The Daniel Dilemma

So let's open up our Bibles to two passages of scripture, everybody.

And I want you to go to Daniel chapter one, and then I want you to go to John chapter eight.

All right.

So let's open up to two places.

I'll read you several verses, but I want to share with you a message today based off of a book that I released this past fall.

And I've actually not been speaking on it.

I'm not on any book tour.

I don't really do that.

I'm just a local church pastor.

I actually uh I prayed and asked the Lord what he would have me share.

And after listening to your pastor's messages about the Bible, I really felt led of the Lord to bring you this message because I think it kind of goes hand in hand.

Because there really is an attack on the church and on Christianity.

And we live in a culture uh that is shifting.

It really is.

And if the church isn't uh equipped to be able to handle the cultural shifts, it'll eat it'll eat your lunch.

And so we have to really be ready.

And I uh in 2013 I did a verse-by-verse study through the book of Daniel.

And if you know much about this book, it's a it's 12 chapters in all, and the first six of them are completely historic.

So they just cover history of the Jewish people being in exile, and then the last six chapters are all prophecy, they're dreams that he had, and they're prophetic.

What's interesting to me, if you know much about how your Bible is laid out, which makes it makes it tough for some people because the Bible is not laid out chronologically, so the books of the Bible aren't laid out in in the order of time.

Uh, you can actually buy a chronological Bible.

It's kind of fun.

One year I read through the Bible chronologically.

So it's so you like when you're reading through Samuel and the life of David, it would insert the Psalms that he wrote during during his life.

So it's a fun, it's a fun way to read the Bible.

But what's interesting to me is that the the book, the Bible's laid out in types of books.

So some of the history books are together, the poetry books are together, the prophet, the uh the what they call the major prophets, and not major because they're more important, just major because they're bigger books and then minor prophets.

They're all they're all in sections in your Bible.

Here, here's my point, and that is Daniel is half history and half prophecy.

And of course, I believe not only did the Bible was the Bible written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but I also believe that the Bible was put together by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And this this history book was placed in the prophecy section.

And here's my point, and that I that and that is that I believe that the history is prophecy.

In other words, what happened in Daniel's life is a playbook for us today.

Because what you'll see when you study when you study Daniel's life, and we did this in this series in 2013, verse by verse, you'll find out that he he had to navigate a Jewish faith in a Babylonian, ungodly culture.

What's interesting about his life is that he lived it successfully.

So he not only survived it, which is some of your goals, and your goals need to be a whole lot higher than that.

He not only survived it, but he had influence in it.

And he did it without ever compromising his faith.

And I really believe that's what God has for us today.

Can I hear a good amen, everybody?

So I wrote the night the title of the book is called The Daniel Dilemma.

How do you do it?

How do you stand firm and have influence in culture at the same time?

And I believe most Christians and even some churches believe that those are mutually exclusive.

So you've got to pick one.

So if you're gonna be one of those that really stands firm, you're gonna kind of be one of those dogmatic, always right.

Nobody likes you, but you're right, you know, kind of a Christian, or you're gonna be this person that in order to relate to culture, you kind of cave in a little bit, can't really give it to you just like the Bible says, can't even show you all the really all the truths.

And actually, neither one of those are true.

The the truth is that you can do both at the same time.

And so I'm gonna start right in Daniel chapter one and in verse one, and it says this, it just gives kind of the context of this beautiful book of the Bible.

It says, in the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

He he he he he attacked it.

Uh and the Bible says that and the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God.

These he carried off to the temple of his God in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his God.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, and I want you to remember that name because you're gonna see it a couple of times in this message.

He ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility.

In other words, all these Jewish people are gonna be slaves, but let's go find the sharp, smart, good-looking ones and let them serve right here in our court.

That's what happened here.

Young men without any physical defect, handsome, kind of reminds you of the person you're looking at.

Amen, everybody.

I know that's what y'all were thinking.

I just, anyway, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace.

He was to teach them, watch this, it's very important.

He was to teach them the language and the literature.

In other words, I'm gonna indoctrinate you out of your own culture into my culture.

And I'm you're gonna know the language and the literature of the Babylonians.

The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table.

They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were gonna enter the king's service.

