An Urgent Warning | Last Words of a Dying Man Series

We're going to be in 2 Peter chapter 2 today. We're continuing our series journeying through this letter and we've been five weeks in. We finally made it to chapter 2. And today Peter is going to give us what I'm calling an urgent warning, an urgent warning, a warning that we need to heed and need to hear. As you're turning there, let me just ask you guys this. There was a growing up, there was something that would interrupt the broadcast every now and then and it would scare me to death. It was a certain sound and it sounded like this. This is a death of the emergency alert system. Am I the only one as a kid that got freaked out by that? Is there anybody else that can testify to that as well? So I would hear that no matter what room you're in, you would hear that beat and you'd come running in and they would say that you would wait. This is only a test and you're like, okay, it's only a test. But if it wasn't a test, it would say this is not a test and then it would proceed to tell us the things that we need to be warned from. So this is a part of the emergency alarm system or alert system that we have FEMA every about three years. You'll have a program interrupted with that sound. They're just testing that. But it's a warning and it's there in case there is something that we need to be warned of for us to hear that and be able to respond appropriately. Well, in the text today, Peter is sounding this alarm. He's telling us there's something that we need to be warned of and he's saying, look, this is not a test. This is the real deal. This is something that you as believers, we as a church, must be aware of and alerted about and be on guard against and what we're going to see is there's a warning against false teaching and philosophies of the world creeping into the church.

So second Peter chapter two is where we're going to be. If you're there, see the Bible is true. Verse one, he says this, "But false prophets also arose among the people. Just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle." Listen to this next phrase, "And their destruction is not asleep." Now Peter is warning us here and the warning is giving us. He wants to say very clearly that this is not a new warning. The warning against false teaching is not a new warning. In fact, if you look at the Old Testament and you watch the scriptures, here's what you'll recognize. Every time God's people were destroyed by the enemy, that destruction really wasn't from the enemy, it was a result of false teaching within the people. Now as false prophets would distort God's word and twist God's word and manipulate God's people, it would lead them into seasons of rebellion where they would follow these false teachings and then because of that, God then would use their enemy to destroy them to bring correction and discipline in them. So their failure, listen, was not from the enemy outside but from the enemy inside. It was those who would distort scriptures and what Peter is telling us is that he's giving us the very same warning. He said, "You've got to understand that it's not just true in the Old Testament, it's true now that there are going to be false teachers that want to creep in and distort the scriptures and lead you astray ungodly philosophies, trying to marry, listen to this, the ideologies of the world with the truth of Scripture and the two don't go together and so the Scripture gets twisted in order to be manipulated." So here's what we're going to do. There's a lot to cover in 16 verses and I wish I could cover everything that I wanted

to but I'm not going to be able to so I want to give you kind of a journey through these 16 verses and unpack this for us this warning and I'm going to do it in three statements, three statements. Here's number one. I want you to write this down. We're going to hear the warning. The first thing we need to see is the demonic deception of false teachers. The demonic deception of false teachers, look what he says in verse 1, he says, "But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies." I want you to notice this, the deceptive nature of this, the deceptive nature. He says they will literally, he says bring these things in secretly, in other words, covertly. Literally, this word secretly could be translated, they will smuggle in false teaching. And here's what we've got to understand about false. and it is true that could be the case. But in most cases, it's not necessarily the teachers or the preachers. It's people within the congregation hearing philosophies of the world that are trying to bring them into the congregation from the pews and the seats. It's the podcast you listen to. It's the television shows. It's the influencers of the culture that you begin to listen and try to figure out how to connect what they're saying and what the Scripture's saying. And all of a sudden, now there's these deceptions that have crept into your life or crept into the church that have to be dealt with. They smuggle them in covertly. Look what he says. He says this, "Even denying those, the master who bought you." He's saying they're even going to deny that the nature of Christ. There's going to be some sort of distortion about who Jesus is and what he came to do. He goes on to say this, "Bringing upon themselves swift destruction." And many, listen to this, and many will follow their sensuality. Here's why many will follow false teachers. It's because false teachers will appeal to the appetite of the flesh. What they say feels good. What they say feeds the desires that come naturally to them. And therefore, it's like, okay, this sounds good. This feels good. This actually allows me to do some of the things that I want to do. And so I'm going to go with what you're saying and they're going to be led astray because of this. Now here's

