Dan Mohler | Identity in Christ | Saturday 2pm 1-4-25

Your testimony ran, that was awesome! H me down there, buddy. Got to bring my volume down to decide how excited I can get or not. I can't get too loud. If you bring it down, I can get loud. No, I think I'm good. Is that good? Sound good? What a testimony.

You know, it seems like until you really surrender something, you aren't in a position to be able to steward it, 'cause it becomes need. If you have anything that that fills something, that I found this scripture and it's been there forever, right? It's in Ephesians. It says, "to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge." So he says, "to know and knowledge" in the same sentence. Well, it's two different words. "To know" it's an experiential knowledge. "To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge" is to be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, to this day, I don't even know how to teach that. How do you teach the fullness of God? But it sure sounds like a good thing. So, "to know the love of Christ" means to be complete and fulfilled, nothing lacking, right?

So, so he's got that void, he's got that thing in him, and that becomes a need. It still becomes part of your identity. It's and it's not that it's wrong. You, you, you have a love for your biological son, but until he was ready, just surrender that live, consistent, submit himself to God, whether he had his son or not. See, if not, not you come to God for what you can get from him, instead of come to God for what you can become. And there's a huge difference. Most sermons you'll hear in America are beneficial, they serve the hearer without ever convicting to change him. That's right. Are you following me?

And, and we're, we're notorious. I'm, I'm ashamed and sad that I have to use that word in the, in the church. We're notorious because that's Nori. It's not actually a good thing. We're notorious for just preaching messages to benefit us, 'cause that entices the hearer, it draws people. So people come to God for what they can get from him. That's why so many people are disappointed. That's why people are discouraged, because they're seeking is self-centered. It's for themselves. It's not an accident.

And welcome you guys, right? This is a Ministry. This is a work. Welcome girls. Jesus loves his girls. Amen. It's just glad you're here. And what guys in the back, back row guys? Yeah, you're all together, right? I'm just looking. I'm thinking that's the ministry right there. Just welcome. Just glad you're here.

Look, last night, I can't nutshell. I can nutshell. I can't preach all of last night, but just so you're on the same page, because I'm going to kind of spring off of it. Last night, we talked about God made man with intention, didn't we talk about that? He made man with purpose. He didn't, man's not happenstance. Who knows God is full of life? Like, but he wasn't just sitting bored one day playing with clay and he sneezed and a man was in his hand. Like, I guess that could have happened. He's so full of life, but it didn't happen like that. He made man with intention. He made man with purpose. Like, we're not happenstance. Whoever felt like they were an accident? Whoever felt like their life didn't matter or shouldn't have been? Who, who honestly, in this, in this thing we're coming from, like, who's been legitimately suicidal and maybe even came that close? Be honest. See, look at that. That's not an accident. It's because it's total counterproductive. It's the opposite of the truth. Watch. He's the author and Giver of Life.

I found in my Bible, there's a time to be born. So here we are. If we were born, whose will is it? So if there's a time to be born and he's the one that authors life, and we were predestined before time to be adopted as its sons. If you were the enemy, of course, you'd get people to be robbed of that truth and think they don't matter, they should have never been, they were born by an accident. They, yeah, next thing you know, they don't even want to live. When life is a gift.

See, suicide, the Lord showed me a long time ago, suicide, like the most tragic acted out, acted out deception somebody can participate in, because you get tricked into taking something that's not even yours. You say, "Well, it's my life." It was never your life. It was His life in you from the beginning. It's two becoming one. It's Christ in you. It's God making you for His image. It was never just your life. That's abortions, the same way. "Well, it's my body, I'll do with it." No, it was never your body. You're to be His body. See, it's a difference.

Now, all these things, the beauty is, God is amazing. His love never fails. And He sees us for what He created us to be. So we can repent. We can be sincerely sorry. And we can go, "Duh." Right? Like, man, if I saw this, then I wouldn't have did that. Then, right? So we can change. And God gives us that privilege. He doesn't stereotype us. Aren't you glad? If you believe that, that's a big thing. Like, He doesn't stereotype you for where you've been. He marks you for where Jesus has been and what Jesus has done. You say, "Well, you don't know what I've done." Well, do you know what He's done? Well, you don't know what I've been through. Do you know what He's been through? Because that's where you find you.

Yeah, and I want to talk about this for a second, because if God made man for His image, and He didn't make man for man's own image, and an image has to do with who God is, and God is love, He made man to love. We talked about this last night. I'm just doing this for this group, so just bear with me. So I found in my Bible that the whole goal of our instruction, the whole purpose and reason for the commandment is love. That we walk in love. That we actually be restored back to love. I'm a firm believer of this, that if we don't become love, we'll do a ton of church and miss the very reason Jesus hung on the cross. 'Cause He didn't just hang on the cross to take you to heaven when you die. He hung on the cross to get you back to the Father. And that's rarely taught. The whole thing we teach is to get me to heaven, get me to heaven. And there again, we're just serving ourselves. Who wouldn't pray that prayer? You want to go to heaven. We don't even have to believe the preacher. We'll just pray it. In Casey's right. Come on, be real with me. But we always preach something that gives us so much incentive. No, Jesus never even said that. The reason He's down on the cross is to take us to heaven. He says He's the way, the truth, and life, and nobody comes to the Father. He's the way back to the Father. And because the Father's eternal, when we're one with Him, and ain't nobody taking me out of the palm of His hand, I'm going to live forever with Him. Why? Because He never made me to die. He made me to live forever.

And He said to Adam, "The day you eat the tree is the day you surely die." We talked about it last night, remember? He ate the tree, but he didn't fall over dead. So he wasn't talking about physically dying. What died? He died. Who he was died. The image died. His relationship with God died on the inside. He died. Everything about him died. And who he was was lost in sin and separation from God. And that's why we need to get back to the Father. That's why we need to get born. Because Romans 5 teaches it so clear. If you have a chance to read it, read it. It says that we were all born into Adam. And we must be born, born into Adam. We were born into what he became after sin. He was separated from God. He became totally self-centered, self-focused, self-sufficient, self-defending, self-protecting. I mean, the first effect of sin is in your Bible already in Genesis 3. God comes and says, "Adam, where are you?" Where are you? He's looking for Adam. He knows where Adam is. He's not at a loss for information. He's not like, "Now, where did that boy? How did he outfox me? Where did that boy get to?" He, he's not legitimately confused. He's given Adam a chance to respond and come to God as a Father. Isn't it cool that God came down as a covenant God? He, he knew Adam ate the tree. He didn't stay in heaven. He didn't leave him forsaken. He didn't just smite the Earth with a plague forever and just stay in the clouds and say, "Well, that was a good attempt, but man's a jerk and I ain't going down there." No. As soon as he sinned and got naked and ran, he came down. God came down like any other day. And he heard the sound of the Lord coming and he got ashamed. This time. See, that's what sin comes. This will do to our lives. When all you're thinking about is what's wrong with you, you'll run from Him. And that's, that's counterproductive. You should run to Him when there's something wrong. You don't run from Him, you run to Him. But sin does that. Self-conscious, feel bad, you don't feel worthy, you feel dirty, you feel right. He's running. He's naked. And for the first time, he realizes it. And he's ashamed. Eve was naked, and he was naked, and they didn't even know it. We, we think, you know, preachers, I've heard preachers growing up say, they, they were so covered with the glory that they didn't even see their parts. Are you kidding? They were naked, but they were innocent. And they didn't have self-centeredness. And they didn't have lust like we know it. Their sexual desire and things came from covenant love and union and being one. It didn't come from need and urges and itches and scratches. It didn't come from, "Oh no." It didn't.

I'll just back off for a little right now. But I'm telling you, things got messed up. The first thing that happened to me when I got saved is I realized that was a lie in my life. As a man, I realized I got my definition of manhood from magazines and locker rooms. And when I was 11 and found the porn magazine on the railroad track and sat there on the closed rail dock on a brickyard and read page after page with my mouth hanging open. And now I got my education, 11 years old. And it lit something in me that was already there and sent me on a thing. Like everybody seems to travel. The first thing I was aware was when I got saved, that that thing was a lie. And I cried and I said, "God, you couldn't have made me this way because it, it's at the expense of another person. It cost somebody to meet that need. And nobody was put on the earth to scratch my itch." Ain't that something? We took a covenant that's supposed to be a covenant and love and an exchange of union and oneness and turned it in. And there's, there's no condemnation. This, we've all been good. We just turned it into one-night stands, needs, emotional experiences. "I love you." "Yeah, I know I love you." And then walk away like we never even known each other. Say, "I love you," and make a child. And now you don't even talk a month later, two months later, a year later, you don't even want to see each other, be in the same room. But you got kids together and you can't even stand to look at each other. Come on. What it proves is we never knew what love was in the first place. We just needed one another. And then our values changed. And we got fulfilled in areas that you ain't filling no more. So now, "I don't think I love you anymore." Friend, it was never love. You're using each other to get by. Just telling you straight. I'm sorry if that's hard, but that's just real.

