Hey, well, if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, go ahead and grab it and let's get to Daniel three. Uh, Daniel three is a really familiar passage. It's one that one that you probably are familiar with, but this is, you've heard me say this before, that familiarity with certain Bible passages can be a danger because sometimes we think that because we know the story that we'll just. God doesn't have anything for me today. I know what's going on. I, I've heard the story before, but I just want you to know that like, man, God's word is fresher than tomorrow's newspaper. Like it always has something for you. And so be ready to press in today about how we, as we talk about what it means to have faith that walks through fires. I'm so glad that David Creswell was able to be here, uh, last week and preach, uh, my prayer is the same as his, that LifeBridge would begin to see individuals and families called by God to go live life on the mission field. And, uh, man, we want to help you take that step. And my, again, my prayer's the same that if, if that is something God has put on your heart and you are trying to run from it, that you won't be able to sleep, um, that we'll be able to send you out to go make disciples all over the world. So, so glad that he will be there or that, that, uh, that David was here. Let me just ask, like, will you be the first one to go from LifeBridge? Like how cool would that be? Hey, one of the most popular movies of all time, chariots of Fire. You've probably, you've probably seen it. It's a story of Eric Liddell. He was that Scottish runner who was recruited to run the a hundred meter dash in the 1924 Olympics. And he, uh, he gets to Paris where they were gonna, uh, have the Olympics, and he thinks to himself, uh, or he learns that the, the heat or the, the qualifying heat is on a Sunday, and he's favored to win the entire Olympics. But because it's on a Sunday, he tells the people, he is like, Hey, I can't run. Because Sunday's the Lord's Day, and I'm not going to displease the Lord. He refuses to run and everyone was mad about it. Everyone was upset. One paper wrote to please his creator, he displeases his king and his country. And so what happens is you've seen the movie, what happens is that. They move him from the 100 meter dash that he was favored to win. They move him to the 400 meter dash that he's never trained for and hoping that he can at least contribute to the team. Well, he ends up winning. He ends up winning. He says, listen, I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I can. I, I feel his pleasure to win is to honor him, but to run. On the Lord's Day would be to dishonor him. And I can't do that. I won't do that. And he runs the 400 meter yard. He runs the 400 meter race and he wins. And after he wins, this is all that he says, God is faithful. And those who honor God, God will honor. See today's story in the text. What happens is three young men, they face a moment. Where they're told they in front of the entire world that they will have to bow to the culturals pressure or they will literally burn. And they had to decide what they were going to do. They had to decide, well, they honor God even if it costs them everything. And what's going on is if we are going to be the kind of people who. Who recognize that we're called to be for the world, not of the world. If we're gonna be counter-cultural, then we can't be shaped by the world and we have to bow only to God. And this story really is a story about faith that refuses to compromise it's convictions. It's about faith, that trust God, no matter what may come, it's about faith that walks through fires. So if you'll stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We're gonna read the first 18 verses of Daniel three, and then we'll finish out, uh, through the sermon. All right. This text is, breathe out by God, God's spirit, and it's infallible in errant. Hear the word of the Lord. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 qubits and its breath six cubits, and he set it upon the plane of dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar are sent to gather the say traps and the prefects and the governors, and the counselors, and the treasures, the justices, the magistrates. And all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up in the satraps and the prefects, and the governors and the counselors, the treasurers, the justice, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image At King Nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and the Herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded of peoples, nations and languages. That's that taver of Babel language from Genesis 11 that when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lear, the trigon, the the heart, the bagpipe, kinda interesting. They had bagpipes back then and every kind of music you were to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the, the horn, the pipe, the the liar, the track on the heart, the bagpipe and every other kind of music, all the people's, nations and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Therefore, had, therefore, at the time, certain aldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared the King Nebuchadnezzar. Oh, king lived forever. You o King have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, the pipe, the liar, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews who, who you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O King, pay no, no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then King, then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king and Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, is it