Finishing Strong Won't Be Easy Dr. Steve Walker

Transcription

1 Series: Nehemiah November 6, 2016 Finishing Strong Won't Be Easy Dr. Steve Walker I just want you to know I'm excited about that Friday night. It's my only chance ever in my lifetime to be on a CD where there's music, so I am going to do it. I'm going to try to sing so loud that I'm going to be able to hear myself on the CD. They're not going to be able to edit me out, so join me! Let's see if we can pull it off. I think it's a week from this Friday. It's something we've never tried before. I think it should be awesome. Just curious, did anybody notice that the Cubs won the World Series? Did anybody notice that? Have you ever noticed that the World Series? It's baseball in general, but it's always about more than just baseball. I mean, the fact that the Cubs won the World Series is the single greatest evidence that there is a God. This World Series should erase forever any semblance of atheism in our country. There is a God, he loves the Cubs, and he loves you. So let's make sure we don't lose that in the whole thing, as crazy as it has been this week. I'm happy for you, Cubs fans. I also want you to know that for the next minutes or so, this is going to be an election-free zone. I hope that's okay with you. We took time last week to pray about that specifically, but this is what I know. God is his name, and he has approved this message, the Bible, and so this is the message we're going to spend some time on this week. I hope you came hoping for that, because that's what I have for you. Let's open our Bibles to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. We're going through this book, verse by verse, on Sunday mornings. For the first five chapters, just by way of catching you up, if you're new, the enemies of the Jewish people and Nehemiah have been relentlessly mocking the wall they're trying to rebuild around their sacred capital city of Jerusalem. They've been relentlessly scoffing at their determination and their courage. Like the big bad wolf of the Three Little Pigs fairy tale, they have been relentlessly threatening to blow down their wall, attack their city, and kill every man, woman, and child inside the city. That's what has been happening for five chapters. Canyon Hills Community Church 1

2 Today, we come to chapter 6, and Nehemiah is going to declare that the wall is finished, but before he lets us celebrate over that, he's going to remind us that it wasn't easy. In fact, right till the very last stone was laid, the enemy never relented, and I think, at its foundation, that's the message for us today. The Jewish people who were rebuilding the wall serve as a good picture for the church. They are God's people, doing God's work. That's who we are, as the church: God's people, doing God's work. Their work at the time was rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. This wall provided for them the protection and security they needed to live their lives for God. For us, we don't have a physical wall, but we have a work as well, and the work is the spreading of the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ. This good news is the salvation and forgiveness of sins for everybody who is willing to repent and put their faith and trust in the death of Jesus on the cross, to trust his death to satisfy all of God's coming wrath and punishment upon all of the sins of all mankind. The good news is, if we believe in Jesus and trust in him, in his shed blood, shed on the cross, when God gets ready to pour out his final judgment upon the sins and souls of mankind, those whose sins have been covered by the blood of Christ and his sacrifice, his payment for our sins, will be saved from the wrath and fury of God, as well as those who believe in his resurrection. If we have faith that he is risen, we too will rise after our death with the inheritance of eternal life. That's the good news. That's our work. You see, the church is God's agency for spreading or bringing the hope of salvation to the world. The church is God's agency, you guys, for bringing people to repentance and faith in Jesus, and for building them up in both holiness of heart and holiness of life. That work isn't going to be easy. I think most of us know that. What is it going to take for us to finish strong? I think we can glean some of these lessons and applications from Nehemiah and what he went through with God's people then. If your Bibles are open, let's stand for the reading of his Word, Nehemiah, chapter 6. That's what we do. We stand up because we truly believe these are God's words. They're not mine; they're not yours. They're his for our lives. I'm going to take you to the end of the story, and then we're going to go back to the beginning. I want you to see, in chapter 6, verse 15, Nehemiah says, "So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem " In other words, they lost confidence in themselves. " for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God." Now go back to the beginning. This is what they were facing up until that point. Chapter 6, verse 1: "Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, 'Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.' But they intended to do me harm. Canyon Hills Community Church 2