what we see here. Now think about what he's already described. They will twist and manipulate God's word to say what it doesn't really say. They will do so by appealing to the flesh and they'll do it under the radar so that you don't detect it. Who does that sound like? Does that sound like the enemy? I mean, just think about the fall in the Garden of Eden. What does the enemy do? He comes to them and he shows them how beautiful the tree is. If they'll just eat of it, it'll be satisfying to the soul. He's appealing to the flesh. He's manipulating and twisting God's word just enough where they don't understand what's actually happening. And then he's doing all of this so that he can gain control and power. And this is what he says the false teachers do. He says this, they'll use false words, literally counterfeit words in order to exploit them for greed. And this is exactly what the enemy did in the Garden of Eden. He's a deceiver, the Bible says, and he is the father of all lives. So listen to this, make sure you understand this. Wherever you see a manipulation of Scripture, wherever you see the twisting of God's word, wherever you see the philosophies of the world, all of a sudden informing how we interpret and translate the Bible, here's what you need to be sure of. There is demonic activity behind that. This is a work of the enemy, the demonic deception. This is what he's always done and what he will always do until God brings swift judgment upon him. And we better be on our guard. So how do we guard ourselves from the demonic deception? Well, we've got to understand the description. Look how he highlights this. You see this all the way from verse 3 to verse number 13, but let me give you an overview. I wish I could go into all of these descriptions that he gives, but I want to be able to give you a broad brushstroke of this so you can take notes and read over it a little later. Give you a couple of descriptions, the way that Peter describes these false teachers. The first thing he says is this, is they are rebelliously arrogant. Look what he says in verse 10, they despise authority and they are bold, willful. In other words, they are willfully arrogant is the idea there. They despise authority and they are arrogant. Here's what I've learned about false teachers and those who want to bring philosophies in. Listen, when wolves get confronted by a shepherd, the wolves typically will leave the flock. They don't like spiritual accountability. And listen, we've got to understand whenever we hear teaching and philosophies and the twisting of Scripture and we begin to look at the character and the nature of these individuals where they don't want spiritual authority or they don't want the authority of God's Word over them, understand you better be on your guard. And there's such arrogance, there's such boldness and pride

this is the way we can spot them. Here's number two, they are spiritually blasphemous. They're spiritually blasphemous. Look what he says in verse number three, he says they blaspheme truth. Verse 10 and 11, they blaspheme the glorious ones. The reference to glorious ones, by the way, is most scholars would say it's a reference to the demonic forces. If you look in In context, he makes a contrast between the glorious ones and angels, which are God's because even the demons were created gloriously as angelic beings, they're just in a fallen state. They haven't lost the nature that they were created, and they've just now in a fallen nature that goes along with that. Now, we don't know exactly what these false teachers were doing, but here's what we believe. One of two things is happening, is that they distort the scriptures, and then they take lightly the supernatural. So one of two things they could be doing. One, they could be trying to exercise authority over the supernatural, over demonic forces, independent from Jesus Christ. In other words, they're doing what we see people in scripture with the sons of Scavia, where they were trying to exert authority over the demonic without the authority of Christ in their life, and Jude says this, that not even the Archangel Michael would rebuke the enemy. He says, "In the Lord's name I rebuke you." And so these false teachers are taking potentially authority in and of themselves that really belongs to Jesus. Here's the second thing I think most likely.

They were making life, they were making mockery, or making fun of the idea of the supernatural, of the demonic. So either way, we don't know exactly which it was, I believe it's the latter, but here's what we do know. Whatever it is, they were making a mockery, or making life of the supernatural. And here's when we see these type of activities, we hear of people minimizing the activity of the enemy, or putting too much emphasis on the activity of the enemy, we might wanna have our radar up. Here's the next one, they are viciously predatorial. They are viciously predatorial. Look what he says here, verse 12. They're like irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught. In other words, he's saying they're vicious. Like they're gonna do whatever their flesh want, their appetites want, they're all about themselves, and whatever they desire within them, and they'll do whatever it takes. This is why you see in the Bible, oftentimes false teachers and false philosophies being considered wolves. Why? Because wolves are animals of instinct and destruction, they're viciously predatorial. Here's another one, they are shamelessly immoral. They are shamelessly immoral. Look at the way he describes them in verse 10. They indulge in the lust of defiling passions.

In other words, they divulge in the desires of the flesh. Here's another one, they count it pleasure to revel. Go back, they count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. In other words, their appetite for sin can never be satisfied. Now, I want you to sit on this for a moment and ask yourself the question, does that sound like our culture today? They say, listen, they indulge, they're going to look at what defiles the body and the passions and the lust of the flesh. They count it pleasure to bring in the daytime, to celebrate in the daytime. In other words, he's saying, there's a level of immorality where people want to keep their immorality in the dark, and then there's a level of depravity where people will do in the daytime for everyone to see what most people would only do in the nighttime where they try to hide it. Does that not describe the culture we're in today? I mean, it looks like drag shows at kid events, in my opinion. It looks like us rebranding the mutilation of children under healthcare. We are living in a day, listen to this, where there is an insatiable desire of sin, listen to this, that will not be satisfied. So listen, whenever you begin to accommodate sin to appease culture, here's what you do know.