He said, "Adam, where are you?" And Adam's over, he's hiding, right? He's like, he says, "I'm over here." He says, "Lord, I'm over here." He said, "I was naked, so I was ashamed. I heard you coming and I'm naked, so I just come over here and slip behind this bush." He said, "How did you know you were naked?" Come on, guys, it's a yes or no question. How did you know you were naked? Did you eat the tree that I forbid you to eat? It's a yes or no question. Guess what he said? "It was the woman that you gave me. I ate the tree." What's he saying? What's sin saying through him? What's self-centeredness, self-defending, self-protecting saying? Look, man, don't be looking at me. If you didn't, if you didn't give me the woman, probably when they ate the tree. So back off, work it out, but don't look at me. Now you tell me, we haven't all acted that way growing up? Even when we knew we were wrong, we tried to minimize why we were wrong. No matter how bad it was, we tried to make it like it wasn't as bad. And we had a reason. Come on, you know I'm telling the truth on this. We've all done it. Why? Because we were all born into sin and into Adam, right? And Adam is separation from God. So every one of us were burst in the effects of living separate from God. That's a scary thought. That's why this gospel is way more than God just giving you a bunch of stuff and fixing all the things you broke. And I love what you said, R. It's not always a guarantee that He'll just fix everything you broke. You don't come to God just 'cause you think He's going to fix everything you broke, or you might get really let down because the things that you want fixed, you ain't even ready to steward. So why would He give you the thing that you can't even steward? And why would He even put a child back in your life that you might not even be ready to love?

Is it all right if I'm talking plain, or do you want me? Because I'm not, I don't know how to soft pedal nothing. You have to give the mic to somebody else 'cause I'm not going to tone that down. Why? 'Cause it's truth that makes us free. Amen. And truth should never be so hard to hear if it brings life. See, what it does is, if you don't listen to truth and, and you refuse truth, "I don't want to hear that. That's too hard to hear." What you're doing is, you're saying, "I want to keep alive what I know should be dead." Like, I'm, you're protecting something that shouldn't be there. There's people that have a hard time listening to me. I, I get around L, some leaders and ministers. I've confronted a few. I said to one, "God, man, you seem so distant when you get around me." He said, "Well, just when you preach, it just makes me uncomfortable." He said, "And actually, I feel kind of condemned by your preaching." And I said, "Well, that's because there's sin in your life you're aware of and you won't repent." What's going on in your life? I'm just straight. Yeah. Come on. If I love you and I'm walking in the spirit and I'm preaching the gospel and you're running from me because you feel uncomfortable around me, there's something in your life that's making you uncomfortable. So we might as well get it straight and find out what it is.

This was a pastor leading service and teaching. He's got pornography in his life, big time. And he's bound to it. And he's a daily pornography guy. And he's ministering and teaching and preaching and married with children. But he don't know how to get free. So he's just swept it under the rug and say, "Well, God still loves me and I'm still His son." But now he can't even listen to truth because he has to justify his own thing. Who would say that's a bondage? Does God condemn him? No. But he's being condemned in his own soul because, because he doesn't know how to. And now I got nothing against him, but he can't even be around me because he knows I just bring it straight and talking. I'm talking about being clean, living free. And, and he's not free. So I'm a threat to be around. That's called sin consciousness. And I'm glad that's the way it is, or we would just get inoculated and we just wouldn't even have any convictions in our life at all, would we? We'd say, "Oh, whatever. God loves me anyway." But see, that doesn't send a message of who He is to others. I mean, this thing is extreme. And it's not legalistic. Like, listen, don't hear me wrong. Like Paul writes, you know, if you know believers that are living sexually in misconduct, don't associate with them or eat with them because we don't want to give the world the impression that we agree and it's okay. It doesn't mean you don't forgive them. It doesn't mean you segregate totally from them, give up on them, or stereotype them or something. What he's saying is, be careful to send the expression that we know what's going on and we're cool with it. See, but that's not legalistic. We're not cool with it because we're in the world and we're not of the world. And the reason you're living in that conduct is because you're feeding yourself something. We always call it love. It's not love. We wouldn't hurt each other if we loved each other. You wouldn't go to bed angry if you loved them. You wouldn't live in unresolved conflict if it was love. Why? Because love doesn't seek its own. So you'd never say, "Well, you really hurt, hurt me." "Well, how come you will?" "Well, if I would never, if you didn't." "Well, you're the one that started it." "Well, it's all because of you." We wouldn't be in any of those conversations if we knew what love was. Love just blows that all out of the water. And the only reason we know that language is because we were born outside of love. We were born into need.

So what happened was, Adam lost who he was through sin and had no idea who he was. He was created for God's image, but he didn't look nothing like God anymore. I think we need to understand also that he didn't just sin in the garden. He took on the nature of the enemy of God. When the enemy deceived Eve, and she had Adam follow her instead of God, he made a little disciple that started to pattern his wisdom. He put that into Adam, and Adam ate the tree and became the same. So it's reproducing after your own kind. Yeah. So when God says, "Be fruitful and multiply," the enemy says, "Okay, I see what He's up to. I'll just work hard and reproduce and multiply myself. I'll to P my multiply myself in as many as are willing and will believe." So he deceives Eve, gets her to speak the same language that he spoke to her, to her husband. And her husband, instead of saying, "Oh no, no, God said, and look, you've been deceived, honey. Did you already eat that tree? Look, I'm going to cover you in love and mercy, and we're going to call on God because I don't know, we got to work this out. But there ain't no way I'm eating the tree God said specifically, don't eat the tree." Come on. But what he do? Really? The snake told you that you ate the tree? Was it good? Yeah. And he said, "We'll be just like God, really? Like Him? Just like Him? Instantly naked." He looks at her and he sees her part, sees she's hers. They lost innocence and they knew they were naked. And they were like, "Ah, we're naked." Well, Adam might not have been "Ah." He might have been like, "Whoa." But she was probably up because something changed. Something changed. I think it's amazing they were naked and not ashamed. And they weren't in some kind of lustful thing that all we are is familiar with. You see what I'm saying? I just think it's amazing that there's such an innocent, pure place that your heart can abide. That you could, oh my goodness, it's just, we were so far removed from it, guys.

So see, this thing is about new life. It's about transformation and change. And every sin we've ever committed, the addiction and the addictive behaviors, you hit it so much in your testimony. It all comes from not knowing who we are. It's all identity. Christ. It's just because we don't know who we are. But man, we can thank God. He never lost sight of why He made us and who we are in Him. Like, on your darkest day, God didn't lose sight of who you can be. If it wasn't true, He'd never have put His Son on the cross. The blood wouldn't be speaking better things. There'd be no way for mercy and forgiveness. And you'd have to be able to cross a line at some point. But He says, "Nope. I know who you are."

See, when He's hanging on the cross, He ain't saying, "I hope you all satisfied now. Look what your son's sin did to me. Now I got to die for y'all." Look, you're the one that calls these bruises. You're the one that's how some people preach the gospel. Here's what I see when I see Jesus on the cross. "Son, I know who you are. I've known you from the beginning. You just don't know who you are. And the truth about who you are is so worth living that I'm willing to die to bring it back to life. And I want to give my life so you can receive the life of my Father on the inside of you. Because I know what you'll look like when I'm in you, when we're in you, and you're surrendered. And that is worth paying for." I love you.

See, see, my whole life going to church, all I was ever taught was, "Jesus died on the cross because I was a sinner." That's what they said. "Jesus died on the cross because I was a sinner." And this isn't a play on words. Listen, it's a different truth. He had to die because I sinned. That's different. He had to die because I sinned. My sin cost Him His life. But He didn't hang on the cross because I'm a sinner. He hung on the cross 'cause my destiny and purpose and potential was lost. Who He created me to be was lost. He came to find that. Watch. In Matthew, He says, "He came to seek and save that..." Not who, who would be a person. He came to save that which was lost. That is a thing. Guess what He came to save? The image of God in man. Man walking in the light, walking in the spirit, living by faith. He came to restore what was lost. To seek and save that which was... We always think, "Who was lost?" We think it's somebody using in the back alley. No, no, no. That's just getting you clean and saved and delivered. But He wants to save you to what you're here for. That's why I told y'all yesterday, ain't about never using again. It's about becoming the men you were created to be, right? Women becoming the women you were created to be. It ain't about just going through the program and saying, "Hey, I've been clean now for 10 years." Look, in AA, they call it a dry drunk. You can be clean for 10 years and be the same person. That ain't our goal, is it? That ain't what you're doing. That ain't what you're going for. No way. I know it. Looking in your eyes. It ain't about, "Oh, I got this 10-year clean testimony." 10 years of transformation. 10 years of seeing different. 10 years of being a different person, loving and not being in unforgiveness and walking in mercy and making peace. Come on. That's why He hung on the cross. He hung on the cross 'cause we're lost sons and daughters from the beginning, predestined before D to be adopted as a son and a daughter. The lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.

