Prevailing Church : Living in babylon

So what we're going to do today is look at the life of someone from the world and draw out principles from the world that will allow us to engage with the world around us.

So that's what Jacob has been teaching us over the last few months, which is a prevailing church is an engaging church.

It is a church that engages with the people and the systems around it.

And if our church, if Acts 29 and the broader church is supposed to be a prevailing church, it then means that we engage with the people who are around us and that we engage with the systems that are around us.

So that's what we're going to look at today.

Now, before we get there, if we are to ask Christians, including us around the world, what does the gospel mean?

And I think all of us will get this part right, which is that I was born as a sinner.

I lived a life of sin.

But Jesus loved me.

The father loved me so much that he would send his son to die for my sins.

And so Jesus stepped in.

He died on the cross for my sins so that I am now blameless before God.

All I had to do was believe that Jesus is the son of God and that he died for my sins.

Now that I have put faith in the Savior Jesus, I am now clean and forgiven before God.

And now I have a life where I have the guarantee that I will always be with God, regardless of whether it's on the earth or after I die.

I am immediately in his presence.

We know this, everyone.

We know this.

But what we sometimes often forget and what we've been hearing from Jacob is that there is this whole other aspect to the gospel, which is that, yes, I was in a dark place.

Yes, I was in a prison cell.

But and the enemy had legal right over me because I was a sinner.

But then Jesus stepped in.

Jesus stepped in and he took the blow on my behalf.

And after that, Jesus died.

And three days later, he resurrected.

And now that he has defeated the enemy, the chains have been broken.

I am free.

Now, Jesus takes me out of the prison cell, out of the prison camp.

He takes me outside and now I can live a life of freedom.

And it doesn't end there.

The gospel doesn't end there.

It moves on because Jesus now tells me, I am here to take up residence inside of you.

And so Jesus does that.

He lives inside of me now.

And it doesn't stop there either.

He says, now I want you to go back into the prison cell from where you were rescued.

Why?

So that now you can go back and become or you can go back and point people to myself.

And that's really what the gospel is.

So it doesn't end with salvation.

It goes beyond that to a place where now we are representatives of Jesus and we have a commission that he has given us.

And that's what the gospel really is.

And so if we are an engaging church, then what we do is we go out and live in the world so that we can engage with the people who are around us and the systems that are around us.

And now to do this, what we are going to do today is draw out principles from someone's life from the Word that will allow us to understand how best we can do this or how we can do this, which is to engage with people and cultures around us.

We're going to look at the life of Daniel from the Book of Daniel.

He was a 15 year old boy when he was taken from Judah into a foreign land, the land of Babylon.

He was 15 years old and he was in the center of a new culture, a culture that he had never seen before.

He was in the midst of a brand new people that he had never interacted with before.

He was in the middle of a brand new religious system that he had never seen before.

And in the center of all of that, he remains untouched by any of that.

And in turn, what happens is he then affects the people and the systems around him.

And it happens through a period of 70 years.

He outlasted 12 kings and lived a life that we now read in the Book of Daniel.

So there are things from his life that we're going to look at to see how can we apply that in our lives today.

Now the thing about Babylon is that when you're in Babylon, Babylon has one goal,

which is to assimilate you into the culture you're living in,

which is to assimilate you into its cultural setting, into its religious setting.

Babylon always tries to assimilate you, to indoctrinate you into the culture you're in.

And that is what was attempted on Daniel and the young men that were with him.

Some of them were actually affected by that, because we don't read about all the 15,000 men who were taken there.

We hear about Daniel, we hear about Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego.

Those are the four names we know. So what happened there is really real.

You have a culture and the culture is trying to assimilate them into the culture that is prevalent there.

And the people around them are trying to indoctrinate them,

so that where they have come from, they'll forget the aspects or the origin of themselves, they'll forget that.

And so we look at the Book of Daniel and see, Father, what is it that today in my life, in our lives here,

what are the principles we can draw from Daniel's life so that we can engage with the world around us, with the systems around us?

So first we'll read from Daniel chapter 1 verses 3 to 5.