And among those who were chosen from those of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah.

Now, some of you are gonna know these lat those last three.

You'll know Daniel, but you're gonna know these other three by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

But those weren't their names, these were their Jewish names.

And what you're gonna see here is that that culture begins to have an impact or tries to have an impact on them.

And I really I personally believe that chapter one gives us this beautiful playbook.

And I want to show you three things that that that really that culture will try to do, just going verse by verse through this first chapter.

And what you're gonna discover is that culture is gonna try to have an impact on you.

But I really believe that God, God has called us to set the culture, not reflect the culture.

Can I hear a good amen, somebody?

In other words, in other words, we we are we are to have an impact on our culture, not culture having an impact on us.

And it will have an impact on us if we're not prepared for it.

I believe God's called us to be the thermostat, not the thermometer.

We're to we're to set the culture, not reflect the culture.

How do you do that?

Well, you can only do that if you understand what culture's effect is going to try to be on us.

And I think what you'll discover is that you'll see the places where right now, maybe even in the life you're living, how culture is having this eroding effect on the church, maybe on us, maybe on our family, maybe on our kids.

And maybe some of you have already bought into some of these lies that the enemy has said.

And if not, you need to be prepared for them.

Here's the first one if you're a note taker, and that is that culture will always try first, always first will try to rename you, rename you.

Meaning not give you literally another name, but it will try to change your identity and how you see yourself.

In fact, in verse 7, the next verse, the chief official, this is that Ashpenaz guy, the chief official gave them new names.

Names were always a sign of ownership.

It was to obliterate how God has made you and to put inside of you a new identity.

And to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Meshel, Meshach, to Azariah, Abandago.

They were literally not only going to change their identity, but they were going to really try to obliterate anything that God has spoken inside of you.

This really hits me personally because when I was a junior higher growing up, um, I grew up in a I grew up in a grew up in a uh a Christian home.

My dad played organ in the church, mom sang in the choir.

I've never missed a Sunday in church in my entire life to date.

I mean, we just always went to church.

I've never missed church in my whole life.

I mean, even if I was throwing up, dad, like, you can throw up at church, get a bag.

You know what I'm saying?

That was how that's how I that's how I was raised.

And so in my tradition, I walked the aisle and shook the preacher's hand at seven years old.

I I didn't meet God that day, but I but I met my church.

And um, and but so anyway, I started living life.

I think I'm a Christian, I think everything's going is going, you know, pretty well.

And uh but when I got in junior high, um my parents moved from one side of Baton Rouge to the other side of Bat Rouge.

That was the the the town I grew up in.

And and right in the middle of my junior high years, a new school and new friends.

And I didn't, I didn't get I didn't get the the PE class of my eighth grade.

I had to go to the ninth grade PE class.

I don't know if y'all remember this or not, but there's a massive difference between eighth graders and ninth graders.

I mean, we had little skinny little white legs and then ninth graders had hair on their face.

Y'all know what I'm talking about?

I mean, it was it was kind of scary.

And I got bullied really, really badly in in eighth grade during this transition.

It was kind of like the worst year of my life.

And I remember being bullied so badly, I didn't I didn't go into being reserved, I didn't go hide.

I kind of started acting out in a different way.

I figured I was gonna make people notice me, and I literally started taking on an identity uh based off of some of these events that took place.

In fact, it it it made me where I was scared to be around people.

Even after I gave my heart to Jesus, whenever I ended up uh uh at LSU studying accounting, I was an accounting major before the Lord delivered me from accounting.

Can I hear a good amen?

And called me into the ministry.

But but uh but when I was an accounting major, I had a speech class that was required and in my sophomore year, and I failed my speech class.

And I failed my speech class.

I in fact, I ended up passing it because I talked the professor into giving me a D, so I didn't please don't make me get in front of those people again.

And look what I'm doing today.

Are y'all listening to me, everybody?

The point is that the enemy was trying to put another label on me that was different from the call of God that was on my life, and he'll do the same to you.

In fact, when you look into these names, and I don't have time to study them, but they're a they're a very interesting study of the names because to Daniel means God is my judge.

Belteshazzar means lady, protect the king.

Notice with me, they were even trying to create gender confusion in Daniel's mind by his label.