Why did Jesus hang on the cross and die? Well, He had to die because we all sin. So our sin cost Him His life. I get that. But my whole life, preacher after preacher, growing up, "Because of your sin, He died." "Because you're a sinner." I mean, I was like, "And and and and you're sorry and you want to change. You, you don't know how to change. You're the same. You don't want to think bad thoughts and you think bad thoughts." Who's ever been in that sincere place where you actually wanted to do better and you didn't know how? Come on. And I'm growing up thinking, man, and then they're telling me, "You better make sure you stay in church because you don't want to not be in church when Jesus comes back." And I thought, "Wonder if He don't come? Wonder if He comes and we ain't having service?" I mean, I'm a kid. You're telling me, "You better be in church." Nobody's telling me, "I am the church." See, we can get so good at doing church and find we've never been her. Come on.

This worship was amazing. You guys ended that last song was off the charts, man. I was like, "What?" I'm back there. I'm a white man that could never move. And I was trying to move. I was trying to move. It wasn't working all that good, but I was in the back. It didn't matter, but I was trying. I was singing loud. I was with you choir. That Holy Ghost song part, I was with you. I was even coming in a little late. I was even trying to harmonize and catch up. And I was having fun with it, man. But I was, I was trying to move. But so that's one thing. That's great. That's great. But we're on the earth for way more than like having needs and worshiping Him. Your true worship is when you're walking in His will. When your life's in agreement with Him. The highest form of worship in your life is when you're living a life obedient to why you're here and why He's in you. So you could actually, we can get so good at doing Church. Who knows the people? Church shop. Who knows the pastors feel pressured to provide the product they're looking for? I'm just being raw and real. We might be amazed that you can go to church for the next 50 years and find out you never were her. You just attended what you called Church. The goal isn't attending church. It's being Church. Yes.

Let me ask you another question. Oh, this stuff's going to get a little tight. Are you guys all right? Yes. I'll smile the whole time, okay? You can tell I ain't mad, right? No. I'll smile the whole time. What could would to do? Come to this program, never use again, stay consistent, attend a church, serve there for the next 40 years, get thrown into crisis and respond like the man that never went to church. There has to be something more, right? Than God meeting our needs. It's about becoming what He really paid for. And that's getting His image back in us, His life back in us. So we can walk in the light as He's in the light. Yes. So we can be Ephesians 5 men and walk in love, just as Jesus loved. Religion will tell you that ain't even possible 'cause that's Jesus and this is us. But scripture says wrong. That's wrong. Religion's wrong. If the preacher tells you that, don't believe him. Just read your Bible. Because the Bible says, "Walk in love, just as Jesus loved." And here's the key, "and gave Himself, the sweet, fragrant offering unto God." See, there's no way you love if you don't give yourself and learn what it means to give yourself. And I'll have to talk about that sometime today. But giving yourself is not a hard thing. It's a place of prayer. It's a place of communion with God. It's those songs you were singing about laying it down and surrendering and giving it all. And come on, we sang a lot of them songs this weekend about just submitting and giving. And I looked around and I see hands starting to go up. And you see people going like this. And it's like, "Woo." That's exactly that's where it's at. But I tell you, the greatest place is when it ain't a corporate worship service and it's just you. That's the realest place you'll ever live. When it's just you and you have the faith to pursue Him and believe He's there and that something's happening. And you're just laying on your bed early in the morning. You don't want to get up. I think they get you up at 5:00 or something like that, don't they? What time they get you up? They even worse than I thought. 4:45. This place is hard. Who said it's hard? Chris? Somebody? John or John said it was hard. No, it is. Oh, you said it was hard this morning. It is. No, I get it. So I'm just having fun with you. So you're on a regimen. You're on a schedule. So wonder if you wake up around that time and the first thing you do is just put on your spirit man and make sure he's on before you get out of bed and groan, burp, pass gas, and say, "It's too early." Come on. And then complain that this ministry make me get up all this. I never had to get up this early. And now you got four complaints out of your mouth before you even left your bed. And you going to tell me you going to grow up into Him in all things? No. You is full in bloom. And you need to prune that flower off the plant. You know what I mean? Don't know what would happen if you just wake up and the first thing, and you train your heart and teach your heart that you're surrender and you're submitting. You're here with a purpose. And it's bigger than not going back to using. It's finding out who you are in the process of becoming that man He paid for. Come on.

Look at us in society. If you buy something and it ain't what you paid for and it didn't do what it said it would do, you taking that back. But you only not taking that back, you taking it back with attitude. They telling you there's some kind of provision, some kind of thing, and they can't give you the full am. You ready to get an attorney over $45, man? We better be glad God ain't like people. People. He's looking at us saying, "This ain't doing what I paid for." It, none of it doing what our. That would be, that would be tough if God was like us. Come on. You buy a washer and it don't do what it said and it breaks down. It didn't even run in the clothes door. It put a hole in your clothes. You on Facebook, you're telling everybody, "Don't ever go to whatever place it was." Am I being, am I too far off? Am I telling the truth? In fact, when you buy something, you know what you do? You make sure it's worth what you paid. And you're looking for two for one. You're waiting for the summer to buy the sweatshirt 'cause it'll be 45, 50, 60% off. You, you buying shorts in December. Am I lying? You're going to a buffet or you can eat two for one. Why? 'Cause you want to make sure when you purchase something, it's worth what you're putting out. Well, He purchased something. And He believes it's worth what He put out. 'Cause how do you put a price on the blood of Jesus Christ? How do you put a value on a v of the blood of the Son of God? And more than the blood, the persecution, the badgering, the testing of His heart, the lies about Him, the constant lack of appreciation and thankfulness He faced daily. We don't even think about that stuff. We just get Easter Story driven cross. But what about the three years they contested Him? What about the three years He did nothing but good and His good was called evil daily? What about the daily contention and every question had a trick and a trap behind it in a snare? We forget about that stuff. What about standing beside Barabbas, who's a murderer, and you raised the dead, and He calls His conspiracy? That was His indictment. Barabbas, a murderer and conspiracy, that's what He was guilty of, and that's why He was in prison. And you're here making peace and raising the dead. He's a murderer and causing conspiracy. And the people unanimously shout His name to let Him go and not you. And then He says, "What should we do with your King?" "He ain't our King. Crucify Him." And Jesus don't pull out. He don't say, "That's enough. Okay, I was good up until now. It was hard getting to this point, God, you know, but this is too much. Barabbas? Are you kidding me? He kills a man and I'm raising the dead. He's causing conspiracy and I'm bringing peace. And these idiots want to release him and kill me. Have they even recognized one thing I've done in three years? I'm done. They ain't touching me no more. And I ain't dying on no cross for these people if they didn't change by now, they ain't changing." That's what we say. But we ain't never seen Him say that. So we couldn't have learned that from Him. So I wonder where we got it. Standing for your right and you got this right and you ain't this and she ain't that and they shouldn't have this, he shouldn't all that. We ain't never learned it from Him. So where'd we get it? And why are we so confident in it being right? Just 'cause people that understand your pain, that are all so hurt, agree with you. And then you find agreement and you call that a support system. There ain't no freedom in that kind of support. So now you have a permission to stay where you're at. And where you're at ain't Him. And now your story justifies your disposition. But your disposition is bondage. Ain't that something? And the devil's sitting back laughing, saying, "Well, there ain't no light in that. So much for the light of the world. Let them sing all night long 'cause they don't shine. Let them go to church all they want 'cause they ain't shining. They ain't no threat to me. They deceived." Come on. That ain't too hard. That's just sober. And you can hear it. And I'm smiling. And I don't feel mad at nobody. Can you tell I ain't mad at nobody? See, it's just for he who has ears to hear. The whole time Jesus is talking, you know what men are doing? They ain't even listening to hear Him. They're listening for what they don't agree with. Yeah. And He's constantly saying, "Hear and understand." "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." "Be careful how you hear." You look up in the New Testament, how many times Jesus addressed the hearing ear? Why? Because He knew they weren't hearing Him for what He was saying. How could the truth, not speaking a truth, the truth stand in front of men for three years and get killed for His words? That's pretty sobering. That should every one of us. The arrogance of human wisdom. That man was so deceived that he had the confidence to kill Jesus for his words, believing he's right and he's wrong and he is the truth. Well, how'd that even happen? How can that possibly happen? Because you say, "Well, there's nobody more anointed than Jesus. Can't speak any clear, more penetrating truth." All has to do with the hearing ear. I said to the Lord one day on my bed, "How could they hear You for three years? You got to be the greatest preacher that ever walked the planet 'cause You are. You're the source. You're the Word. And You're made flesh. And You're speaking it and You're living it on every angle. How couldn't it wreck them?" Isn't that a fair question? Because we think if we preach the clearest sermon, everybody's on the floor crying and wants Jesus. He said, "They were never listening for what I was saying. They were listening for what I didn't, what they didn't agree with. So they could never hear what I was saying. They could only hear what they didn't agree with." It made me cry and lay on my bed and cry and made me want to be a more humble hearer and not be presumptuous and not think I know it all and say, "You know what? If it doesn't agree with the Word, then it doesn't agree with anything. And if I can't find it in Him, I don't even want it." If I have an attitude, guys, if I have an attitude in my life that I can't find in Jesus, if I have a way of thinking that I can't make it fit in His mouth, then I don't want it in mine. That's how serious I am. I'm saying you can be that serious. You can, you can walk that out. That is not impossible. What I'm preaching isn't unattainable. It's what we're created for and called to. It's you and me being sincere and diligent and staying in this walk and saying, "Wait a minute." I had this talk with Ran today. I said, "Buddy, if what you're thinking is an edifying, building you up, or encouraging you, it cannot ever be from the Lord." How many people got ever got trapped in their mind and started to mellow out? Whoever ran a thought through and now that thought turned into two more thoughts. Next thing you know, you actually felt almost discouraged. That's a, that's a lie, lie in progress. 'Cause He came to give you life and life more. So even if your thought process was true and fitting to your circumstances or your conduct, there has to be a higher way out than just getting great. There has to be a way to say, "Thank You, God, for showing me this. Thank You for teaching me. Oh my goodness, God, six months ago I'd have never had this conviction. You're growing me, man. I'm seeing this for what it is. I'm stepping out of this and into You." Wow. I just became wiser and sharper and smarter. Thanks for loving me. That sure beats believing you failed and marking yourself for failure, letting your identity take another hit.