Daniel 1:3–5

Can someone read that out loud? Daniel chapter 1 verses 3 to 4.

Daniel 1:3–4

When the chief orders the ten-up, he has been ordered to bring in some of the interlikes from the royal family and the nobility.

Young men, without any physical detail, have some aptitude for every kind of learning, well-deformed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's power.

So we read there the things or the values that were prized in Babylon.

So remember the young men, the 15,000 of them, enter Babylon, and now it's a brand new culture.

And in that culture, there are certain things that are very prized.

And some of them are physical appearance and education, skills, knowledge, your capacity to be promoted in the future.

These are the aspects, the values that were prized in Babylon.

And if you didn't have any of these values, then you weren't supposed to do well.

Now we read that in the Bible, and we think that this happened thousands of years ago.

But you look at the world around you today, and this is exactly what we have come to.

In that, if we don't meet certain parameters, if we don't have good education, if we don't have X, Y, Z, then the society doesn't expect you to do well.

And that is the societal construct that we are in today.

And so what we read about Babylon and in the book of Daniel is not just for what had happened thousands of years ago.

It is true for us today in our lives.

In that, we live in a culture, in a society where if you have certain things, then you're supposed to do well.

But if you don't have certain things, the society makes you feel, the culture makes you feel that you are not good enough.

Now, so we've looked at the values that are prized in Babylon.

If we go to, so that's on one side, that's the kingdom of Babylon.

If you look at the kingdom of God, and we are in this kingdom, this is where we belong.

The values are completely different.

Two things that we can look at is from 1 Corinthians chapter 125 to 26.

It actually says there that if you are weak, then you are strong.

It says that if you're foolish enough in the eyes of the world to accept Christ, then you're good.

Then he'll make you Fisher's men.

That's what the Bible says. So let's read 1 Corinthians 1, 25 to 26.

In fact, I'll actually, 26 to 28, I'll read it out loud here from the message.

I do not see many, so this is Paul writing.

So think of it as Paul writing to us here at Acts 29.

I do not see many of the brightest and the best among you.

Not many influential, not many from high society families.

Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women,

that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses,

that he chose nobodies to expose the holoness or expose the hollow pretensions of the somebodies.

And that's what God always looks at.

So we see the contrast here in that on one hand we have Babylon and its society and the culture and the way it operates.

And on the other hand, the way God operates is completely different.

And we are living in the world today.

We belong to a different kingdom. We belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

But we are here so that we can influence the systems and the people that we live in and people that we live around.

So one of the things that is repeated throughout the book of Daniel is that while Daniel was in this society, in this culture,

there is something about him that was different.

And you read through Daniel the entire book and it keeps repeating, which is that Daniel was a man of an excellent spirit.

It keeps repeating itself. Daniel was a man of excellent spirit.

Excellent spirit, we'll look at that later, but excellent spirit towards God and an excellent spirit towards men around him.

Now we know the differences and what sometimes happens is even though we know that in our lives,

because this is where we live and this is the reality that is surrounding us sometimes,

what happens is that the way we think of ourselves, our measures of success, our personality, our character,

even our faith gets affected by the principles of Babylon.

I'll repeat that because we are living in a culture and that's the culture of Babylon that's surrounding us,

our outlook about our own future, our measures of success, our character, our personality, even our faith,

all of these things get affected by the culture of Babylon.

In fact, what we were meant to do was that we would live and operate in this excellent spirit

so that we never get touched by the culture and the system around us.

Now what happens with the business model, if we are to call that a business model of Babylon,

what happens with that is that our purpose and destiny we soon forget.

Because see, we are in this society, in this culture and all we hear are this is how you can be successful.

If you don't have a home, then you're not having a successful life.

If you don't buy a place by your 30, then you're not good enough.

If you don't get a job in the field you're looking at, then your life is a waste.

And this is what we keep hearing, keep hearing, keep hearing.

This is what everyone around us live with and so this becomes the pattern we see

and we soon think that this is the only way to live.

And so the culture of Babylon has an ability to unseat us from our destiny and from our purpose.

Because what is actually true in our lives, which is the reality that we belong to the kingdom of God,

we seem to forget because the other reality is just so prevalent.

