EXILES: Draw The Line

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

We put our hands together for Jesus one more time.

We're so so glad that you're here.

As you're taking your seats, just kind of greet someone around you.

You know, we we're doing a social distance and things, so we may not be able to do the hugs, but just turning somebody and welcome them out to church as you're taking your seats, man.

We're so so glad that you are here with us today.

If you're joining us online, we want to thank you so much for worshiping with us today, participating with us today.

We also want to encourage everyone that at the end of today's services, we'll make next week's services available for you to register and to participate.

And we're doing everything we can to keep us socially distanced and safe.

But we would love to see you guys joining us and worship.

We want to thank you guys so much for coming out and worshiping with us as well.

And also, if you're watching us online and you're ever in the Orlando area, we'd love for you to come by and check us out, man.

We have a great team that would love to serve you and your family in any way that we can.

And if you're in this room with us, or maybe if you're watching us online and you have a need, please don't hesitate to reach out to us alongside you and your family and pray and do everything we can to partner with you and strengthen you in this season.

Today I'm so excited about this series that we're going into.

It's a series that that's really been on our heart since the beginning of this year.

It's a series that we've entitled Exiles, because I think it's a perfect time for us to begin to really talk about what it means to be citizens of the kingdom of God.

I think sometimes we can get so consumed with the way that things are functioning in our world that we lose sight of the fact that we belong to something much bigger.

In addition to this series, we actually have an accompanied digital journal that's going to be available for you.

So if you if you have whatever device you use, you can go onto our website and you can download the digital journal and you'll be able to write and journal in it as we're on this journey together.

I truly believe that this has the potential of being such a transformational um series.

And here's the reason why.

I think if we look at the landscape that we're in right now, we're we're looking at a world that's that's in the middle of of isolation and we're trying to figure out what is our new normal, how do we begin to move forward?

We're we're looking at a world that still is dealing with fear and anxiety, and then you couple into the idea of there being so much division and dysfunction and brokenness, and I'm not even talking about the election yet.

We haven't even got to that part yet.

It's just the reality of where we may find ourselves, and it's and it's in its messy, and we're invested, and we care, which we should, but if we don't have the proper perspective, we can lose sight of who we are supposed to be.

And because of this deep divide that exists everywhere around us, there's this there's this prevailing pressure for us to pick a side.

And everything requires us to pick a side.

Are you an Eagles fan or are you some other fan?

Obviously, we're Eagles fans because it's it's biblical, but but let's take it a step further.

Let's let's let's take it a step further.

Are you gonna wear a mask or are you not?

It's amazing how even something as simple as that has become a topic of much discussion.

Do you believe black lives matter or all lives matter?

As if somewhere we got this theology that they both can't be true.

It's it's amazing how the world loves to take these ideas and try to create separation so that we can lack the unity that God has called us to do.

And what's even more sad is that we have a faith.

The faith that we have that is literally rooted in love, a faith that we have that is birthed through sacrifice.

We're seeing it weaponized and utilized in different aspects in order to continue to bring about that division, in order to continue to bring about that deep divide.

Thank you.

One, two, one, two.

Give it up for the microphone check.

My beautiful bride.

Thank you, Megan.

Come on, girl.

Got me distracted up here.

I'm supposed to be preaching to the people.

Okay, okay, but but but but that's even what's more sad is how our faith is being weaponized and portions of it are being segmented out, and people are grabbing a hold of different fabrics of our belief, and now we're using it against one another.

It's almost as if we become so consumed with being loyal to our party mascots.

I'm the party of the elephant, I'm the party of the donkey when we've lost sight of the fact that we belong to the party of the lamb, that God has called us to be part of something so much bigger that transcends anything that we see on this world.

Don't forget, faithful people of God, that the Bible declares that we are exiles.

And what the Bible defines an exile as is a person or a people group that lives away from their native country.

They are not from here.

And I believe that sometimes we can lose sight of the fact that we are exiles that are from the kingdom of God.

I want to read a couple of passages of scriptures to you to give you some context around this.

Philippians chapter 3, verse number 20.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Paul tells this incredible church, he says, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await for our Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see this idea that our citizenship is first and foremost in heaven.

We have Peter talking in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse number 11.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from the sinful desires that wage war against your souls.

It's saying, don't get so consumed with everything that you see.

