Influencer – How to Be a Hero

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Hey, have you ever had a moment of just pure, raw, unadulterated heroism?

Anybody ever have this moment in your life?

I had one last summer.

I've been dying to tell you the story.

Um, I was out doing manly stuff in my front yard.

I was pressure washing my driveway like a man.

And I had reached that point.

You know, in Florida, it's always hot, but in some days it's just like too hot.

And so I'm gonna be honest, I had no shirt on, don't think about it, but I had no shirt on.

I was glistening.

Anytime a car would drive by, I would just flex a little bit for it, you know.

And as I was doing this, I encountered one of my greatest fears in life.

A snake slithered right in front of me.

And in a moment of fear, I didn't think to myself, I literally have a pressure washing gun in my hand.

I could have blasted that guy straight to the pits of hell where it came from, but I panicked.

I'm gonna be honest, I hate snakes.

I hate snakes.

Some people like snakes.

You should see a therapist.

I hate snakes.

Hate them.

And the snakes lived in front of me, and I've already got a lot going through my mind.

When I was a kid, I was an idiot and I was pressure washing my driveway, and I pressure washed right up where the concrete meets the grass, and the dirt and grass just shot all up over me.

So being the idiot teenager I was, I thought to myself, I've got a water hose in my hand, I'll just wash my foot off.

I blew a Y-shaped chunk out of my big toe about one inch.

You wanna see a picture?

I don't have a picture because it's disgusting.

Just psychopaths.

So I'm already like on edge because I don't never know what I'm gonna do with this weapon in my hands, and a snake slithers by me, and it goes into the bushes over by where my water hose spigot is.

And I think to myself, all right, I've scared it off, it's no big deal.

Well, then I finish pressure washing and I have this dilemma.

I have to turn the water off, but 15 minutes before I saw a demonic snake slither into the bush.

So I gathered up all my courage because I'm a real man.

I walked over, leaned as far as I possibly could, turned the hose off, and I kid you not, this happened just like this.

As soon as I do it, I scared the snake, and it slithered back out in front of my driveway, but my garage door was open.

And my wife's van was in the garage and it slithered under the van.

And in a moment, this whole thought flashed in my mind.

Well, it lives with us now.

But if I ever want my wife to come near me again, I have to get it out.

Like she will never rest, she will never sleep if there is a snake in our garage.

And because I had been pressure washing, I had this like broom that's more like a scrub brush, and I don't know what came over me.

You need to remember, I hate snakes.

But in a moment of pure, unadulterated heroism, sweat glistening off of me, I reached under the van and swept as hard as I could, and the steak it spun several times and flew out of the garage and it took off.

And I was so proud of myself.

To God be the glory, right?

To God.

I go in my house and I am so pumped.

Like, I've never done drugs, I just assume that's what it feels like.

Got veins popping out of my body, I'm like, oh, you won't believe us.

I go inside and I tell Liz, and she's like, Cool.

What do you mean, cool?

Like, this is the moment.

And I thought to myself, you know what?

This is the reason we have a camera in our driveway.

And so I pull my camera app up, and I'm like, we're gonna watch this, and you are gonna fall head over heels from me right now.

Kid you not.

I opened the camera app, and when I pull it up, this camera, because it's outside, it's kind of far from our Wi-Fi, so sometimes it loses signal.

And I had hours of footage.

Then there was a five-minute gap where my heroism died a slow, miserable death.

I wasn't there, I had no way to prove it other than my story.

To this day, I'm not sure Liz believes me, but it was my moments.

Okay.

Why in some moments can we push fear aside?

Why is it that in some moments we can push fear aside and step into a moment with heroic acts of courage?

Why is this?

Last weekend was the 20-something, 22nd anniversary of September 11th.

And I so because of that, there's always documentaries that pop up online and on TV.

What is it that causes people to run into buildings that are on fire?

What is it that causes people to risk their lives to save someone in distress?

Why will people run into a building that's on fire to save a baby?

Why do police officers put themselves in the line of fire knowing that they may not be able to come home again?

Why do these things happen?

Let me say this to you, I've studied this before, and it that really doesn't have anything to do with courage.

It has to do with selflessness.

Heroism is not about you.

Heroism is putting the needs of others ahead of yourself, and I want you to get this.

It's actually having what we would call a priority.

A priority simply means that before something happens, I've decided what I'm going to do if it happens.

If I see a need and someone's life is on the line, I run into the mess.

If I see a problem, I'm gonna step in to fix it.

Why?

Because before the decision needs to be made, I've already made the decision.

Are you with me on this?