You are appeasing something that can never fully be satisfied. Sin moves one direction and one direction only, amen? Now, before we pick up stones and throw them at culture, let me ask you this question. What are you doing in the dark? What are you doing in the dark? It's really easy for us to judge people doing stuff in the daytime, but what are you doing in the dark? Listen, if we really want to impact what's happening in the daytime in our culture, we better take care of what's happening in the nighttime and our own personal lives. Here's the next one. Here's the next one. They are strategically greedy. They are strategically greedy. Their hearts are full of greed, and they talk about the way of Balaam, and he goes in to kind of remind us of the story. What was that story? It was a story where one of God's prophets sold the people out for personal gain. He sold the people out for personal gain. So here's the point. The point is, is that false teachers are all about themselves. Personal gain, personal power. [BLANK_AUDIO] why he's warning us of these things. This sounds a lot like our day and time, so we better have our

guard up. Now, look, I would love to tell you that, hey, man, that's the worst part of the sermon, but it's not, all right? It's actually going to get a little worse. And then it's going to get really good at the end. I promise you that, all right? So that's number one. We need to see the demonic deception of the false teachers. Here's number two. We need to see the definitive destruction of the false teachers. The definitive destruction of the false teachers. Now, listen, we need to be very clear. Peter wants us to understand what it, when it looks like the world and the ungodliness is getting away with it. They're, they're doing what they want to do. And there's no consequences. He wants us to remember God deals with sin swiftly and severely. In fact, he does this. I just want to give you this. If you want to write this down, listen, five different words use 11 different times in different ways through the first 13 verses of this chapter. He uses five different words, 11 different ways to describe judgment and judgment or judgment and destruction that's coming upon the ungodly and false teachers. He's wanting to communicate something to us. And that is, listen, the ungodly philosophies of the world inside the church and outside the church will be dealt with. I want you to see what he says here, verse number one, he says, but false prophets also arose among the people. Just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them. Listen to this, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. I want you to look at the next verse. He says in verse three, he says, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. Now here's what he's saying. He's, look, it's really easy for us to look at the world and the landscape and go, man, it seems like the ungodly are flourishing and there's no consequence and they just do what they want to do. And it seems like God's people have it rough and that we suffer quite a bit and try to do the right things. And listen, if you're feeling that way, I want you to know that you're in good company. I felt like that. I feel like that at times. In fact, I would encourage you to write down Psalm 72 and go read it. Here's what the Psalmist said. The Psalmist said, God, I'm trying to live your way and my life seems like it's falling apart. But when I look at the landscape of the world around me, all I see is the wicked flourishing. And then he says this, I almost quit it all together thinking it was better to be in the world than to live for God. And he says, until I went into the presence of the Lord. And then he said, then I understood their destruction. And here's what Peter wants us to understand. Listen, the destruction of the ungodly is not idle and judgment, listen, is not asleep.

We serve a patient and we're going to get into this in a couple of weeks with patient kind God that is long suffering. But listen, his patience will run out. And when it does, judgment is coming. In fact, here's what Peter does. Over the next several verses, we're not going to read them for time. But the next several verses, what he does is he gives us three Old Testament illustrations. And he's giving us three Old Testament illustrations to show us the precedent. Like he's like, if you don't believe what I'm telling you, just go see God's track record with dealing with ungodliness. Go look at God's track record of how he deals with the philosophies and the ways of the world. The first illustration he gives is the rebellion in heaven with the angels. He says, when the angels of heaven rebelled against God, and there was the great fall, he says, those angels were cast down into hell. In other words, they're waiting a judgment that is going to be certain. By the way, hell was not created for us. It was created for Satan and his demons. And they will spend eternity there. And then those who reject Christ to follow him will spend eternity there with him as well, with them as well. But he uses this. He says, listen, the angels of heaven, when they rebelled, God brought judgment upon them. And it's an eternal judgment. And then he says, what about the flood of Noah's day? How God allowed a flood to cover the whole world because of the ungodliness and the sin of culture and society? God says, I'm tired that he even made you. And what does he do? He destroys the entire population. We see this with Sodom and Gomorrah, a city that was so full of sexual immorality and filth. And if you look, even the sexual immorality that was there wasn't even the worst part about them, they're greed and they're disregard for one another. They were an evil, greedy people. And by the way, typically greedy. And what does God do? God sends his judgment and it destroys an entire city because of their sin. We've got to understand the definitive destruction of the wicked and the ungodly and the false teachers who would lead God's people astray. And oh, by the way, Billy Graham said this about two decades ago, he said this. He says, "If God does not bring judgment