Don't get so consumed, distracted by all the stuff that you see, that you are exiles, that you belong to the kingdom of God.

But what I believe is so important for us to understand is that we're exiles, but we're not hostages.

That means that we have the ability to bring influence and impact to where we are, but don't lose sight of the fact that we're exiles, but we're not hostages.

That means this.

That means it is possible for you to thrive where you are, but don't forget where you're from.

You can thrive here, but just don't forget where you're from.

And I believe that Jeremiah 29 beautifully encapsulates this.

It says it this way, starting at verse number four, that this is what the Lord of the armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles that are deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and live in them.

Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Find wives for yourself and have sons and daughters.

Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters.

Multiply there, do not decrease.

It is not saying for the people of God to shrink back.

Do not decrease.

Pursue the well-being of the city, pursue it.

That we're supposed to actually try to make this world better and pray to the Lord on his behalf, because when it thrives, you will thrive.

We see this idea of understanding that I'm a citizen of the kingdom of God, but God has also given me a responsibility here on earth, and I'm supposed to be a steward of what he's given me.

And listen, I can thrive where I am, but I can't forget where I'm from, and what I believe is that this series is going to help us to understand how we can effectively thrive as people in this world while simultaneously being citizens of the kingdom of God.

The narrative that we're going to look at is found in the book of Daniel.

So looking at Daniel chapter 1, verse number 1 through 8, that's going to kind of set the tone as we're beginning to establish this series.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

It says it this way, starting at verse number 1.

In the third year in the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the Jerusalem and laid siege to it.

The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him and all and along with the vessels of the house of God.

Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his gods, and put these vessels in the treasury of his gods.

The king ordered Aspenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family to and from nobility, the young men without physical defect, good looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceived, perceptible, and capable of serving in the king's palace.

He was to teach them the Khajan language and literature.

The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and wine that he drank, and they were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend to the king.

Among them were Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishel, and Azariah.

The chief eunuch gave them names.

He gave the name Belshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishel, and Abednego to Azariah.

Verse number eight.

If you're a highlighter, a circle person, whatever that looks like, verse number eight is where we're gonna be talking for the next couple of weeks.

But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank.

Daniel decided that I'm I'm I'm in exile, I'm living in Babylon, I'm under an oppressive king.

This governmental rule is terrible.

I gotta figure out a way to succeed, I gotta figure out a way to thrive, but he's gotta make up some decision.

He decided that I am going to draw the line somewhere.

I'm in this world, but I'm not of it.

And the Bible says that Daniel had resolved or determined that he was not going to defile himself by eating the king's food.

Today I want to talk to us about what does it mean to have healthy boundaries in a godless world?

What does it mean to be able to function and thrive as the people of God while also understanding that we have to function with boundaries?

And I've entitled today's message Draw the Line.

We have to have a place where we draw the line.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for your people.

We're thankful for every opportunity that we get to come together and worship in your name.

So, God, I pray over this series.

I pray, Lord, that we look at your word as the blueprint for the way that we live our lives.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you give us open eyes that we can see you in ways we've never seen you, open ears to hear you in ways that we've never heard you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

You know, I think as we've been talking over the past couple of months about just the different impacts that we've seen that this season has had on us, this season of COVID, this season of isolation, this season of quarantine, I think we all have different ways that we have seen how it's impacted us, specifically in the beginning months of it, where we were really like just kind of locked down.

One of the areas that I seen that it had a really big impact on me is that it really affected my diet.

It affected the way that that we ate.

Because like when you're sitting at home and like you're you know you're like working from home, like it's amazing how hungry you can get by just sitting still and doing nothing.

It's amazing how how often you find yourself going to the pantry or going to the refrigerator.

Now, if you were at work, you wouldn't be doing those things, but somehow just sitting at home, there's like this draw, this magnetic thing that compels you to say, you know what, I know I just got finished eating some chips, but I feel like the spirit of the Lord is eating me, is leading me to get some more chips.

It's just interesting how that stuff works.

I I know for my son as he was beginning to do the whole virtual school thing, I will find him randomly coming downstairs and getting something to eat.

And I'm like, man, like it's like 10:30.

Aren't you supposed to be in class?

He's like, Yeah, I'm like, but what would you be doing if you were in school right now?

He said, I would be in math class.

I'm like, so so you wouldn't be eating right now.

He's like, no, I wouldn't be eating.