true? O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? You do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up now. If you are ready, when you have hear, when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the liar, the track on the heart, the bagpipe and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Ach, Meshach and the Bendigo, they answered and said, oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so our God we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand king. But if not, be it known to you O king that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have said. Uh, may God bless the reading of his word. You can be seated. Hey, I already give you my sermon in a sentence today. Just something I want you to write down, something I want you to think about. If you don't get anything else, this is what I want you to get true. Faith refuses to compromise true faith refuses to compromise convictions because allegiance to Christ is better than any alternative true faith. Saving faith refuses to compromise convictions because allegiance to Christ is better than any alternative. Before we dive into the text, lemme remind you where we're at. This is 15 or 20 years after the end of Daniel chapter two, and you remember Daniel chapter two. There's a big statue that. A dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had, and Daniel was able to interpret the dream. And basically it was like, Hey, you're the head of gold. You're right now, but you're not gonna last forever. There's gonna come a rock and it's going to split the statue and destroy the statue, and then a mountain is gonna be formed, A new kingdom is gonna be formed. And Nebuchadnezzar, he ends chapter two with this statement about how great Daniel's God is. Well, it's just a reminder that pride has a short memory.'cause King Nebuchadnezzar is at the height of his power. He's ruling the greatest empire on the earth at that time, and he decides to build a monument of his own greatness. It's this golden image that's 90 foot tall, nine feet wide. It's a nine story building covered in gold, and this is right after Daniel told him that the interpretation of his dream was that his kingdom is temporary. And now he's saying that if you are going to be a part of the program, if you're gonna be a part of this culture, when you hear the music, you need to recognize that you're gonna bow and you're gonna worship me because my kingdom will last forever. It's all gold. There are no other kingdoms. This is human pride, by the way, of trying to rewrite. God's declared a future and pride in your life will lead you to do the same thing. It'll lead you to have a short memory of what God has said and try to rewrite your own story. And he summons. We read it. He summons everyone. And when the music played, everyone bowed down and faces to the ground. Around the statue, it's likely that there's a million people who are bowed down. That's what scholars say. 4,600 Jews were in exile and it's likely they were all there too, except they were three that didn't bow down. Shadrach Meha and AB Bgo. And ago, I mean, can you imagine. Like leading up to this moment, they would have heard the decree. They would've watched, they would have watched the statue be built. They would've heard the decree, and then they would've had to deal with the emotional turmoil of what is going to happen when they don't bow down. They watched people be executed. That was normal in that day. And so here they are in this moment and they decide they're not going to bow down. So there are four characteristics of faith that walks through fires. This is the first thing I want you to see in the text, is that faith that refuses to walk through fires refuses to compromise convictions. The statute is built. They hear the decree, they hear the music start playing. You must bow down. You must worship a false God. Like can you feel the pressure? I mean, you're out and about one day and you're just minding your own business and all of a sudden the music begins to play and the music brings everyone together and 1 million people bow down. Everyone bows down their faces to the ground exactly what the culture wants them to do. They're doing everything. They're going along to get along. And you're standing. You're the only one standing, and you know that if they see you standing then, then it's gonna cost you your life. If you're exposed, it'll cost your life. Here's a question that I think we have to consider. When the culture's mu worship, music starts to play and you're expected to bow, what will you do? Maybe a better question is, what do you already do? When the mur, when the cultures worship music plays, when they tell you what you have to do to go along to get along, what do you do? Notice that they were allowed to worship God whenever they wanted to worship him, except when the culture's music was playing. And that's the way that our culture deals with us, by the way, as well. You can follow Jesus. You can do your church thing, you can have your Bible study groups. You can serve the community. Go do good things, but as soon as you. Is you don't compromise your convictions. As soon as you don't do what the world wants you to do, that's when it actually costs you something. Our culture does the same thing. They were, I mean, these three, they were allowed to worship God except when the music began to play. You're allowed to follow Jesus, even in our culture, but if you follow Jesus, you better keep it to yourself. You better go along to get along with the world. And if following Jesus makes you at odds with the culture, you better choose the culture. And what happens is what happened in this day and what happens in our day, is