Revolutionary Church: IT’S WORTH THE FIGHT

There's nothing I love more than the presence of God. God, you can be seated. You know, our praise and our worship is not limited to a 45 minute hour session here when we gather on Sundays. But our worship should be something that we live out every day, but it should be a part of your everyday life. You know, they were in here practicing this morning.

They were just in here going over some of the songs that they were going to do. And man, the presence of the Lord just overtook me this morning in their practice. I couldn't do anything but just. I had to go over here, sit in the corner and just weep in intercession and out of adoration because his presence was just prevalent in this place as they practice. He's not limited to anything, you know, we tend to limit him even in our services.

We'll give you this. We'll give you this hour, you know, we'll give you this hour on Sunday, God. But then I got to go live my life.

We give all these unofficial our greatest attention and we say, oh, you can have an hour on Sunday. I can't make it midweek. I'm too busy for that.

They go past 12 o', clock, my stomach's growling.

I'm not satisfied with that, people. I'm not satisfied with that. There is more to this thing. They're not just a routine. There is a lifelong relationship you can build with him.

And there is fullness of joy in his presence. And there's nothing else I would rather do than get into the presence of God. I don't care if I have to come in here and do it by myself.

There's no place like his presence. Presence.

I want us to begin to shake off these ideologies. That church is supposed to be this, this, this, and then out.

We are the church. This is just a building. You are a temple. You're supposed to be a carrier of its presence. Everywhere you go, you carry itself presence.

The problem with a lot of us is we can't carry the presence of God because we offend the spirit of God with the things we do day in and day out. The things we watch, the things we listen to, the things we take in.

I'm not satisfied with routine. I just want him. I want. I want him.

Thank you, Jesus.

I didn't mean to be yelling at y' all this morning. The Lord's just got a stirring in my spirit.

We gotta shake those things off. Religion has had too many people bound for too long.

And there's so much more to God than what we do right here. But there's so much more we could be doing right here. But people are too quick to want to get out of here.

I don't care if you get mad at me. You can leave when you want to I'm going to linger in his presence.

The Mexican restaurant still be there.

Praise God, it's July. The weekend of the fourth Independence Day weekend. Yesterday was July 4th, and really for the country, it was a monumental July 4th. Because we as a nation, we, we celebrated 250 years since the signing.

It's been 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of independence. So, so July 4th is the day in our nation's history where we as a nation declared freedom from an independence from the Kingdom of Britain. Okay, we're going to talk about a little bit of history this morning, but July 4, 1776, 56 men representing the 13 original colonies signed what we call to this day the Declaration of Independence. Right? Now, what a lot of people do not know that I want you to know this morning, and you may not know, but maybe you do, is that, that they did not sign the Declaration of Independence after the Revolutionary War was fought one and over.

Okay, that's not when that happened, but the Declaration of Independence was drafted, right? And it was written seven years before the war actually ended. Seven years ahead of time, right? The day that the Revolutionary War actually officially ended was September 3, 1780.

So what that actually tells us that is in the midst of these people right here fighting for freedom, in the midst of the battle for their lives. They were fighting for freedom. They were fighting for the freedom of their families. And what became our freedom today. In the middle of guns firing, bullets flying by cannons blasting, the cries of agony and pain, and the middle of what most may have called hopeless, useless and unattainable, there were 56 men representing those colonies that declared freedom to the people.

And as I was thinking about that, I was thinking, my goodness, my goodness. If we, the Church, could get ahold of that revelation today, right? If we, the Church, representing the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God here on this earth, would begin to declare freedom to people through the power of the cross, the finished work of the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ, in the midst of our moral decay, in the midst of our cultural decline, and in the midst of irreverence for the Lord, in the middle of a war that's being fought for your children, for your children's children, for your family and your friends and your generations, eternity. Eternity. If we, the very church, in those moments would begin to declare hope and freedom to them, if we would begin to declare the word of the Lord and would say, hey, you can be free from that sin.