I'm like, well, you need to stop eating here too.

You need to use your school stomach and start and start staying upstairs, and you eat on your bell schedule the same way you would there, because it's getting expensive.

I had to I had to draw the line in some some areas.

But now we now we fast forward a little bit because in that time you learn how to adapt, we we we get a little bit better, we have good rhythms at home, and now things are beginning to slowly open up.

And for me and my family, we find ourselves traveling a little bit more.

And and that's that's that's the most difficult thing.

Because now that you're traveling more and you find yourself not in the same rhythm, now you have to reset the way that you eat all over again.

Again, like over the past couple of months, I've learned how to function and work and eat at home and everything is going good.

And now that we're back out and about and beginning to travel a little bit, now that's a whole new thing I gotta do.

So just a couple of weeks ago, I took a flight, a flight at 6 a.m.

in the morning.

There is no one that takes flights at 6 a.m.

in the morning, but but I but that's the flight I could find.

At 6 a.m.

in the morning.

So when you get up at 6 a.m.

or you're you're on your way, you're at the airport, like I'm not thinking of eating something at home.

I'm just sleeping as long as I can until I have to get to the airport and get on my flight.

I'm not thinking of anything.

But you know when you're sitting there waiting for your flight to take off and then your hunger begins to kick in, you're like, well, I'm I'm starving now.

Like, I gotta I gotta eat something.

And and and now you find yourself waiting in the airport line to eat the airport food that is incredibly expensive and incredibly unsatisfying.

Because there wasn't a plan in place for me to make sure that I ate something that was actually good for me, so I had to end up eating what was already available on the menu.

You see, what I think can happen to us in the culture that we live in is that if we don't make a decision on what we are consuming, there's gonna be a lot of menu of options that's gonna be presented to us and we're gonna find ourselves digesting things that aren't good for us.

We're gonna find ourselves eating things and finding ourselves indulging in things that is not good for us.

You see, I think there's a lot of things on the menu, but just because it's on the menu doesn't mean it's something that you should be consuming.

See, I I love, I love, I love technology.

I love that when I am in the middle of typing something, it is almost as if me and my device are so intertwined that they're finishing sentences before I get a chance to do it.

I I love the autofill feature until you send the wrong message.

Man, I didn't I didn't mean to send that.

But because it's learning our behavior, it's actually populating it with thoughts and nudging us in a direction that I may not have actually going to say that.

It sounds cool when we think about when I'm talking to my wife and I'm like, hey, um, I need to go get me a new band for my for my Apple Watch that you got me for my birthday.

Thank you, honey.

I love you.

Like, I need to go get me a new band.

I say the words out loud, but then when I find myself scrolling on the internet, the ad pops up and says, like, hey man, here's a great place to go and get some new bands.

That's awesome when you think about it, but then it's also terrifying when you think about it.

Because it's being presented to me in a way as if it was my idea, but it's also something that's nudging me to do something that maybe if it wasn't for that nudge, I wouldn't consider doing it.

What I'm saying to us is this we gotta be careful of the things that's being presented to us and giving us an indication that it's actually our feelings when it's actually the enemy that's planting seeds to try to get us to make decisions that we probably would not have made if it wasn't for the fact that that was being planted into our spirit.

I'm trying to help us to understand that the world is gonna always present some menu options to us, and if we don't make up a decision on what we are going to consume, we're gonna end up consuming things that just aren't good for us.

This is this is where we find ourselves that just because it's on the menu, it doesn't mean that you have to order it.

So when we're scrolling through social media and we see things pop up that seem to confirm certain feelings that we have, we gotta be careful that just because it's on the menu doesn't mean that it's good for you.

It's interesting how these algorithms are always putting things to trigger us.

I've had to personally take a step back from social media at different seasons because it seems as if when I could be in the best mood ever.

I open up my Instagram and I start scrolling, you see the one thing that triggers you.

And now, and now it can it can mess up your whole day.

What I'm saying is just because it's on the menu, it doesn't mean that you have to order it.

And what I truly believe for the people of God, we have to resolve in ourselves that there's a certain things that I'm not going to consume.

There's certain things that may be on this menu that I'm not going to eat.

The Bible says it this way: we have to change our appetites.

Matthew 5, verse 6 says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Matthew 5:6

The things that are on this world's menu will never truly be able to satisfy our souls.