3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, 'I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?' And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, 'It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. And you have also set up [false] prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, "There is a king in Judah." And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.' Then I sent to him, saying, 'No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.' For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, 'Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.' But now, O God, strengthen my hands." Father in heaven, I just praise you that when we do your work your way, you will be glorified. I pray, God, that if we leave here with anything this morning, you will give us courage to finish your work your way. I praise you, God, that many of us are standing up in this room right now, united by our common faith that your Word is without error and completely authoritative for all of life and all of faith, so help us to learn now, today. Help us to change. Help us to grow. In Christ's name, amen. Here's the main idea. If stopping the gospel of spreading isn't an option, then attacking those who already believe it is the next best thing. Let me repeat that, just slightly differently. If the world can't eliminate the church, then it will not relent and will do everything it can to keep us from finishing strong. That is the message for today, and I want to build on that main idea based on what we see going on in the life of Nehemiah and the life of God's people. 1. Recognize enemy attacks and respond appropriately. This is the first thing Nehemiah gives us permission to do today. Just like in Nehemiah's day, God's people have enemies. Jesus made it very clear that our greatest Enemy is Satan. He is real. In John, chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus called Satan a thief. His only mission is to kill, steal, and destroy the work of God and the people of God. That is what forms the existence of Satan. Yet the Bible also shows us that Satan rarely shows up in a red jumpsuit with horns and a pitchfork. Have you noticed that? No, the archenemy of God's people and of God's work has perfected the art of deception, and he uses a combination of people and temptations to attack us and discourage us from the mission of spreading this amazing good news that we know as the gospel. Nehemiah exposes three attack strategies of the enemies of God, those who do not believe in God and do not like or love his people. Then he records his responses to them. I want you to see the attack and I want you to see how Nehemiah responds, and then how we can apply it to our life today. Canyon Hills Community Church 3

4 A. To distract us away. You've heard the saying, "The Devil is in the details"? I think the saying can also be said to be true, "The Devil is in the distractions." That's exactly what's going on in this first attack in the first four verses. They show up and they see that the wall has been built too high for them to intimidate with a direct military attack, and so they try something different. They start sending letters to Nehemiah, the leader of God's people, rebuilding the wall, antagonizing him and wanting him to leave the work on the wall and come out and have a conversation with them. This is how it must sound. They must have looked at each other and said, "Well, we didn't discourage them to stop. This thing is going up. Maybe we can get Nehemiah out here and we can just see how, maybe, we can just all get along. Let's just see how we can partner together. Maybe we share common beliefs. Maybe we can just convince them we're really on their side when we're not, but if we can get Nehemiah out here and distracted, away from the wall, maybe the work will slow down or stop altogether." Four times, they tried it. Church, this isn't too different from what is happening to the church even today, all these years later. You see, if pastors and elders or church leaders can get sidetracked doing lesser things, then the church's work of spreading the gospel will be stalled. Now, I didn't say bad things or getting distracted with things that aren't good, but getting distracted with lesser things that could pull us away from the great work of spreading the good news about Jesus. Some things I think tend to distract modern-day churches today to some degree or another are things like getting involved in politics. Some churches have just absolutely convinced themselves that it's their job to influence elections and policies, and that is really their main calling. For other churches, it might be getting involved in climate change, clean water projects, or affordable housing. I just read recently of a church that is very, very committed to urban renewal. Some churches get really involved in adoption programs, tutoring underprivileged children, or trying to eliminate social injustices like poverty, racism, corporate greed, or sex trafficking. What I find compelling in the New Testament is that Jesus never started a social program or a campaign, and there were just as many social ills going on in his day as there are today, maybe even more. Instead, Jesus gave us a supernatural mission of making more and better disciples of him, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching people to obey everything he has taught and commanded. That is the mission that Jesus left with us. Don't get me wrong, because I know right now for some of you, the temperature in your body is going up. You're concerned about what I've just said. Listen. We must speak out against injustice and sin, and it's certainly okay to encourage each other to get involved in making a difference where there is suffering in our world. In fact, for years, we partnered with World Vision and we just encouraged each other. We didn't start any programs. We didn't change our mission, but we encouraged you to get involved. Canyon Hills Community Church 4

