WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Prevailing Church : Living in babylon Publishing Date: 2018-09-02T06:00:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/prevailing-church-living-in-babylon/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.000 So what we're going to do today is look at the life of someone from the world and draw out principles from the world that will allow us to engage with the world around us. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:19.000 So that's what Jacob has been teaching us over the last few months, which is a prevailing church is an engaging church. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.000 It is a church that engages with the people and the systems around it. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:40.000 And if our church, if Acts 29 and the broader church is supposed to be a prevailing church, it then means that we engage with the people who are around us and that we engage with the systems that are around us. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.000 So that's what we're going to look at today. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:50.000 Now, before we get there, if we are to ask Christians, including us around the world, what does the gospel mean? 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:57.000 And I think all of us will get this part right, which is that I was born as a sinner. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.000 I lived a life of sin. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 But Jesus loved me. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.000 The father loved me so much that he would send his son to die for my sins. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.000 And so Jesus stepped in. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000 He died on the cross for my sins so that I am now blameless before God. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.000 All I had to do was believe that Jesus is the son of God and that he died for my sins. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:26.000 Now that I have put faith in the Savior Jesus, I am now clean and forgiven before God. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:36.000 And now I have a life where I have the guarantee that I will always be with God, regardless of whether it's on the earth or after I die. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:38.000 I am immediately in his presence. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:40.000 We know this, everyone. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:41.000 We know this. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:51.000 But what we sometimes often forget and what we've been hearing from Jacob is that there is this whole other aspect to the gospel, which is that, yes, I was in a dark place. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 Yes, I was in a prison cell. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.000 But and the enemy had legal right over me because I was a sinner. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.000 But then Jesus stepped in. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:05.000 Jesus stepped in and he took the blow on my behalf. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.000 And after that, Jesus died. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.000 And three days later, he resurrected. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:18.000 And now that he has defeated the enemy, the chains have been broken. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:19.000 I am free. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.000 Now, Jesus takes me out of the prison cell, out of the prison camp. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:27.000 He takes me outside and now I can live a life of freedom. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.000 And it doesn't end there. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000 The gospel doesn't end there. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:37.000 It moves on because Jesus now tells me, I am here to take up residence inside of you. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:38.000 And so Jesus does that. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.000 He lives inside of me now. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.000 And it doesn't stop there either. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:48.000 He says, now I want you to go back into the prison cell from where you were rescued. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.000 Why? 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:56.000 So that now you can go back and become or you can go back and point people to myself. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.000 And that's really what the gospel is. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:00.000 So it doesn't end with salvation. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:08.000 It goes beyond that to a place where now we are representatives of Jesus and we have a commission that he has given us. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.000 And that's what the gospel really is. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:22.000 And so if we are an engaging church, then what we do is we go out and live in the world so that we can engage with the people who are around us and the systems that are around us. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:37.000 And now to do this, what we are going to do today is draw out principles from someone's life from the Word that will allow us to understand how best we can do this or how we can do this, which is to engage with people and cultures around us. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:41.000 We're going to look at the life of Daniel from the Book of Daniel. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:51.000 He was a 15 year old boy when he was taken from Judah into a foreign land, the land of Babylon. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:58.000 He was 15 years old and he was in the center of a new culture, a culture that he had never seen before. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:04.000 He was in the midst of a brand new people that he had never interacted with before. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.000 He was in the middle of a brand new religious system that he had never seen before. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:17.000 And in the center of all of that, he remains untouched by any of that. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:25.000 And in turn, what happens is he then affects the people and the systems around him. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 And it happens through a period of 70 years. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:36.000 He outlasted 12 kings and lived a life that we now read in the Book of Daniel. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:44.000 So there are things from his life that we're going to look at to see how can we apply that in our lives today. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:53.000 Now the thing about Babylon is that when you're in Babylon, Babylon has one goal, 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:57.000 which is to assimilate you into the culture you're living in, 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:03.000 which is to assimilate you into its cultural setting, into its religious setting. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:10.000 Babylon always tries to assimilate you, to indoctrinate you into the culture you're in. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.000 And that is what was attempted on Daniel and the young men that were with him. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Some of them were actually affected by that, because we don't read about all the 15,000 men who were taken there. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:29.000 We hear about Daniel, we hear about Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:33.000 Those are the four names we know. So what happened there is really real. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:40.000 You have a culture and the culture is trying to assimilate them into the culture that is prevalent there. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.000 And the people around them are trying to indoctrinate them, 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:51.000 so that where they have come from, they'll forget the aspects or the origin of themselves, they'll forget that. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:59.000 And so we look at the Book of Daniel and see, Father, what is it that today in my life, in our lives here, 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:08.000 what are the principles we can draw from Daniel's life so that we can engage with the world around us, with the systems around us? 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:16.000 So first we'll read from Daniel chapter 1 verses 3 to 5. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:27.000 Can someone read that out loud? Daniel chapter 1 verses 3 to 4. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:39.000 When the chief orders the ten-up, he has been ordered to bring in some of the interlikes from the royal family and the nobility. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:54.000 Young men, without any physical detail, have some aptitude for every kind of learning, well-deformed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's power. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:05.000 So we read there the things or the values that were prized in Babylon. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:11.000 So remember the young men, the 15,000 of them, enter Babylon, and now it's a brand new culture. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 And in that culture, there are certain things that are very prized. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:25.000 And some of them are physical appearance and education, skills, knowledge, your capacity to be promoted in the future. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.000 These are the aspects, the values that were prized in Babylon. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:36.000 And if you didn't have any of these values, then you weren't supposed to do well. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:41.000 Now we read that in the Bible, and we think that this happened thousands of years ago. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.000 But you look at the world around you today, and this is exactly what we have come to. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:59.000 In that, if we don't meet certain parameters, if we don't have good education, if we don't have X, Y, Z, then the society doesn't expect you to do well. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:03.000 And that is the societal construct that we are in today. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:10.000 And so what we read about Babylon and in the book of Daniel is not just for what had happened thousands of years ago. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 It is true for us today in our lives. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:21.000 In that, we live in a culture, in a society where if you have certain things, then you're supposed to do well. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:29.000 But if you don't have certain things, the society makes you feel, the culture makes you feel that you are not good enough. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:34.000 Now, so we've looked at the values that are prized in Babylon. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 If we go to, so that's on one side, that's the kingdom of Babylon. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:45.000 If you look at the kingdom of God, and we are in this kingdom, this is where we belong. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:48.000 The values are completely different. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:55.000 Two things that we can look at is from 1 Corinthians chapter 125 to 26. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.000 It actually says there that if you are weak, then you are strong. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:09.000 It says that if you're foolish enough in the eyes of the world to accept Christ, then you're good. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:13.000 Then he'll make you Fisher's men. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.000 That's what the Bible says. So let's read 1 Corinthians 1, 25 to 26. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:23.000 In fact, I'll actually, 26 to 28, I'll read it out loud here from the message. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.000 I do not see many, so this is Paul writing. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:31.000 So think of it as Paul writing to us here at Acts 29. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:36.000 I do not see many of the brightest and the best among you. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Not many influential, not many from high society families. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:48.000 Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women, 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:53.000 that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:01.000 that he chose nobodies to expose the holoness or expose the hollow pretensions of the somebodies. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:05.000 And that's what God always looks at. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:14.000 So we see the contrast here in that on one hand we have Babylon and its society and the culture and the way it operates. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:18.000 And on the other hand, the way God operates is completely different. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:22.000 And we are living in the world today. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.000 We belong to a different kingdom. We belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:34.000 But we are here so that we can influence the systems and the people that we live in and people that we live around. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:43.000 So one of the things that is repeated throughout the book of Daniel is that while Daniel was in this society, in this culture, 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 there is something about him that was different. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:54.000 And you read through Daniel the entire book and it keeps repeating, which is that Daniel was a man of an excellent spirit. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:59.000 It keeps repeating itself. Daniel was a man of excellent spirit. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:08.000 Excellent spirit, we'll look at that later, but excellent spirit towards God and an excellent spirit towards men around him. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Now we know the differences and what sometimes happens is even though we know that in our lives, 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:20.000 because this is where we live and this is the reality that is surrounding us sometimes, 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:32.000 what happens is that the way we think of ourselves, our measures of success, our personality, our character, 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:40.000 even our faith gets affected by the principles of Babylon. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:48.000 I'll repeat that because we are living in a culture and that's the culture of Babylon that's surrounding us, 00:11:48.000 --> 00:12:02.000 our outlook about our own future, our measures of success, our character, our personality, even our faith, 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:08.000 all of these things get affected by the culture of Babylon. