to do well. She had what she had, and things were tough growing up. And so my grandparents stepped in and raised me. My mother and I have a great relationship now, and it's funny because we've had conversations where she has, you know, I feel bad for you know, when you guys were kids, and I'm just like, you know, by letting Nanny and Poppy raise me was probably the best thing that she could have possibly ever done for me. So her and I are cool, and at no point in my story is there a negative on my mom. I love that woman a lot anyway.

[2:23] So I grew up there. I experienced a lot of things growing up. So homelessness, you know, loss of friendships. I was involved in gang activity growing up in Halifax. And so all of those things kind of come in together. Oh, one second. I had one important thing that I made sure I was going to do before I started talking to you, and I didn't do it, and that could come back and bite us all later. There, the timer started. All right. Now, getting back that could have went real bad. Like, I mess up lunch. That's my thing. Side story, and I can already feel my wife shaking her head when I get ready to say it, but how I found out that sometimes I can pray too long is that I was praying once that I was blessing the food, and partway through the prayer, you know, how people, you know, you want to hear responses because it lets people know you're engaged, and my wife's beautiful voice came up saying, and thank You, Lord, for warm food. So I'm running the timer, y'all. I'm running the timer. All right.

[3:20] So yeah, I experienced a lot of things: homelessness, difficulties making friends. I always wanted to lead, but I didn't know how or what that looked like. So I was very tough to be friends with, even, you know. And so it worked out that even for me now, like, the relationships I have, the close relationships I have are real close, like, it's weird. We're how close we are, right? But that's why And then, you know, the one part that mostly everybody would know about is I went through a heavy cocaine addiction, and that was pretty consuming for me. It took over my life, and it wasn't until my wife actually approached me to give it up or lose my family. It put me in a get help state, not even intentionally, because I responded with yes. Of course, I'll stop using cocaine. Who wouldn't say that, right? So I said that, and I honestly had great intentions to do it, but for me it didn't go that easily. And so what happened to me was, what I didn't know then that I know now was I have severe ADHD, and in that I had gotten really depressed because I didn't know that that's what I had, right? So I had gotten really depressed because I was trying to get over this consuming drug, this powerful drug, in my own strength, because I'm stubborn and I believe I can accomplish just about anything. So I had this thought in my head: I'm gonna do this. And I genuinely wanted to.

[4:54] But really all that led to was a suicide attempt, because now I feel like I'm trying to get off this drug, but I'm not doing any better. Right? And now I don't have the drug to deal with things not going any better, right? And so it kind of put me into a really uncomfortable position. And I know there's people in the room who understand it, and I promise you, if it's something that we need to talk about, that I can, you know, encourage you or pray with you or be there for you. Some of you already know from experience that I will gladly do that. All right. So at any point when you see me, please let's connect if that's something that we connect on. All right. But yeah, so I ended up experiencing that addiction, and my wife approached me to get help and, you know, do better, if you will, for lack of a better way to say it.

[5:44] And so I was presented with this option and opportunity to go to Teen Challenge, which is here. Remember? Well, we have a center here in Memramcook, just outside of Moncton there. Anybody familiar with Teen Challenge? Show us. Okay, cool. It's a great program. If you need help, I encourage you to at least reach out and see if there's something I can help you with. Teen Challenge was a place where my relationship with Christ really happened. I guess, if you will, I knew who Jesus was, and I'd already started a relationship with Him. I just wasn't getting it, you know, if you will. And I knew that something was different about me. You know, I knew, I know my heart, like I've known that my whole life. So something was different. I just couldn't figure it out. But anyway, while I was in this program, I had a life coach named Mark Pope, and I'm sure I'll get a message later today, Mark, telling me that he tuned in later to watch the service, because he won't show up for the 10:30 version of it, but that he's tuned in later to watch this service, and he's gonna tell me good job. So regardless of how you feel about how I did today, my life coach is gonna say good job. So I did well, and I'm already owning it. So, but one of the things that he did, and throughout the program we had what we called contracts, and every month we would be responsible to, you know, learn a, do a character quality and learn a memory verse, and we'd have to paraphrase some portion of Scripture, or like, there was just, there were things you had to do and read books and stuff. And so my life coach Mark, he had said he knew I was in the music, you know. I loved hip hop music. I loved rap music, and that I enjoyed writing it and creating it. And so he had come up with this idea that for my contracts every month, when I got my Scripture paraphrasing or whatever, that I would be required to write a rap verse out of whatever that Scripture was.