It's incapable of truly bringing satisfaction to our souls.

Jesus actually says that my food is to do the will of the Father that sent me.

He says, I'm nourished by being obedient.

We don't ever see that on Instagram, do we?

We don't see when we begin to do the things of God that that's the thing that satisfies us.

It's always the things that are opposite.

See, you have to understand that when you're a citizen of the kingdom, you stop being impressed by the empire.

When you're a citizen of the kingdom, you stop being impressed by the empire.

Let's not forget, we're called to leave an impression on this world, not be impressed by it.

That is what God's recommendation and calling is for our life.

And this is a consistent narrative that we see throughout the course of the Bible.

It's this idea of us recognizing that we're not to be conformed to the image of this world.

See, we're reminded of the children of Israel and how they spent 40 years in the wilderness, and this whole time that they should have only taken them no more than a month and a half to get to their destination, but they had to continue to walk through the wilderness, and there's a couple of key things that God wanted to make sure that they got a hold of.

The first thing is that He just wanted them to learn how to be humble.

Just humble yourself and recognizing that I am the Lord of your life.

The second thing is being spiritual.

Don't look at things through your natural lens, but understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and ultimately to be people of faith.

Trust me.

Trust me that I'm going to lead you through it.

And when you actually break those components down, that is ultimately the consistent message of the Bible.

Be humble, have a spiritual viewpoint, and continue to be a person of faith.

That is it.

I've reduced the entire 66 books to three ideas.

Be humble, be a person that understands that we're not of this world and that there's a greater perspective that we're supposed to have, and be people of faith.

But every time that the people of God found themselves distancing themselves from those core values, they would find themselves back in bondage.

They would find themselves being exiles once.

Again, this was a consistent pattern.

And so now as we enter into this narrative, we find that for the for the people of God, they're in Babylon.

Now let me tell you a little bit about Babylon, because Babylon was this godless environment.

It was it was full of idolatry.

But Nebuchadnezzar, he had a very interesting status.

He had a very interesting way that he went about doing things.

He loved to kind of take the things of God and to repurpose them.

We read earlier at how Nebuchadnezzar went into the house of God, took the vessels out of the house of God, and put them into the house of his gods.

Something that was sacred for God.

He took it, repurposed it, and then was using it to bring attention to himself.

He even took the boys that were created in the image of God and brought them in and wanted to repurpose them, actually gave them different names, new labels, so to speak.

Isn't it interesting?

How the enemy loves to corrupt the things that God has created.

God has created some incredible things.

He created relationships, but the enemy loves to corrupt them.

He's created marriage, but the enemy loves to corrupt it.

God is the one who created intimacy, but the enemy loves to corrupt it.

The enemy loves to corrupt the things that God has created.

But to take it a step further, another strategy that the enemy loves to employ is he loves to change and place labels on things that God had never intended for us to carry.

For Daniel and his friends, they had godly names, names that were representation of their calling and purpose.

But Nebuchadnezzar, he wanted to place a new label on them so it could cause them more division and distinction from the God that they were supposed to be serving.

We got to be careful about allowing labels to be the things that define us.

Because all those definitions do is they create boundaries amongst other people.

So let's let's lean into this for a moment.

I know so often that when we begin to talk about topics and things like in the season that we're in, it comes down to are you a Democrat or are you a Republican?

Mike, we're gonna go there.

What is the label that you're rocking?

Are you this or are you that?

Because if I say that I'm this, I have to vilify that.

And if I say that I'm that, then I have to vilify this.

Have we ever noticed how the media and how they have these commercials for the different political candidates?

It's almost hilarious where it's like, hey, this political candidate is the best thing that was ever created.

But this political candidate, he killed his mom, his children, he doesn't love anybody at all.

But this candidate is a it's interesting.

You ever look at the tone because they're trying to draw these, create these distinctions where you dehumanize another person?

Are you a Democrat or a Republican?

What label are you going to wear?

And the problem is we end up wearing labels that God never intended for us to wear.

How about we actually begin to respond and say, I'm not Democrat or Republican, I am a child of God, I am a citizen of the kingdom of God.

I may have convictions, I may have preferences, but stop wearing labels that God has actually never given you.

We have to understand that the world is trying to place labels on us that God has never given us.

He loves to manipulate and cause confusion.

The enemy loves to hijack the things of God and repurpose it for the sake of bringing about some division.