I want you to hold on to that because today I'm gonna invite you to step into a life of heroism.

I'm gonna invite you to step into a life of nobility, because as of today, you're gonna have to decide what are you going to stand for when you're asked to bow.

The question we're asking in the series is how do you live a godly life when culture shifts?

And here's the thing: culture shifts all around us.

We are one decision from the Supreme Court away from culture being different.

We are one executive order from a president being away from a different culture.

We are one attack on foreign soil away like our whole world could change.

Another pandemic could sweep the globe.

Anything can change overnight.

We are one moment away from culture shifting.

And to be honest, if you just look back over the last few decades, culture is continually shifting.

So the question we're asking is how do we live a godly life when culture shifts?

A couple years ago, I was doing research for a doctoral project, and I came across some interesting research from an organization called Pew Research, and here's what they said.

In the 193 countries around the world, 173 of the countries are experiencing what I would call a modern-day revival.

And what it means is in 173 out of the 193 countries in the world, the rate of people making a decision to follow Jesus is outpacing the growth of the country.

It's amazing.

All over the world, more people are deciding to become Christians and followers of Jesus than are even being born.

And that shouldn't give be a reason for us to applause, but before you applaud, let me say this to you.

The problem is, in the 1730, America's not one of them.

More people are being born in our country than are deciding to follow Jesus, and I'm just not okay with that.

Like that can't happen on our watch.

You and I, when we know something, we either turn a blind eye to it or we determine that we are responsible for it.

And I just want to say, as Christians here in our city, as Christians who represent the greater population of our country, we cannot stand for this.

Something must be done.

So here's the choice you have.

We'll either set the culture or we'll reflect the culture.

We can be the kinds of Christians who act like the world, or we can be the kind of Christians who change the world.

It's kind of like this.

It's kind of like the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat.

A thermometer just tells you what the temperature is.

There's a lot of Christians who can tell you what's wrong in the world.

There's plenty of Christians who can point out the evil, the darkness.

There's plenty of Christians that can do that, but they're not making any difference.

But there are some people that God calls to step into divine moments of opportunity to be a thermostat who actually changed the world and changed the culture around them.

I love how Jesus says that John chapter 17, Jesus says, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

John 17 · chapter mention

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Jesus says, You are called to be in this world.

Now your life doesn't have to reflect the worldliness and the godlessness around you, but you should be in the world so that you can actually have a voice of change in the world.

Are you with me on this?

A lot of Christians are like, I want nothing to do with that.

Okay.

So today I want to go back to the story of Daniel.

And I want to look at the two most famous stories in the story of Daniel's life.

And what I want to do is I want to show you that both of them, they're separated by 23 years.

It's under two different kings, which means it's under two unique cultures.

But here's what I love: both of these stories center around a battle over one thing.

It's the battle over worship.

And I want you to get this.

Roughly a third of the Bible is prophetic.

Prophetic can mean two things.

It can mean um, it can mean telling the future, kind of telling what is to come.

That's what we think of in prophecy.

Prophetic can also mean determining with clarity that which is right and which is wrong.

It is having a black and white view set of the world.

And a third of scripture is prophetic.

A lot of the book of Daniel is prophetic, and I think it is to give us a picture of what happened so that we can learn what can and will continue to happen in the world.

I want you to see this.

There is a battle happening around us for our worship.

I'm going to show it to you two places in the book of Daniel, then I'll talk about what it means for us.

Daniel chapter 3 says this.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

King Nebuchadnezzar, this is an evil wicked king, he made an image of gold, 60 cubits high and six cubits wide.

So it's a 10 to 1 size ratio.

And he set it up on the plain of Durah in the province of Babylon.

He's trying to figure out how to show you how big this statue he makes of himself is.

If you've ever been to Washington, D.C.

and you've seen the Lincoln Memorial, it stands roughly 99 feet tall.

So this image, this statue that he makes of himself is just a few feet shorter than this.

And it has the aspect ratio of the Washington monument, which is about it's about a 10 to 1 ratio.

So it's not quite as tall as this.

So imagine 90 feet tall, but only 9 feet wide.

But it's this huge, big statue of himself.

And I want you to see what it says.

Next verse is this.

He, the king, then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, and magistrates, and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up.

So again, that whole group of people, satraps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, and magistrates, and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.

So they gathered the whole country together, and then it says, the herald loudly proclaimed, nations and people of every language.

So basically, everybody listen up.

This is what you are commanded to do.

In other words, you have no choice after what I tell you.

This is what you are commanded to do.

As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither, we could use some more zither up in this place.