I mean, by the way, if you'll study it in every pagan culture, there has always been gender confusion.

To Hananiah, Yahweh has been gracious.

Oh, what you're a good, good father.

We we sang about that today.

But Shadrach means I'm afraid of God.

I mean, I'm I don't want to be around God.

Notice in every place they're trying to flip the very label and the name that God puts on us.

And by the way, the enemy in the culture is trying to do that inside of every one of us as well.

Meshach means who is what God is.

Notice the confidence behind that.

Who is what God is, where Meshach means I'm despised, contemptible, and humiliated.

Notice the uh from from confidence to cowardice.

Always trying to reverse, always trying to reverse the redemptive name that is on every one of our lives.

And then Azariah, Yahweh, has helped to Abendigo.

I'm a servant of Nebo, literally trying to change their future.

I want you to look in my eyes and hear this.

Every campus, I want you to hear this.

And that is the enemy has a label for you.

And for many of us, we have bought into that label, into that script, and it is defining our lives.

And what God wants to do is redeem, not even rename you.

He wants to bring you back to the name that he always has had for you.

And the way he does it, I'm just gonna tell you straight up how he does it.

He's gonna make you want to go get it changed back to its original name through services like these and messages like these.

But listen to me, but it can't be finished there.

Then you take the next steps, and that's what all these classes are all about and the men's summit in a couple of weeks.

That's what that's about.

That we say, you know what?

Now I've decided I'm gonna fulfill God's plan for my life, but now I'm gonna step into the programming of my church and let God do a work and a healing only inside of me.

Somebody say amen right there.

And I'm encouraging you, I'm encouraging you with all my heart not to see those things as events, see them as steps for you to have your name reclaimed.

Because when culture shifts, when culture shifts, you've got to know who you are.

Let's look at the second thing.

The second thing that happened in this story, if you just go verse by verse, you'll notice that there's food involved.

Ashpenaz was gonna try to make them eat non food that wasn't kosher.

And the second thing we learn is that culture will try to change your standards.

In other words, it's gonna try to compromise what you once believed was wrong.

Well, you know what, it's not wrong anymore.

It's just okay now, you know.

And I you well, that's that's you know, that's kind of an outdated, kind of an old-fashioned kind of God.

And man, we have a whole lot of that going on, luring luring the church into the forbidden.

Look at verse 8.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked, I love this, the courtesy behind this is is remarkable to me.

And he asked Ashpenaz, the chief official, for permission not to defile himself that way.

So he didn't go, no, y'all a bunch of devils going to hell.

He didn't say that to them, all right?

Or you're from Alabama, you'd say, hail, it's two syllables, but anyway.

No, he said, you know what, uh, if it's okay, man, I have a standard, and I'm not putting this on you or anything, but I want to live by my convictions.

Church, I'm there's never been a time more important than the one we're currently in to know what we really believe, to settle your core beliefs.

In fact, I'm encouraging Christians to even kind of go a little old school and remember the old-fashioned way and the way our grandparents used to do it and not not be modernized into some things that were, you know, well, it's I know this is wrong, but you know what?

I I can handle it.

Well, that's the problem.

You can handle it.

You know what I'm saying?

And especially in the areas of media, uh, I I constantly grapple with how much of the secular I can allow in my life.

I hope you're grappling with that.

Just, you know, should we really watch that?

Should we really be listening to that?

Should I really have that in my life?

When I got saved, I finally gave my heart to Jesus.

You can say it again, but I really got born again at 15 years old by coming to a church like this.

And I was so impacted by actually, you know what touched my life was the worship.

When I saw people worshiping, I'd never seen that before.

I'd always had the old right over left and looking forward to being all over in a little bit, you know.

And but these people are on fire for God, and I was kind of turned off and attracted to it at the same time, you know, just like, man, they I don't know who these kooky people are, but I think I want what they have.

You know what I'm saying?

And and um, and I was I was attracted, I was attracted, you know, to the worship and to the people there, and I followed God.

And but I remember when I first got saved, this youth group, kind of like a rite of passage, they told you to bring all your secular music to to the youth group next meeting.

Some of y'all remember this back in the old days, back in the 70s and 80s.