the culture creates moments where everyone, when everyone is expected to participate, when everyone is expected to affirm what's happening, when everyone is even expected to celebrate. And if you refuse to bow, it'll be said that you're on the wrong side of history. If you refuse to bow what you'll be labeled as intolerant, you'll be labeled as hateful. You'll be labeled as a bigot. And the question that these three boys had to consider, and the question that you have to consider is, are you willing to be labeled as intolerant for Christ? Are you willing to be labeled as a bigot for Christ? Like, are you willing to stand strong even when the culture tells you you're not supposed to? I mean, think about just big areas in our world, like faithfulness to Christ. What the culture does is faithfulness to Christ is often reframed as bigotry or lack of compassion in an increasingly secular world. I mean, think about it. The Bible says that Jesus said that he's the only way to God. I mean, he said that, and that just makes sense. He's the only one who solved the problem. He's the only one who died for our sins. No other religious leader did that. Every other religious leader stood in the dock condemned by God in desperate need of a savior. And here's the deal. You are glad to say you were ha the culture's happy for you to say that Jesus can get you to God. But if you start saying that col, that Jesus is the only way to God, then you're narrow-minded, then you're closed-minded. If you say you believe the entire Bible, you better learn to edit part of it out. The culture loves editing the Bible. I mean, think about it with identity and sexuality, like if you affirm God's design for gender identity, you'll be labeled as a bigot. If you affirm God's design for sexual ethics, you'll be told that you need to get with the times. If you, if you affirm that marriage is only between a man and a woman, you'll be on the wrong side of history. You've watched the culture do this. I mean, think about sanctity of life and what goes on in the womb. If you affirm that the baby in the womb is a human being made in the image of God from the moment of conception, it should not be murdered for the sake of convenience. It'll be, it'll be said that you don't love women and you're not for their rights. All of those areas are areas where when the culturals, when the culture's music begins to play, so many Christians have just bowed down there. I'll just keep my, I'll just keep my relationship with God to myself and what we learned from the text, that if we're gonna have faith that can walk through fires, we cannot compromise our convictions. We can't do it. Like guys, we're in a fight. God never calls us to compromise. And if you don't bow down when the culture tells you to bow down, it may cost you something, but understand that God has called you to only bow to him. He's the king. Like we follow Jesus no matter what. And here's the truth. What you have to understand is that your decision will be made before the crisis comes. I mean, think about it, the three Hebrew boys, they would've heard it. They would've been following God the entire time. Surely they talked about it. Like, Hey, when that music plays, we're, we're just gonna stand. Right. It's gonna cost us something. Yeah, but like, we're gonna stand, right? Like we're, their decision had to be made. Listen, it's, and I've gotta hurry up, but it is silly to think that if you don't follow Jesus in the everyday moments of life, if you don't choose to follow Jesus when it doesn't cost you anything, that you'll actually stand for God when it costs you something. Like I've heard people say like, man, I can't believe people in some country when they're being persecuted would not, would not die for the name of Christ. I'm thinking, you, you don't even live for Jesus now and it doesn't cost you anything. You think you're gonna live for him when it costs you something. See the moments that everyday moments of faithfulness will allow you to stand strong when it actually costs you something. These three, they made a decision to worship God day after day. So let's be the kind of people church that we don't compromise to the idol of self, that we don't compromise to the idol of success or the idol of tolerance, or the idol of comfort or the idol of approval appearance. Lemme talk to you for just a second. Um, one of the things that I've thought about a lot with my kids. It's a, it's a question that you've probably thought about with your kids too, especially when they get into school, is what if they don't fit in? Like it's a question like me, like I really hope they fit in. I really hope. Like what if they don't fit in? I just want you to know, that might be the wrong question. It might be really concerning if they always fit in. Like the worst thing for them might be that they always fit in with the world. So think through that being like, what if they don't, what if they're actually people who are convict? Like perhaps the greatest concern is that they will, excuse me. So when the, when the music plays, when social media demands formity, when your workplace requires participation, when. The university mandates affirmation like, will you bow or will you stand next? And I've really gotta hurry is that, uh, faith that walks through fires trust that God will deliver now or later. So ne kez, he's in a serious rage. We read about it. He forgets that he's not God and he's mad and he says, listen, if you bow well and good, but if you don't, you're gonna be thrown in a virus. And they don't. And the answer given, you can go back and read it, but the answer given in verse 16 through 18 is one sentence in the Hebrew. It's one long