[7:46] Now, I don't know how familiar you guys are with album creation and all of that stuff, but the average album is about 12 songs. Right? I mean, unless you're one of these really new artists who are really cheap to note on y'all and you get nine. Sorry, I didn't train them that way, but the average album was about 12 songs. And so when I graduated the program, I had technically written 12 songs. Teen Challenge's 12 months faith-based program, if I didn't already tell you that. So my life coach had really invested in me in what my talent was, what my gift was, or what God was gonna have for me in that. And so when I graduated, I was, I spent so much time creating these rhymes out of stuff about Jesus, that things. It was a good place to be in, because I was just coming off the drugs and everything. It was just myself and that Bible, right? So there was nobody to paint it for me, if you will, you know, I was able to actually take it in and learn from it and, you know, find out what God was saying to me personally in those scriptures, and be able to, you know, transition them into words that were palatable to people who like poetry, I guess. That's the gentle way we're gonna put it. So I have a, I've got a scripture slide, but if it's not there, it's cool.

[9:13] But the scripture I basically lead this ministry out. There it is. Look at that. The scripture I basically lead this ministry off of is 1 Peter 2:9, and it says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful light." That's basically what 180 Ministries is. It's born out of that original story, you know, coming up in a big family on my father's side of the family. My grandmother had nine sons, no daughters, nine boys. And every one of them was bad, right? I love that little woman so much because there was something about her that, as a kid, as long as she was alive, I just knew not to mess with this woman. Like, she looks small, she's got a low voice, but I know her nine sons, and they all call her Mama, and, listen, so I didn't want to ask any more questions than that to work on the grounds of incriminating her or myself. But what I'm saying is it's a good lady, but that was the family I grew up in. And then on the other side was my mother's side of the family, which is the grandparents that raised me, on my mother's side of the family. I had all girls and no boys.

[10:27] So, little different on my father's side. Nanny was like, "Okay, we got another boy." But on my mother's side of the family, who we King is born, right? And so so with that, I've learned that, you know, I am something special because my grandmother always reminded me that I'm God made me, you know, and that I was special, and I was great. Now so that scripture is very important to me, and I use it, I live by it. I love it. And that's the scripture for my ministry. So I'd like to talk to you a little bit about 180 Ministries, if that's all right, because that's kind of why I came up here the week before I go on tour, starting in Moncton next week. Anyway, sorry, side note, I'm talking, I'm thinking out loud, my fault. 180 Ministries is an organization that was birthed out of Teen Challenge when I came out of the program, and it we do hip hop music. We do workshops on bullying, drug awareness, teen suicide, all of that stuff, and we do keynote speaking events.

[11:31] I just, I have a DJ on board. So if you have a you have a wedding coming up and you want to make sure that the music is positive, not necessarily Christian or whatever, but positive, I have a DJ for that. I can get you set up. We have another young artist who actually went through, grew up in MCA, who I've been helping out and working with, and so the mentor side of it is also a big, important part of what 180 Ministries does. I remember when Dave Steeves used to preach here. He went out to Teen Challenge one day to speak in the chapel, and he took a picture of my before and after photo, and he posted, "Found people find people," as he spoke about my ministry. And so that's kind of become the tagline that we go with, with 180 Ministries, and that's what we go out and do. And like I said, it started out of Teen Challenge, so out of a place of faith to begin with. There's Rocco. I couldn't find a mic. I usually don't like being on the stage and not knowing where my mic is. So there, I feel a lot better now. Thanks, bro.