That's a guitar, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music.

I've got to have more cowbell.

You must not fall down and worship the image of the gold King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.

The king's official stands in front of everyone and says, This is an idol, this is something that you will worship.

He is more than a man, he is a god.

So when you hear the music, when that zither starts to zither, whenever that happens, you are to bow and you are to worship.

And I want you to get this.

And he says, and if you don't, we will throw you into an oven fire.

What does he use to motivate?

Fear.

Culture's motivation for worship is always going to be fear.

Fear of missing out.

Fear of if you don't do this, you're gonna have a punishment.

If you don't do this, you're not gonna experience life to the fullest.

If you don't sleep with me, I'm not gonna stay with you.

Like, culture's motivation for worship is always going to be fear, and I need you to pay attention to this.

Because you have to make a decision in advance.

You have to pre-decide, predetermine.

You have to have a decision made in advance prior to of what you will do, and culture pushes fear on you.

Twenty years later, King Nebuchadnezzar is now gone.

There's a new king named Darius.

Darius is beloved by the people, and I want you to see this.

Finally, these men said, We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God.

Here's what's happening in the story.

They think to themselves, Daniel has just, he's risen in power and prominence so much that if we don't do something to get rid of him, the king is going to keep promoting him and he'll be promoted above us.

We've got to do something to get rid of him.

Go back a verse for me, if you would.

I want you to see this.

And they looked at Daniel's life and they said, we can't find any reason to bring charges against him.

It's like this man lives with such integrity that there's nothing we can do to bring a charge against him.

And I think this is a wonderful way to live your life.

Like people who have nothing to fear and nothing to hide, they don't have to live in fear.

Living a double life is a heavy kind of way to live your life.

And here's Daniel, and these guys are like, we got to do something to get rid of him, but we can't find anything on him.

Let me say this to you, kind of a side note.

This is the reason that when I do premarital counseling, I say to couples, like, you need to determine early on what your rules and boundaries are.

One of my boundaries is I've just decided that I will not be alone with a woman who's not my wife.

Period.

And the reason for it is I want to honor and protect my marriage.

I want to honor and protect my church.

I want to honor and protect the calling of God on my life.

If you work in construction and you mess up and do something with someone else that's not your wife, you might get a slap on the wrist.

You might upset some people, you may lose your marriage.

Who knows what will happen in my world?

If an accusation is brought against me, I could lose everything.

I could be on the front page of a newspaper.

I refuse to do this.

So let me tell you how strict I am about this rule.

A few years ago, um my son Joey and I were in Honduras together, and um we were the last day of the trip, we were in the city of San Pedro Sula staying in a hotel, and at the bottom floor of the hotel, we walked in and there was like a restaurant kind of like normal, but there was always there was a nightclub, and when we got there, it was just already bumping.

It was so loud, I had to keep pulling Pastor Ryan out of there.

I'm like, come on, man, go go back back to your room.

Man's gotta dance.

So, anyways, so we check into the hotel, I go upstairs, I change, and um, we're supposed to meet downstairs again for dinner, and I get on the elevator with my son Joey.

The elevator goes down like one or two floors, and the doors open, and this girl gets on looking like she's dressed for the club.

And by dressed for the club, I mean undressed for the club.

Are you with me on this?

And I had one split second, and I grabbed Joey's hand and said, Oh, this is our floor, and we stepped off.

And he looked at me and goes, What?

This isn't our floor.

I said, I know it's not.

But I can't have anybody assume anything about me if the door is open and we step off with her.

I can't have it.

It's just, it's just not worth it.

Like, if you're gonna live a life of integrity, you just make some decisions prior to the moments of decision that I'm not gonna compromise.

And this is Daniel's story.

He refuses to compromise, and nobody can find anything against him.

So the next verse is this.

So these administrators and satraps went to the group of to the two as a group to the king and said, Hey, may King Darius live forever.

The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce this decree that anyone who prays to any God or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, your majesty, shall be thrown into a lion's den.

Now, your majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered, in accordance with the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be repealed.

So King Darius went along with it and he put the decree in writing.

So these people, they they figured out a way to try to trap Daniel because they knew that he was a person of faith, and he was a person who would pray.

So they said to the king, King, you're so humble, you would never do this.

But everyone around you thinks that you are better than a human.

We think you're like a God.

So how about for a month we just do that and we all worship you?

And anyone else worshiping or praying to any God other than you, they should be put to death.

I want you to notice these two stories that are some 23 years apart, it's like they're the same story with a twist on them.

In the first story, we are told that the people are told that you have to pray to this God.