5 Remember? They may still do this. They were doing marathons in Seattle once a year, and you would raise support for every mile you ran, and it would go toward the projects World Vision was doing in some really sad and suffering places in the world. Absolutely, we must assist in the relief of suffering. We just can't forget that we have a different solution for a fallen world. The solution is the gospel, one heart changed by the grace of God at a time. That's the ultimate solution. That's the greatest hope we ever have for lasting change in the world: one heart changed by the grace of God at a time. Again, be sure. I want you to hear me. It is perfectly okay for Christians to stand up and get involved in eradicating suffering and injustice, to get involved in politics. Absolutely! Individually, we must, as God gives us opportunity and grace to do so. Jesus even gives us our strategy for being involved individually in the hurts and sufferings of the world. He said, "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to start by loving God with all your heart, and then I want you to love your neighbor as yourself." Then he told a parable about how that can change the world, one person at a time. You know the parable, right? The Good Samaritan? He tells this story about a man who was minding his own business on his way to town, and he gets jumped, mugged, robbed, and beaten within an inch of his life, leaving him naked, bleeding, and without money. They took his horse, truck, and dog, and took off. Here comes the Good Samaritan. He stops and sees hurt and he does what he can. He patches him up. He gets him to a hospital. He makes sure he's okay. He makes sure he has food. What's conspicuously missing in that parable is that Jesus did not call the Good Samaritan to start a program. He didn't say, "I want you to start programs to decrease crime on that road." There's nothing wrong with that, but Jesus is showing us, over and over again, that the world gets changed as we get involved, one person, one life, at a time. He calls us to live differently. He calls us to be holy, compassionate, unselfish, sacrificial, and kind. He calls us to be forgiving, honest, generous, and sexually pure. He calls us to take care of widows and orphans. All of this godly living will be the salt and light that the world desperately needs. In a book called The Jesus of History, by T.R. Glover, a guy from Cambridge, England, he writes about the effects that the Christian church had on the first-century Roman world, a world that was incredibly dark with immorality, suffering, and deep, dark sin. He writes a chapter in this book about how the Christians made such a huge difference. The thing that impresses the reader is the emphasis that Glover puts on the character of the men and women of the church in bringing amazing change, not on the programs of the church. This is something he said in this book, The Jesus of History. " the Christian 'out-lived' the pagan, 'out-died' him, and 'out-thought' him. He [the Christian] came into the [first-century Roman] world and lived a great deal better than the pagan; he beat him hollow in living." He didn't beat him physically, but he lived better than those who were trying to live without Jesus. Canyon Hills Community Church 5

6 I think that goes hand in hand with Nehemiah. In verse 3, Nehemiah's response to the distraction of trying to get him off the work is really compelling. He says, "And I sent messengers to them, saying, 'I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?'" I like that. He just says, "Hey, the work here is great." I want you to be reminded, church, the work we have is great, both individually and corporately as a church. The privilege of sharing and spreading the gospel is the greatest work of all works. All those other things are good works. Please hear me say that. We encourage each other to get involved in those types of things I just mentioned in my list, but we can't get involved in those things at the expense of being distracted from spreading the gospel around the world. This is why we are so passionate about certain things here at Canyon Hills. We're passionate about preaching the Word of God, verse by verse, teaching exactly what it says and exactly what it means to the best of our ability with the Holy Spirit's help. We are passionate about global and community outreach. We go with compassion on our hearts and the gospel on our lips. You have to do both or you get distracted by doing a lot of good things and leaving the greatest thing unsaid and undone. We're passionate about going to the world. We have a team right now in India. We have a team right now in Chile. We mean this. We're passionate about biblical counseling, because we know in the deepest crevices of our heart that the greatest hope for change we have is found in God's Word. These core values keep us laser-like focused on the gospel as the world's greatest change agent. The application, I think, for us personally First of all, let me go there for you. Are there things in your life so overwhelming and distracting to you that it has been forever since you've shared with anybody what Jesus has meant to you? What distractions are going on in your life right now? I'm not saying they're bad things. I'm just asking what things you are allowing to be so overwhelming in your life that you really haven't talked to anybody about Jesus in forever. I think that's a valid question. It certainly is for my life. We have to ask the question ourselves as leadership in the church. We need to be careful. Are we so busy doing so many things that we're crowding out the greatest thing of making sure we get the gospel proclaimed everywhere we go? It's a valid attack to distract us from that, but there's another attack strategy that discourages God's people from finishing strong. B. To falsely accuse us. If they can't distract us with lesser things, then the next best thing is to falsely accuse us, and that's what we read in Nehemiah in verses 5 and following. They couldn't get Nehemiah to come out of the city and off the wall, so they sent him a letter and said, "We know why you won't come out here! You're trying to make yourself king!" "You've actually hired false prophets," they said, "because you're going to have them announce to the people that God wants you to be their king. Guess what! When the real king of Persia finds Canyon Hills Community Church 6