It is Christ who sets you free. You can be free from that shame. You don't have to be held bound by that guilt or that addiction anymore. You can be free from that ailment and that sickness in your body. You can be free from that.

That fear, that worry, that anxiety, that depression that is holding you bound. You can be free. And the way you are free is through Jesus Christ. If we would begin to declare freedom and liberation to the people, who knows what we would see today? So here's my first point today.

I only got two points. If you want to see freedom, declare freedom.

If you want to see freedom for you, your family, your friends, or generations to come, you must first declare freedom. Remember, they declared freedom seven years before the war was ever over. You want to see freedom, declare freedom. Have you ever wondered about the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Who they were before, what kind of men they were, what professions they had, what happened to a majority of them after signing and during the war?

And we know a few, we know a little bit about some of the famous ones. Like there's. There's John Adams. We've heard of him. Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, who is actually accredited with drafting and writing the Declaration of Independence.

Benjamin Franklin. So we hear about those, but what about the rest of them? Right? There were 56 men that signed this document. And I can tell you what I found just in my limited resources, right?

24 of them were lawyers and jurists, said 11 of them were merchants, 9 were farmers. It also said that 5 of the people who signed were captured by the British as traitors, and they were tortured, tortured before they would eventually die. 12 had their homes ransacked and burned during the war. Two lost sons who served fighting in the revolutionary army. Another one had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 who signed fought and died from wounds or hardships from the Revolutionary War. There was a guy named John Hart who signed. He was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. They had 13 children. He was trying to.

Trying to make sure their children were taken care of. But when everything went chaotic, all his children ran and ran into the woods. They all dispersed, right? His property was laid to waste, and for more than a year, he lived in the woods and in caves. He returned home, found his wife dead and all his children scattered.

Didn't know where they were. It said a year later or just a little while later, he died from the heart. Hardships of war and a broken heart. So it literally said, Francis Lewis was a guy who signed. He had his home and his properties destroyed.

The enemy actually Took his wife and jailed her and she died in just a few months. As a prisoner, Thomas Nelson Jr. He noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over his home as his own headquarters. And so Thomas Nelson Jr. Quietly urged George Washington to open fire on his home.

The home was destroyed and Nelson died. Completely broken, bankrupt. These are just a few of the details, some of the stories of the sacrifices of the American Revolution. The men who signed this document and who fought, they were not wild eyed, rough rousing rebels, right? These were men of means and education.

They had security, but they valued liberty more. So standing tall and straight and unwavering, they pledged, and I'll quote it from the Declaration of Independence itself, for the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence. Providence, we mutually pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. So they declared, they stood for and they died for. A freedom that we all get to enjoy by gathering here today and many more things.

And a lot of us, we take these liberties so much for granted. But I can tell you we shouldn't. I got a nephew who is in the Air Force. He's home right now. He's been away for two years.

He's based in England, but he has been deployed in this Iran war. And I got to see him Friday night for the first time in two years and he was just talking about his experiences. I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you what he told me and I don't want to mess him up, but he was very involved in this and, and talking about the places he'd been and different things he experienced. And he said, the greatest thing I've learned, Uncle Andrew, is how to appreciate our nation and how different it is and how much we have compared to a lot of people. And so I think a lot of us take these liberties for granted and we shouldn't.

But when thinking about the history of this nation and its fight for independence. Independence. I'm reminded of a story in the Bible, right? It's about the three Hebrew children is what we call them. And the story of the three Hebrew children is found in Daniel chapter three.

So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Daniel chapter three. And I'm going, I'm going to read a large portion of Daniel chapter three. But I'm going to do that to make sure we understand the full context of what was happening to these, these three Hebrew boys as they were in Babylon. And what I'm going to do is I want to draw Similarities from their story to our nation's story, because it's the fourth weekend, and then try to connect it to us here today. Okay?

So first thing we want to do if we want to see freedom is declare freedom. Here's the second thing. It's my second point. If you want to see freedom, stand for freedom. Stand for freedom.