The other thing that the culture of Babylon does, when we are seated at Nebuchadnezzar's table,

Nebuchadnezzar is the king that is referred to in Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

The other thing, and this is critical, that happens is that our threshold of self-control,

our threshold for morality decreases.

Now what is morality? What is self-control?

We know what that is from the word in terms of how to live here.

But that threshold, that word God has defined, it keeps going down the more and more we sit at King Nebuchadnezzar's table.

Because what was offered to Daniel and the young men that were with him is that,

hey, you're not supposed to eat whatever you like. We're going to feed you what you need to have.

So that you become this, this and this. If you do not feed yourselves with this,

then you do not have a chance to do well in this kingdom.

It actually says it here.

The king, verse 5, the king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank.

So who assigned them the portion of food? The king.

So it never, so far, before this they were from the tribe of Judah,

and now they are in a foreign land and the king assigns them portions.

The king assigns them food. The king assigns them drinks.

And now everything, the source is from the king. And so you forget where you're from.

And if you don't have that which everyone is having, then the society makes you feel that you're not good enough,

that you're not going to be successful, that you do not have a purpose.

And the purpose that we have then becomes affected by the wealth and resources that are around us.

We don't have to look elsewhere to really see this.

In the book of Acts, chapter 5, I think, we see Ananias and Sapphira.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

And what happened to them? On one hand they had wealth, they had riches, resources.

What did they do? They took their wealth, they took their resources,

and traded that in for recognition.

And on the other hand, in the same book we see another person, Barnabas.

What did he do? He took his wealth, he took his resources,

and worked with his resources and wealth so that it would enable him to progress in the purpose that God had for him.

So he used wealth, he used his riches, and the resources that he had,

not for recognition, not for anything else, but to progress himself in the purposes of God that God had for himself.

That's actually from the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 36.

Acts 4:36

Acts, chapter 4, verse 36.

Acts 4:36

Acts, chapter 4, verse 36.

Acts 4:36

So the table, which is extremely attractive and stimulates our appetite,

it lowers our threshold of self-control and godliness.

And it gives us a value system that we are now supposed to live by, forgetting where we are from.

So all of this was true then for Daniel.

Now there are two crises in Babylon.

If we live in Babylon, we'll be faced with these two things, and we're going to look at those two things right now.

The first one is a crisis of identity.

It is a crisis of identity.

What Babylon wants to do is that it wants us to forget our origin.

It wants us to forget our life source.

As soon as we forget who we are, where we are from,

as soon as we forget who our true life source is, now it's much easier to indoctrinate us.

It's much easier to assimilate us into the culture.

This happened with Daniel and his friends, the other three young men.

So this is the first thing that happened when Daniel and his friends,

when Daniel and the three other men whom we now know as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

this is what happened to them.

All of them had different names.

And you can see the names on the whiteboard here.

So on the left-hand side are the names that they had when they were in exile.

And on the right-hand side there are the names that were assigned to them.

Daniel means God is Judge.

That name got changed to Beltishoser, Prince of Bel.

Hananiah, the meaning is gift of the Lord.

That got changed to Shadrach, servant of sin.

Meshel means who is what God is.

That then got changed into Meshach, who is what the moon god Akhu is.

Assyria means whom Jehovah helps.

And that got changed to Abednego, which means servant of Nebo.

So when you look at this, what stands out is that these things sometimes are not bad.

In that, when you live in that culture and when all of this is given to us,

in terms of titles, new ways to progress ourselves, in terms of success, in terms of gifts, in terms of wealth,

none of those things are necessarily wrong to have.

But what Babylon does is it takes that and changes it to things that are wrong.

So if you look at this, there are two types of identity here.

On one hand, for Daniel, whose name meant God is Judge, that got changed to Prince of Bel.

So he's a prince now. It's a title that has been assigned to him.

And on the other hand, for Hananiah, which meant gift of the Lord,

that is a negative identity, which now means servant of sin.

And so on one hand, there is an attempt to give new gifts, new titles, new ways of progressions.

And on the other hand, there is this element of you're not good enough because you do not meet the requirements.

