I declare war part 3

03-I Declare War-Act Like A Wolf

Well, welcome to I Declare War, Part Three. We're glad you're here. Fresh Life Church, every

single church joining in with us, church online, podcast audience, thanks so much.

What we're going to do today is we're going to talk about how to act like a wolf. In the first

installment, we spoke about thinking and the way our thoughts work and the way our thoughts

influence what comes of our lives. And then in the second installment, we talked about

speaking. We talked about how weighty our words are.

But this naturally now progresses where we need to think about our actions. Because if all our

love for God amounts to is thoughts and words, then it's literally just good intentions. And

when it doesn't lead to a changed life, when it doesn't lead to new actions and a whole new

way of living, then unfortunately, we end up with the predicament where people around us

would object to our intention to tell them about Jesus because of all the hypocrites that they

know.

Who their love for God is all just thoughts and all just words because the book of James puts it

well when it says that if you have all kinds of faith, how good is that? Not very good because

faith-- finish it if you know it-- without works is dead.

And we don't want a dead faith. We want a living, vibrant faith. Anybody with me? So how do

we get there? Well, it's got lead into our actions. We've got to act like a wolf.

And if you have a copy of the Scriptures, is where we're going to be. And if

you didn't bring a Bible with you, we're going to put the Scriptures up on the screen. Here's

what Paul says. This is so helpful.

He was speaking, of course, to a specific local church that existed at a certain point in history.

And they're all dead. They're not here anymore. But what Paul didn't know, that God knew,

was that he was going to use these words that were encouraging them to encourage us as

well. And Paul's probably stoked that he didn't know because that would have put a lot of

pressure on him. Like, I'm writing the Bible, ah!

He would've totally been overwhelmed by that, but the Holy Spirit used his words to speak to

us. And God had a bigger plan even than what was happening there in that moment. And so

we get to be blessed by what he told them.

Notice how he speaks about identity. He says in verse five, "you're sons of light, daughters of

day." You can just stop right there and just take a big breath in because that's rad. You are

sons of light. If you're a Jesus follower, what does God think about you? He thinks that you're a

son of light and you're a daughter of the day.

That is to say that you are not your pain, you are not your past, you are not your guilt, you are

not your shame, you are not your family of origin, you are not your dysfunction, you are not

your overeating tendencies, you're not your obsessive compulsive nature that drives people

away from you, you are-- who are you? A son of the light and a daughter of the day.

And when the enemy can get us to identify ourselves as our mistakes, he can keep us crippled

in a loop and a downward spiral of disorder. But when we hold on-- stop for a second, say, I

am who God says I am. It flips the script and changes the game. We're just five, six, seven

words in.

"We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's not sleepwalk through life

like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk

at night but not us. Since we're creatures of day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight

sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

"God didn't set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our master, Jesus Christ. He

died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we're awake with the living or asleep with the

dead, we're alive with Him." And one more time, verse eight, the emphasis "since we're

creatures of the day, let's act like it."

My whole sermon in just one sentence is this-- your daily activity should come from your new

identity. What you choose to do tomorrow, what you choose to do with the precious minutes

and the hours that you get living this life of faith, living this new life, it should come from, your

day-to-day activity, should come from your brand new identity. Or I've said, we should live

acting like a wolf.

If we're going to do that though, we can't do it alone. Why? Because every wolf has a pack.

Every wolf has a pack. Wolves are social creatures. It's one of the fascinating things about

them.

There are a lot of fascinating things about wolves. Did you know they can smell 100 times

better than people? That's actually a superpower I wouldn't want. [SNIFFS] Ah. [SNIFFS] Ah.

All the time. Like, enough. Lasagna, lasagna, it's two doors down. Ah.

But what is incredible about wolves is their familial devotion, right? And that's what the law of

the jungle says about them, right? The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the

pack is the wolf. That's Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book. This idea that wolves, they stick

together. Wolves they fight for each other. And it's true, and it's safe, and it's powerful. Why?

Because listen to me, a lone wolf has no protection. A lone wolf has no protection. A wolf that's

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by itself could easily be taken out by a rival wolf pack, but a wolf that has a family, it has

someone to fight beside. It has someone to protect him when he's weak. A wolf cub that has a

pack, that has a mom, knows even when the hunting party is out that someone stays back to

take care of him, to take care of her.

And it's amazing as you look into the way wolves organize themselves, it's a bit like an army.