You all know this, right? Every addictive behavior, whether it's drugs, alcohol, porn, outdoors, just, there's so many addictive behaviors. People are OCD and stuff. Every addictive behavior is attached to a lack of identity. It's people not knowing the value of who they are. Yeah. And when you have a low view of yourself, you'll live up to that view. Does that make sense? That's why John said a couple of times about how much we are hating ourselves. We're so busy hating ourselves. Well, there's a reason. You know why? What's the greatest commandment in your Bible? When Jesus was asked, when Jesus was asked the greatest commandment, or what's the greatest commandment? What the, what the fellow say? "Love the Lord your God with heart your mind your soul your strength." And, and love your neighbor. Uh oh. The greatest commandment is, "Love God with all your heart, mind, your soul, your strength." And the second is like it. He said, "The second is like it." Tying the two together. He married them and said they're the same. 'Cause if you read John and James, loving people is the same as loving God. Loving God will be loving people. If you love God, you'll love people. If you're loving people, it's because you love God. So He says, "The greatest commandment is love God with all your heart, your soul, your strength." And the second is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Okay, now we have a problem. 'Cause wonder if you don't even like yourself. And now you're loving your neighbor as you love yourself. And now you're treating people like you treat you. So you're nitpicky, you're fault-findy, you're self-condemning, you're judgmental and critical, and you're beating yourself up. Then all you'll see in people is what's wrong and what needs fixed. The way you see you is the eye you look through and see everybody. It's spiritual. It's a principle. You love your neighbor as yourself. So no wonder the devil is so big on tricking people into hating themselves, not liking who they are, not even wanting to look in the mirror. Looking in the mirror and seeing all the memories. Looking in the mirror and seeing 20 years ago. Why don't you look in the mirror and see Christ in you right now and say, "Look, I ain't denying 20 years ago, but I ain't denying Christ is in me now. And I'm not afraid of the mirror 'cause when I look in, I see what He's doing in me." And you begin to learn to. You ought to be. Man, we ought to be looking in the mirror. I looked in the mirror so much when I got saved. Nobody told me to. I just did it. You say, "Well, that's vanity. That's weird." No, it was powerful. I look in the mirror, "Hey, man, what's up?" I fist-bumped myself. Here's a cool thing. High five the mirror. It'll never play you. It'll always fist-bump back. You can do one of them fancy handshakes. It's always working in the mirror. The guy looking back at you looks like he knows exactly what you about to do. I ain't playing. I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, look in the mirror. You go to the mirror. It's short beach. Going, "Oh, man, I'm going to need some time this morning." You brushing your teeth. Hey, I'm serious. You know I'm serious. You say, "You're out of your mind." No, I'm probably out of yours. See, there's a difference.

I remember one day I was coming out of my bedroom. I was praying. I was talking to the Lord. It was just one of them times, y'all know what I'm talking about. And you, I have one of them times where it was just really manifested. Jesus was in my room. And we was chatting. And I was praying. And I was crying. And I was talking. I was in there a long time. And I said, "Man, I got to go." And I'm going to had some things. I was heading out. And I walked and I looked. I had something on. And I just glanced in the full-length mirror. I was just checking something. And I stopped. And I just looked at myself in my eyes. And I literally saw my countenance. I could tell. I could just see Him. I could tell He's in me. Woah. And, and I'm in my bedroom. And it's just me. Just me. It's so real in that place. It's just me. So I'm either out of my mind or something's real. Like, I should either get a hobby or this is real. No. I love those odds. When I go seek Him, He's either there or He's not. And I'm either out of my mind and wasting my time, or I'm going to find Him there and He's going to wreck me and change me. I love those odds. I love those odds where it's either everything or nothing. I'm either totally loco or I'm on to something. Oh, I love it. And you say, "Oh, you are totally loco." 30 years a loco, buddy. Can you see how wore out I am and how drained I am from life and how old the gospel's gotten over these last 30 years of striving through life trying to get by and people just such a bother? I'm messing with all of you. Y'all think I didn't have all those challenges in 30 years? You think everybody I love made perfect choices? You think I haven't lost anybody? My brother just fell over dead with no warning. Left my house smiling and laughing, all happy with two buckets of meat. Shot a big old deer. We butchered it. And he's happier than ever. He said, "Man, I'm going to get my sausage." Well, he never left the butcher. Next time I looked at my phone, my brother was dead. But you can't tell that when you look at me. You can't see that. Do I miss him? I miss him horribly. I don't even know how to express how I miss him. But that don't dominate my life. I have fullness in me. I'm going to see my brother. We're going to be together. We're going to rejoice that I kept believing. Do I miss him? Are you kidding? I miss. He was probably my best. No, he was my best friend. We did everything together. And all of a sudden, I don't have him. But God gave him life through Jesus Christ. I could sit back all day and get self-pity. "Why did You let him die? Why didn't You raise him up? Why didn't You protect him? Why'd You let his heart fail?" Come on. I can have a beef with God all day and just prove I'm still another self-centered person to coming to God for what He can do for me, instead of really loving and honoring, respecting God. And in those hard times when I don't have answers, I'm not going to let it subvert the answers that I already have. Amen. He's in me. He loves me. And I'm going to.

Stand before him someday, and I ain't going to let some like my brother passing unexpectedly wreck and ruin all that. I'm going to walk into that place on that day because he's going to let me. My brother's going to be there. I'm going to be there. We're going to rejoice and have a "hate day ho down" time. I don't even know what that's going to look like, but it's going to be good. And I know one thing: we're going to be glad we believed. We're going to be glad we didn't get discouraged and frustrated and angry like everybody else that don't believe and understand. Everybody else that's self-centered.

Watch this. Unless the seed dies and falls to the ground, it's an it's an alone seed. It bides alone. It's alone its whole life. But if it would ever just die and fall to the ground and die, it'll spring up. Now it's going to bear much fruit. See, when I was just living for me, I was no good for nobody. You would have never wanted me here, except get me in the program, right? And try to work on me to get me what I'm preaching. I know Lee wouldn't have been excited about bringing me here, except get me in his program because he thinks he could help me, 'cause he has faith. But here I am, invited down here, pouring out my heart to you guys, multiplying what I've lived for 30 years.

Now watch this. Take it or leave it. Receive it or believe it. Is here or there, really? It's the fact that I'm sowing seed. That I'm proclaiming the truth for anyone to grab and believe. And if just one person grabs it, it's amazing what we can become. I look at my own life. For 30 years, there's more people I've seen healed, delivered, set free. I've seen people get free of drugs. You will talk about heroin. I saw a lady, their whole family gave up on her. Nobody, they they couldn't help her. She was in Florida. She came up. I ministered to her, taught her her identity, showed her who He was. It was one of them special times. Holy Ghost came down, rocked her. She fell against the locker, she cried a little and slid, and I caught her, and I shot her in a chair. And when she woke up, she couldn't fathom desiring heroin. I mean, I've seen a lot of cool stuff. I've seen people come out of comas. I had a boy all hooked up. Call him by name, and he looked at me, and he hasn't even looked or moved or nothing or had no brain nothing for 6 weeks. But he looked at me. And all your hair stand up. You're like, "You see what's wrong with me?" I don't preach him, I live him. I've sat with so many people on airplanes, flying. I talk to them. I get words. I get discernment. They cry. I've had so many people cry beside me. Winston on an airplane. I couldn't even remember. They just break down and cry. So many have the same story. "Well, used to go to church there." They are carrying hurt, letting what somebody isn't become what they are. Letting the blind lead the blind. You're becoming a product of what somebody isn't. You're letting what somebody isn't decide what you are, and you're giving them that kind of dominance and power in your life. You're going to get that hurt by someone that you're going to let them rule your disposition, your outlook, and your hope. That doesn't sound like freedom. That sounds like a prisoner. "Well, I'm just mad at him." Yeah, okay. Wow. That's wisdom. Okay, great.