7 out you're doing this, his armies are going to come up and wipe you out." They knew if they could falsely accuse Nehemiah, the people would be petrified. They would be scared. I want you to notice something when it comes to the enemies of God. They rarely ever operate alone. There's a certain cowardice that's in common with the people who hate God and hate his work. They tend to hide in crowds. They tend to hide in mobs or behind the veils of professor tenure or social or mainstream media. This is nothing new. The enemies of God who do not love God or his people did this to Jesus and they've been doing it ever since. They accused Jesus of being a blasphemer, a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of sinners. Here we find them accusing Nehemiah of treason, of setting up false prophets, and they knew it would induce, potentially, panic among the people if they started thinking Nehemiah was going to do this and then invoke the attack of the Persian king. They completely lied about Nehemiah, his motives, and his intentions. Folks, again, this is happening to churches today, isn't it? It has been happening for a long time. It sounds different. The accusations sound different, but the same thing is happening today. The enemies of God are constantly slandering and accusing us of things like being haters and bigots, and accusing us of suppressing women. Not us, meaning Canyon Hills, but Christianity in general. They're accusing Christians of being closed-minded, homophobic, hypocrites, and intolerant, just to name a few. I think there is this sense in the enemies' minds that we are the source of their unhappiness and their struggle. I think for the people who hate God, Christianity, and God's church, or who just think the church is evil I think in their minds, they think if they can just get rid of the church, their troubles would go away. I think in some sense, there's truth to that, because ultimately, if you can get rid of God, then anything goes. I mean, that is the mantra behind all atheism. If you can eliminate God, then you can do anything you want. The accusations, albeit mostly and mainly false, continue to fly at Christians and the church. This is sad to me, and I want it to be sad to you. Sadly, some pastors, churches, and whole denominations are panicking in fear at the thought that they are not approved of by the enemies of God, and that is too much for them to take. So they try really hard to prove to the enemies of God, to the world, that they aren't really all those things they're being accused of. This has led many weak-kneed pastors and many Christians who follow them to a wholesale compromise of 4,000 years of biblical orthodoxy and biblical authority. Out of a fear of these false accusations being hurled at Christians and the church, some pastors and the Christians who follow them are panicking, either because they're shocked by the accusations or they're devastated by the attack. One of our local churches not too far from here, just an exit south of us, just two weeks ago announced that they're making a documentary. They're hiring all kinds of big guns to record and make a documentary trying to convince all the churches of inclusivity and trying to convince the churches that the homosexual lifestyle is congruent with the Bible and with God's plan for our Canyon Hills Community Church 7