I got three basic points that I want to share with us to kind of set the tone for this series and where we're going.

Because I'm confident that there's many of us that are that are leaning into the season that we find ourselves in, that are that are trying to prepare ourselves, and we probably know friendships that have been frayed and fractured as a result of the division and the brokenness that we see in our society.

And what is our responsibility?

How are we to respond to what we're seeing in this world?

I believe if we study the life of Daniel, him being an exile, knowing how to thrive, but also knowing how to draw lines, I believe that that can give us the pillars on what we need to do to be successful as a people of God in the world that we live in.

Here's the first thing that we have to do.

We have to draw the line of resistance.

Draw the line of resistance, just knowing that there's a line and there's just certain things I'm just I'm just not going to do.

I'm drawing the line of resistance.

So for Daniel, the Bible says that when they were brought into Babylon, that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to impress them.

It says that they presented to them the king's meat.

Now, this is a big deal because like they basically were getting the same food that the king was eating.

I mean, we've seen video footage of how kings eat.

Can you imagine the luxurious food items and all those things?

Like, it's it's it's hard to not be impressed by a good meal.

I I still remember when I was trying to impress my wife with a good meal when we first started dating.

You remember the first place I ever took you?

Denny's.

And I remember when we pulled up at Denny's, she was like, Oh, my last boyfriend took me to Burger King.

I'm like, girl, you are way better than Burger King.

We're gonna get you a French slam.

Burger King.

Denny's.

And it was so impressive.

I mean, we're so young back then, like, but it was impressive that we were actually going into a restaurant where there was someone serving us instead of just going through a drive through line.

It was impressing.

It's amazing how we can be impressed by certain things.

So food goes a long way in how we get impressed so quickly.

But the interesting thing is, it doesn't always mean that it's good for.

And what Daniel was able to recognize is that this that this meat, that this food specifically, it was actually offered to false gods.

It wasn't birthed through anything that's actually good for the dietary customs of the people of God.

So it says that Daniel knew how to resist that.

It looks good.

It may look good on the plate, it might be great, it might be Denny's 2.0.

But what Daniel was able to say is that there's just certain things that I'm not going to eat.

See, I think that we have to recognize that we have to like train our appetites.

Because we all have cravings.

We all have things that we want to eat.

It's just a part of just being human.

We all have things that we know that we shouldn't be eating, though.

I remember like just last night.

My God.

Last night um it was probably like around eight o'clock, and I'm like, you know, it's been a long, busy week.

I'm tired.

It's 8 15.

I know that we have an early morning today, a long day, it's all good.

And I'm thinking to myself, like, man, you know what I could have right now?

Like the most unhealthy ice cream imaginable.

Like, let's let's get that in my system before I go to sleep.

It's it's amazing how our mind will crave things that we know is not good for you.

We know it's gonna keep us up all night, but nonetheless, we find ourselves giving into it anyway.

But we have to we have to retrain our appetites, we have to change the way that we look at things a little bit.

For us in this season of COVID, like you guys have heard me talk a little bit about my grill game.

Like, I'm not, I know I've talked about it a lot, um, and I'm gonna continue to talk about it, but COVID has made me an expert at smoking food.

Let me tell you, my smoked salmon, listen, if this ministry thing don't work out, I'm launching a restaurant.

Like that's that's how that's how confident I am in in my smoked salmon.

So during during this quarantine, I've been working on my little rubs, my little spices, I got my little mix thing going down.

I got a good rhythm going on right now.

But but here's the crazy thing.

After we started seeing some restaurants begin to open up a little bit, I'm like, you know what, Meg?

Like, you know, I'm I'm gonna take the night out.

Like, we need to go out together and go get something to eat.

So we went to this restaurant that we used to go to and we love their salmon.

Now I make my own salmon.

I swear by it, but I'm just like, let's go to this restaurant, we love their salmon.

We've been away from it for about six months.

We go in, we order the salmon, and it wasn't as good as I thought it was.

It didn't measure up.

Here's the message I was craving something that I thought would be better, but I had the best thing already at home.

And what I think can happen for us is the world can tempt us and try to remind us of how things used to be and how good things are.

But you just lost sight of the fact that the kingdom food, the kingdom resources, the things that God provides for you are actually the things that are gonna be able to sustain you.

The world will never be able to deliver on his promises.