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:14.000 In fact, what we were meant to do was that we would live and operate in this excellent spirit 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:19.000 so that we never get touched by the culture and the system around us. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:27.000 Now what happens with the business model, if we are to call that a business model of Babylon, 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:33.000 what happens with that is that our purpose and destiny we soon forget. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Because see, we are in this society, in this culture and all we hear are this is how you can be successful. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.000 If you don't have a home, then you're not having a successful life. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:48.000 If you don't buy a place by your 30, then you're not good enough. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:52.000 If you don't get a job in the field you're looking at, then your life is a waste. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:55.000 And this is what we keep hearing, keep hearing, keep hearing. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:01.000 This is what everyone around us live with and so this becomes the pattern we see 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:07.000 and we soon think that this is the only way to live. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:17.000 And so the culture of Babylon has an ability to unseat us from our destiny and from our purpose. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:24.000 Because what is actually true in our lives, which is the reality that we belong to the kingdom of God, 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:30.000 we seem to forget because the other reality is just so prevalent. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:39.000 The other thing that the culture of Babylon does, when we are seated at Nebuchadnezzar's table, 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Nebuchadnezzar is the king that is referred to in Daniel chapter 1. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:51.000 The other thing, and this is critical, that happens is that our threshold of self-control, 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:56.000 our threshold for morality decreases. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:00.000 Now what is morality? What is self-control? 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:05.000 We know what that is from the word in terms of how to live here. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:16.000 But that threshold, that word God has defined, it keeps going down the more and more we sit at King Nebuchadnezzar's table. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:22.000 Because what was offered to Daniel and the young men that were with him is that, 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:27.000 hey, you're not supposed to eat whatever you like. We're going to feed you what you need to have. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:33.000 So that you become this, this and this. If you do not feed yourselves with this, 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.000 then you do not have a chance to do well in this kingdom. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 It actually says it here. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:54.000 The king, verse 5, the king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:59.000 So who assigned them the portion of food? The king. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:06.000 So it never, so far, before this they were from the tribe of Judah, 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:11.000 and now they are in a foreign land and the king assigns them portions. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.000 The king assigns them food. The king assigns them drinks. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:19.000 And now everything, the source is from the king. And so you forget where you're from. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:26.000 And if you don't have that which everyone is having, then the society makes you feel that you're not good enough, 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:30.000 that you're not going to be successful, that you do not have a purpose. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:37.000 And the purpose that we have then becomes affected by the wealth and resources that are around us. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:40.000 We don't have to look elsewhere to really see this. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:46.000 In the book of Acts, chapter 5, I think, we see Ananias and Sapphira. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:52.000 And what happened to them? On one hand they had wealth, they had riches, resources. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000 What did they do? They took their wealth, they took their resources, 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:01.000 and traded that in for recognition. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:06.000 And on the other hand, in the same book we see another person, Barnabas. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:11.000 What did he do? He took his wealth, he took his resources, 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:21.000 and worked with his resources and wealth so that it would enable him to progress in the purpose that God had for him. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:26.000 So he used wealth, he used his riches, and the resources that he had, 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:35.000 not for recognition, not for anything else, but to progress himself in the purposes of God that God had for himself. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:42.000 That's actually from the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 36. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:48.000 Acts, chapter 4, verse 36. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:59.000 Acts, chapter 4, verse 36. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:05.000 So the table, which is extremely attractive and stimulates our appetite, 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:10.000 it lowers our threshold of self-control and godliness. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:19.000 And it gives us a value system that we are now supposed to live by, forgetting where we are from. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.000 So all of this was true then for Daniel. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.000 Now there are two crises in Babylon. 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:34.000 If we live in Babylon, we'll be faced with these two things, and we're going to look at those two things right now. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:38.000 The first one is a crisis of identity. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:42.000 It is a crisis of identity. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:52.000 What Babylon wants to do is that it wants us to forget our origin. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.000 It wants us to forget our life source. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:00.000 As soon as we forget who we are, where we are from, 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:06.000 as soon as we forget who our true life source is, now it's much easier to indoctrinate us. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.000 It's much easier to assimilate us into the culture. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:17.000 This happened with Daniel and his friends, the other three young men. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:25.000 So this is the first thing that happened when Daniel and his friends, 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:36.000 when Daniel and the three other men whom we now know as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.000 this is what happened to them. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:40.000 All of them had different names. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.000 And you can see the names on the whiteboard here. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:51.000 So on the left-hand side are the names that they had when they were in exile. 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:56.000 And on the right-hand side there are the names that were assigned to them. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.000 Daniel means God is Judge. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:06.000 That name got changed to Beltishoser, Prince of Bel. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:10.000 Hananiah, the meaning is gift of the Lord. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.000 That got changed to Shadrach, servant of sin. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Meshel means who is what God is. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:24.000 That then got changed into Meshach, who is what the moon god Akhu is. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 Assyria means whom Jehovah helps. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.000 And that got changed to Abednego, which means servant of Nebo. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:44.000 So when you look at this, what stands out is that these things sometimes are not bad. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.000 In that, when you live in that culture and when all of this is given to us, 00:19:49.000 --> 00:20:03.000 in terms of titles, new ways to progress ourselves, in terms of success, in terms of gifts, in terms of wealth, 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:08.000 none of those things are necessarily wrong to have. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:13.000 But what Babylon does is it takes that and changes it to things that are wrong. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.000 So if you look at this, there are two types of identity here. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:23.000 On one hand, for Daniel, whose name meant God is Judge, that got changed to Prince of Bel. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:27.000 So he's a prince now. It's a title that has been assigned to him. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:33.000 And on the other hand, for Hananiah, which meant gift of the Lord, 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:39.000 that is a negative identity, which now means servant of sin. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:47.000 And so on one hand, there is an attempt to give new gifts, new titles, new ways of progressions. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:53.000 And on the other hand, there is this element of you're not good enough because you do not meet the requirements. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:01.000 I don't know if you've ever been in cases or in situations or in phases of life where you look at your surroundings and you go, 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:07.000 I really don't know if I have what it takes to do those things because I'm not good enough. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:14.000 I don't really know if I am good enough to do these things because everyone around me, they seem to be better. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:20.000 They seem like they can do it much better than I can ever do. And so I'm not good enough. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:26.000 I've done so many things already in my past that makes me useless for my future. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:32.000 I've seen enough of things to not indulge in them anymore. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.000 And so on one hand, that is what Babylon does. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:46.000 It makes you forget your identity and it assigns on you a negative identity so that you'll feel that you can't do good anymore. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:50.000 You'll feel that you're not good enough and that your life doesn't have any purpose. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:55.000 And on the other hand, Babylon assigns to you positive titles, you would think, 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:02.000 but it is given to you so that you can be drawn away from the true purpose that God has for us. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:15.000 So the intent is to help us forget our life source, our God, and lift our hands to another. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:22.000 The intent of Babylon, the desire of Babylon is that we will forget our life source 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:28.000 and we will lift our hands to something else, but not God. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:43.000 Now regardless of what title or what name or what identity Babylon assigns us, 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:48.000 there is only one way for us to go back and know where we come from, 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.000 which is to go back to the word and to look at what God is telling about us, 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:59.000 is to go back to the prophetic words that God may have given us and see this is what God actually tells about me. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:04.000 It doesn't matter what the titles given to me mean. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.000 It doesn't matter if the world thinks I can do this or not. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:13.000 It doesn't matter if I've been disqualified from doing certain things. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:16.000 God tells these things about me in the word. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:23.000 God has in the past given me prophetic words and these are the things that God has told me already. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:30.000 So I'll stand knowing that these words from God are true and that the words from the enemy aren't. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:44.000 I'll give you an example about life trying to make us forget our life source, 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:49.000 life trying to make us lift our hands to something else. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:57.000 In my life sometimes God teaches me things through very simple instances, simple situations, 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:03.000 but then it carries in it a learning or a message that is for the life. 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:10.000 So just a few months ago when Don and I were trying to move from Vancouver to Surrey, 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:16.000 I think a week or maybe two weeks into our search for a new place to live, 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:24.000 we had a house church meeting and Anne and Elmer were there and Anne had a word for the church, for the house church. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:34.000 And as soon as Anne gave the word, I realized that it was for me too and that God was pointing out something in my life 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:40.000 where I wasn't, I was praying to God about the move. I was absolutely praying. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:48.000 I knew that God would provide, but what had happened is that I was forgetful of how I got here. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:57.000 I'll explain that. What happened is that we started searching for a house closer to work 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:03.000 because from Vancouver it takes an hour and a half to drive to Cloverdale. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:09.000 So we wanted to find a place closer to work and that was the goal, that we wouldn't have to commute much anymore. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:15.000 So we found a place in Craigslist, I believe it was in North Langley or something. 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:21.000 We kind of liked the place we went there and that's about when God pointed out to me that 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:26.000 you've forgotten and that you're not walking in the best I have for you. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:32.000 You're quick to take what is being given to you. You've forgotten the ways that I've brought you here. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:37.000 When I look back and when I can look back and see how I got my first car here, 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:42.000 how I got my first place to rent here, how I went back to India after a vacation 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:47.000 and when I wanted to come back and stay at UBC, how God provided a place for me at UBC 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:53.000 and how that place ended up being a place where I could meet another friend who is still, 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.000 who I'm still friends with and so on. I realized that God is pointing me to the fact that 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:05.000 you've forgotten the best I have for you and you're now using Craigslist and KGG, 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:10.000 which are very good things, good applications, but forgetting your true life source 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:17.000 and settling for the second best. So as soon as Dawn and I heard that, 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:23.000 we went back to our homes, we prayed and we said, Lord, we want to change the ways we are going about this. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:29.000 Even though we were praying about finding a new place. So we decided not to take up that first place. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:35.000 Another place came up and we wanted, did not want to rush. So we said we won't apply, 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:41.000 we won't put in the application now. We'll wait till the next week. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:47.000 So we didn't put in the application and the guys on the other end had said that if you don't put in the application, 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:52.000 you may not get this place. So you have to do it really quick. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:01.000 We decided not to and we put the application in maybe the week after and then we got a call from them. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:06.000 And the place we now live at, which is that place, is three minutes away from work. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:12.000 There are days when I go to go home and have lunch there because it's that close. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:20.000 I could have never in my abilities found a place like that. I wonder how I got that place, how we got that place. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:26.000 Now I could have settled for the second best that I had found for myself, which was 20 minutes away from work, 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:32.000 which would still be in North Langley, which was great too. But that wasn't the best for me. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:39.000 And God pointed that out to me through someone else saying, hey, there is a way I have brought you here. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:44.000 You go back and look at all the stories in your life. You'll see my touch in certain things. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.000 And that is the way I expect you to live even moving forward. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:54.000 Even though you've got these things around you, even when you're praying sometimes, that's not good enough. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:00.000 Seek what I have for you and then you'll get that. And that's the way I want you to operate. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 It's not that God is angry at it. It's just that there is a better way of living. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:11.000 The second crisis in Babylon is a crisis of morality. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:23.000 And this is a far more critical crisis than the crisis of identity, the crisis of morality. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:34.000 Babylon's meat and drinks that the king has assigned as daily portions, 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:45.000 it has the ability to desensitize my taste buds to the flavors of godliness and God's principles. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:52.000 The food and the drinks, the meat that is being served by the king, 00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:03.000 that is being assigned to me on a daily basis, that has the ability to desensitize my taste buds to the flavors of God, 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.000 his principles and his convictions. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:16.000 Can you relate to this? Is that a yes or a no? 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:28.000 So the first step for us is sometimes, even though we know this, to stop and to know that yes, this is what is happening. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:37.000 In fact, I went through this exercise some time ago and I was able to see areas in my life that were affected 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:44.000 because I was being catered a certain way and that was normal for me. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:54.000 What Babylon does is it takes good things and it morphs them into things that are not good. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:02.000 So in the church it can take, keep in mind this is not just for our life outside the church, 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:08.000 it's for church, it's for our life in this world, it's for us anywhere, everywhere we live. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:17.000 So the culture of Babylon, let's say, could be that it takes order and it morphs that into equality. 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:23.000 It takes faith and it morphs faith into religion. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:30.000 It takes that which is good and morphs that into things that aren't. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:38.000 So if we look at our lives, we'll be able to see areas in our lives where things may be good, 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:48.000 but now that has been morphed into something which isn't good and something that is affecting the purpose that God has for us. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:31:03.000 We'll spend maybe a couple minutes to go through this exercise, which is, 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:11.000 can you take a minute or a couple minutes to look at your life based on what we've heard 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:19.000 and seek God's help to identify areas in your life that may have been affected? 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:33.000 I'll give you an example. See what Babylon does again is that it takes the convictions that you have in your heart. 00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:40.000 These are convictions that are based off the Word of God. These are convictions that God has deposited in your heart. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:48.000 It takes those convictions and through experiences, through what you hear, through the meat and the drinks and everything that you've been given, 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:59.000 it makes or turns those convictions into loosely held opinions. 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:11.000 Again, I'll give you an example from my life where God used an instance to teach me something personally for me to change. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:23.000 Earlier this year, I was in the UK on a business trip and a colleague of mine from work and I went there to basically salvage a project. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:30.000 The project was not going well and we were being sent there so that we could go do some work there, win that project back. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:36.000 That was the only objective. So I went there. I was very excited about going. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:48.000 I remember sitting at the airport and talking to God about the trip and telling a whole bunch of things to him in regards to the trip. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:56.000 I was excited to go. We landed there. We spent the first two days there with the client. Things were going extremely well. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:03.000 This is a project that was going bad and we are there now for two days and things are looking really good. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:06.000 It seems like we're going to get this project back. 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:11.000 The third day, I think night, we go out for dinner with the clients. 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:21.000 I can't tell you who the client is, but that table, all by my natural abilities, I would never be there. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:31.000 We were sitting at this table and when I was in fifth grade or something, in India you have notebooks with things printed on them. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:38.000 One of the lines on a notebook that I had in my fifth grade, it said, be loyal to those who are absent. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:41.000 Be loyal to those who are absent. 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Growing up, this is not a very cool quote to have, but this is one of the things that I really held close to my heart. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:53.000 Be loyal to those who are absent. 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:57.000 I was probably six or seven years old when I first read that. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:00.000 I don't know, sometime around then. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:03.000 Growing up, this was big for me. 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:10.000 I always used to keep this in mind and talking with God, I would be like, if someone is with me, great, I'll be loyal to them. 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:17.000 But if someone is not with me, then I'll be extremely careful to be extra loyal to them. 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:24.000 That's something that God had given me or had deposited in me because that's the way he wanted me to operate. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:29.000 Now I'm sitting at this table, third night, things are going extremely well. 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:35.000 One person at this table passes a comment about a colleague of mine back in Vancouver. 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:40.000 The entire table laughs and I laugh with it. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.000 Not because I didn't like my friend. 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:47.000 I laughed because I wanted to go with the flow. 00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:52.000 Three seconds into that, I realized what I had done. 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.000 It only took me three seconds. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:58.000 The moment I finished laughing, I knew what I had done. 00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:01.000 God pointed out what was wrong. 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:03.000 You won't believe this. 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:06.000 I'm not saying that this is exactly how things work all the time. 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:11.000 But in a matter of three minutes, the entire discussion at that table went south. 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:14.000 It was as if we were going to lose that project. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:18.000 In three or four minutes after that. 00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:22.000 I went back to the hotel. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:26.000 I spent some time with God and I recognized what I had done. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:28.000 All I did was laugh. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.000 I didn't say a word. 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:31.000 I didn't agree with the laugh. 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:34.000 But I laughed just to go with the flow. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:42.000 I realized that I have a principle, a conviction that is deep seated in my heart that God has given me. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:50.000 But because I was at this table, in three seconds, I let go of something that was special to me, given to me by God. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:55.000 And you look at your lives and you'll see instances here and there where this happens. 00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:02.000 I went back home, went back to the hotel, spent time with God, worked some more. 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:07.000 The next day, went back in and God restored everything. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:15.000 In fact, that day, the building I was in at, I knew I would never be there in my abilities. 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.000 Joss, who is sitting at the back, we did our undergraduate degree together. 00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:21.000 Four years in India, we came here. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:25.000 Joss joined me after three years once I moved here. 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:28.000 And he's actually going back to Montreal later this week. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:30.000 He found work there after having graduated. 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:36.000 So this may be the last time you see him for the next little bit until he returns. 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:40.000 In my life, I know certain places I go to. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:42.000 I will never be there in my abilities. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:50.000 But God, when he takes us to places or to people, I am to know that I do not belong to this culture. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:53.000 I am to know that I do not belong to this system. 00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:58.000 I am to know that there is something that God has deposited in me that I have to hold strongly. 00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:00.000 Because these are deep convictions. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:03.000 These are principles that are from the word. 00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:06.000 These are against the systems and the culture that is around me. 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:13.000 But I have to hold them closely so that I can then be different from the culture that is around me. 