There was this, there's a lot of ministries talking about rock and roll and how the devil was, you know, there was backward masking.

You know, if you played it backwards, the devil's saying, Come, you want to get some uh all this kind of right?

Of course, the devil doesn't need to do that anymore because he's saying it forwards now.

Y'all know that, right?

But anyway, so they'd be like, Well, bring your albums and we used to break albums and have and I and and at 15 years old, I made a decision that I would never listen to secular music again.

I'd be 55 this year, so it's been 40 years, and to this date, I still don't want uh I don't want to listen to anything.

I don't have it, I don't want anything that the world has to offer me.

I just try to stay as far away from it as possible.

And I'm not trying to put that on you, I'm just saying all of us need to grapple with how much of the secular we're gonna allow in our lives.

Come on, say amen right there.

It's important.

And I want you to think about this because when culture shifts, when culture shifts, we have to reaffirm our convictions.

This is what I'm loving about the more than word series right now.

It's just it's solidifying some things that I believe about the Bible.

I mean, I already already knew them, but they're kind of getting solidified on the inside of me.

And here's the third thing he'll try to rename you, he's always gonna try to get you to compromise your standards.

And the third thing you see in the first chapter of Daniel is that culture will try to test me.

In fact, culture won't even try.

You're gonna be tested.

Like your turn of having an opportunity of what do you believe, what are you gonna say, how are you gonna stand in the middle of it?

Is gonna is coming your way.

And actually, I wrote the book really to give there.

There's a place in the book where parents can even use it for what do you do when your your your student, your, your son or your daughter comes home from school and they've met someone who's who's against the Bible or or for some some secular things.

How do you even navigate that conversation and what is the proper response in those situations?

And in verse 9, now God had caused the official Ashpenaz to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, I'm afraid of my Lord the King, who has assigned your food and drink.

Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age?

Notice culture will try to even reason with you to get you to go their way.

The king, the king will have my head.

He'll cut my head off if you guys aren't looking as good as he wants you to look.

And Daniel said, verse 11, to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishel, Azariah, please test your servants for ten days.

Give us nothing but vegetables to eat, water to drink, and then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.

So he agreed to this and he tested them for ten days.

And this would begin the first of many tests.

If you read the first six chapters of Daniel, you're gonna see the lion's den test, you're gonna see the worship test, you're gonna see the prayer test, you're gonna see who's God in your life test.

There's all these tests.

Listen to me, church, and those tests are coming our way.

I can remember my first real test, and I'm also a little bit reluctant to tell this story because I always remember of our brothers and sisters who Ephesians says we're to remember their hardships while we sit in these nice air-conditioned rooms.

There are there are believers who are really like really being tested for their faith.

But I remember my first test of my faith came.

I was a sophomore at LSU, and my mom was secretary to the chancellor at the LSU Law School.

And so uh she got me a student job between classes.

It's the funniest thing ever, in the maintenance department, which is funny because I can't fix anything.

But anyway, I was in this maintenance department, and um, and really honestly, we didn't have much to do.

We sat there waiting for a phone call from somebody in the LSU law school uh something's broken or there's a light out, you kind of get the idea.

So I sat there a lot until they asked me to do something, still getting paid for that.

So I was really on fire for God, 19 years old.

And so I'd bring my Bible instead of studying, I was reading my Bible, and my boss, Al Toll, had a friend from the LSU police department named Muhammad, and he'd come by every day just to hang out with Al.

And they hung, he was a really nice guy, and I got to know him, and we were good friends.

But we I was sitting there reading my Bible uh uh uh in Al Tol's office, and Muhammad walked in and he goes, you know, I can prove to you that you don't believe everything in that book.

And that my first thought was, man, he's found, he's found a he's found a gotcha verse, and I won't have a good response, and this is gonna be a bummer, and because he's gonna get me.

He's gonna get me, and I I'm not, I mean, it's not right, but he's just have studied it more than I have, and I felt ill-equipped, and I said, Well, I decided to go a little bold.

I was like, No, if it's in here, I believe it.

If it's in here, I believe it.

He goes, No, I can show you something you don't believe.

I like, no, if it's in there, I I really I think I really believe it.

And so he walked, he walked over and I had my Bible open.