The world's changing. You know what I'm saying? We just have such a shallow, narrow level. The Bible says that the wisdom of man is foolishness to God. You take the highest thing we call wisdom and run it by God, and He just says, "Foolish." Are you with me? So the reason I'm telling you I've seen all this stuff is because it's a life we live. So now I got about 30 years. I'm passionate. I'm not trying to believe him. I've gotten to know Him at whatever level that is, and He's to be known a lot more. I lost my brother. It's a hard hit in the sense of I miss him. My daddy died this past year. My mama died a long time ago. She was sick for 40 years. My kids ran off and made some grave mistakes, but God brought them back. But when you see me, you don't see none of that. You just see love and passion for the truth. Because I have a love and passion for the truth, it helps me navigate through all those circumstances. Because I'm not alive to get through life, I'm alive to shine in life. Amen. I didn't wake up to get by. I woke up to be like Him, and that's the difference.

And even in this program, you guys are living elbow to elbow. You all found that out by now, right? You all living elbow to elbow. That could create some stuff that'll bring some weakness out in your life if it's there. Am I being real? What a good time to walk in love. What a good time to love one another and prefer one another. And wonder if we'd all walk like that, we'd never have issues. Wonder if every one of us would wake up in the morning and wouldn't need one other person to do a thing to be content and know who we are because of what the gospel accomplished. And wonder if we began to love ourselves in a healthy way and saw ourselves the way God saw us. And now we begin to see the value of our fellow guys. And wonder if we were actually peacemakers instead of issue-driven. And I mean, how much we say, "Well, I just need to give them a piece of my mind." How much can you really give? Like, isn't it crazy what we do? Man, you go to work and you come home, and your wife's an intercessor and she's a prayer lady, praying, and you all go to church, and she's praying for you to have impact at work. And you come home, and she says, "How was your day, honey?" And you say, "Oh, I had a great day." "Really? What happened?" "Well, I finally stepped up and gave the boss a piece of my mind." It's amazing how a guy will feel accomplished 'cause he told somebody off. He thinks, like, like one person. You just gave one person. You just vented on one person, and you strutting through the earth like you're something. You know, I'm telling the truth.

I grew up in the city, man. I did. I grew up in the city, and it was hard. I mean, it was hard. I could make excuses just because of that. Like, teeking order, alpha males. Everybody had to make believe they had a big brother to try to intimidate. Times you couldn't get out of something. They say, "You don't have no big brother." "Oh, I do." And you don't even want to hit me, man. Don't mess with me. You got four guys ready to pummel you. You don't want to mess with my brother. My brother will be down here. And somehow you talk yourself out of some things. Now I got a big brother, but he's a loving, loving, loving big brother. But I mean, I I know how it was like, like, "Fight the good fight of faith." Why? Your fight's not people. Your fight's not the devil. Your fight is believing the gospel. It's believing what He accomplished. It's believing scripture. Your biggest fight is staying in faith and believing the purpose and the point and the cause. That's your fight. Your fight isn't people. Your fight's not even the devil. I understand we wrestle with powers and principalities, but the fight is believing in the midst of everything He's throwing. Why is it the good fight of faith? Because in a fight, it's good if you win.

See, growing up in the city, I remember one day I came home. I couldn't even talk. My lip was so blown up. I remember my eye was so black and blue. I could hardly open it up to see out of it. And I was so excited 'cause he looked twice as bad as me. And I was hurting, but I didn't feel it at the time. Later at night, I'm laying in bed, and things were aching, and my lip is pulsing like a heart in my lip. And I got up in the morning and said, "Ooh." But when I got home, I saw him. He got up off the ground. And I'm like, bleeding, and I can't hardly talking. I'm thinking, "Man, I got beat up." I looked at him and thought, "No, I beat him up." Whoa. It was a good fight. I got hit hard, but I won. People say, "Man, he jacked you up." You got, "Oh, you should have seen him, man. This ain't nothing. This ain't nothing. You should see him." That's what makes it a good fight, 'cause you win. You fight the good fight of faith.

I don't even know what we're doing right now. Are you guys okay? I am. I was trying to recap yesterday, and I don't even know what we did. I hope we got something. Do we do? Okay. You brought your folks here. I hope this was all right. Okay. See if we can close with something. Oh, okay. Oh, it's good when you hear the Lord. Oh, no, I ain't playing. Like I just heard the Lord. Like, no, I ain't playing. Go to Colossians 2 with me, would you? So watch this. This is for everybody. This ain't just for Nehemiah, man. This is for all of us. It is useless and frivolous to try to find your identity through people, family members, relationships. It's idolatry. You can only find the true value of who you are through Christ. In Him crucified, you, you find yourself. That's why the Bible has all these phrases. I'm going to show you one. Uh, let me quote this since we're Colossians and it's getting late. 1 John 4, around verse 9 or 10, says that this is how we know God loves us, that He sent His only Son. So, is our circumstances an indication of God loving or not loving? It's Christ crucified. How many Christians have you ever seen let life question God's love, and they get in turmoil and they say, "I thought God loved me"? But here's why that's a dilemma. You're supposed to be rooted and grounded in love, unmovable and unshakable, because faith works through love. As soon as you question love, you can't even have faith. Now you just are driven by need, and that's why your soul implodes. That's why you're filled with frustration, fear, worry, anxiety. That's why you prayed for an hour and still can't sleep, 'cause you're not believing. You're wanting and needing. And because you're quoting scripture, you're saying it's prayer, but it's your fear with language. Are you all with me? Is it okay if we're honest? Yeah. Yeah. You don't want me to soft pedal, right? It says that He sent His Son into the world that we might live through Him, not for Him. That's not a play on words. It's just hugely different. Living for Him is finding your identity through service and ministry. You feel qualified because you've done a good work, and you're like, "Oh, now I feel better about myself." That's a lie. That becomes works and idolatry. Your gifting can identify you. It's a lie. You start getting discernment, you get a prophetic word, and a guy's crying, and you're in the program, and somebody says, "Dude, you got a prophetic gift." You might, but that's not your identity. That's not your free ride. You don't ride the wave of your gift. God uses you through the truth of who you are. That'll get you in trouble. The Bible says you can have all knowledge of all mysteries, all faith to move all mountains. If you don't have love, you missed the whole point and got nothing. But we're all thinking the gift's the goal. The love's the goal, and the gifts are only healthy when it's ministered in the love. That's why you've seen gifted people in history sleeping with somebody that ain't their wife and got hidden secrets and stuff getting exposed. Why? Because they're finding their identity through the way God's using them instead of who they are in Christ. So now their flesh is still alive and rampant, and they're susceptible to things. Ain't that something? We got to know who we are.

I want to close with a scripture. It'll be a good one to close with. You guys, all right? Yes, sir. So, "might live through Him." So I color my Bible. I color my Bible. I'd use all different colors. Like, all them colors mean something. Okay? You see all them colors? Okay. That's that's I call that purple. It might look violet to you, but what would you say is the most dominating color on those pages right there? It's it's purple. I could start paging through my Bible. You would be amazed how much purple's in my Bible. So when I do a New Testament, what I do, this Bible's old. I haven't G I've clung to this one. It's just an old hardback. They didn't stopped printing this Bible, and I've been like, I've been holding on to this Bible. The backing is breaking, and it's all old, but I got it so marked up and notes. Usually, what my habit is, I get a Bible, I mark it all up, and I note it all up, and then I give it to a new believer. I hear the Lord tell me, I'll give it to a new believer, and then I just mark another one all up. But I've had this one for a little while. No, you can't have my Bible. No. So, so, so, uh, in fact, I would never just give it because somebody asked me for it. I would give it because I felt like the Lord. And I was in Tennessee, and this lady came up, and that's when I got this Bible. She said, "Pastor, can I ask you a quick question?" And I said, "Sure, honey. I said, "What is it?" And I said, "I know they're they're calling me over here. I got to get over here, but I said, "What is it? Is it something quick?" She said, "Could you please just give me your Bible?" And I'm like, I just gave it to her. And then when I left, I was like, turned. I was like, "Why did I give her my?" No, it was just, I think it was a God moment, but my soul was like, "Want to covet it." So then I got home and I thought, "Oh, I got to get another Bible." But then I found this Bible was out of print, and I found this one. The only one I found was a hardback, and I mark it all up, and I've been coveting it ever since. But purple. When I go through the New Testament, I I'm just old school. I know we can do things on the computer and we use our highlighters and do it on our phones, and there's probably even markers that don't bleed through these pages and stuff, but I'm just sharpening my pencils. These are colored, just old-fashioned colored pencils. But here's the truth. To do a New Testament, I definitely go through three full-length purple colored pencils. I don't go through more than one for any other color, but I go through three for purple. You say, "Well, what is purple?" Purple is Christian conduct, Christian living, and Commandments of God. What our lives are to look like now that Christ came. This thing sounds like a far cry from praying a prayer to go to heaven if I think I might die tonight. That's how we preach the gospel. No, this is becoming something that I walk and live and manifest. And three pencils worth of Christian conduct is in the New Testament alone of things that we ought to walk in, the way we ought to conduct our lives. Are you all following me? Just, just, just. You can just stay there at Colossians 2, or you can put your finger there and just back up quick with me to to this. I just want to read this and show you what I'm talking about. Oh, look at this. Look at this. I just flipped here. What color? Oh, my. You think I was kidding? You knew I wasn't kidding. Can I just read and not preach for a minute, and then we'll be done, and we'll be we'll be done by 4? Is that okay? Okay. That'll give us enough. That that'll give us enough break. I realized too, Saturday's normally a free day for you guys, ain't it? And I come down and mess that all up. So, so don't get mad at me for it. All right. I'm just trying to help. I didn't want to steal your free day. No, I I just saw it on the I said, "This is their free day," and now they mandated the three services. I stole their free day. They're going to hate me. See, you can hate me. I'll be all right. I'll be secure. No, I'll be secure. I didn't wake up for you to love me, but I ain't trying to make an enemy out of y'all. Can I just read something? I want you to hear. Christian conduct. I'm going to read till I feel like I need to stop. You follow along if you want. Ephesians 4. "I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beseech you." See, it's so hard to not preach. Like, "beseech you." You know what that means? To urge, compel, right? "I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says, 'When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.' Now, when He says 'He ascended,' what does this mean except He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? Now listen to Christian conduct. Watch. He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fulfill all things. He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a complete man, or perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, and trickery of men, and in cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, who is the head, and that is Christ, from whom the whole body, joined together and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their own understanding darkened, and being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all kinds of uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you would put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust, that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 'Be angry, and do not sin.' 'Do not let the sun go down on your wrath,' nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ has also loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, which is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather the giving of thanks."