This is Daniel, chapter three. I'm going to start with verse one. I'm going to read all the way to verse 18. Okay? So y' all bear with me, but I'm going to read it slow.

We're going to take it in. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width 6 cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. So Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon, the Babylonian empire, okay? And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So then the satrap, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the Protestants gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald cried aloud to you. It is commanded, o peoples, nations, nations and languages. He's saying everybody, right?

That at the time you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, harp, lyre, the psaltery in symphony, with all kinds of music, you shall fall down, you shall bow down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship, worship, shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. So at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, and the lyre in symphony with all kinds of music, all the people, nations and languages fell down and worshiped the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews. They spoke and they said to King Nebuchadnezzar, o king, live forever.

You, O king, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery and symphony with all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden Image and whoever does not fall down in worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you've set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your God, gods or worship the gold image which you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, he gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, is it true? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? And he knew who these were because he had set them over affairs in the province of Babylon.

These were people on his council. Right? Meshach and Shadrach. Is it true that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I've set up? Now what he's about to do is give them an ultimatum.

Now, if you are ready at the time, you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, the lyre, the sultry in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I've made good. Basically, he's saying, look, alright fellas, I heard you've not been bowing down, you've not been worshiping what the image I set up. But I'm gonna give you one more opportunity. I'm gonna play the music one more time. I'm gonna get my guys, they're gonna play the harp, they're gonna play the, they're gonna do all the music.

And when that music plays, if you, if you'll go ahead and make up in your mind, you're gonna go ahead and back down, then I won't throw you in the burning fiery furnace. I'm giving you an option right here. That's what he's saying, right? Then he says, but if you do not worship this false God, this false idol, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands?

Needless to say, King Nebuchadnezzar thought pretty highly of himself. Many believe that the image that he set up was an image of himself and he was forcing people to worship him and a golden image of himself. All right, and I just love the response of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego here, right? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said, to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar. Nezzer, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If that is the case, if this is how it's going to be, this is how it's going to be. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us from your hand, O King. Okay, this is what they're saying. Hey, look, you're asking, we're telling.

Who's going to be able to save us and deliver us. Our God is. He's more than able. This is what we know. The God that we serve is more than able.

We've seen, we've heard the stories from generation. From generation. We've seen his faithfulness in our life already. And you've given us this ultimatum. And I'm going to tell you, my faith is not shaken, oh King, he's able to do it.

But this is what I love, is what they say next. But if not, or even if he does, we don't. We know that he's more than able to deliver us from your hand. You ain't nothing compared to him. He's more than able.

But even if he chooses not to let it be known to you, O King, we will not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you've set up. Man, I just love the boldness. Talk about revolutionary, right? Taking a stand. Hey, I know my God's able to deliver me, but even if he don't, I'm still going to serve him.

He's been too good to me all my life. He sees things that I don't see right now. He knows things that I don't know. So if you throw us in the furnace and we burn up, all right, he's still been faithful. I'm gonna be with him forever.

So even if he don't, we're still gonna worship. Now let me go back. Something I wanna bring your attention to. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, what the British tried to do is they tried to turn the revolution into what they called a radicals rebellion. And so they tried to convince that these colonists.

They tried to convince the colonists that were standing for change, the ones that were tired of being taxed and oppressed by the strong arm of the British government, right, monarchy. They tried to convince them that it was not change that they wanted, but that all they were doing was really rebelling. You're just stirred up and you're in rebellion. They tried to convince these people that they were fighting for nothing. There was no Real motive behind what they were doing.

There was no real cause behind what they were fighting for, that it was just a phase that they were going through. And not only did they tell them they were fighting for nothing, but they told them that they were not able or even equipped to be able to fight the battle that laid before them. Why? Because those that stood before them and those that were standing for change, right, they were not mighty soldiers in the king's army. They weren't trained for battle.

These were farmers, they were merchants, they were lawyers, teachers, not military men. So, hey, you're not. They try to convince them, hey, even if you decided to fight, you're not equipped. You can't win this fight. You can't do it.