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:21.000 So can you take three minutes then to look at areas in your life that may have been affected 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:26.000 because of our seat at Nebuchadnezzar's table sometimes? 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:33.000 And can you list a few convictions or principles, you can use any word you want, 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:41.000 convictions, principles, morals that God has given you that is deep seated in your heart from the word 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:45.000 that you want to live your life with. 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:46.000 Doesn't matter where you are at. 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:49.000 Doesn't matter what situations you are facing. 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:53.000 Those convictions will be with you. 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:57.000 I'll close really quickly. 00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:07.000 It could be what Jesus said, 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:10.000 do unto others what you want to be done unto you. 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:13.000 Is that super close to your heart? 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:15.000 Doesn't matter where you are. 00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:17.000 Look at someone and look at someone's need. 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:22.000 And you think, if I was there, this is how I wanted to be treated. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:27.000 And therefore I will treat these people exactly the way I would like myself to be treated. 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:48.000 Is it that doesn't matter who is working with you at work, 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:50.000 doesn't matter what their skill sets are, 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:55.000 doesn't matter the people you live with, your roommates, 00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.000 doesn't matter what they do to you, you will treat them good. 00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:07.000 Why? Because these are all principles or morals that we have deep seated in our lives because of the word of God. 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:12.000 From the word of God, these are the things that God has taught us. 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:16.000 And so these become principles and convictions in our lives. 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:19.000 So note down a few things, three or four of them. 00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:21.000 Go over it. 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:51.000 Okay. 00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:21.000 Okay. 00:40:49.000 --> 00:41:07.000 Now we look at, we've looked at Babylon, we've looked at its culture, 00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:23.000 and now we look at from Daniel's life, we only have time for three. 00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:32.000 So we look at three things we can look at from Daniel's life that we can then use in our lives to engage with the culture and the people around us. 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:37.000 So number one, our life is almost like we are on the mountaintop. 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:44.000 We are with Jesus and then Jesus asks us to go back down into the valley. 00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:47.000 It's almost like we are in a, we were in a prison cell. 00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:49.000 We were taken back out. 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:51.000 We are free. Our chains have been broken. 00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:55.000 And now Jesus says, go back into the prison cell. 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:58.000 That's really what living in the world is like. 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:07.000 When we do that, one thing that Daniel and the men, the three men with him did is that I'd like to call it as 00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:14.000 live your life outside of the tent. 00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:19.000 When you're in the valley, live your life outside of the tent. 00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:21.000 What does that mean? 00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:32.000 Because sometimes what happens with us Christians is that we separate ourselves from the things that are in the world, from certain discussions, 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:37.000 from going into certain places, because those are places that we should never be. 00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:40.000 And we separate ourselves from that. 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:46.000 Knowing. But at the same time, what should really happen is that you step into those discussions. 00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:56.000 You step into those situations knowing that the God of the universe is inside of you and that that who he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:07.000 And that it doesn't touch us. In fact, when we when we know who we are and we live purely and we live in holiness and we ask God and engage with him and go into those situations, 00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:14.000 the people there and the situations there in turn get touched with the God who is living inside of you. 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:17.000 So we have to learn to live outside of the tent. 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:21.000 We have to learn to be open to people. What does it look like practically? 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:25.000 I'll tell you in the Canadian culture at work and stuff. 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:30.000 It's crazy how people ask you ask people ask you how your weekend was like. 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:32.000 How was your weekend? Oh, it was good. How about you? 00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:35.000 It's done in two seconds. 00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:40.000 How was your weekend? Oh, it was great, man. Nice long weekend relaxing. How about you? 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.000 That's it. Some people have say more. You speak more. You discuss more. 00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:57.000 But do you see that when someone asks you a question, how was your weekend, you have the ability now to maybe talk about how your weekend really was like. 00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:02.000 To maybe talk about the fact that you hung out with a bunch of people and that it was great. 00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:07.000 And they ask you why and where maybe that even that you went to church. 00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:17.000 I do that at work. They asked me how how how my weekend was and I make it a point to bring up church. Why not? 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:28.000 Sometimes people don't because we think it's intolerant. But this is my life. 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:33.000 Live in the open. Live outside of the tent. 00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:40.000 I hear stories about Mark and John. Sometimes what happens with John's apartment mates and Mark at work. 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:50.000 These are all pointers for us to live differently because our purpose is that we point people to Christ. 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:59.000 Second. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:10.000 Is zeal for the fame of his name. 