Of course, we all know that wolf packs have leadership. You can't get a lot of people together

without them agreeing on a pecking order, without them agreeing on the harmony that's going

to come, just like an army would have generals and captains and all the rest.

So the wolf pack has notoriously that alpha, we would say male, but did you know that wolf

every wolf pack has an alpha male and an alpha female? And there's leadership that God

intended for both of them, both sexes, and there's power in both sexes tapping into what God

has on their life. You ladies, come on. God wants you to see yourself as strong, to see yourself

as brave, to see yourself as capable in his hand, as daughters of the King, as daughters of the

day. So let's act like it.

And of course, it doesn't stop there because we know that there are beta wolves too. I didn't

know this. I was looking it up because I was just interested in this and found out there's beta

wolves. And beta wolves function like the lieutenants. There can be a whole bunch of beta

wolves too, who kind of keep the peace and keep everybody else in the pack, in line doing

what comes from the directive of the alpha. And to think about that, as it continues on, there's more positions. And there's always,

regardless of how big it is, at the other end of the spectrum, there's the omega wolf. Isn't that

interesting? And the omega wolf would be the one who gets to eat last, right? Everyone--

they'll push the omega wolf away a little bit, and he'll get the end.

And the omega wolf just feels maybe could feel lower than, could feel less than, but I was

reading that there's an important function that the omega wolf provides for the pack because

he basically kind of keeps morale up. He's kind of like, ah, a little bit like, hey, always cracking

jokes a little bit. It's like, oh, Bob. Oh, Bob, the omega wolf.

And basically, the omega wolf sort of functions like a court jester and just keeps things going

and keeps things going. And I love that because much like in the body of Christ, God gives

some this gift, God gives some that gift, but there's a place in the pack for everybody. Whether

God's calling you his lieutenant or omega or alpha or something in between, there's a place for

you.

And life is better together. And life is better when you have a wolf pack. And we have to really

ask ourselves, who are the people in the pack that I'm rolling with? Who am I doing life with? I

would encourage you at every church to make that something you would give serious thought

to this week because it's been well told, you've probably heard it before, but you are the

average of the five people that you are closest to. That's been said.

And it's been well-studied, and this works its way out financially. You figure out financially

where you are. If you take the five people you're closest to and average out the income, that's

probably pretty close to what you make. You take the spiritual zeal, I would say, of the five

people you are closest to, and you're probably going to be somewhere in the average.

That tells you real quickly you can get richer if you get richer friends. You can be on fire with

God if you get friends who are more on fire with God. It makes sense if you're going to do life

with people, you're going to end up where they're going.

My friend Pastor Craig Rochelle likes to say show me your friends, I will show you your future.

If you want to get fascinated with something, hang out with people who are interested in that

thing. And if we want to be fighting like wolves to live as creatures of the day, we have to be

doing life in cooperation with other people who are going to push us on in our love for Jesus, in

integrity.

Because what happens, you get habituated to an environment and eventually, water seeks its

own level. And whoever you're hanging out with, you're going to start to either rise in your love

of God or dwindle in your love of God because you'll be normalized by the people that you're

hanging out with. You'll start laughing at the same things they laugh with.

They even can do studies. If they hook you up to brain scans, they see literally your brainwaves

get in sync with the people that you're hanging out with most often. And so we have to be

careful. We want to be positioned to reach all manner of people in the world, but the people

that were closest to, the wolf pack that were rolling with, you're going to end up where the

people you roll with are going. So it's so important to take thought and take care to who's in

your wolf pack.

And that's why church strategies that employ small group ministries are so e

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ective. And at

your church it may be called a community group. Here, at Fresh Life, we call them Fresh Life

groups, but they're just people who say, hey, we want to get together once a week or once a

month, whatever life allows, and pray together and encourage each other. And in between, be texting each other and be in a Facebook group together and be sharing verses that are helping

us out and o

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ering to babysit each other's kids and having each other's back at school.

And it's hard to feel like you're the only Christian sometimes in a classroom, to have that, the

power of people, I'm telling you it's powerful. My wife Jennie and I both, we were impacted and

influenced. And we would look back at our spiritual journey and say we are who we are

because of the small groups through high school, the small groups that we were in through life

and to this present day, the people in our lives. And we so badly want that for each of you.

There is a second thing and it's this-- you need to take thought to your posture, your posture.

What do I mean by posture? I mean, literally like your mom was always harping on you about,

stand up straight. Stand up straight. Stand up straight. It's important to think about your

posture, but within this also, think about facial expressions. What's your resting face?