[12:30] You moved anyway. Over the years, since 2011, been blessed to create a bunch of Christian music, and some people would have heard the conversation going on in the music industry a couple of years ago with, like, a Lecrae or whatever, where they were trying to determine: are you a Christian artist or an artist who's Christian? And so I'm both, but I profess to be a Christian artist. And the reason I do that is because there's gangster rappers, there's trap rappers, there's whatever rappers. I'm a Christian rapper, and my faith goes first, but that doesn't give away or take away your right to, or not your right, but your obligation to make good music.

[13:21] You know, or I feel like, and it's happened that in the genre of, sometimes in Christian music, and why people tend to call it corny is because sometimes we've, you know, toned down our artistic ability in terms of making sure we get the message of, which I don't think either has to happen. I think if God gave you this artistic ability and this gift, you should use it to its fullest, and if you do that, then you're going to come up with real creative ways to say Jesus' name. Muscle. You'll learn about me, if you haven't met me before, that I'm also not one of those fake humble people, right? Like, I don't do that. If you tell me I did a good job, I will tell you thank you, because I know God gave me the gift, but I work really, really hard, because God gave me this gift, and I'm not about to waste. All right, so there's that. I have an album slide too.

[14:12] And so I'm just gonna post that up there and let you guys see just the albums that have gone out. So since 2014, we've released U-Turn, and then followed up with Out of Anguish, and then Reverence, which is one of my favorites. I see Jen too. If you get the Reverence album, you just got to play the first song, and you know, after Jen starts hitting you with that, mmm, vocal stuff, you'll go get the rest of them. So if you have to pick a song first, if you haven't heard my music, you need to pick a song first to check out, I'm gonna say get Reverence and play song one, but I'll also say get Under the Hooding, play song 14, because Jeff Summers is somewhere in the room and he's on that song. So we're gonna make sure that you get that too. But yeah, Reverence, and then we went into Ventilation. Now, that's that one is a special project to me, because Ventilation was one where I was in a serious struggle, a personal struggle, and figuring out life for myself and where it sat with my faith and with other things that are going on in my life. And so I was really struggling in that, and it was right around the time that George Floyd had passed away, and we ended up having an interview that was done here that Pat Steeves did with me, and gave me the opportunity to share from my perspective, you know. But there was a while where I was really struggling in a tough spot where I felt like, on one hand, I'm this Black man who has an obligation to my community, which I will not turn off at any point, right? On the other hand, I'm this man of faith, and the two didn't seem to keep coming together for me and I had to figure that out and so it caused a lot of struggle for me internally, mentally.

[15:51] And so one thing for me, the easiest, the best way that I get through things, I guess, if you will, is that, you know, I put them to music, because then it's just myself and whatever track I'm writing to or whatever, and I can say however I feel, and if I'm clever enough in how I write it down, I can release it and it's not going to hurt nobody. It might challenge you, you know, but it's not gonna be a negative thing. And I also believe that I'm allowed to have awkward, tough, and hard discussions with God, and I believe that some of us don't know that, and so I'm okay with having mine publicly on music. Don't judge me, pray for me, you know, that's kind of how I view that.

[16:36] So the Ventilation album was very, very important to me. But when that one was done and it, you know, run its cycle, I'd realize real quick I had a lot more to vent about. So Ventilation 2 came to life, and that was the last album I just released. And we're coming up on Under the Hood next week. But the last album out is Ventilation 2. Now, why say all that? Because we're going to get to the part that's really awkward and uncomfortable for me, and one of the reasons why. Let me just jump into one spot. Church, we need to take care of our artists. Okay? And I'm not just saying that because I'm an artist. Let me explain where I'm going with this. Okay? The people that we're trying to reach with our gift are outside of these walls, we know that, we accept that, and that's fine.

[17:26] But also, we have to be mindful that there's no record label for what some of us do, okay? So I'll give you mine first, right? So there's no record label for what I do. Okay? The church has to become our label, and I'll tell you where I'm going with this. So for me, as an artist, I say Jesus way too much for mainstream labels to take on what I do, right? But then on the flip side, I talk very openly about my pitfalls, downfalls, you know, issues that we have as a family here in churches and in our community, and things that affect us in racial stuff, and all of those things. I talk about them, and I talk about them openly, and if I feel like the conversation has to be even more open, I will open it, and most of you know that, and so it has made it so that, you know, Christian labels also have a bit of discomfort. And so they don't touch it as much, right? Which, again, I'm fine with. I know my calling, and God is taking very, very good care of it up to this point.