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:16.000 And I think sometime ago when Jane was singing, she sang about this. 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:20.000 Give us a passion for your name, Lord. 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:28.000 May it burn inside of us. Give us a passion for your name. When I'm out on the street, give me a passion. 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:37.000 I remember when I first started at Acts 29, Jacob, Jacob probably forgot about this, but he made a comment Sunday. 00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:45.000 This was way back at Rose Street that he spent some time on Main Street just looking at people. 00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:53.000 I actually heard that comment and I thought that's different. He spent time looking at people. Why? 00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:59.000 He's spending time just looking at people walking by recognizing that these are people made in the image of God. 00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:12.000 He's looking at people recognizing that his purpose now is to engage with them, to interact with them, to see if he has the opportunity to point people to Christ. 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:27.000 So we maybe become a people who increasingly burn with a passion for his name, with a passion for the fame of Jesus' name. 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:28.000 I'll be real quick. 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:52.000 And then the third one, a heart for Jesus' people and purposes. 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:58.000 This is huge. 00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:06.000 Because most of the time this is way outside our scope, so to speak. 00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:11.000 A heart for Jesus' people. When I say Jesus' people, it doesn't mean people in the church. 00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:16.000 It means everyone in the world are Jesus' people. They sometimes just don't know it yet. 00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:24.000 A heart for Jesus' people and his purposes. 00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:30.000 What Daniel did when we look at Daniel's life is, think it's in chapter 8 or something. 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:36.000 With no prompting, with no dreams, with no interpretation, with nothing happening around him, 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:46.000 He says in a chapter that he perceived from the Word of God that in 70 years the way Jerusalem is would change. 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:49.000 And that's a prophecy from Jeremiah. 00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:59.000 So he reads those words from the book of Jeremiah, or the prophecy from Jeremiah, and then he pleads with God for Jerusalem. 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:05.000 He actually opens the windows and he looks at Jerusalem and he pleads with God for Jerusalem. 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:13.000 Why? He's got this burning inside of his heart for Jesus' people and his purposes. 00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:21.000 And when we engage with God and say, and Jacob says about this often, which is that when you wake up, ask him, what do you have for me today? 00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:29.000 And God points us to things that are way outside of our lives or are much bigger than our lives. 00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:32.000 And then we have the ability to engage with him. 00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:34.000 I'll give you an example. 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:40.000 Some of us from the house church may know this already, but I was driving to Vancouver one day. 00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:48.000 And sometimes when I was back, when I was living in Marpole, I was driving and on that drive I was singing. 00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:50.000 I only sing when I'm just with myself. 00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:52.000 Otherwise no one will hear me. 00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:56.000 Anyway, I was singing and then God was giving me words. 00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:05.000 And immediately, a few minutes later, there was this impression in my heart to pray for kids in the lower mainland. 00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:23.000 And so I start praying for kids in the lower mainland and specifically for against a particular sin, which is becoming popular in our culture to pray for protection for these kids. 00:49:23.000 --> 00:49:31.000 And so I started praying and I prayed to God and I drive into work and I finished work. 00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:36.000 And this was summer 2017, I think I come back on my way back. 00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:39.000 I typically just go straight to my home that night. 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:45.000 That evening I decided to go look at Dawn, who was playing at a field next to Marpole. 00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:47.000 So Dawn was playing cricket there. 00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:48.000 So I parked my car. 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:51.000 I've never done that that summer up until that point. 00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:52.000 I've never done that. 00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:54.000 And that day I feel like I should do it. 00:49:54.000 --> 00:50:03.000 So I go there and Dawn is playing cricket and Dawn actually comes to me a few minutes into my being there. 00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:06.000 Dawn comes to me and says, you see that kid? 00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:09.000 I said, yeah, something is different about him. 00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:11.000 And this is what it is. 00:50:11.000 --> 00:50:13.000 And I hear that. 00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:19.000 And that is exactly what I had prayed for that morning. 00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:27.000 In that, father, for kids in the lower mainland today, because you are putting this in my heart, I want to pray against this. 00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:35.000 And I bring these kids to you so that you can work in their lives and free from from those things that are running after them to persuade them. 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:41.000 And I see this kid and was almost like God telling me just mark this as a pointer. 00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:47.000 Because when these things, when I put these things in your heart, you don't see faces. 00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:49.000 You're praying for things that you've not seen. 00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:54.000 You're praying for things that's outside of your scope. 00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:58.000 But no, for sure that I am behind it. 00:50:58.000 --> 00:51:01.000 And you're praying for kids like this. 00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:07.000 And so these prayers are for my purposes and for my people. 00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:11.000 And that's what we've been invited into that. 00:51:11.000 --> 00:51:20.000 There's there are things out there that like Jacob is doing right now in Kether not in other parts of the world that are way bigger than us. 00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:27.000 But they are part of God's great purpose for his people. 00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:34.000 So let's close.