You have to pray to this God.

Next slide for me, please.

In the second story, it's not that you have to pray to this God.

The second story is you cannot pray to your God.

I told you it's a battle over worship, and the book of Daniel is prophetic.

And I just want to say to you, if you pay attention to culture, there will be a day when you are told what to worship, and there will be a day when you are told that you cannot worship.

And we have to pay attention to this because if this day is coming, we have to determine in our heart that for which we will stand, regardless of consequence.

Let me say this to you: when you make the decision to say, God, I will always have your back.

God always has yours.

Now I want you to notice something.

Some scholars believe that between Genesis chapter 1.1 and Genesis 1.2, there's the moment where God kicks Satan.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

He went by the name Lucifer out of heaven.

It's this interesting story.

We sing a song that the opening line is, I saw Satan fall like lightning.

They sing it better than that, but that's that's it.

Um that's a reference that's actually found in the book of Ezekiel and in the book of Isaiah.

And it's because Satan, Lucifer, was the first worship leader.

The problem with worship, if we're not careful, is we will turn it into self-idolatry and want to worship us instead of worshiping God.

This is the reason I tell our worship team you can sing any song you want.

It just has to be about worshiping God.

If we keep singing the word I and me and my, who are we worshiping?

Me.

I'm not worshiping me, I'm here to exalt the name of God.

This is what it's about.

Satan, his intention has always been to steal the worship from God.

That's what it's always been.

So if you're message notes, I want to show you two goals of the enemy from these stories.

The first one is this the first goal is he wants us to exalt man above God.

Remember the first story, the king builds this golden statue, this golden image or idol of himself.

And he says to the people, you will bow and worship me, or I will throw you into the furnace of fire.

The verse goes on from that first story in Daniel chapter 3 and says this.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebi baby, we do not need you to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve, I want you to see this.

He is able.

Like God's gonna come through, and even if he doesn't, we refuse to bow.

Prior to the moment where I have to make a decision, I'm deciding in my heart that I will not bow to anything or anyone other than my God.

It's important.

The second goal of the enemy is he wants us to exalt man above God, but then he also wants us to stop the worship of God.

Why?

Because worship for him was always about himself.

He wanted it to be turned to him.

Go back to the second story, Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

It said, now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, like you're not supposed to pray, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows were open towards Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees and he prayed.

He gave thanks to his God just as he had done before.

Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying, asking God for help.

So they went to the king and spoke to him about this royal decree.

And they go to him like real sneaky, like, king, what this is crazy.

Didn't you publish a decree that during the next 30 days anyone who prays to any God or human being except you, your majesty, would be thrown into the lion's den?

Like, what's that was your idea, right?

That was a good idea.

The king answered, Well, the decree stands in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.

And he finds out that it was about Daniel the whole time.

He had grown an affection.

And an affinity towards Daniel, and it broke his heart.

But the law of the Medes and Persians could not be repealed, so they throw Daniel into the den of lions.

I want you to know the end of both stories.

In Daniel chapter 3, he throws Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebed and go into this furnace of fire.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

And God has their back.

They come out not burned, not singed, not smelling of smoke.

They come out untouched.

And when the king looked in, he said, I thought, I threw three men in, but I feel like I see a fourth person, and it looks like the son of God.

Like this is a powerful moment.

He pulls them out and turns the people towards God.

Why?

Because in a moment three men decided that I will not bow under pressure, but I will stand for my God.

In the second story, Daniel is thrown into a den of lions for what he's done.

The king Darius, he's so upset, he doesn't sleep a wink, the next morning he goes to this den of lions, open it up, and Daniel is sitting with the lions as if it's no big deal.

They pull him out, and in the king's anger, he takes all those men who had conspired against Daniel, threw them into the lions den, and they went all mufasa all up on them, ate them all, right?

Got them all.

What happens?

This is important for you to understand.

When we stand for God, God has our back.

But I want you to get this.

In a culture that's going to compete for your worship, you have to answer the question, what has my worship?

What has my worship?

I want to end with this.

Jesus is confronted with a question, what's the most important commandment?

He says this in Mark 12, verse 30, love the Lord your God with four things.

Mark 12:30

He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

What does it mean for us to worship or to love God in that way with all that we are?

I want you to see this.

The first one is this.

To worship God with all of our heart and soul means that He gets my affection.

He gets my affection.

I want you to see this.

Each one of these has a question.

The question of your heart and soul is what do I love the most?

Can I point something out funny to you?

Like, nobody in this room loves football more than me.

I love football.

I'm a junkie for football.