Do you know when your greatest battles come? Your greatest battles come when you start to stand the word of God. And as you start to stand on the word of God and what God has already said and standing on his promises, his dreams, his visions for your life, when you begin to stand on that, the enemy will pop up his head and he'll say, oh, it ain't worth that fight. Oh, it ain't worth it for the fight right here. Those dreams and yours mind, that's just your imagination running wild.

Oh, it ain't worth the fact you'll actually never be free from that bondage. You'll never be free from that oppression in your life. You'll never be free from that addiction. Look, you've been addicted for 28 years. You think you can get free now?

No, you're never going to be free from that. You'll never know what it's like to truly be free. You don't have it in you. You're not equipped to fight this battle. So quit fighting and just lie down all your weapons and just walk away.

So think about that and then try to understand where the three Hebrew children are in Daniel chapter three. Something we have to take into account for them is that everything they've been through up to this point. In Daniel chapter three, what happened was the Babylonians came and besieged their hometown, their city, and Daniel, Jerusalem. Right? And they took them from their homeland as captives, as slaves.

Right. They brought them back to Babylon and they began to make them dress different. They began to try to force them to eat differently. They even changed their names. Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego is not the real name.

And I just want to read it to you so we understand what they've been through. Through up to this point. In Daniel 3, seven more verses. This is Daniel chapter 1, verses 1 through 7. It says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

They took the city. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shan to the house of his God. And he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles. Listen.

This is who they were getting young men in whom there was no blemish, but good looking and gifted with all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and the literature of the Chaldeans. And as I was reading that, I guarantee there were some men in here that said, that would have been me. They would have took me. Good looking, without a blemish, wise, quick to understand.

I got news for you. Most of you would have been left behind. No, I'm just kidding.

But what they're doing is they're taking these young men with the intentions. We're going to bring them in and over the course of three years, we're going to train them to be Chaldeans, just like us. And they're going to serve in the king's court. Courts. And do things for him.

Okay, Verse five. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank. And three years of training for them so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Exactly what I just said. Now, from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

To them, the chief of the units gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belshazzar to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. Right. So you got these young men, the Babylonian army, King Nebuchadnezzar. And his army comes in, takes the city, rips them from their homes, burns their city to the ground, and then takes them back to Babylon and says, all right, everything you once knew.

That's not who you are anymore. You're going to dress the way we dress. You're going to learn to talk the way we talk. You're going to eat the way we eat. You don't even have your name anymore.

You're no longer who you used to be. We're giving you a new name. Okay? So remember, they've gone through all this, and now the king, on top of all that is trying to force them to worship differently. But not only worship differently, but to turn their back on all that they knew was right and holy.

He is telling them they have to bow to this graven image, this false God that they knew was a disgrace to the one and the true God, Jehovah, Yahweh. Right? So remember, they had their name shift. They were made to dress different. And their job was now to do as this ungodly king commanded them.

Everything they knew, everything they were comfortable with, they had stripped from them. Everything they found identity in, they had taken from them. And yet they served the Lord. I'm about to step on your toes through all that. Yet they serve the Lord.

Remember Daniel? Daniel's mentioned right there in Daniel, chapter one. Right? Daniel, the story, Daniel and the lions. Then, right?

There was a command by the king. There should be no. There was a different king of the Babylonian empire. Right? Right.

They were commanded there should be no prayers, no petitions given to anyone. But to the king, he was trying to tell them, you can't pray to any God. You can only pray to me. I'm God. That was the decree that went out.

And then Daniel heard that. You know what Daniel did? He went to his room and with an open window, he prayed three times a day to Yahweh. Right? And then here we are.

They're going through all this, and yet they serve the Lord. Even if they don't, we're still not bowing down to that. And here we are today and we say, oh, it's difficult to be a Christian today.