I stopped right there, and there's all that purple. Do you get it? This is a life we get to live. Don't be overwhelmed by that language. Be inspired to pursue Him and begin to grow in all those things. This isn't failure that we're risking failing. We're stepping out. Now, we can fail all this stuff. It's about becoming all this stuff. So in your life, if you step out and start pursuing this, and you find yourself stumbling in an area, don't go, "Oh, man, I ain't getting this. I'm failing. I should know better by now. There must be something wrong with my heart. There I go again. Oh, what's the use? I'll never be able to live this." No. It's about going, "Oh, my goodness, I see this for what it is. There's got to be grace for my life. This is not where my heart wants to be. This isn't where I want to live. God, thank you for empowering me, showing me this. This is not who I am and who I ever desire to be." And that's how you begin to find change in your life. And then you're thrown into the same situation later, and you don't respond the same. Why? Because grace is changing you. Because you're living by faith, and all of a sudden God is doing a work in you, and now He gets all the glory, and you didn't do a thing to change. You just believed to change. Do you get it? That's how simple it is. It's everybody's trying to change themselves. Some people hear me. They run a big risk when they hear me. They say, "This is hard to hear, man. This is tough." This, it's not hard to hear. It's hard to not hear, because we'll stay deceived, and we'll believe a lie, and we'll have ignorance like the Gentiles have ignorance. Yeah, you see? No, you're not set up to fail. You're set up to become. It's about becoming. You never run from Him. You always run to Him. Why? He proved He loves us already. Because while we were all yet busy, tied up, wrapped up, sinning, He sent His Son. How much more now will He save us through that same Son? Because He lives. Do you get it? So you got to get it. He's for you. He's not against you. You have access to Him. You come, come to Him in your weakness. You come to Him in your strength. You come to Him if you miss it. You come to Him when you're making it. You come to Him because you can. And in Him is where you find change. I just read all that because I wanted you to see that's just one section of two chapters where the whole thing, who would see, is Christian conduct. Is what our lives are actually called to look like. Now, I'm not being mean. I'm not being judgmental when I say this. I know tons of people that go to church and even serve in ministries. They don't even read that stuff or read their Bibles. I've had so many people that tell me, "Well, I don't really read my Bible that much. I just, I, I listen to. I have a pretty good pastor. I listen to his sermons. I really read my Bible that much." So if you're not reading this, and you don't have no conviction of all that purple, how are you going to walk in it? If you don't fill your heart with the truth, how are you going to discern a lie? How are you going to fight through the thing that's going through your mind that ain't quite right, if you don't have right already embedded in there? Are you all with me?