You got to draw the line of resistance, just certain things I'm not gonna do, certain places I'm not gonna go.

I'm not better than anyone else.

I'm not putting myself on a pedestal, but I'm drawing some boundaries around things and places that I'm going to participate in.

Here's the second thing that we have to draw our line of.

We have to draw a line of dependence.

What are you depending on?

You see, for Daniel, this guy is, we see throughout his life that he was a person who had a dependency on the things of God.

He had a dependency on that.

It says that he was full of knowledge and wisdom and prepared for all learning, but his dependency was on God.

See, we live in the information era, but we are so misinformed.

We are so educated, but we are still so unlearned.

We have so many resources, but sometimes we're connected to the wrong source.

You see the parallels that we're drawing here.

We have all these things at our disposal, but if we're not depending on the proper things, it doesn't matter what you accumulate if you're not connected to the appropriate source.

We need a wisdom that comes from above, not from beneath.

We need something that transcends our logic and understanding and actually beginning to dial into with the things of God and what God is instructing and encouraging us to do.

I I'd heard about this simulated exercise that I thought was fascinating.

I was doing some research on this, and apparently there was like this supercomputer that had the ability to solve all of the world's problems, like everything that the world has ever faced, it is able to solve all the problems.

And so the the scientists they created a scenario in order to determine what would the what would the machine say is the best bet?

What's the best way to solve some of the problems?

So they they added in their hunger, they added in their poverty, they added in their injustice, they added in their racism, they added in their division, and then the cherry on top was like, and also the world was like on the verge of a nuclear holocaust.

They added, they put all this information into this machine to see what its response was going to be.

Now, this machine had been accumulating all this information, it's been it's been pulling resources from all around the world, so it was considered to be a super intelligent machine.

But after a couple of moments of processing all this data, it spit out nine simple words to let you know what the solution is to every problem that we're facing.

The first word that is spit out was love, joy, peace, kindness, mercy, goodness, patience, self-control, gentleness.

The fruit of the Spirit turned out to be the very answer for the problems that we are facing.

See, a lot of times we're looking to the world system to give us the knowledge on how to fix the things, but the Bible shows us that the wisdom that comes from God is all that we truly need in order to resolve the problems that we're seeing.

Can you imagine if we really were a people group that functioned with kindness?

I'm talking about God given true, genuine kindness.

We may not agree on our politics, but we're kind to one another.

We may not agree on everything we see, but we're kind to one another.

The amount of respect and love that can come from that, it is showing us that no matter what problems we're facing, the solution will always be the things of God.

And as the people of God, our responsibility, our calling is to do our best to be the folks that are able to demonstrate this fruit because that is what's going to be a solution to the world's problems.

Not a wisdom that comes from above.

It's a wisdom, it's the wisdom that comes from above, not the wisdom that comes from beneath.

Here's the third and final one that I want us to draw the line around.

Draw the line around confidence.

Just be confident.

What we see with Daniel and his dudes is they were confident.

They had a swagger about themselves.

They said, we have a line of what we're gonna do and what we're not gonna do.

They have a line of saying that we depend on God and not on man.

But they were very confident about what they said.

They said, man, like we're gonna we're gonna be alright.

I like to think that they had the first version of of Kendrick Lamar's, we're gonna be alright.

And then for my gospel folks, Ty Trippett has a version too.

We're gonna be alright.

But whatever version of the song you know, we're gonna be alright.

Man, we are going into this crazy election season.

We're gonna be alright.

Man, we're dealing with so much division, but we're gonna be alright.

Man, there's a lot of craziness in the world.

We're gonna be alright.

What are we gonna do about all the job loss?

I don't know, we're gonna trust God, but we're gonna be alright.

If the people of God actually began to function with the confidence that Daniel had instead of shrinking back, I believe that we can model an image.

What does it mean to be in this world but not of this world, to be people who are kingdom-minded and not folks who are so caught up in the empire?

Living a life and saying that, man, we don't have all the answers, but I do have the God that does, and I know that we're gonna be alright.

What we see in this narrative, and what we're gonna see as we explore this for the next couple of weeks, is we're gonna see these ideas fleshed out in more detail, drawing the line of resistance.

There's just certain things I'm not gonna do.

Listen to me, young ladies.

Draw the line on the people that you're gonna spend time with.

Draw the line, make the decision now, make it now.