I don't know if you've ever been in cases or in situations or in phases of life where you look at your surroundings and you go,

I really don't know if I have what it takes to do those things because I'm not good enough.

I don't really know if I am good enough to do these things because everyone around me, they seem to be better.

They seem like they can do it much better than I can ever do. And so I'm not good enough.

I've done so many things already in my past that makes me useless for my future.

I've seen enough of things to not indulge in them anymore.

And so on one hand, that is what Babylon does.

It makes you forget your identity and it assigns on you a negative identity so that you'll feel that you can't do good anymore.

You'll feel that you're not good enough and that your life doesn't have any purpose.

And on the other hand, Babylon assigns to you positive titles, you would think,

but it is given to you so that you can be drawn away from the true purpose that God has for us.

So the intent is to help us forget our life source, our God, and lift our hands to another.

The intent of Babylon, the desire of Babylon is that we will forget our life source

and we will lift our hands to something else, but not God.

Now regardless of what title or what name or what identity Babylon assigns us,

there is only one way for us to go back and know where we come from,

which is to go back to the word and to look at what God is telling about us,

is to go back to the prophetic words that God may have given us and see this is what God actually tells about me.

It doesn't matter what the titles given to me mean.

It doesn't matter if the world thinks I can do this or not.

It doesn't matter if I've been disqualified from doing certain things.

God tells these things about me in the word.

God has in the past given me prophetic words and these are the things that God has told me already.

So I'll stand knowing that these words from God are true and that the words from the enemy aren't.

I'll give you an example about life trying to make us forget our life source,

life trying to make us lift our hands to something else.

In my life sometimes God teaches me things through very simple instances, simple situations,

but then it carries in it a learning or a message that is for the life.

So just a few months ago when Don and I were trying to move from Vancouver to Surrey,

I think a week or maybe two weeks into our search for a new place to live,

we had a house church meeting and Anne and Elmer were there and Anne had a word for the church, for the house church.

And as soon as Anne gave the word, I realized that it was for me too and that God was pointing out something in my life

where I wasn't, I was praying to God about the move. I was absolutely praying.

I knew that God would provide, but what had happened is that I was forgetful of how I got here.

I'll explain that. What happened is that we started searching for a house closer to work

because from Vancouver it takes an hour and a half to drive to Cloverdale.

So we wanted to find a place closer to work and that was the goal, that we wouldn't have to commute much anymore.

So we found a place in Craigslist, I believe it was in North Langley or something.

We kind of liked the place we went there and that's about when God pointed out to me that

you've forgotten and that you're not walking in the best I have for you.

You're quick to take what is being given to you. You've forgotten the ways that I've brought you here.

When I look back and when I can look back and see how I got my first car here,

how I got my first place to rent here, how I went back to India after a vacation

and when I wanted to come back and stay at UBC, how God provided a place for me at UBC

and how that place ended up being a place where I could meet another friend who is still,

who I'm still friends with and so on. I realized that God is pointing me to the fact that

you've forgotten the best I have for you and you're now using Craigslist and KGG,

which are very good things, good applications, but forgetting your true life source

and settling for the second best. So as soon as Dawn and I heard that,

we went back to our homes, we prayed and we said, Lord, we want to change the ways we are going about this.

Even though we were praying about finding a new place. So we decided not to take up that first place.

Another place came up and we wanted, did not want to rush. So we said we won't apply,

we won't put in the application now. We'll wait till the next week.

So we didn't put in the application and the guys on the other end had said that if you don't put in the application,

you may not get this place. So you have to do it really quick.

We decided not to and we put the application in maybe the week after and then we got a call from them.

And the place we now live at, which is that place, is three minutes away from work.

There are days when I go to go home and have lunch there because it's that close.

I could have never in my abilities found a place like that. I wonder how I got that place, how we got that place.

Now I could have settled for the second best that I had found for myself, which was 20 minutes away from work,

which would still be in North Langley, which was great too. But that wasn't the best for me.

And God pointed that out to me through someone else saying, hey, there is a way I have brought you here.

You go back and look at all the stories in your life. You'll see my touch in certain things.