Okay, back to Colossians real quick, and I'm done. I promise. Now, that doesn't mean a lot, but I'll go as fast as I can. I'm so sorry. Okay. No, this would be quick. This would be quick. "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord." Who's received Christ in this room? Who would say He's my King? He's my Lord? I've surrendered to Him. I've given Him my life. Look, if you haven't, please give your life to Him. Find a leader. Tell, tell somebody. I didn't have an altar call here yet, but but but tell somebody. Tell Lee. Tell one of your leaders. Say, "Listen, man, I hear what's going. I'm done fighting. I'm done fighting this thing." I feel like there's a couple guys fighting. You're fighting. You're like, you got this wedge up. You're here because you feel like you're back. You need to be here. You don't want to use again, but you're fighting this whole Jesus thing, man. He made you for a purpose and a reason. I, I got so many God experiences in my life. I was pastoring when I was, I was two years old. I was guest speaking in churches at nine months old in the Lord. How is it possible to be a guest speaker in churches and I ain't even a year old, saved, and never been to no Bible school? Because of what Jesus was doing in and through my life. Are you following me? So I got that whole history and resume. I built a history with God. That's why you see, do you see how crazy passionate I am? Like, He's real. You get it? He's not a theory. I'm not coming to you with my philosophy and my theology. I know Him to the degree I know Him. I saw a healing of a coworker when I was three months saved. He needed surgery. He got a disc put in his back by the Lord that wasn't there. Bone on bone discs of vertebrae. They emergency surgery. They're going to fuse it because if he's in a car wreck and there's pressure on his body, his they could shift and hit his spinal cord and be paralyzed. They saw it on X-rays. They had 13 pictures of bone on bone. And I got him before he left for his surgery. I'm three months saved. I don't even know what to pray. I'm three months old. That's pat my bottom and powder me and rock me. No, I got the Spirit of God in me. And I, I just read enough Bible to know I could pray for him. I said, "Can I pray for you?" He said, "Yeah." I don't even remember what I prayed. I think I quoted two scriptures that gave me faith to pray for him and asked God to give him a new back. And I said, "Amen." And he looked at me like, "That's it?" And I looked at him like, "That's all I got." He walked out the way he was walking, and I was just happy I prayed. Hours went by. He comes in. He's different. He's ecstatic. And he looks like I look all the time. He looks like a maniac. And I think, "Whoa." Tears. He went on to be an elder in his brother's church. He's a great man of God. I rarely see him anymore. It's a lot of years ago, but when I do bump into him, he's just the same Jesus. God. But you know what happened? They took new X-rays to make sure they knew exactly what they're doing on the surgery because it's spinal cord vertebrae, serious. So they take all these new angles and pictures to make sure they know exactly what they're doing. And then there's all this static, and they never take him in. And then the doctor comes out and he says, "Is there a problem? It sounds like there's a problem." He said, "We don't even know how to answer this right now. We have 13 pictures of you bone on bone, and now every picture we have, you have a perfectly normal disc, and we don't know what's going on." He testified and told him what's going on. Stood up to the point. He didn't know he was healed. He left the same. That throws us, doesn't it? I didn't know enough to let it throw me. I was so naive. I was just happy I prayed. He stands up, and he has no pain. He stands up, and he can stand. He walks, and he can walk. He comes back to work. He's off workman's comp, and he comes back to work, and he's okay. Now, watch. 346 employees, and not well. And so it was me and him. So 344 employees outside of us two, and not one person acknowledged it was God or gave glory to God. Every single person said, "There's no way that could have happened. There's no way God does that. That's you telling me, 'Just put it, just back.' They just took wrong pictures." That's the intellect of men, constantly trapped in unbelief. And there's God moving right in front of them, and they're coming up with a reason why it wasn't God. Happens all the time. And I have seen countless things in my life because I live this thing. I live it on airplanes. I got people crying. I told you that. I had a lady crying so hard that the flight attendant came to move her and thought I was a problem. No, she's 40 years old. She's sitting beside me. She's the prettiest little thing. She, she, she was a light-skinned girl. She had African-American in. She probably was, it looked like Caucasian and African-American person came together, had her. She's beautiful, but she had afro hair like the old '70s hair. No, I'm talking hair like she had this little thin face, but her hair was massive, and I thought it was awesome. And and we, she, I just said, "Hey, girl. Hi." And I sat down, got my stuff. She said, "Hi." I made little comments or jokes. It's about her, and she giggled, and we hit it off right away. And I'm thinking, "This is going to be fun. She's she's my friend already." Then she asked me where I'm traveling, what I'm doing, and when I, I told her what I do, she changed on me. She shut down. And I said, "Ooh, honey. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, girl. No, I'm after it. I'm I'll poke you. Hey, girl, don't you do that. Come here. Look here." Are you kidding me? We were just hitting it off, making friends, and I told you what I'm doing. What's up with you? And where are you at with God? Like, what chip? You got a chip on your shoulder? And all of a sudden, I said, "You know what?" And I, I told her her stuff. She didn't know what to do now, 'cause guess who's right in front of her? The one she's running from. She's crying so hard she can't recover. She's making a scene, you know what I mean? I look up, and the flight attendant's coming. She said, "Ma'am." And she gives me a stinky eye. "Ma'am, I'm going to move you up here. I have an up front. I'm going to move you up to the front." She said, "No, I'm okay." She said, "You do not look okay." She said, "No, I'm okay." And okay. And she gives me another little stinky eye. I can't say nothing. I can't tell her I'm being a blessing to the lady. The lady has to tell her. Sometimes you think you're being a blessing. Oh, I'm blessing them, and they're thinking, "They're wishing you'd leave." You know what I mean? I can't bear witness of myself. So I don't say nothing. I just smiling. Flight attendant, she's just doing her job. She's not my enemy. She's not the problem. She's just doing her job. She goes up front. She doesn't even get up front. And the Lord said, "There's one more thing you have to tell her." And I went, "Oh, no." She's not recovered yet. She's still. And I said, "Honey, I need to tell you one more thing." And she was like, "What?" I said, "You're going to have to look at me. Please look at me." And she looked up at me. You could tell a thousand people this, and they would look at you cockeyed, but I told her. I looked her right in the eyes and I said, "Crohn's disease is no matter match for the blood of Jesus Christ." And she was gone. 'Cause she has a whole bag of Crohn's meds right on top, and she's suffering horribly from it and doesn't know what to do. And I looked her in the eyes, and still didn't know her name, and said that. She's done. I said, "Uh oh." I look up, and here she comes. She's on a mission. She comes to get this lady from the bad man. She said, "That's it, ma'am. I am moving your seat. You're coming to the front here." She starts gathering her things. This girl with the big hair. I'm not embellishing this one bit. This happened just like I'm telling it. She arm-hooked me, you know what I mean? She still, we don't even know each other's name yet. She arm-hooked me and planted her head in my chest. I'm a stranger. I guess. And her hair. I'm not joking, bro. I vanished. No, no. This was hide and seek. This was no more Dan. Dan's not even on the plane. No, no. You have no idea. When she put her head right here, I'm gone. I don't know what she put in it. It smelled so good. I would have sat in there the whole flight, right in the middle of her hair. I was sitting in there. Her hair smelled good. I'm just telling you. I know what she happened. But this is what I heard. She said, "I am not going anywhere. This man is so helping me." She's woo. And the flight attendant's like, "Excuse me." And then I came out. I did. I had to emerge 'cause she's crying, and she just bore witness. She just bore witness. So now, tag, you're it, Dan. Now it's your turn. I just came out of her hair. I said, "Hey, I said, I'm so sorry to put you through this. I said, it's the Lord. He's given me words for her that are private in her life that I wouldn't have any knowledge." No, I still don't know her name. She said, "What?" And then the flight attendant starts getting so ministered to. It happens all the time because they see a real move of God, and then they ended up getting moved on. We have seen flight attendants on their knees crying in airplane flights. I have had as many as four people waiting in the jetway for me to pray with them on my way out. I'm telling you what's possible. I was on a jetway, waiting tarmac, waiting for our check bags. I had an automatic forced congregation 'cause they're all waiting for their bags. And the lady got healed beside me, and she's balling and crying and testifying. She's hugging me so hard, she's almost knocking me over. She's a very large lady. I'm not being crude, I'm just telling you. She almost knocked me over. And I moved her this way so I could face the people. And I said, "Hey, guys." And I told them what was happening, and that this isn't a video, it's not a TV show, it's real life, and Jesus is Lord and King, and He's right here right now. And everybody's standing there. Let me lay hands on them and pray for them. And was asking for prayer on my flight. That's sure beat struggling over your seat and if you're going to have room for your bag, and why'd they have to cut in front of me when we're all going to the same place anyway, and letting people so bother you that you forget there's people all around you that need Him. I'm just scratching the surface of the fun I've had in 30 years. And the reason I'm doing this is to explain why I come across the way I do. I'm not just teaching, I'm talking Him. I'm talking what's possible. And I flew down here believing every one of us can be on this journey and start living this way. That's why I flew down here. And you can take it or leave it, but I wish you'd take it. I'm just excited I got to share it because the kingdom of God is if a man scatters seed, and if you don't sow, ain't nothing going to grow. But if you sow, now something just might grow. As you received Him, so walk in Him. Watch this. How, how did you receive Him? By faith. How do you walk in Him? By faith. Watch. Rooted and built up. Uh oh. Built up in Him. So watch this. Let back up. "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk for Him in Him." Are you catching the language? You walk in Him. This is what it means. You find your identity in Him. You find your value in Him. You find your purpose in Him. You find your being in Him. You find your reason and existence in Him. You, you find yourself in Him. You walk in the truth of who He is in your life and who you are in Him. Are you following what I'm saying? You can't get trapped into the useless rhetoric of everything we've all lived, and the people pressure, and the self-consciousness, and the he said, she said, and the tit for tat. "Well, I wouldn't if they didn't." "Well, they're the one that started it." Come on. That's nobody has ever won in that arena. Has never produced life. It's just given men rights to not look like Jesus. So how do we deny ourselves and maintain those rights? When you deny yourself, you give up those rights to obtain one right, Winston, to be like Him. You get it? Watch this. Rooted and built up in Him. Build up what? In Him. Not build up in your relationships and friendships. Relationships and friendships are awesome, but if I'm not surrendered, I won't even have healthy relationships. If I'm not walking in love, my relationships will, they're not going to be what they could be. Are you following me? How many people do you know in your life, whether it's short or long, that said they were best friends and they ain't no longer friends? How many times have you seen fallouts where people said they were tight and they ain't even talking? How many marriages have you seen, and they got all the albums and the pictures and the children to prove they've come together, and now they don't want even be in the same room? Come on. We're missing something. And I'm not condemning you if that's been your situation. I'm saying it doesn't have to be that way. Are you all following me? And there's hope for us. From here, we go on and we live surrendered, and we get built up in Him. Build up in Him. Established in the faith as you have been taught. It's important to be taught. That's why we teach it. Abounding in it with Thanksgiving. Why Thanksgiving? When you lose your thankfulness, it's a warning sign that you're turning inward and taking life personal. That's why the Bible throws Thanksgiving in on a lot of scriptures. Thanksgiving is a sign that you still have your eyes on truth and eternity in the big picture. When my brother dies, if I lose Thanksgiving, it's starting to get me in an internal way. It's going to start changing my disposition. Now I'm going to start grieving as if I have no hope, instead of grieving with hope. Because it's not that you don't grieve. We're not so spiritual that we don't miss our loved ones. We just don't grieve as if we have no hope. Amen. Come on. It's just good teaching. If I have to tell you, it's just good teaching. I hope you get it. Just kidding. Watch this. No, watch this. "Beware." Sounds like a warning. Who has a different translation? "Beware, lest any man cheat you." Who has who has something else like rob you, hold you captive, take you, plunder? Who has a different translation? What's yours say? "See to it that no one takes you captive." Takes you captive? Anybody else have something else? "Beware, lest anyone rob you, hold you captive, take you, plunder." What else? Anybody else got something? No, you got all the above. Okay. What is it? Yeah, uh, uh, 28. "Beware, lest any man cheat you, rob you, hold you captive, plunder you." Okay. Anybody have anything else? What do you got? Son, cheat you. You have the word cheat. Cheat you. Beware, lest any man cheat you. Okay. Good. No, I'm just trying to find out what different translation dropped there. I just want to get the point across. What does yours have? Capture you. See, that's like taking you as a prisoner. Capture, bondage. Y'all getting the point? This is a serious warning. Beware. You don't see too much beware in your Bible. Beware, lest anyone rob you, cheat you, take you captive, plunder you, hold you a prisoner through what? Through philosophy. That's just human reasoning. Through empty deceit. That's just men talking. Look, according to the tradition of men, according to the principles of the world. That's like, "Yeah, but man, you got to understand that sometimes, not everybody, you know, you can only hold on so long, and and nobody can, you know." That's that stuff we talk where we think we know what we're saying, and we're only talking through the life we've known. Sometimes we're only talking through our own experience, and we think our own experience is the only truth. Are you with me? Beware, lest anyone rob you, cheat you, take you captive, and plunder you through empty deceit, philosophy, the tradition of men, just the way the world thinks and talks. Come on. This is serious stuff. Watch this. "And not according to Christ." You see why all I do is share scripture and Christ, talk about His life, and use the examples of His life? Why? Because He's the teacher. Amen. He said, "Follow Me." Not sing to Me. Follow Me. Not need Me. Follow Me. He said, "Follow Me," which means it's possible. He wouldn't have invited me if I couldn't. I don't think He's sitting up there laughing, "Look, Dan actually believed I was serious." I think He's empowering us to do it if we're willing. And not according to Christ, for in Him, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That means the whole expression of God is in Jesus. Now watch, "and you are complete in Him." Who is the head of all principality and power. Where are you complete? In Christ. You walk in Him. You live in Him. You're rooted in Him. You're built up in Him. So you acknowledge every good thing you have in Him, all the time. Like I encourage people, put sticky notes, man, in your bedroom. Put them on a mirror. Remember who you are. Remember who you are. Who are you today? You'll know what it means. You put trigger that stuff so you don't still get caught up in the flesh and find yourself murmuring for an hour and a half over something that don't, or just your schedule, or your day, or, man, they brought this speaker in on Saturday. We got three services. It was our free day. You know what I mean? Next thing you know, you're like, then you come singing, you're all surrendered. [Laughter] Oops. Oh, man, I better wrap up now. Are you all with me? Come on, man. There's nothing I preach we can't live if we want to. Grace will make it possible, and faith will make it happen. You're saved by grace through faith. As you believe it, grace makes it possible. Here's how it works. If I believe the truth of what I can live, and I take it to God in prayer, nobody's looking, and I give it to God in prayer, and I tell Him, "That's exactly where I want to live," and "Thank You for molding me and shaping me and giving me wisdom and helping me, Holy Spirit." Then grace starts coming to make that truth my reality. And now I begin to live what I desire because grace saves me through faith. He gets all the glory. I'm humbled, and I want Him all the more. Amen. That's a healthy relationship with God. Does that make sense? Okay. Why don't you do me a favor? We're going to stand to our feet tonight. We're going to pray for the sick and do a bunch of cool things and fun things. But right now, I want you to just stand to your feet, if you would, and let's just pray. Just give a heart to Him. I, I wasn't, I had no intention of doing this, believe me. I didn't. It just hit my heart.