I can't, I can't wait on Sunday afternoons.

I get home, I sit down, and I don't move for about seven straight hours.

I love, I love football.

And can I tell you what I find so funny?

Sometimes after like the game, in between the moments where they're going to commercial, they'll show the fans out in the stands.

I tell you my favorite ones.

It's like when they're playing in Buffalo, New York, it's negative seven degrees, it's iced and snow everywhere, and there's the idiot out there, and he's got like no shirt on, body paint on, a wig on, some sort of weird hat, right?

And I think to myself, those guys are the best.

How cool is that?

Risking pneumonia and hypothermia for that?

I love it, right?

But then we celebrate that and we come to church where we're singing words of exaltation and adoration to the God who spoke the universe into existence.

And we're like, I didn't really like that song that much.

The person running the slides didn't change the slides fast enough, couldn't sing.

It's a little too loud for my comfort.

You know what scripture teaches about heaven?

It's loud.

Because people are forever worshiping the goodness of our God.

So it's funny to me that we'll get in the car and be like, yeah, I didn't really like the songs today.

News flash, not worshiping you.

It's never been about you.

So the question is, what do I love the most?

Listen, nothing wrong with loving other stuff.

Love your sports team and love a good meal and love a walk on the beach, love all those things.

But who has the priority in your heart?

Second thing, Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and in your mind.

Our mind is our attention.

It's the things we think about.

Here's the question: what do I think about the most?

What do I think about the most?

Why does this matter?

What we get, what we think about is what we turn our lives towards.

I love this quote.

Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts.

And so we'll think about all kinds of things.

You can tell a lot about a person by what they think about.

The person whose mind is consumed with lust and sexual thoughts, they will be driven by sexual thoughts.

The person who's driven by success or achievement will always be thinking about how can I get ahead, take another step, how can I grow, get a raise, get a promotion.

And nothing wrong with loving good things, but I want to say something to you.

God should be at the top of your list.

Like I think about some of David's words in the book of Psalms.

God, your word I meditate on day and night.

Like one of the things I teach people about reading the Bible is don't just read for information, read for transformation.

I'd rather you not read 50 pages and not understand a single word of it.

I'd rather you read one verse over and over and over and throughout the day, just make conscious decisions.

Say, God, I'm turning my heart towards you.

What did you mean by this?

God, help me understand your words.

God, thank you for your goodness, your kindness, your love, your grace.

Just turn your attention, your mind, your thoughts towards Him.

Love the Lord your God, Jesus says, with all your heart and soul, your mind and your strength.

Strength is our abilities.

It's our abilities.

The question of strength is what do I do the most?

And I want you to get this.

If you were to examine your time, what gets the most of your time?

You have a job, you have school, there's time that's spent sleeping, there's some entertainment time, some recreation time, some eating time.

Like all of us, if we could like pie chart out our time, we do lots of stuff.

Almost every person in the room wishes there was more time to every day.

One of the limitations on the human experience is we all live with the same amount of time every single day.

The question that you should ask is, what am I doing with my limited minutes to make a difference in the lives of someone else?

This is the reason I think serving is such a big deal.

This is the reason I'll say it again, if you've never gone to our next steps class, you need to go because it's not just about joining a church, it's about finding a place to invest your lives that's connected to someone making a decision that affects their eternity.

You want to redeem your time?

You give your life to something that changes someone's tomorrow and changes their forever.

What would it look like?

All of us just made this decision, that prior to culture shifting, we've set our priorities.

That when culture, if the book of Daniel is prophetic, then if the goal of Satan is to get us to exalt man above God, if the goal of culture is to get us to stop worshiping our God, then if it's prophetic, it means it's going to happen again.

And I just want to say to you one more time, you have to make a decision that before culture shifts, you know that which you will stand for.

I'm gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes all across this room.

And I want you to take a moment to examine your own heart.

Jesus said that you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

What has your affection?

With all of your mind, what has your attention and with all of your strength?

What has your time, your schedule, your energy?

So, God, we ask you to give us courage today.

In a culture that shifts rapidly and changes overnight.

May we have the courage of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego.

That when culture shifts and changes, God give us courage to step into those moments and to have our priorities straight.

We refuse to bow to anything other than you.

And God, if it happened in the past, I believe it'll happen again.

Culture shifts all around us.

May we never fall for the traps and trappings of the enemy.

May we never exalt a man above God.

May we never stop worshiping you.

God, when given a decision to bow to the pressure of culture, may we choose to stand firm and love well so that we can be people who influence and change the world.

We love you.

We thank you for it.