And that is the way I expect you to live even moving forward.

Even though you've got these things around you, even when you're praying sometimes, that's not good enough.

Seek what I have for you and then you'll get that. And that's the way I want you to operate.

It's not that God is angry at it. It's just that there is a better way of living.

The second crisis in Babylon is a crisis of morality.

And this is a far more critical crisis than the crisis of identity, the crisis of morality.

Babylon's meat and drinks that the king has assigned as daily portions,

it has the ability to desensitize my taste buds to the flavors of godliness and God's principles.

The food and the drinks, the meat that is being served by the king,

that is being assigned to me on a daily basis, that has the ability to desensitize my taste buds to the flavors of God,

his principles and his convictions.

Can you relate to this? Is that a yes or a no?

So the first step for us is sometimes, even though we know this, to stop and to know that yes, this is what is happening.

In fact, I went through this exercise some time ago and I was able to see areas in my life that were affected

because I was being catered a certain way and that was normal for me.

What Babylon does is it takes good things and it morphs them into things that are not good.

So in the church it can take, keep in mind this is not just for our life outside the church,

it's for church, it's for our life in this world, it's for us anywhere, everywhere we live.

So the culture of Babylon, let's say, could be that it takes order and it morphs that into equality.

It takes faith and it morphs faith into religion.

It takes that which is good and morphs that into things that aren't.

So if we look at our lives, we'll be able to see areas in our lives where things may be good,

but now that has been morphed into something which isn't good and something that is affecting the purpose that God has for us.

We'll spend maybe a couple minutes to go through this exercise, which is,

can you take a minute or a couple minutes to look at your life based on what we've heard

and seek God's help to identify areas in your life that may have been affected?

I'll give you an example. See what Babylon does again is that it takes the convictions that you have in your heart.

These are convictions that are based off the Word of God. These are convictions that God has deposited in your heart.

It takes those convictions and through experiences, through what you hear, through the meat and the drinks and everything that you've been given,

it makes or turns those convictions into loosely held opinions.

Again, I'll give you an example from my life where God used an instance to teach me something personally for me to change.

Earlier this year, I was in the UK on a business trip and a colleague of mine from work and I went there to basically salvage a project.

The project was not going well and we were being sent there so that we could go do some work there, win that project back.

That was the only objective. So I went there. I was very excited about going.

I remember sitting at the airport and talking to God about the trip and telling a whole bunch of things to him in regards to the trip.

I was excited to go. We landed there. We spent the first two days there with the client. Things were going extremely well.

This is a project that was going bad and we are there now for two days and things are looking really good.

It seems like we're going to get this project back.

The third day, I think night, we go out for dinner with the clients.

I can't tell you who the client is, but that table, all by my natural abilities, I would never be there.

We were sitting at this table and when I was in fifth grade or something, in India you have notebooks with things printed on them.

One of the lines on a notebook that I had in my fifth grade, it said, be loyal to those who are absent.

Be loyal to those who are absent.

Growing up, this is not a very cool quote to have, but this is one of the things that I really held close to my heart.

Be loyal to those who are absent.

I was probably six or seven years old when I first read that.

I don't know, sometime around then.

Growing up, this was big for me.

I always used to keep this in mind and talking with God, I would be like, if someone is with me, great, I'll be loyal to them.

But if someone is not with me, then I'll be extremely careful to be extra loyal to them.

That's something that God had given me or had deposited in me because that's the way he wanted me to operate.

Now I'm sitting at this table, third night, things are going extremely well.

One person at this table passes a comment about a colleague of mine back in Vancouver.

The entire table laughs and I laugh with it.

Not because I didn't like my friend.

I laughed because I wanted to go with the flow.

Three seconds into that, I realized what I had done.

It only took me three seconds.

The moment I finished laughing, I knew what I had done.

God pointed out what was wrong.

You won't believe this.

I'm not saying that this is exactly how things work all the time.

But in a matter of three minutes, the entire discussion at that table went south.

It was as if we were going to lose that project.

In three or four minutes after that.

I went back to the hotel.

I spent some time with God and I recognized what I had done.

All I did was laugh.