[18:30] But I know there's going to be a young artist behind me. And this was something that we had to address before they come up and don't have the ability to keep going. Right? And so I just encourage you with that, in that when you have these young artists that are really pouring out just because they're not on worship teams, that you really, genuinely get behind them and support them, because it's lonely out there and they're out there doing ministry. I consider what I do mission work. Okay, so I'm gonna get to the awards really quick so I can jump through that. There's a slide for that, and I said I was going to get to the awkward part. I hate talking about this part. But you'll never know what it is I need you to support if you don't know what we're actually doing out there. Right? And I feel like that's where we've gotten disconnected in that I've been really busy for a decade, but I don't.

[19:22] I don't tell you what I'm doing, and I assumed that you were watching and you knew, and that's my fault, and I apologize for that, because I assume that, and so I want to give us all the opportunity to really go out and impact the world, man, with what we have. Right? And we do have an opportunity. You know, I'd say, and I might be crazy with this number, but I'd say 85% of talented artists who are out there making music in the world right now would tell you that they started in church. They started singing in church. So why do we have the smallest number of commercial artists? We'll figure that out later together. I wasn't given enough time for that today, so we'll leave that alone, but I just want us to be thinking about that, that we actually intentionally start to support our artists. I'm not talking financial, right? A share on Facebook, a post on Instagram. There's a few of you here, and I tried to make it a point to individually speak to you this morning especially. Thank you.

[20:21] Thank you for what you do. It's awesome, and it gives us the opportunity to go out and lead people and be great. So the awards, who appreciate it. I only put it up there so you could have it. Also, just found out that I've been, not. No, I received, as of September, I will be New Brunswick Gospel Music Hall of Famer. So that's exciting. But now let's get to the number that really, the award, I guess, if you will, of the stat that matters to me the most, and what I wanted to share with you, and what all that ramble was for, to get us to this place right here. Since 2011, this ministry has, you know, in the partnerships that we're in, we've led over 4,000 people, the first-time decisions for Christ.

[21:16] Since 2011. And I think that's the part that I wanted to make sure that we hammer down, what we're actually doing out there. You know, we are a church out there, you know, and we're leading people, we're introducing them to Christ, and some of those people are people who would not come through these doors. So one of the awards I just recently won, the Ventilation 2 album just won Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year for the East Coast Music Awards, and what's really cool about that is that's not a Christian award. So that means for the entire year, this is me coming out now. So for the entire year, every rapper in Atlantic Canada has to deal with the fact that the number one music in Atlantic Canada is the Christian hip-hop album. That's funny to me.

[22:01] I'm a little bit competitive. I'm sorry. I came up through the Michael Jordan era, so yeah, I do. I'm sorry. That one takes me every time. I enjoy it. But all that to say, one of the things that they also allow you to do is showcase at these events, because they're networking events. Right? So you show up and you do these little concerts for all the managers and all that, that are out there, and we performed at a place called Club Chrome and my set started at 1:15 a.m. Very unimpressed with that. I'm gonna just, I looked at the list of people who were performing that night. I knew quickly. I was the only one with a grandchild. I got 1:15, like that's stupid to me. But it felt intentional. You're gonna make the Christian rap. You're gonna see how much I really do this, right? So, all right, cool. So I brought a live band and whooped all of them. But anyway, side note. Again, back to it.

[22:52] That night, my set finished around and after it was over a guy came up to me and I would say I mean, I think he was the drunkest guy in the club from what I saw but he came up to me and you know, we started talking and he gave me an opportunity to pray for him in that moment. It was a you know, it wasn't a long time together, you know, the clubs closing and obviously he's ready for security to come kick him out. But he made the point to come talk to that Jesus rapper, you know, so it didn't matter where we were doing it the fact that we made really really good music meant that I didn't have to not say Jesus to get it into places. All right. Somebody asked me that like, how do you manage to play clubs? And that's and all that, and you still, you're saying Jesus all the times. I make really, really good music.