It's hard for me to be Christlike on my job. There's just so many non Christians that I work with. You don't understand the stress that I'm under, Pastor Andrew. And then that rolls over and then we start to give our kids excuses to give in to temptation. Well, it's tougher to be a Christian today, Andrew.

We've never had the kind of pressure that they have today. Hey, hey, I agree with that. I tell you, you what, we might not have the same kind of peer pressure, that the sin may be more rampant and wildly accepted by the world today. And all these standards that the world just accepts, right? And the enemy, he may be drawing young people stronger than he ever has before, but this is what I know he's still the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I still know that greater is he that is within me than he that is within the world.

Listen, if he can deliver Daniel from the lion's den and he can walk through the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, then he can make a way for you when there seems to be no way.

But what we do is we give ourselves excuses to bow down with the rest of the world. World. Instead of standing for the Lord, we give ourselves reasons and excuses to give in to temptation. But the question I want to ask you this morning is where's a revolutionary church? A revolutionary church, the church that will stand regardless of what everyone else is choosing to do.

Where is a revolutionary people who refuses to settle in the midst of compromise and complacency? Where is a revolutionary church that in the midst of moral decay, in the midst of political corruption, will stand and say, hey, right is right and wrong is wrong. And let me tell you how we know what's right and what's wrong right here.

Remember, they tried to convince them that this revelation revolution was just a rebellion. And really, it's at that moment, it's at a moment of confrontation, that we actually find out what kind of men and women we really are. Right? I'm a lover, not a fighter, but if I have to fight, I'll fight, and you may whip my butt, but you're going to get the best thing I got, right? So I'm not promoting fighting, all that, but I'm just saying if I got to protect my family, you can do anything you want to me, but you start messing with my family, I'm going to protect my family.

I'm just going to do it right? So they try to convince them that this was not a revolution, but they were just in rebellion. Don't you think that the king, King Nebuchadnezzar, knew that there was were some in the crowd that day in Babylon that worshiped Yahweh, that worshiped the one true God? Of course he did. But even knowing this, this unbelieving king tries to bring about a new way of doing things.

And then he says, hey, this is just the way things are going to be now. This is what you're going to have to do now. You ever felt like you've been backed into a corner and you feel like you've entered into a spiritual war, spiritual battle, and really it's your convictions that are on the line, Your convictions and the pressure actually in that, in that spiritual war, that spiritual Battle the pressure is actually to get you to loosen up on your convictions. Feeling like if I loosen up on my convictions when right here, it's going to ease the pressure that I feel like I'm under, or it's going to cause all the pressure to cease. And it's really.

At that moment is when the test of our true character comes to light. It comes into play, right? Because at that moment, if you dare stand and say, I shall not be moved. Moved. And then all hell breaks loose.

Anybody ever been there? Come on, am I not. Am I the only one? You stand. I'm standing on the word of the Lord.

All hell breaks loose, right? But how we respond to that actually determines what kind of person we really are.

And what I mean by that in the context of what I'm talking about today is are we rebel or are we a revolutionist? And let me just give you a definition of a rebel, okay? A rebel will stand. They'll take a stand. A rebel will take a stand, absolutely.

They'll stand up for the things that have an outcome that is best for themselves.

A rebel will take a stand. They will definitely take a stand, but they will stand for an outcome that is best for themselves. And they may pretend or show concern for others, but they're really only interested in what's in it for me. That's a rebel. And a lot of times when the pressure, when the furnace gets real hot or the pressure gets real heavy, a rebel, when they're confronted or resisted, typically runs away or surrenders.

Not all the time, but a revolutionary. A revolutionary is willing to die for what they believe in, regardless of the outcome. They don't stop fighting for what is right, regardless of what might happen to them. They still stand. Just like these, these three Hebrew boys.

They said, hey, we know God's able, but even if he don't, we're not. We're not to going compromising. They stood. In Luke, chapter 14, verse 28, Jesus says, which of you would begin to build a building and not first count the cost, what it's going to cost them? Who would enter into a battle and not already know what it may cost them?