My wife always comes and pushes her finger between my eyes and tries to smooth out the

frown that comes when I'm reading emails that are discouraging me, right, or anything that's

stressing me. I have this callus on this finger right here, and it's because anytime I'm really

bugged, I always bite this. And it's gotten better. It goes away, but it comes back. Like, guitar

players have calluses here. No, I have a callus right here. You can tell how bad or how good

life's going right here.

But my son is just a little guy, but we he's already a nail biter. You can tell when he's stressed

or worried. He kind of bites his nails. And I just wonder about your tics. I wonder about what

your posture says about you?

Because when you look at a wolf, they say they can tell how successful a wolf will be in life by

the way he carries himself. Isn't that crazy? By the way she carries herself. You can look

through a scope and see in a pack, who's going to be being able to get into that right pack or

form this right pack or get that animal.

They say there's, to the alphas, there's almost like a nobility to their bearing and to the way

they carry themselves. And their tail-- little things like-- I mean these people who spend their

lives on it, they're reading into it a little bit maybe. But like oh, no. His tail's down. He's having a

bad morning. It's like he ate bunny instead of elk. It's like, OK. All right.

But to think about the ears being down, the ears being up, the bristled fur, the non-bristled fur,

whether the animal shows its underside as a sign of submission and ends that little sparring

match, jostling for power. They say even from when they're cubs, they can kind of see how a

wolf's life is going to go from its posture, from its bearing, from the way he or she carries

himself.

And I just wonder if you understand how important that stu

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is. They say even on your stress in

your body-- Google it this week-- how many doctors' visits in America are caused by stress?

How many sicknesses have stress as-- let me tell you, it's not good, right?

You're talking about stress as a carcinogen. We're talking about stress moving you towards

heart disease. We're talking about stress causing a whole raft of medical issues. And to think

about the fact that when you carry yourself in a nervous way, like this, when you're kind of

like-- what you're doing is you're hiding your sensitive underbelly. You're, don't gut me. Don't

you dare slit my throat. That's what that essentially does.

And they say if you do a saliva test after holding yourself like this for 15 minutes, they will see

your cortisol rates through the roof. What does that say? It's causing you to feel stressed

because you're standing stressed. And I used to preach stress so much. And that's because I was-- I don't know if you like to get

up on stages in front of people like this. It's terrible. And the way all week long it moves

towards, it used to just wipe me out.

I used to dry heave every time I preached. I couldn't have any food in my valley for six or eight

hours. And every time, I'd end up dry heaving like M&M in the bathroom before the rap battle,

unless you're at a church where you'd be judged for watching a movie like 8 Mile. And so in

that case, I would say a really stressful Disney movie. And you think about, at least my knees

have lotion on them.

So you think about the way that I was beforehand torturing myself, and I would just be so

nervous. And I was doing the exact opposite of what I needed to do. And I talk in the book

about how I've found freedom through learning the power of the way I carry myself. Especially

when the less I feel like freedom and worship because I'm so nervous, the more important it is

for me to do so.

Because look at the book of Psalms. It never says, stand with your hands in your pockets,

looking at the ground while you sing to God. It's always hold your head up. God's a lifter of

your head. And God wants you to raise up your hands to Him, you people. Shout unto God

with a shout of triumph. Clap your hands.

I'm telling you, there's something that's freeing about a body language of power, even when

you don't feel like it, especially when you don't feel like it. You've got to walk like a wolf. You've

got to worship like a wolf. You've got to throw your head back and howl.

I'm telling you, that they say if they do the same saliva tests after 15 minutes like this or like

this, like an Olympic champion who just won, they say your testosterone rates in your blood

soar, which, of course, causes one to feel strong. And so it's so important that we give thought

to our posture.

Plus, you know, most Americans live in a perpetual state of shallow breathing. You're probably

breathing shallow right now, most of you. Because unless you're breathing deep enough to

bulge out your stomach, which causes diaphragmatic breathing, then you're not getting the

proper amount of oxygen.

And so a lot of us live in this continual state of dehydration and our blood starving for more

oxygen. So what does your heart do? Well, it has to pump faster. And what does that cause

your mind to do? It causes your mind to get more fuzzy. At 120 beats per minute, your mind

loses sharpness. At 150, your mind basically shuts down. Which is why when you're in an

altercation and you're fighting with someone, you will often think of the perfect comeback you

should have said after the fight's over. Jerk store. Costanza reference for the win.