Because if you find yourself in that situation and now you're trying to decide you've already lost a battle, don't put yourself in the air of the weakness and expect God's strength.

But if I can make a decision now, all I need to do is steward the decision that I've already made.

I've decided that there's certain things I'm just not gonna do, there's certain places I'm not gonna go, there's certain folks that I'm just not gonna hang with.

Draw the line of resistance, draw the line of dependency.

I get my source from God.

That is the source that I'm connected to.

He is my provider.

I know there's a lot of information, but God is my source, but then confident with it.

Be bold and confident in the things that God is telling you to draw lines around, and we're gonna explore that some more.

You see, Daniel resolved that he is not going to defile himself with the king's meat, with the king's drinks, that he knew that there are certain things I'm just not gonna indulge in.

I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up and join us as we prepare to close.

See, Daniel resolved that I am going to be a prophet of the kingdom and not a chaplain for the empire.

Mike liked that.

I'm gonna say that one more time, Mike.

I'm gonna say that for you one more time.

Daniel resolved that I am a prophet, a spokesperson, a representative of the kingdom, not a chaplain for the empire.

See, a prophet is a person who can stand against, who can speak the truth.

A chaplain just endorses and supports.

Daniel said, I will not be a chaplain for the empire, but I will be a prophet of the kingdom.

I will speak out on the things that I know that are inconsistent with the nature of God.

See, Daniel was able to draw a line.

But what we're gonna find is every time that Daniel and his friends they drew a line, every time they drew a line, that somehow that the king would cross that line and actually give honor to God.

We're gonna see this over the next couple of weeks.

That every time they draw the line, that somehow they end up giving glory to God.

That's a really interesting thing.

That as they draw the line, the enemy would actually end up giving glory to God as a result of it.

What if I were to let you know that when you draw the line, it actually serves as an invitation to show people what it looks like to serve our God?

That when you draw the line and function and live a life that has appropriate godly boundaries, that instead of it being something that puts people away, it actually becomes an invitation of people saying, I want to have the confidence that you have, I want to have the peace that you have.

Help me to understand how you live the life that you live.

When we draw the line, it serves as an invitation to invite people to give glory to our God.

It shows people how to stand and where to stand as it relates to the things of God.

You see, I love the fact that we have a God that that knew how to draw the line with us.

The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God so loves the world that he gave his only begotten son.

John 3:16

He he drew a line, he saw the broken condition that we all find ourselves living in, he drew a line.

He saw the condition of our soul, he drew all the line.

He saw that people were spending eternity without him, he drew the line, and he sent Jesus here to be a representation.

And that line was the blood of Jesus.

And he drew the line and saying that if you can accept it, you can cross that line and be on the other side and experience wholeness and life and fullness.

God drew the line so that we can experience wholeness within him.

And what I know is that there is probably some who are watching us, there may even be some that is in this room with us today, that your next step is to cross the line that God had drawn with the blood of Jesus.

It's to simply surrender your life to Jesus as a way of saying, I want to spend eternity with you.

I don't have all the answers, but I'm drawing the line.

I'm going to begin to live my life on mission for the things of God.

I want to invite you to be a part of this prayer that I'm about to pray.

If you're joining us online, we want you to participate with it.

If you're in this room with us, we want you to participate with it.

But with every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want this to be a sacred moment where we can reflect on the things of God.

I simply want to pose this question.

If you know that your next step is simply to say yes to Jesus, that you're too far away from that line, that you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ, God drew the line.

And all we have to do is accept it and cross that line and give glory to God.

If you know your next step is to say yes to Jesus, I want to invite you to participate with me by the raising of your hands on account of three.

You're away from God, but you want to draw closer.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, can we put our hands together for everybody in here?

Amen.

God bless you all.

I am so so proud of everyone in this room.

I'm so so proud of everyone that's watching from home that is making that decision to cross the line that God has drawn for them.

I want to pray this prayer together, and I want all of us to do it together as a family.

We really believe that in the kingdom of God and a household of faith that we are family.

And we're going to pray this prayer alongside of those who are praying this prayer for the first time.

So, all of us as a family, I want you all to repeat after me, Lord Jesus, I give you my life.

I repent of my sins.

I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead.

And that because of that belief, I am saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps.

Today I cross that line.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, can we celebrate with everyone again who has made that decision to say yes to Jesus?

Thanks again for listening.

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