And we can think about it. We can think about many who started out doing well, right? And yet when they were confronted by the enemy, they were easily persuaded or they just gave up under the pressure. Okay, why? Because they hadn't really given themselves to the cause, the cause of Christ.

But there are those, there are a people, a body, a remnant, who have made up their minds, right? Though all hell Ascend me. I will not be moved. Even if he don't, I'm still going to serve him. There was a moment in scripture where Jesus actually turned to his disciples and he said to them, will you leave me too?

Let me tell you what was happening. Jesus had multiplied the bread and the fish and these people. He had multitudes. Oh, Jesus. Whoo.

Jesus is awesome. Look what Jesus is doing. Look, they only had. They had a couple loaves and a couple fish. They had five loaves of bread, two fish.

And look, all thousands of us. We all ate. This is. Jesus is awesome. Okay?

Little bit later, they follow him across the lake. They find him again. They're like, jesus, Jesus. What else you got for us? Basically is what they were saying.

He didn't start multiplying fish and bread. He starts giving them the truth. And they're like, oh, I don't like this. I don't like Jesus. They walked away.

They weren't disciples. They were fans. Fans of Jesus.

And as these multitudes walked away, because they were in it for what was in it for them. What can I fill my belly with? What can Jesus do for me? Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, Jesus. Give me, give me the moment.

He doesn't give you what you want, I'm out of here. How could you let that happen to me? And we forget every good thing he's ever done. Y' all got real quiet on me. This is happening in scripture.

They walk away, and Jesus turns to his disciples. He says, hey, you gonna leave me too? He was questioning them. I just love it. They reply and said, to who or where else could we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

You know, what Peter was saying is like, hey, there's nothing or nowhere else we could go to find what I found in you. You're the only thing that satisfies me. Okay, so we got a know. When you make up in your mind that I'm going to do what God's called me to do, and I'm going to be who God's called me to be. No matter what.

No matter how hot the furnace may get, you got to know, no matter how great the number it is that stands against you, that he'll always be for you. He'll always be for you. He'll always You. Through the mountains and through the valleys, he'll always walk with you. I love that song.

And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. He'll walk with you. He'll walk with you, anywhere you go, even through the fast, through a flood. He'll never. He said, I'll never leave you.

I'll never forsake you. I'll abide with you always to the very end of the age. The end of the age. You know what that means. We're with him forever anyway.

Matt, you can come play behind me. I'm going to try to find a caboose. Think about this. In Daniel, chapter three, when all this was taking place place, there was this image constructed. The decree is going forth for the people to bow down and worship.

And those who didn't comply were going to be thrown into the fiery furnace. Okay. I am 99.999999% certain that Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego were not the only ones in that crowd that claimed to be followers and worshipers of Yahweh that day.

They weren't the only ones that claimed to be followers, yet they were the only ones who remained standing. They were revolutionists. Don't you think in that moment that the enemy came and said, look, so and so worships Yahweh too, but they're both bowing.

They worship Yahweh too, but they're bowing. It's okay for you to bow. Don't get thrown in a fiery furnace.

It's okay. Compromise. Don't you think? The enemy will take you in front of other quote, unquote Christians and say, look, they call themselves Christians, yet they're doing what you feel like you're strong, struggling with.

They call themselves Christians, they go to church, but they're still partaking of those things. It's okay for you to do that, too.

She's a Christian. She loves the Lord. You love the Lord. It's okay for you to start that relationship with her, even though she's married.

Y' all getting real quiet on me again.

They're a deacon in their church. They think it's okay. It's okay for you, too.

Their daddy's a preacher. They're doing it. It's okay for you to do it, too.

Go ahead. It's okay. Can I tell y' all this morning, just because others do it and call it right doesn't make it right.

Let me say it again. Just because others do it and call it right doesn't make it right. I said it earlier, and it's. Even if they do it in the name of God, God have mercy on them for that. But the Bible, God's Word, it's our litmus paper.