So why does that happen? Because when you're blood's pumping in the fight, you can't think

clearly. This is why you make such bad decisions. Then you walk away. And you calm down a

little bit, and you think of all the things you shouldn't have done or should have said or

shouldn't have said or shouldn't have thrown or shouldn't have hit or shouldn't have punched

or shouldn't have kicked or shouldn't have screamed or you shouldn't have threatened to do,

right?

And then you're, why did I do that? Because you let yourself get out of control. And so posture

and breathing, these are things that God wants us to do. Now, notice, none of these things

come from the Holy Ghost of heaven. None of these things come from demons being bound

up in bushes that were threatening to attack you, right?

I think, sometimes we pray for things that God's, like, that's on you, actually, right? God

doesn't even show up till things are impossible, I heard someone say once. And so when we're

like, no, I need to have a demon taken out of me. God's like, you actually just need to quit

drinking so much soda. Like, say like, there are simple things you could do that would explain

why you're so unpleasant to be around, pal.

And so your posture-- I know this is like, whoa, this is so novel. We came to hear this? Yeah,

but here's the deal-- knowing what to do has never been the problem really, has it? There's a

whole world of di

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erence between knowing what to do and doing what you know. And so I'm

here to remind you to do what you already know is going to lead to the life that you want and

that Jesus died for you to have.

So mind your pack and mind your posture, and while you're at it, give some thought to your

pre-game. Pre-game? Yeah, I'm talking about not what happens on the court when the clock's

ticking down. I'm talking about what happens in the game before the game. Wolves give

thought to it.

I was reading in a book called American Wolf. It was all about, a whole book all about the

relocation of wolves from Canada down to Yellowstone National Park, where the wolves were

driven out, but they found that that caused the elk populations to skyrocket, which was

devastating the countryside. And I know there's a lot of di

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erent thoughts back and forth on

the issue. And I'm not trying to raise a fight between ranchers and wolf huggers. And I would

really love for us all just to get along for a second.

But here's what was said about wolves getting ready to hunt in the book. The author said,

"they often gather to howl before setting o

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for a nightly hunt. Apparently it's a kind of morale-

boosting exercise. This type of howl follows, often, a rally, which is an exuberant display of

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ection in which wolves leap on one another, forming a furry pile of tail-wagging bodies." I

love what I get to do.

All right. So I just wonder if wolves have the common sense to do something that would fire

them up before the game, why do you walk into work without even giving some thought to

what's going on inside your soul? Why would you go into a tense meeting-- you brush your

hair, you brush your teeth, I hope, why would you not think about what's going on inside your

heart? Why would you not want to take some time to ground yourself with a Scripture verse?

Why would you not want to take some time to listen to a worship song and get something

positive going on inside of you?

Why would you not want to speak some truth over you, to speak some truth over your family,

to speak some faith over your day? Why would you not give some time to your pre-game when

all you're doing is worrying about the actual game? It's so important that you give some

thought to what you do before that stress-filled conference starts, or that crazy carpool wild

melee begins and whatever else that life could throw at you that you've taken some time to get

ready before things even get going. You're pre-game, it matters.

And then, I think we should also, if we're going to act like creatures of the day, we should not

be afraid to utilize props, to utilize props. We've talked about the second part, act like a wolf.

Now, let's talk about the first part, acting.

I don't know if you know this, actors use props. Everything that's on a movie set or a Broadway

show has been carefully curated and has been placed there by a prop master. Now, I don't

now if you noticed this, but this is actually in the text. There's even wardrobe.

What does it say in verse eight? We're to go about acting as creatures of the day "dressed up

in faith, love, and the hope of salvation." What does that mean? Those things aren't going to be

natively there. You've got to keep putting them there, you've got keep putting them there.

They're going to fall o

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. You've got to put them there.

You slip back into rage. Oh, no. What I wearing? This is totally inappropriate for the scene that

I'm in. I'm a creature of the day. I'm a daughter of the day. I'm a son of the light. I need some

hope on. I need some faith on. I need some love on. Come on. I need my props. Where's my--

We need to act as creatures of the day. Actors use props. What's the definition of prop?

There's two that I found, not including the one that spins around on an airplane. Here's what I

found in the dictionary. "Something used in creating or enhancing a desired e

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ect." see also

the goal of the Christian life, pleasing God. That's the e

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ect we want. That's the life that we

want. That's what He bought for us on the cross.

Or the second definition is "something that props or sustains." I think the two are actually one.

I think when you're giving thought to your props, you'll find something propping you up. I think

you'll find something that helps you sustain. I brought a couple of my props from my life.