[23:39] Alright, it's like I'm not gonna pretend that it's not. That would be disrespectful to God. He gave me the ability. I make good music. That's what it is. Right? And so I said like, you know, you guys are gonna want to quote from me at some point. So I'll give it to you. I listen to the other four albums in the category. It was the best album, not in a big-headed way, just the message was Jesus and it, but it was a good form of delivering it, right, the production. I went out and I'm very intentional about that. I don't view Christian art to be a license to not be great. All right, so that's kind of where I land on that. And I did go there for a while on purpose and checking my timer. I'm about to end with a couple minutes extra, but I'm gonna close. I'm gonna do it this way. So coming up starting next week, I'm going on tour, guys, and this has been a long journey, going back to the first time I walked through these doors. I was still a student at Teen Challenge.

[24:41] And I walked into Pastor B, and it was a very interesting encounter, but it led to this becoming my family. And guys, we've been through some stuff, you know. Personally and as a family, we've been through some stuff, and and I've spoken to my leaders here. So they, you know, I'm not. but we've been through some stuff, guys, and it's exciting for me. It's an honor for me to be able to, you know, represent us. Represent this family, represent people of faith, and to go out and actually deliver with something that is relevant right now, that is impactful right now, and they don't have to come here to get it.

[25:34] We'll take it to them and then invite them back, guys. I love doing that for us. I love being that part of our family, you know. I enjoy it. It's stressful, and loneliness hits hard because of the stuff we just talked about, but yeah, there goes my timer. I'm good. But yeah. I'm excited for this tour because of that, because, you know, Atlantic Canada is something that I don't get to do as far as tour goes, especially with Fresh IE touring with me on this. They usually do these national tours to stop in Toronto and call it Canadian tours, and it's not true. But when the conversation came up, where do you want to go? I want to go home, as I don't get to come home, and I wanted you to see, because it's one thing for me to get up here and play with the band, and they're great. Don't get me wrong. It's another thing to get up here with the track Sunday morning or show up for youth group, but that's not the events we're taking out there to show people. I really wanted to come home and show you guys the excellence that God has blessed us with in terms of how we deliver His message to people.

[26:36] You know, and that's kind of what the Moncton concert was for. And Jim, wherever he is, he'll tell you that I had told him, look, I need to get these dates booked, but I'm not booking the dates until I have my Moncton Wesleyan date first. And so, put a little pressure on him, but they figured it out either way. I got my date, and next Friday, August 19th. It's the same day I'm releasing the album. It's a busy day, but we're gonna open, we're gonna set the tour off. We're gonna launch the tour here in Moncton at Moncton Wesleyan on the stage. And I'll tell you why doing it in here was the big deal. Okay? Because Marc gave me the option to use the Life Center, which I normally use because of the size of it. It's a little smaller, which makes it a little more intimate. But when I was in Teen Challenge, I saw a magazine with Fresh IE on the cover.

[27:24] I had two things that I said I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to meet Fresh IE because I thought that'd be cool. And I wanted to perform on the stage because I had seen it and I thought that would be cool. I've already done both. But it's time to really do it together in a way that God is honored and blessed, but not just that, so that we actually do some ministry at home, those 4,000 lives. I don't feel like the percentage is high enough here, and I live here, you have access to me. Let's make it work here. All right. So here comes the fun part. Just so that, you know, I check the ticket sales every couple of days. All right, so 180.com o and E dot. There's a slide that I it says the main slide. It's got my picture in my name. That's the one. So that's the spelling. Oh any a t e a .com If you go there and you click on the Moncton Wesleyan concert, you buy your tickets, 15 dollars. Good luck.

[28:29] I'll tell you why I really want you to go and buy them in advance if you can. Okay? The reason for that is we want to start something that really benefits our area in terms of bringing artists here to do their concerts. All right? Through Atlantic Canada, but they don't because Atlantic Canada is known for. We don't pre-sell very well. Right? I figure we might as well take a crack at this and see what we can do. You already know what you're getting. You're either gonna get a good show or good jokes, but you're gonna get one of the two. You might as well spend the fifteen dollars. Right? One way or the other, you will be entertained. So get the tickets, come on out. Let's look more. Let's look past this show because it might not be your thing. But there is a worship band out there that we're going to want to book that's not going to come without presales, and we have to show them on this opportunity that we can sell the tickets.