We hold this up to what is in question, right? What's supposed to be right? What's supposed to be wrong? And this tells us, yes, according to the word of the Lord, this is right, or no, according to the Word of the Lord, this is wrong. Let His Word be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.

Don't let the culture or other people or hypocrites, by goodness gracious, let His Word be the judge. Don't let the opinions of culture and society determine that.

And in this day, in this culture, someone living by the Word and living out the Word, I can tell you they will look like a revolutionary in today's times. They'll look like a revolutionary for the kingdom of God. And I believe God's looking for a revolutionary church, one that does not bow to compromises or the call or the enticements of the enemy and this world, but a people who will stand its ground uncompromising, walking upright and pure before the Lord. And with that will come a freedom and a liberty like we've never known. And not only for us ourselves, but for our families and for future generations to come.

Y' all stand to your feet.

I stand firm on this belief. I'm going to close with this. It's a statement directly from the Declaration of Independence. It says, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal in the image of God. Right.

I'm adding to the this right here. We are all created equal in the image of God.

Every man, woman, boy, girl, was created in the image of God. And when you dislike or misspeak about them, you're not criticizing them, you're criticizing your Creator. Their Creator. We hold these truths to be self evident.

All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let me tell you something. You won't let life. Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life more abundantly. John 10:10.

You want liberty? Jesus said, I come to proclaim liberty to the captive. Luke 4:18. You want to pursue happiness? Then I'm telling you, you need to pursue Jesus.

If you want to find true happiness in this life. You're not going to find it in anything else. But Jesus pursue Jesus. He gives a whole list of things that make people happy in Matthew chapter five, when he preaches the greatest sermon that's ever been preached, the Sermon on the Mount. And he goes through something we call in Sunday school, the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Right. Blessed are the peacemakers. You know what blessed means? I'm gonna have to do a whole series on this.

Blessed means happy. Extremely happy are these people.

Blessed are the poor in spirit so they shall inherit the kingdom of God. Extremely happy are the poor in spirit. Those that can't save themselves and say, jesus is my Savior because they'll inherit the kingdom of God. I don't know, but that makes me happy. I couldn't save myself and he saved me.

And I get to reap the benefits of an eternal kingdom with the creator of the universe. That makes me happy. You want to pursue happiness? Happiness? Pursue Jesus.

The problem is we've been pursuing everything else. We've been pursuing this relationship, thinking it's going to fill that void. We've been pursuing this substance because I got to drown out all this unhappiness I have in my life, and I got to feel numb to everything. So we pursue it over here. We pursue it over here in money and career.

And don't get me wrong, all of those things are good. I'm so happy. I'm so happy that I have Amanda. I'm happily married. I am of a firm belief.

God ordained marriage between one man and one woman. And it's supposed to be a reflection of our relationship with Jesus. And she makes me very happy. I'm not. I mean, in no way would I downplay that, but I know because she's way out of my league.

The only reason I got her is because God gave her to me. And the same is true for her.

At least I like to think so. I can go from here to there.

My point is the pursuit of happiness. We look for it in anything and everything and everyone except Jesus, the only one who can make us happy.

And I'm going to give you an opportunity to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Right now, how am I going to do that? I'm going to open up this altar for you to come meet with Jesus.

Maybe you need life. You're dead in your sin. You need to be born again. Come meet him at this altar today. I'm not going to ask you to bow your heads.

Close your eyes. Eyes. Today I just feel a stirring in my spirit. If you want life, come get life. If you need freedom, you got something that's oppressing you.

You're bound in your mind. And I got fear, I got worry, I got anxiety. I got all these things. I got addiction, I got oppression. If you need liberty, then you can come meet with Jesus.

And you can Find liberty in this altar today. If you're just saying I'm unhappy I'm at unrest I don't know what to do I've been lost I've been searching for years and years Nothing seems to satisfy I'm telling you if you want to pursue happiness come meet with Jesus they're going to sing and if the Holy Spirit is stirring in you and you feel a tug I'm just asking you to obey Would you come.