There's some that are in the book that I didn't bring, that you'll read more about as you read it.

But one that was so helpful to me in even finishing this book were these glasses. There's a lot

of things that go on in your head when you try and sit down and write and the fear of writer's

block and the worry about the meeting that's going to happen later in the day. And who am I to

even write this? I'm such a mess. Why do people even want to listen to a book from me? And

all those thoughts that kick in.

And so what I would do is a ritual. Every single writing session, I began by putting these on.

And once I did, I agreed with myself that when I was wearing these, I was an author, who felt

no fear, who's going to trust God to give a message that was going to help people that would

be needed when it got out.

And every time, once I put these on, I was only allowed to speak about the project. I wasn't

allowed to get up for potty breaks. I wasn't allowed to go look at Twitter. When I was wearing

these, I was-- look it, tricks sell. I was an author. And as I wrote the entire book, I were author's

glasses. They were a prop I needed to get me to the finish line and to overcome the paralysis

by analysis that kicks in when you overthink stu

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that you need to just be plowing through.

And so I know you're like, that's so sweet for you, poor innocent deluded child. I'm not saying

you need to live your life with my non-prescription Warby Parker frames. What I am saying is

that you need to figure out what it takes for you to suit up so you can be your best when you

show up, whatever that looks like for you.

Take some time to figure out your props. It might be as simple as a pair of noise-canceling

headphones that cancel out the noise. But you don't even put any music on. They're not to put

something in, they're to keep something out. It might be that because why? Because life's

distracting.

I was reading this study this week about how if a school is located under the flight path of an

airport, the students do worse on tests as an average than if the school was moved. Take the

same student out of that school, he'll do better when airplanes aren't going over the head.

Makes sense actually. Distraction, squirrel, right?

And so if you easily succumb to the distractions of your environment, maybe some noise-

canceling headphones might be a part of the props that you carry for the life that you want to live. Or perhaps it would be as simple as buying a journal. You don't need to use my journal.

You figure out your journal. You don't have to use my stickers. Don't judge my journy. I have a

bunny rabbit with a skull.

If you have a journal, they say, and write down five things you're thankful for one time a week,

your happiness will boost by as much as 25%. That's been verified. Just a simple thing of

writing down stu

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you're thankful for instead of stu

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that you're just worrying about. Because

here's the thing about fear, it's faith in the enemy.

And so what we need to do is flip it and put our faith in God and choose to focus on what

we're thankful for instead of the stu

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that we didn't get invited to, which is where we so often

live on these social media lives, where we stare at the lives other people are living that we

would be so much happier if we were invited to. And so instead, it could be that you use the

prop of a journal.

And I know all this, the prop, the headphones, you're, like, a wardrobe, what are you even

talking about? This is so fake. If I did that, my life's going to be just fake, and I don't want that

because I want authenticity. I've gotta be me. I've got to live my truth. I've got to be on my own

journey. And I get that. I get that. I feel you, and there are some good things from that.

But at the end of the day, I'm not calling you to try and pretend you're something you're not.

I'm calling you to live like something God says you are. And there's nothing that's phony about

that because here's what you've got to let sink in deep, the desires you feel pulling you in the

wrong direction are not who you are anymore. That's who you used to be.

But like Paul said in you can say this about yourself that you feel like being. I

was crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now

live, I live in flesh by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Come on. Paul was saying, the old Taylor Swift can't come to the phone right now because

she's dead. I now live a life by faith. So I'm not going to do what I feel. I'm going to do what's

right. That's the power that God wants to give you. When you don't do what you feel but you

instead do what's right.

You see, the inability to overcome strong desires pulling you in the wrong direction and to be

willing to stay there because that's authentic ignores the fact that a brand new Resurrection life

was sprouted inside of you the day you gave your life to Jesus. And now, you are not what you

feel, you are what God says about you and that's a daughter of the day. It's a son of the light.

So let's act like that.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis unpacked that very well when he-- as he puts

everything very well because he's C.S. Lewis-- "very often, the only way to get a quality in

reality is to start behaving as if you had it already."

And when you remember we're not actually acting. We do have those things because we do

have the spirit of God. And we are not sons of the night and sons of the day. We are not

daughters of the night. We are daughters of the day. We have a new nature. We have a new

story. We have a new future. It was bought for us when Jesus died for us on the cross.