I'm sitting down.

If you can picture this, I'm at a desk, and Muhammad walks over, and I think he's gonna flip my Bible and then show me a verse and say, aha, there it is.

You know, I'm kind of waiting for that.

And so I'm looking at my Bible and I'm just kind of waiting for him to come over there and flip it.

And when he gets up to me, y'all, he slapped the fire out of my face.

I mean, hauled off and ka-wow.

I wasn't expecting, I was like, oh, Muhammad.

I said, Why did you do that?

And he put his finger in my face.

He said, If you believe this Bible, turn the other cheek.

And I said, Are you serious?

This is your test.

This is how you are you serious?

When you go around slapping Christians, what are you doing, man?

Like, what are you doing?

He goes, and he had his finger, I'll never forget his hand was shaking.

He was kind of like, he looked mad, and I never seen him mad before.

If you believe it, turn the other cheek.

And I thought, well, surely he won't slap me again.

And I had this little courage come up on the inside of me.

Come on, y'all.

I'm like, go ahead, then.

If that means something to you, I'll go ahead.

Hit me.

He goes, No, you don't believe it.

I like hit me, brother, hit me.

Bam, he hit me again, y'all.

He didn't hit me as hard the second time.

That first time was hard.

And so he is kind of like, he just did like that the second time.

And he goes, Well, he took his hat, I'll never forget this.

He took his hat off.

He goes, Well, I found my first real Christian.

And I thought, my brother, is that what you've been doing to find Christians?

Go around slapping people in the face.

And that actually, for the next six months, opened up doctrine.

Dialogue between Muhammad and myself about Jesus and about Christians and about some of his misconceptions.

And it was, it was very, very I enjoyed every minute of it.

But the truth is, I want you to hear this, church, and that is culture is going to give you opportunities like that.

Like if it's going to happen, I truly believe that the book of Daniel gives us a prophetic warning of the fact that as our society and our culture changes and many cases moves away from God, man, we've got to stand firm in the middle of it.

But here's the key that when culture shifts, we also have to respond the right way.

In fact, it's critical to respond the right way.

And I'm urging believers.

I did the best I could as I wrote this book to urge Christians not to fall into one of the two extremes.

Don't fall into the extreme of, well, I'll just be right.

God didn't call you to be right, God called you to be effective.

The point, the goal is not to prove your point and them go to hell.

The goal is to win them over, to, to, to, to, for them to understand our God.

But at the same time, we don't need to fall into this other extreme where some people, some Christians, even in the name of love, are treating others as if they love them more than God loves them.

Oh, a loving God would never tell you to not do that.

I know the Bible says that, but a loving God would never say that.

When truthfully, the most loving thing our God does is call us out of our sin.

Amen, everybody?

And change us and do a work on the inside of us.

But there's a way, there's a way to respond the right way.

And one of my deepest passions, honestly, if you cut me, I bleed evangelism.

I love seeing people come to Christ.

And I have become convinced that Daniel, and really better yet, Jesus, gives us the perfect balance of the way we should do it.

I want to read it to you in John chapter 1, and we're going to go to John 8 in a second.

John 1 · chapter mention

But John chapter 1 says this it says that the word, speaking of Jesus, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

John 1 · chapter mention

Now watch this.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father.

Every voice at every campus, read the last phrase out loud.

Here we go.

Full of grace and full of grace and truth.

Grace and truth.

When Jesus loved people, he did it with both grace.

Notice grace comes first.

And truth.

We connect before we correct.

That we're going to love people.

We're going to show them grace.

Truthfully, the way I like to say it is that truth without grace is mean.

It's just, it's right.

It's just mean.

I I this past year, somebody in our church gave me a gift certificate to get a custom-made suit.

I've never had one before.

I'm not wearing it right now.

But uh, but uh but uh but he gave me this I'd never been to a tailor.

I've never been where they'd measure everything, head to toe, and just make a suit for you from scratch.

And so I'd gone in there and it was this little Hindu guy, about this high, had his Hindu gods all over the wall, this tailor.

And he was the most pleasant, wonderful man.

And after I've after we'd been, it took two hours this process.

He's he walked, Tammy and me, which were together, walked us out back to our car.