I didn't say a word.

I didn't agree with the laugh.

But I laughed just to go with the flow.

I realized that I have a principle, a conviction that is deep seated in my heart that God has given me.

But because I was at this table, in three seconds, I let go of something that was special to me, given to me by God.

And you look at your lives and you'll see instances here and there where this happens.

I went back home, went back to the hotel, spent time with God, worked some more.

The next day, went back in and God restored everything.

In fact, that day, the building I was in at, I knew I would never be there in my abilities.

Joss, who is sitting at the back, we did our undergraduate degree together.

Four years in India, we came here.

Joss joined me after three years once I moved here.

And he's actually going back to Montreal later this week.

He found work there after having graduated.

So this may be the last time you see him for the next little bit until he returns.

In my life, I know certain places I go to.

I will never be there in my abilities.

But God, when he takes us to places or to people, I am to know that I do not belong to this culture.

I am to know that I do not belong to this system.

I am to know that there is something that God has deposited in me that I have to hold strongly.

Because these are deep convictions.

These are principles that are from the word.

These are against the systems and the culture that is around me.

But I have to hold them closely so that I can then be different from the culture that is around me.

So can you take three minutes then to look at areas in your life that may have been affected

because of our seat at Nebuchadnezzar's table sometimes?

And can you list a few convictions or principles, you can use any word you want,

convictions, principles, morals that God has given you that is deep seated in your heart from the word

that you want to live your life with.

Doesn't matter where you are at.

Doesn't matter what situations you are facing.

Those convictions will be with you.

I'll close really quickly.

It could be what Jesus said,

do unto others what you want to be done unto you.

Is that super close to your heart?

Doesn't matter where you are.

Look at someone and look at someone's need.

And you think, if I was there, this is how I wanted to be treated.

And therefore I will treat these people exactly the way I would like myself to be treated.

Is it that doesn't matter who is working with you at work,

doesn't matter what their skill sets are,

doesn't matter the people you live with, your roommates,

doesn't matter what they do to you, you will treat them good.

Why? Because these are all principles or morals that we have deep seated in our lives because of the word of God.

From the word of God, these are the things that God has taught us.

And so these become principles and convictions in our lives.

So note down a few things, three or four of them.

Go over it.

Okay.

Okay.

Now we look at, we've looked at Babylon, we've looked at its culture,

and now we look at from Daniel's life, we only have time for three.

So we look at three things we can look at from Daniel's life that we can then use in our lives to engage with the culture and the people around us.

So number one, our life is almost like we are on the mountaintop.

We are with Jesus and then Jesus asks us to go back down into the valley.

It's almost like we are in a, we were in a prison cell.

We were taken back out.

We are free. Our chains have been broken.

And now Jesus says, go back into the prison cell.

That's really what living in the world is like.

When we do that, one thing that Daniel and the men, the three men with him did is that I'd like to call it as

live your life outside of the tent.

When you're in the valley, live your life outside of the tent.

What does that mean?

Because sometimes what happens with us Christians is that we separate ourselves from the things that are in the world, from certain discussions,

from going into certain places, because those are places that we should never be.

And we separate ourselves from that.

Knowing. But at the same time, what should really happen is that you step into those discussions.

You step into those situations knowing that the God of the universe is inside of you and that that who he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

And that it doesn't touch us. In fact, when we when we know who we are and we live purely and we live in holiness and we ask God and engage with him and go into those situations,

the people there and the situations there in turn get touched with the God who is living inside of you.

So we have to learn to live outside of the tent.

We have to learn to be open to people. What does it look like practically?

I'll tell you in the Canadian culture at work and stuff.

It's crazy how people ask you ask people ask you how your weekend was like.

How was your weekend? Oh, it was good. How about you?

It's done in two seconds.

How was your weekend? Oh, it was great, man. Nice long weekend relaxing. How about you?

That's it. Some people have say more. You speak more. You discuss more.

But do you see that when someone asks you a question, how was your weekend, you have the ability now to maybe talk about how your weekend really was like.

To maybe talk about the fact that you hung out with a bunch of people and that it was great.

And they ask you why and where maybe that even that you went to church.