sentence, and basically they say this, we have no need to answer you because Nebuchadnezzar gives them a second chance. He says, Hey, you can bow now. It's a resolution with absolute clarity. We have no need to answer you. Why? Because our God is able to deliver us. In other words, they have faith in God's power and you ha, you ought to have faith in God's power. Our God is able to deliver us. But then they said like, but if not, we still won't bow. This is the difference between an immature faith and a mature faith. God will constantly move you to a moment where you'll begin to say things, God, I really need you here, but even if you don't deliver me right now, oh, I'll still praise you. It's a scary place to be when you constantly pray for things over and over and over for like God. I'm tired of battling with infertility like. Your word says that desiring kids is a good thing. God, where are you? Oh, but even if not, I'll still praise you. God, I'm sick. Like the bad news from the doctor. Dreaded C word. Where are you? Oh, but God, even if you don't heal me here, I know you'll heal me there. I'll still praise you. We believe that God is able to save us from this furnace. We believe that he can deliver us out from your Handel King. And even if he chooses not to, uh, we still won't bow. See, they're not saying that they, that we know God will save us. So we're safe to take this stand. Notice they know there's a possibility that God doesn't deliver them immediately. They're saying, God may or may not save us. But either way, we're not compromising. Because we know that he is able, they know God can rescue them. He, they are expecting that God will rescue them, but they're gonna trust him even if he doesn't see true. Faith is confidence that God will deliver, but it's not contingent on outcomes like, here's the truth. True faith is not manipulating God for outcomes. It's trusting God regardless of the circumstance. Faith is not a prosperity contract, and if you think that your obedience should be contingent on the outcomes that God gives you, you've not understood the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our obedience is because he's king and we're not. Our obedience is based on the fact that he sent his son to die for us when we could not save ourselves. Jesus did everything for you to have eternity with God. And this is so important, church, like God will deliver us. He will deliver us, deliver us either now or he will deliver, deliver us later. Because there's coming a day when all sad things are gonna be untrue. There's coming a day when he'll wipe every tear from their eyes and tears will be no, be no more like he is going to deliver us so we can trust God even when the outcome looks grim. What these three Hebrew boys knew was that God is bigger than all of their problems and he's better than all of the alternatives. God is bigger than their hit their problems. He's bigger than the furnace. They're not worried about that, and he's better than any of the alternatives. God really is better than anything the world has to offer. Third thing I want you to see in the text is that faith that walks through fires experiences God's presence. One 19 picks up and he says, then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury. He's mad, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, me, Shaq, and Abednego. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast him into the burning fiery furnace. What's interesting, I'm gonna paraphrase, right. What's interesting is that as the men are gonna cast them in there, the men are burned just because the fire was so hot. Interestingly enough, Nebuchadnezzar didn't recognize that the hotter the furnace, the more dramatic the rescue, and so he, he's trying to end them. And then what happens is that he looks into the fire and this is what the text says that he sees. He says he sees four men instead of three. Someone else is in there. Someone didn't, someone who didn't come through the door, someone who just appeared. He sees that they're unbound. They're not bound out. They're not bound up anymore. The fire undid their chains, but did not hurt them. He sees that they're walking in the midst of the fire. They're not at the door. They're not trying to beat the door down. They're not panicked. They're just walking around. They're calmly walking around. They're not hurt. The fire isn't consuming them. The flames that feel that killed the soldiers from a distance they're not even touching. It's, they're not touching the three men, the four men in there, and then the, the fourth looks like the son of God. What, what theologians have said throughout centuries is that this is what's called a Christophany. It's a, it's a pre, it's a, it's a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is there, and this is the truth. The furnace wasn't a place that God abandoned them. It was a place that God joined them, that the furnace becomes a place of fellowship with God. And I know that that might be something that you can actually. You don't have to read in a book somewhere, but you can experience it on the darkest days of your life. It actually became a place where God met you. It actually became a place where you experienced God's presence in a fresh way. That it became a place that you relied so much on God and he wrapped you up. See, God's presence changes everything, and what we learn here is that God's presence doesn't remove us from trials. It sustains. Them through it. Look at Isaiah 43, but now thus says the Lord. He who created you O Jacob, he formed you O Israel. Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. And when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. Listen to the promise. And when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame will not consume. You see, some of you are in a furnace right now and you're passing through the waters right now. You're not having a good day right now, and what I want you to remember is that the furnace becomes a place of fellowship with God if you allow it. He promises to ne never leave you. He promises to never forsake you. He's only on to you. This is like, um, I take the little girls to school and um, uh, to, to daycare. And it's been, it's been interesting. People feel so bad for me. Um, they tell me that not everyone offers the help, but they tell me they feel bad for me. So that's that. So I've got the baby in this hand, and what I do is I undo this and I've got the, uh, amari, the 2-year-old in this hand. I'm walking, you know, we're going in, we're going into school. And Amari sometimes holds onto my fingers. I've I've got her pretty tight. And, and this is the deal we're walking across. We're we're walking across a parking lot. We're walking across the road. And, and this is the case. Anytime you've ever helped your kid across the road, their safety is not dependent on how tight they have ahold of your fingers. It's not'cause Amari can let go. And I've got her. Their safety is dependent upon how their father has a hold of them. And so here's the deal, like your safety is dependent on the God of heaven. Like in the same way, like Jesus holds you in his hand. There's an old hymn that says, he'll hold to my hand. Oh, he'll hold to my hand as over death. Rivers. I go and safe. I shall be. Oh safe. I shall be in beautiful heaven. I know. See, God has a hold of us. Last thing, and I'm through, is that when you have faith that walks through fires, it'll display God's glory to the world. So what happens here is that King Nebuchadnezzar, he, he's astonished at the glory of. And he's like, man, that you said your God would deliver you. And he actually did. That's incredible because I challenge you and I didn't think that he would. And then he, in his paken mindset, he makes a decree. This is one of those descriptions in the Bible, not a prescription. He says that anyone who does not bow to the king or to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and a bit ago, anyone who doesn't bow to him, they should be killed. We don't, we're not about that. He's got a lot of growing to do, but all of a sudden he recognizes that he's not God. And this is stunning because if you go read this in the text later today, what's gonna happen is the same king who asked the question, who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? All of a sudden, this is what he says. He says, God sent his angel, the fourth man, the son of God. God delivered them God, or they trusted in him. They defied the keys to kings, uh, command. They were willing to die and they would only worship their God. All of a sudden, the pagan king is worshiping God in front of everybody. It's because three hoop Hebrew boys actually stood up for their convictions. They didn't go along just to get along. And he says in verse 29, there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. So the faithfulness of three young men led to the most powerful man on earth honoring the one true God. Their faithfulness becomes one of the most powerful sermons Nebuchadnezzar ever heard. He saw the fourth man, he saw the miracle. He saw that God is real and it changed him. Your but if not kind of faith, your willingness to stand when everyone else bows. That's a witness to the watching world. Like, will you actually follow Jesus? And we say that like relentless follower, we say like relentless followers is all about following Jesus no matter the cost. And there's going to come times, and you know this, you experienced this students, you're gonna have to figure this out. Like there's gonna be times where the culture is gonna tell you you have to do certain things to go along and get along. And the question is, is will you actually be someone who, who stands on their convictions? People wanna know if our faith is actually real. They wanna know that, that you won't bow when the music plays. They're watching to see if you'll stand, even if it costs you something like your faith. The, the mature kind of faith, the faith that kinda walked through fire, really does display God's glory to the world, and when you refuse to compromise. When you trust God without any guarantees of immediately immediate deliverance, when you experience his presence in the furnace the world sees and God gets glory, I want you to notice that in the text that the hero of the story to Nebuchadnezzar wasn't the three Hebrew boys. Did you notice that the, he, it's easy to look at this text and like, man, I really wanna be like Shadrach Meha in the bgo. And maybe, I mean, they, they did great things, but the hero even to Nebuchadnezzar, isn't, isn't the three boys, the hero is the fourth man. The hero is the one who unbound them in the fire. The, the, the, the hero is the God who delivered them. This is actually the story behind the story. See these three young men inspire us with their courage, and we need to have courageous faith, but they're not the hero of the story. The fourth man, the mysterious figure, the one who is the pre-incarnate Jesus, it's God with us in our suffering. But here's the stunning difference. These three went through a physical furnace and were saved. Jesus went through the furnace of God's wrath and saved us and get this. And just like those ropes in Daniel three, that bound them were burned away. The chains, our sin chains that bound us, they were burned away. When we trust in Jesus, there were unbound, were free. And three