I'm like, well, does he always do this?

And when I got to my car, he says, You're different than what I was expecting.

I said, What do you mean?

He goes, Well, I've met some Christians.

In fact, a bunch of Christians that have just looked at me and said, I'm going to hell.

And you didn't say that to me.

Now, I agree it theologically, if he doesn't know Jesus, I actually agree with those Christians.

How many y'all know they were right but not helpful?

Amen, everybody?

Because the goal wasn't to the goal wasn't to be right in that situation.

The goal was to win him.

And I said, Well, listen to me.

I just want you to know that I love you.

And I would love to talk to you sometime about your your spiritual journey that you're on.

And and he said, I would like that very much.

And then he said, he says, You would you mind if I came to your church sometime?

And I said, Would I mind?

Come on, my brother, I'll put you on the front row.

And we have struck up a little relationship.

Truth, truth without grace is mean.

But listen to me, grace, grace without truth is meaningless.

If we just thought, oh, we just love you.

You don't, you don't need no, the truth is what sets us free.

We help people.

We're gonna get to that.

But you know what I've discovered?

You can't ever win your enemies to Christ.

You gotta love them.

You have to connect before we correct.

So truth without grace is mean.

Grace without truth is meaningless.

You put true truth and grace and truth together, you get good medicine.

Can I hear a good amen, somebody?

And if there's a story that just it, it just I love it so much.

It's the story in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

Let's close with this one because I think there's no better story to show how Christians need to be relating to the culture all around us.

John chapter 8, verse 1, Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he went back again at the temple.

John 8:1

A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

And as he was speaking, the teachers of the religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.

I always wonder what in the world were they doing there if they caught her in the act, but anyway.

That's a good question, isn't it?

They put her in front of the crowd and said, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery, and the law, the truth of Moses, says, Stone her, what do you say?

And they were saying that to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stoops down and starts doodling in the dirt.

He just writes with his finger in the dust, and they kept demanding an answer.

So he stood up and he said, All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone.

What an amazing response.

And then, watch this, he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

And when the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd.

By the way, we don't know what he doodled in the dirt.

We don't know what he did.

I have a theory I just want to throw out there for y'all because the Bible says they leave one at a time.

I think he was writing out in the dirt their mistresses, Martha, Sally.

Anyway, that's oops, that's mine.

I better go.

Anyway, so watch this, and we close.

And he says, Then where are your accusers?

Didn't even one of them come to condemn you?

And she says, No, Lord, watch this, and neither do I condemn you.

There's grace.

Now go leave your life of sin.

There's truth.

That grace, watch this, church, grace invites us to be free so that the truth can set us free.

I don't know if you came to this place today feeling the weight of your sin or your guilt.

Well, listen to me.

Jesus loves you just the way you are, but way too much to let you stay that way too.

And I want to encourage you, if you've not had your sins forgiven, to let your sins be forgiven in Jesus' name.

Can I hear a good amen?

But if you have had your sins forgiven, let that grace be the invitation for God to take you on a journey.

Every eye, listen, listen, listen.

Because God has more for you to help you have confidence in the middle of a shifting culture, to have your name redeemed, to have your faith strengthened and prepared for every test.

Let's bow for prayer.

Father, I thank you so much for this amazing church.

And God, I truly believe that you've called every single one of us, God, to stand in the face of culture and be successful and to follow you and to know you, God.

And I pray for every person that's here today who's far from you.

Maybe they're carrying their own sin and their guilt.

If you're here today and you're you're you're you you you feel the weight of your own sin.

Listen to me, you can leave it with Jesus right now.

The grace of God, Jesus doesn't condemn you, he loves you.

In fact, he's not even motivated for what you do for him, he's motivated by what he's done for you.

He loves you.

Now all you have to do is say, I surrender my life to you completely.

Father, I pray that every person who's far from you leaves here today with their sins forgiven.

And God, I pray for every person in this church to take the steps, the journey of faith, to walk out grace to truth, to set them free, I pray, God.

God, as we step into classes and conferences and groups, God, as we follow you, Lord, Father, redeem your people, I pray, like only you can.

And Father, we promise that we'll give you all the glory in Jesus' mighty name.

Everybody said a good amen.