I do that at work. They asked me how how how my weekend was and I make it a point to bring up church. Why not?

Sometimes people don't because we think it's intolerant. But this is my life.

Live in the open. Live outside of the tent.

I hear stories about Mark and John. Sometimes what happens with John's apartment mates and Mark at work.

These are all pointers for us to live differently because our purpose is that we point people to Christ.

Second.

Is zeal for the fame of his name.

And I think sometime ago when Jane was singing, she sang about this.

Give us a passion for your name, Lord.

May it burn inside of us. Give us a passion for your name. When I'm out on the street, give me a passion.

I remember when I first started at Acts 29, Jacob, Jacob probably forgot about this, but he made a comment Sunday.

This was way back at Rose Street that he spent some time on Main Street just looking at people.

I actually heard that comment and I thought that's different. He spent time looking at people. Why?

He's spending time just looking at people walking by recognizing that these are people made in the image of God.

He's looking at people recognizing that his purpose now is to engage with them, to interact with them, to see if he has the opportunity to point people to Christ.

So we maybe become a people who increasingly burn with a passion for his name, with a passion for the fame of Jesus' name.

I'll be real quick.

And then the third one, a heart for Jesus' people and purposes.

This is huge.

Because most of the time this is way outside our scope, so to speak.

A heart for Jesus' people. When I say Jesus' people, it doesn't mean people in the church.

It means everyone in the world are Jesus' people. They sometimes just don't know it yet.

A heart for Jesus' people and his purposes.

What Daniel did when we look at Daniel's life is, think it's in chapter 8 or something.

With no prompting, with no dreams, with no interpretation, with nothing happening around him,

He says in a chapter that he perceived from the Word of God that in 70 years the way Jerusalem is would change.

And that's a prophecy from Jeremiah.

So he reads those words from the book of Jeremiah, or the prophecy from Jeremiah, and then he pleads with God for Jerusalem.

He actually opens the windows and he looks at Jerusalem and he pleads with God for Jerusalem.

Why? He's got this burning inside of his heart for Jesus' people and his purposes.

And when we engage with God and say, and Jacob says about this often, which is that when you wake up, ask him, what do you have for me today?

And God points us to things that are way outside of our lives or are much bigger than our lives.

And then we have the ability to engage with him.

I'll give you an example.

Some of us from the house church may know this already, but I was driving to Vancouver one day.

And sometimes when I was back, when I was living in Marpole, I was driving and on that drive I was singing.

I only sing when I'm just with myself.

Otherwise no one will hear me.

Anyway, I was singing and then God was giving me words.

And immediately, a few minutes later, there was this impression in my heart to pray for kids in the lower mainland.

And so I start praying for kids in the lower mainland and specifically for against a particular sin, which is becoming popular in our culture to pray for protection for these kids.

And so I started praying and I prayed to God and I drive into work and I finished work.

And this was summer 2017, I think I come back on my way back.

I typically just go straight to my home that night.

That evening I decided to go look at Dawn, who was playing at a field next to Marpole.

So Dawn was playing cricket there.

So I parked my car.

I've never done that that summer up until that point.

I've never done that.

And that day I feel like I should do it.

So I go there and Dawn is playing cricket and Dawn actually comes to me a few minutes into my being there.

Dawn comes to me and says, you see that kid?

I said, yeah, something is different about him.

And this is what it is.

And I hear that.

And that is exactly what I had prayed for that morning.

In that, father, for kids in the lower mainland today, because you are putting this in my heart, I want to pray against this.

And I bring these kids to you so that you can work in their lives and free from from those things that are running after them to persuade them.

And I see this kid and was almost like God telling me just mark this as a pointer.

Because when these things, when I put these things in your heart, you don't see faces.

You're praying for things that you've not seen.

You're praying for things that's outside of your scope.

But no, for sure that I am behind it.

And you're praying for kids like this.

And so these prayers are for my purposes and for my people.

And that's what we've been invited into that.

There's there are things out there that like Jacob is doing right now in Kether not in other parts of the world that are way bigger than us.

But they are part of God's great purpose for his people.

So let's close.