8 lives. They have determined that it's their mission to convince all of you, all of us, that God not only approves but celebrates the homosexual lifestyle. If that isn't grievous enough, because their people haven't given enough to pay for this project, they have turned to the world to fund it. They have put on one of those fundraising websites a call to the community, to the world at large, to pay for this message, which should be a real red flag for the people who call that their church. If God's people aren't paying for the mission and the message of their church, maybe there's something wrong with the mission and the message. I say that to you out of sadness and out of warning. One of the greatest attack strategies of the enemies of God is to accuse. Nehemiah's response in verse 8 is compelling. "Then I sent to him, saying, 'No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.'" Basically, he calls them liars and he leaves it at that. He just says, "Everything you're saying isn't true." He doesn't allow them to bully him into a long, lengthy debate, defense, or documentary. What is so grievous and so sad is how many Christians, out of a fear of man and of being accused of being intolerant or hateful, which is not true, are laying down their Bibles and joining in the cultural march over the moral cliff to their spiritual deaths. Church, that is a true tragedy. When Christians are laying down the greatest hope for every soul to find true meaning, happiness, and fulfillment in your life. They're laying it down in order to convince the world that we aren't what they're saying we are. I pray that we would finish strong. Nehemiah doesn't end there, though. He reveals a third attack. C. To tempt us to sin. If they can't distract us to lesser things, if they can't intimidate us with false accusations, then they will pull out the favorite attack, the ace up their sleeve. It's called compromise. Nehemiah describes this here, starting in verse 10. He says, "Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, 'Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.' But I said, 'Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.' And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid." It was brilliant. Get Nehemiah afraid of being killed, and the people who were already vulnerable to this fear would panic, but they would remember that every time Nehemiah led them in prayer and stood up to the bullies, they found courage to remain faithful and to finish strong. They can't Canyon Hills Community Church 8

9 get Nehemiah to bend, so they hire this fake priest to call Nehemiah to his house and say, "Nehemiah, they are going to kill you, so you need to come into the temple with me and I'll hide you there." Nehemiah knew this guy could not be of the Lord because he was tempting him to do something he knew was sin. Nehemiah knew that part of the temple was only reserved for the priests. If he were to go in, he would bring shame upon himself, the people, and the temple. Once again, the people would be tempted to give up and bail if Nehemiah was willing to sin and compromise to save his own hide. Listen. The Devil is still doing it today. It's his greatest trick: self-inflicted shame. Have you noticed the world loves to shine the spotlight on our sin, us being Christians? The world loves to point out when we blow it because they can get all the spotlights out and put it on the sinner and take the light off the Savior. Satan loves to pull that trick with temptations in our world. He knows it only takes 15 minutes of sin to bring a boatload of shame upon our lives, our church, and our message, just enough to muzzle our testimony. It's a great strategy, but I love what Nehemiah says. If you see here in verse 11, he says, "I will not go in." Church, if I could get all of us to tattoo those five words on the inside of our eyelids, we would probably finish really strong. Nehemiah just said, "I'm not going in." That's it! He wouldn't spend five minutes with this guy once he realized what he was doing. He was trying to get him to compromise because he knew once he could bring shame upon Nehemiah, Nehemiah would shut up, the people would shut up, and the work of God wouldn't be finished. What a great example! One of the better books I read this summer was called The Faithful Preacher, but the subtitle was, Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors. That subtitle caught my eye. One of these African-American pastors' sermons was in the book. It was like three little biographies of these three separate, unrelated pastors from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. One of the pastors said this, and I underlined these words with humility and conviction. I want to share them with you. Francis Grimké, born in 1850, died in He said, "The representatives of Jesus Christ must be men and women who have broken with sin, whose minds are made up, fully made up, to do right, to have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness. [ ] The only Christianity that is going to have any power over the world, any power to change it, to set it going in the opposite direction from which it is going, is the Christianity that shows, in the character of the men and women who profess it, that it is actually capable of turning out a higher product than is to be found in the world." In other words, what he so rightly says is what makes Christianity rationally credible is the product that Christian living produces in our lives. He's reminding us here that Satan would love nothing better than to get us to inflict shame upon ourselves by spending 15 minutes of stupidity that will shut our mouths and keep us from spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. Canyon Hills Community Church 9