I'm going to take a risk and do it. It's, it's not a risk if there's a, if there's a, if there's, there's any man in this program that's, that you say, "I'm not saved, I'm not born again," and you've even been fighting for some reason up until now, but you're saying, "You know what? I want to surrender. I want to give my life."

If there's any man, you came in this program and you're just here because you have to be or you need to be, but it's not about Jesus and you've never been saved. I'm talking about recommitment. You've never been saved and water baptized. I know they'd love to water baptize you. You hold them down to the bubble stop, or do you need me to do it? Yeah, okay.

If there's any man in this program, why don't you be bold? If you've never been saved, why don't you come up here? We will just celebrate like crazy and be happy for you. Won't you come up here and get saved? I feel like there's several men. I actually feel like there could be as many as four men that, that are ready and need to come up and get saved. You've never been saved. Never, never been saved. You've never been saved. You've never been saved. You've never been saved.

It just hit my heart. I wasn't even planning on this, and God knows who's ready and what your heart should say. Me, I heard four, and I'm real good with numbers in the Lord. I wish that, that one more wouldn't hold out on me. When I hear numbers, I'm adamant about it. I don't, I've been doing this too long. I don't really, I don't really make mistakes. That, that doesn't mean there's not more than four. It just means that I knew four was ready, that four wanted to say yes. And here you are. Thank you, man. Dude, I'm proud of you. You guys happy about this? You're going to let this ministry water baptize you? They won't hold you under till the bubble stop. They said, "J," no, no. Here's what happens when you get water baptized. I want you to understand this. What you're going to do right now is surrender your life to Him. Okay? We're not praying a prayer to go to heaven. Heaven's going to come into you. We're giving our life back to who it belongs to. We're saying, "You know what? I actually believe, God, you made me for a purpose. I've been living outside of that purpose. I've been doing everything but that purpose, and it's been a rough road." I'm not coming to you just because it's been a rough road. I actually believe you made me for more than what I'm living. Y'all agree with that, or am I putting words in your heart? You agree with that? And what you're saying is, "I'm ready to give all that up and say, 'Let me get back to why you put me on the earth.'" That day I was conceived, you all understand that when you were conceived, there was 500 million sperm cells racing into your mother's egg. That's a biological fact. Why? And it was you that got in the egg. And you said, "You ain't never won nothing in your whole life." No, no, no. You won the greatest race of your life. 500 million chances, and it was you. You ain't won in millions. You're one of millions. I say that's pretty special. That when your dad went into your mother all those years ago, it was you that was conceived. It was you. It was you. It was you. Why? Because the Bible says there's a time to be born. And from the time you were born, that was being attacked. Every time you felt like you wished you weren't alive. Every time you felt like you didn't matter. Every time you felt like you didn't belong. It's just a lie trying to keep you from this moment. I can't tell you how proud I am of you guys being bold enough to come up and just stand here and say, "You know what? I'm ready to give my life to Him." So here's what we're doing. We're believing Jesus is the Son of God. That He is the Lord. Y'all believe that? You believe in your heart that He died on that cross and rose on the third day by the Spirit of God? And now He sits triumphant at the right hand of God, and His blood is making mercy and speaking mercy over our lives that we can actually now come to God and find forgiveness and mercy. Y'all believe that? So we're going to pray, and we're going to acknowledge that. We're going to acknowledge Him as Lord, and we're going to ask Father to come into our lives by the power of His Spirit. And then this ministry, as soon as you can work it out, it's, can we, we do it tonight? Oh, I'm going to be here. See, bud, don't even try to hold your. It won't work. No, no, it won't work. It doesn't work. We've done this too much. Just give it up, man. Having so much fun with you. Can we do it tonight? Here's what's so powerful. If you look in the book of Acts, there's no place that men got born again or women got born again, they weren't baptized immediately. Watch. There's no place where you can find they preached the gospel of salvation and water baptism wasn't. It's the strength of the message. Why? Because in those days, it was all about transformation. We turned it into all about eternal life. We made it go into heaven. They made it about heaven coming into them. So there's no place in the book of Acts that you can find they preached the gospel and water baptism wasn't the heart of the message because it was the evidence of dying to live. So tonight, water baptism, you're going to die to live. And everything you've ever done, everywhere you've ever been, and anything ever done to you, we're calling it all dead in likeness of His death. And we're coming up in the newness of life. Make sense? I'll expound a little on it tonight. We can do it tonight. All right, you ready to pray, sir? Let's do this. Guys, stretch your hands forth to these men. Are you all proud of these guys or what? Pray this with me. Would you just, just be bold and pray it out loud? Say, Father, Father, I come to You today. Come to You today, believing You are the Father. You are of all creation. Of all creation. That Jesus is Your Son. Jesus is Your Son. Died on the cross. Died on the cross. And You raised Him from the dead on the third day. You raised Him from the dead. And through His shed blood, His shed blood, You're willing, willing to forgive me. To forgive me of everything I've ever done. Ever done. I thank You for forgiving me. I ask You to fill me with Your Spirit. And I thank You for making me Your son. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on, man. Yeah. You see why I fly to places, huh? You see what I'm doing? Proud of you. Come on, man. We're going to baptize you all tonight, okay? Isn't it cool? I'm moving my thing. I'm just going to pray over you all. I had you stand up, and the Lord said, uh, there's, there's some men that need to get saved. They're going to get saved. And I thought, oh, and and I knew they were ready, like it was, they were ready. And then He said, four. How sweet is that? I was in California, the Lord gave me a number, and I didn't get my number. I had three holdouts. I said, "Guys, don't break my heart. Make me cry." It was a Sunday morning. We're all out in the big field because it was COVID, and we had to be outdoors. It was hundreds of people in California, spread out on blankets everywhere. They had loudspeakers, and I said, "I need three people. You're holding out on me." And I had all my other people. I said, "I still need three." They wouldn't come. Amazing what the Lord did. You're a late teenage girl, I think you're 18. You're a mid-20s guy, and you're a man that's at least 50, probably a little over. I need you up here now. I got an 18-year-old girl, a 25-year-old man, and I didn't get my 50 and over guy. I start to weep and say, "I know you're here. Why aren't you coming?" And all of a sudden, I heard, and I said, "Oh my goodness. I know why you're not coming. You're saying in your heart, 'I'm not going up there, putting on the show, and going right back to the same thing I came from.'" And he was standing about right there, and he went, "We a fire." No, just kidding. And he got saved. But God loves people so much that He actually, 'cause He can't point you out, you got to come. But He, He got that close to me, giving me their ages, their genders, and why they weren't coming. You tell me God doesn't love us like that? That's rich, man. So they took him right down the river. It was at the bottom of the hill. They grabbed him and took him right down to the river. They told me to stay back because they didn't want me to do it. Let's do something. This won't make you Pentecostal or charismatic. It just means you're yielding and surrendering. Would you lift your hands to the Lord with me all over this place, please? It just means I, I yield to You. I, I agree with You. I want You, and I love You. Father, with holy hands raised, we say thank You. Thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for this amazing gospel. Thank You for this ministry, man of Nehemiah. Thank You for the leaders that are in place here. The wisdom in this man standing by me, Lee. What You did in his life is astounding, and what You're doing in all these men's lives, let it never stop, God. Let it never stop. Let it just multiply and multiply and multiply in a mind-blowing way. When this man stepped out, he's like 8, 10 months clean, and he's starting a ministry, and people are thinking he's crazy. No, he's called. He's led. It's proof. There's so much fruit. Thank You for Your hand on this ministry. Thank You for the monies that are coming in. I ask for more and more wisdom. I ask that the authority in this ministry would increase, and I pray that the words You speak through these leaders would pierce and penetrate our hearts like never before. I thank You for this specific group of men, and I pray that they would all run well, and that there would not be a casualty found in this room. Lord, You said I can have what I believe for and ask. And I believe Your love is that pursuing. Even if there's one standing here and says, "Well, I ain't ready, and I don't want this." I pray You continue to work in Your loving, gentle, amazing way. I'm not asking You to break him. I'm saying love him and bring him to the place of understanding. I pray that not one casualty would be found in this room. That every person in this room would walk out what they're here for. A bless God. I bless in Jesus' name. I thank You. Amen. Amen. About an hour, and man, I'm sorry about time, guys. Got late.