[29:20] Okay. Nobody has this conversation with you. It's a hard conversation, but family, we can do some very important and special things in our region. We've got to come together. All right, so let's do that. Let's do that. So 180.com, tickets are 15 dollars, go get them. Anything else you want there, those beautiful shirts you saw up here, those are on there too. Go get those too, but, you know, whatever you got to do. We just released a single, guys, called "Say Amen." It is a worship song that we that we, you know, we wrote. There's a backstory to it that I don't have time to tell because you guys also heard when my alarm went off, so I won't give you the backstory on it, but what I will say is that song came from a place and a time where I needed it. I didn't realize I needed it, but I needed it, and some of what happened was I had sent the track to a worship pastor here in the city who I respect. I sent it to him and just said, you know, I want to do this song together. I mean, you know, I'm paraphrasing, of course, and he said, "Of course, love to do it."

[30:29] It's going to look funny. Just stay with me. I was also thinking about the big water bottle sticking out my behind, but he said, all right, what do you want? I said, I have no idea, brother. One thing about me is I make it very tough to create with me, because I give you zero pointers. I believe God put your name on my heart for me to call you because you're great at what you do. So I'm going to get out of the way and let you do what you do, and we'll come together and figure it out. Some creatives don't like that. But whatever. Anyway, Jeff was cool. I did it, and he sent something back to me, and it was a little while before I got something back, but he sent something back to me on a day that I was driving home and just soaking into the blessings got it actually giving me, right. I was really struggling with the loneliness that this thing brings sometimes, especially when your family doesn't know what you're doing, right? So I didn't realize that I could have fixed that loneliness a little earlier. At least. I think I could have, so now we're gonna find out if that theory was correct. We'll see, anyway.

[31:31] But yeah, I opened my email. I'm driving. I'm crying. I was, and I was listening to worship music, but like, I'm crying to the point where, so when we travel sometimes, my wife brings her headphones so she can watch her videos, because that's usually when I get to actually listen to an album straight through. So that's what we do. So she has no idea what's going on in the car, but she looks over and I'm bawling, like I'm away from my face, trying to keep us on the road. We're all over the place. Right? But, you know, go with Jesus. We'll survive. I'm crying because of Him. So I'm sure He'll keep us safe or take us home, His choice. But I'm crying, and so she looks over at me. She's like, "Oh man, you're rating your feelings today, aren't you?" Sensitive, beautiful woman I married. But I was, and all I could say to her was, you know, I've been, I spent the past three months focusing on all of the negative stuff, you know, all the stuff I got to fix or all of the ways we're not together or whatever the term is, right? And we had spent one weekend at the cottage, and I was like, I'm looking at these blessings, man. They, you know, and I felt really convicted about it. So Jeff sends me this email. I open it up and his vocals were in it. Like, okay, we're gonna do something with this. So I go in the studio, like, I got home, parked the car, threw my stuff in Renton Studio, wrote my verse, 15 minutes.

[32:51] I was pretty impressed. Then I played it back and I was like, "Oh, that doesn't sound bad for 15 minutes. I like that." And then I was like, "But I know who needs to be on this." So I call Fresh I.E. Now, he's in Winnipeg, so he's two hours back from me. This would have been around noon, so I call him, it's 10 a.m., right? I'm like, "Amen. What are you doing?" He said, "I'm marinating steaks. I'm having a barbecue today." I said, "All right, awesome." I said, "Well, I need a verse from you, and I need it today." He's like, "Dude, like, I'm marinating steaks." On the track through. So I did, and he had that verse back to me recorded and everything in two hours. Now that doesn't mean a lot to you, but I'll tell you my response to him when I called him back. I said, "You know what, Fresh, I got to tell you. I know God's hand is on this song." He said, "Why?" I said, "Sometimes I can't get a verse back from you for two months. Two hours.