Now, one last wolf thing and then we're done. Is that OK? The posture thing-- I was reading in

one book, it was a book called The Wisdom of Wolves and it was by the Dutchers. And they

were talking about how when wolves enter a den, they slide in on their bellies into their den.

And they said no matter which wolf they are, if they're alpha or they're omega-- or sorry, no

matter which wolf they are, if they're beta all the way to omega, when they enter the wolf den,

they always do a small bow before the alphas. Just a small bow, it's this posture thing. It's this

deference thing. It's this honor thing. If it was our military, it would be the equivalent of a salute

and this mentality of respect.

And I loved it so much when I read about it because it was just this idea that every wolf bows

before the alpha. But they said this-- they said but no one bows lower than the omega. They

said the omega wolf bows lowest of all.

And when I heard that, the alpha, the omega, and bowing, I couldn't help but thinking about

Jesus, who said, I am the alpha and the omega. I'm the first and the last. I'm one who was and

is. I am the Lord almighty.

And I got to thinking about how in our text, what we began with, in verse 10, we're told that His

death triggered life. And though He was Lord of all, alpha of all, He gave that away and lowered

Himself to become a man, not just any man, the lowest. And as a servant, He died even the

death of the cross, and it's that death that triggered life for us.

And so my encouragement to you is live a life bowing low before Jesus, the alpha and the

omega. Because you can't rise up if you don't bow low. And there comes such a power in your

life through living a life of worship and surrender.

And Father, I pray that you would give us the strength to live in that brand new way. Thank you

for each one this week and what we're warring through, what we're fighting through, and the

ways that our flesh pulls us in the wrong direction. And the way that in the midst of those

things, You're calling us to take a brand new direction. To not walk by sight but to walk by faith.

I pray You'd help us to do so.

And while we're praying with heads bowed and eyes closed, if some part of this message

stuck out to you and you would say, I want to take action this week, maybe it's as simple as

starting the journal or as perhaps schedule-altering as joining a small group, if you would say

there's something in this message I want to act on this week, could I ask that in the presence

of God, you would raise your hand, of every church, every one of us on church online, thank

you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Help us to remember we are creatures of the day. So let's act like it.

You can put your hands down. And I want to give another invitation now. This invitation goes

out to anybody with us who's never given your heart to Jesus. Or maybe you've been to

church a little or a lot. Maybe you've done some religious things. But have you ever opened the

door of your heart to Jesus?

There's a Scripture where he says, I stand at the door of your heart, and I knock. If anyone

opens the door, I will come and live with him, and he with me. If you're here and you are not

living in a personal, dynamic relationship with Jesus, this is your time.

I'm going to pray a prayer in a moment, just a simple prayer, like a wedding vow that gets

repeated 1,000 times a day around the world. But when a couple stands before the altar and

says those words, they become their words, their vows to each other. This prayer has been

prayed for thousands of years by people clutching onto Bibles in hospital rooms, by people

standing in trenches in war, by people at bedsides on their knees, and people in churches

around the world.

But today, if you speak these words to God, they'll be your words that pass through your

mouth, giving evidence of a heart of faith. And the Bible says that if there's faith in your heart and a confession from your lips, God will save you. He'll make you new. He'll give you the

power to live with hope and a power to die without fear. And that can happen but not if you put

it o

ff

to tomorrow or to next week or to next year or to when you're older because Scripture

says today is the day of salvation and now is the acceptable time.

What if this was your last opportunity to get right with God? What if this was your last day on

Earth? Someone's name will be printed in obituaries tomorrow. Someone's remains will be

lowered in caskets in the graveyards around the world tomorrow. What if this was your last

chance to get ready to meet your maker? That can happen for you.

I want you to pray this prayer with me. Mean it in your heart. Say it to God. The church family's

going to say it with us to show that we're with you in this decision. We embrace you into the

pack.

Say this-- dear God, I know I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself, but I believe You can because Jesus

loves me. He died for me. He rose from the dead. I give you my heart in Jesus' name.

Well, I hope that message challenged you and blessed you as you listen to it as much as it did

for me as I prepared it and preached it. If you live anywhere near Portland, Oregon, Salt Lake

City, Utah, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or really anywhere in Montana, we would love to have you

come in person to a Fresh Life Church, where you could engage with God's people together.

There's so much that's happening with our Fresh Life kids and the students and the small

groups of our church, and we would love to have you come take part in it in person.

I also want to throw out there, if you haven't yet, please subscribe to my YouTube page at

youtube.com/levilusko so you don't miss any of the new content we're putting out. Thanks a

lot and God bless you.