days later, Jesus walks out of the tomb and there's not even a smell of death on him. He's totally victorious. And then you read Romans chapter eight verse one, that now, therefore, there is no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus. What that means is that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, there's not even the smell of smoke, of God's wrath on you that your chains, they're bound. You have complete forgiveness. Your chains are burned away. We walk away unscathed from the wrath of God. And Jesus promises you the same one that died for you. I promise you, I will never leave you or forsake you. I will. I like I will be with you in every furnace that you ever face. I'm not going anywhere. In fact, the furnace is the place to fellowship. I'm right there with you. You'll never have to worry about if I'm gonna go away. Because I'm the one holding you. You think that you have a hold of me, but I'm actually the one holding onto you. And so really there's three responses today. One is, if you don't know Christ, you need to trust him that you, if you don't know Christ, you're under the wrath of God and he took God's wrath on himself for you. You trust him. You repent of your sin. He'll save you. The other responses for those who have been compromising, like, man, stop bowing down to the world's music. Stop bowing down to false gods Jesus set you free. Walk in freedom. Like be that Jesus follower. God's called you to be start living like you actually believe what you say you believe. And there's some of you that you're like, you're walking through it right now and I know like the world's a broken place. And I just want you to know that, that verse where it says, but even if not, that is one of the hardest prayers you will ever pray. In fact, there's been a long time that I didn't pray that prayer because I didn't like it. It's hard. It's hard, like trust God. Even if not, even if not, it's hard. But Jesus really is better than all the alternatives, man. He really, he knows what's best for us. Even we don't like, you're not alone. This church is with you and loves you. The fourth man is there with you. I keep standing. The story doesn't end with fire. And so the world is demanding that you bow, the music is playing, the pressure is will, is real. The question is how will you respond? How will you do that? So if you'll bow with me, there are some of you here today that you, you don't know Jesus. You may think that you've had exper an experience before, but the Bible says that the way that you can test yourself, whether you know the Lord. Is by conviction of sin and fruit of your life through the spirit in your life. If you just look at yourself and like, man, I'm actually, I'm actually worshiping everything else other than Jesus. I want to invite you to trust God for the first time today that you don't, it's not something you work for to, it's just surrendering of the will. It's bowing your knee only to king Jesus. And the way that you do that is by repenting of your sin. You change your mind about your sin, and you start walking with God. If you're in the room and you need to follow Jesus, maybe for the first time today, I you pray a prayer, something like this. Put it in your own words. Father, I know that I've sinned against you, that I know that I've worshiped all kinds of false God. I've worshiped myself. I've worshiped what people thought about me. I've worshiped money. I've worshiped career. I've worshiped. Comfort. I've worship all these things. God, today I'm surrendering my life only to you. I'm repenting of my sin and I'm trusting in you. I'm praying, praying you'll save me. If you prayed that prayer, I'd love right when we start singing that you would just come up here and talk to me. I'd love to tell you about your next steps in following Jesus, and you're like, man, I don't wanna stand up in front of all these people. Have you not been listening? Others of you, you're, you're in a moment where you are bowing down to the world's pressures all around you, and you hate it. You know you're not supposed to do it, but you keep doing it over and over and over again. I'm gonna pray that the spirit will just convict your heart. Then by his power, you'll be able to. Walk away free from that, and you'll follow only Jesus and those of whom I'm just gonna praise. You're walking in a furnace that you'll experience God's presence in a fresh way. You'll recognize that his presence makes all the difference and you'll run to only him. So Father, those in the room who are compromising continuously, God, I pray that they'll repent of that. God, I pray, Lord Jesus, that you will. You'll convict their hearts that your spirit will guide them into truth and who they actually should be worshiping and they'll stop bowing down to the world. God, we wanna be people here at LightBridge who will stand strong. Recognizing that you're allegiance to you is better than anything the world has to offer. So God, do that in our hearts. Make those, make us those kind of people. God, those in the room right now who have broken hearts, they've prayed for things for a long time, God, and in your perfect timing, you've not answered yes and, and God, we trust you. Your timing is perfect. God, I pray that you move us to have it, but even if not, kind of faith, knowing that what you're doing here is transforming us and molding us into the image of your son. And so God, I pray that we trust you all the more. God, we know you're good because you sent your son to die for us on the cross. So God, I pray in this next moment as we stand to worship God, as we stand to, to repent of our sin, as we stand to praise you, God do something among us in Christ's name.