[33:40] Two hours. I got this verse." And so if it's all right with you guys, I'm gonna invite Jeff out here and maybe perform that song for you guys before I go. And the reason I invited Jeff was because if you don't like what I do up here in the next five minutes, you don't enjoy that, that's fine. He's going to show up on next Friday as well. So still buy your ticket. And you can come listen to him and some other people. But either way, you know, I'm not gonna let you off the hook on the ticket part. You good? All right, man. We're ready when you are. Oh, Lord God, all my daily lift your voice says and say Amen.

[34:29] Holy, holy, Lord God, all my if your voices and say One more time, come on. Holy, Lord. God Almighty. If you lift your voice, said, let's go. Okay. Now from the time I open up to when my eyes close, I'm reminded of who You are. Nobody like You by far. The healing and love and Paul, the promise of life eternal. Well, we faithful, the author of all that's right. Now for the times You were there for me, I didn't deserve, and every time I show my actions be in line with Your Word. And then every time I feel bad, You were there to pick me up, dust me off, still reminding me that You'll always love me. So the only thing to do is say thanks and give You glory with whatever I have left in this tank. Now my mistakes, I laid them down and ask for You to restore and just trust You with my whole life 'cause You did it before for all the things that You promised, the days You never let me down through the hills and valleys.

[35:33] You will always around, so I'm gonna lift my hands up and praise And this, I'm gonna keep it short and simple, Father God, amen. Let's go. For all the things that He's promised, for all the days He never let You down. The hills and the valleys, lift up your hands. Somebody say amen here. Now we stand in the gap because God, You're the reason Your hand on our life. So we fight in the season for justice and mercy, trust because You're worthy. Your touch of Your love brought redemption. Amen. Let the church say yes, let the street say amen because we're fireful it starts in the core of a minute. Yeah. We yearn for the day. Yo God, because You're able, these praises, these few from the heart of the naval, shouts from the rooftop, mouth is the juice box. Yes, and the truth rock down to the boom. That's, let's say amen because the Lord gave us perfect, and while You search just yes, we will worship, singing.

[36:42] Pull it up. And we're singing a little louder. Come on. Yes, yes. things that He's promised, for all the days He never let You down, the valleys. Throughout the year. Somebody say holy Lord. God all night. And say yes, look, come on, You holy. Holy.

[37:33] Y, lift your voice, somebody. You are the things that He's promised, for all the days He never let You. Through our that heals and stuff. Yeah here. The holy, holy Lord God Almighty, to your voices. And say holy, holy lives here.

[38:29] And among the Wesleyan. Thank you for letting us rock with you and thanks for letting me share with you guys. And yeah, next Friday, we'll be here in Moncton. Don't go away, stand on the side. You know. It's easy watching. There's some of these guys need to listen to more of your music because some of them are like rhythm challenged. I can see that out there. So you need to work on that one. Of the great things you may not realize, and 180 went over, as his grandma calls him, Tia, that he's got 15 mission fields he's going to over the next little while, and they are mission fields. They are places he's gonna get to go into and share the gospel in a way that a lot of us are never going to do, and so I want us to pray for him right now. Will you do that with me, you as a church family, because we are a church family. He's part of our family. I want you to stretch your hand out towards them as I pray for him, and we're gonna pray for them. Father, I thank You so much for 180.

[39:27] Father, I thank You for the ministry that You placed on our heart, as he said earlier, like found people, finding people. And Father, I'd ask that as this Friday when it starts here and it goes to 14 other cities. May more people be found as a result of 180 Ministry than he could ever anticipate. Father, we pray for health for him. We pray for conversations and opportunities for them that he would never have dreamed of. Father, may seeds get planted. May harvest happen. May people who are in a tough place go, "I can turn it around too," as a result of the ministry and witness that they'll experience. So Father, we pray for an abundance of people to witness this ministry. We pray for health.

[40:15] We pray for travel. We pray for favor in all aspects of this ministry to happen. So we give Tia, we give 180 into Your hands to lead, guide, direct, and to use in mighty ways over the coming weeks. In Your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Give it up for 180 one more time, please.