10 I have to ask myself if there's compromise in my character that is putting a muzzle on my testimony. Is there unrepentant sin in my life that's keeping just enough shame in my heart that it, in effect, keeps my mouth shut? I share that with you because I want you to ask yourself the same question. Here's the good news. For those of us who have put our faith and trust in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have been given the privilege of confessing our sin to God, and he promises to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. When we blow it, we can run right back to the cross for the forgiveness of Christ through his shed blood. We don't have to hang our heads in shame. We don't have to shut our mouths. We can continually, even in our brokenness and even in our messy lives, continue to shine the light on him, on his mercy and grace. The trick of the Devil does not have to work for you or for us, even when we blow it. In spite of all this, Nehemiah concludes with this promise. We can finish strong. We can finish strong with God's help. We go right back to where we started, when he says, "We finished it. We did it in 52 days! When the enemies of God heard this, they trembled. They lost confidence. They backed off a little bit, because they knew we did this with the help of our God." I love this. The enemy swings three times and misses, and Nehemiah doesn't flex his own muscles. He says, "With the help of our God, we finished strong." Church, that is what I want to pound into our hearts today. This is the glad testimony we have. God has promised that he is going to help us finish strong. In Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, we're told, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." We have the Holy Spirit in us by way of the salvation of our souls through faith, and he promises that we have power to proclaim the gospel. Jesus said, in Matthew 16, speaking to Peter, " I tell you on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Jesus declared, loud and clear, that the fight to eliminate and destroy the church is a futile one. The church, the people of God, are going to last forever. In 1 John 4:4, the apostle John says, "you are from God and have overcome them [the attacks of God's enemies], for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." That is, again, the promise of God that with his help, we can finish our lives and our mission strong. In Romans 8:37, it says, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." I love that. " more than conquerors " In the last few verses, Nehemiah kind of finishes writing this chapter with a little bit of a thud. In verses 17-19, he basically says, "We finished the wall. They backed off, but Tobiah didn't! He kept right on writing letters, sending them in to the Jewish people in the cities. He found some friends." Canyon Hills Community Church 10

11 The enemies of God found some friends in the camp of God and were exchanging letters and telling Tobiah everything Nehemiah was saying, and then Tobiah would write Nehemiah letters. Right there at the end of the book, it says, "And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid." Here's the point. Don't ever expect the attacks to ever stop. The wall was done, and this was the message. Not until the last note of the final trumpet at the judgment of God will the enemies of God give up. I feel like God wanted us to see this chapter now, because this is what I want us to feel. I want us to own this, you guys. If you call Canyon Hills your home, I want you to know this. We are bent with every fiber in our being to continue to proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ died on the cross. He lived a sinless life so he can offer his life as a payment for our sin, and if we trust in him, we can be saved. We are also bent on proclaiming that we are to obey everything he has commanded, because his way of life is a free life, a life freed from guilt, shame, and fear. It's a life of peace with God and confidence that we have the inheritance of eternal life, because he is risen from the dead. We will not be distracted, and we are going to proclaim that message and that mission until the last note of the last trumpet sounds, or God should come, send Jesus, and take us home before them. That's what we're about, and we're going to stay right there. I hope you know that with all your heart, but it's going to take all of us, every one of us, to recognize the attacks of the Enemy and respond appropriately. I hope you will. Father in heaven, by your grace that is sufficient every day, may we walk from here not flexing our own muscles, not confident in our own strength, but confident in your promise that with your help, we will live differently. God, we will speak differently. We will serve differently. We will proclaim the message of the gospel. God, give us all the strength we need to resist the attacks of the Enemy. I pray, God, that we will be a church that will be full of your people doing your work, your way, for your glory. In the name Jesus, your Son, amen. If you sense in your heart right now You're sitting here right now and you're realizing, "I don't have a relationship with Jesus. I don't know if I'm going to heaven. I'm not sure my sins are forgiven. I'd like to know. I want to know how I can know that for sure." We have people right here, excited to have that conversation with you, to give you something to go home with, and to get you started in a real relationship with Jesus so you can know who you are and whose you are. I hope you'll come and talk to us before you go. Canyon Hills Community Church 11