"upon the United States of America "because of our sexual immorality and greed, "then he owes Solomon Gomorah an apology." Destruction is real, judgment is real. And God is serious about sin. And some of you may be here telling you, you're like, man, this doesn't sit well with me. Like, it's just doesn't sit well with me. I mean, you're talking about God's judgment. I thought God was loving and God was gracious and I want to hear more of that. This sounds like an old-school hell-fire and brimstone type sermon. I'll just tell you, we need more of those in our culture today. And let me just say this. I just want to get this out there. Listen, we have a tendency to do one of two things when it comes to God's Word. In the areas of God's Word we don't like. Oftentimes, we will try to make sweet what God intended to be salty. Or we will make salty what God intended to make sweet. We have a tendency to want to take the harder aspects of Scripture. And as a preacher, I can be guilty of this. If I'm not careful of going, how can I soften the weight of this? And can I just tell you? Sometimes God doesn't want to soften the weight.

He wants to see the reality of His holiness and His glory and be shocked back into alignment with who He is. You see, I thought God was a God of love. Listen, He is a God of love, but He's also a God of holiness and justice and righteous indignation toward that which is ungodly. Listen, you cannot hold God's love in His grace at odds with His justice and His judgment. They are not at odds with one another. Why? Because they are both reflections of the very nature of God and God cannot be at odds with Himself, amen? So what do you have? What you have is, listen, God's grace in His love and His mercy and His justice and His judgment coexisting together in perfect harmony, even if we don't understand it. But here's just a little snippet of what I want you to see. God's love, God's judgment does not eliminate His love. In fact, His judgment is an expression of His love. Why? Because when sin and ungodliness and the philosophies and the false teachers begin to teach and begin to live this way, it destroys and it harms what God loves which is His image, you and me. And because God loves us, He, listen, will unleash His wrath and His judgment on that which harms what He loves. And by the way, God's glory is at stake here and He loves nothing more than His own glory.

So God's judgment and His righteous indignation is actually an act of love where He executes judgment because He wants to come in defense and reconcile the harm that's been done to what He loves. Does that make sense? Let me just say it like this. If you were to, I got a son and two daughters and I will die for them and I'm a loving guy and I'm a decent father, but I will die for my children. If there was someone trying to harm my children, I would do everything that I could to whatever needed to be done in order to protect my kids. Now you wouldn't hear that and go, oh, you are so unloving. No, you would recognize as this man loves his children. And because of that, he would not just blow off what harms them. Sin harms and destroys God's creation that he loved and he created in his image. And his judgment is actually an echo of his love for us. His destruction is coming. So you say, well, what does this mean for us? This is where the sermon gets better. All right, here's point number three. Listen, I want us to see the divine deliverance of the righteous, the divine deliverance of the righteous. Because if we're honest, and listen, this is where we've got to be really honest. If we're honest, we have to recognize

that left to ourselves, we deserve everything I just talked about in point number two. Would you say amen to that? We can throw stones at the culture, we can throw stones at the issues we're facing in society, but the truth is left to ourselves, We are guilty of some of the very same sin that we are going to see and we see in our world around us. So where is this deliverance coming from? How can we expect deliverance? And here's the answer, because of God's grace. You see, God's desire is to rescue humanity from His judgment. Now notice, I want you to notice something. There are three illustrations that highlight His judgment. We just talked about those, the fallen angels, the flood of Noah and then the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now look, I want you to just, in insight here, I think it's interesting. In two of the three, there is hope of redemption. The angels, all He says is they rebelled and they'll be condemned forever, no hope of redemption. Why? That is glorious and beautiful as they are. They were not created in the image of God. But when it came to the flood and to Sodom and Gomorrah, what do you see? You see, God exercised grace and redeeming humanity in the midst of His judgment. Think about Sodom and Gomorrah just for a moment.

This was a wicked city, full of sexual immorality and greed. They were so hateful and full of all kinds of evil. And God says, I'm going to bring swift destruction. I'm going to destroy the entire city. But what do you see? You see Abraham begin to pray on behalf of the city. And what is he doing? He's pleading, God, would you rescue them? And once you save them, would you spare them? And God's like, no, they're sinners before me. He says, well, if there's 50 righteous people, 50 people who would repent, would you rescue them? Okay, I'll rescue the entire city of 50 people. Well, what about 45? Because he couldn't find 50. What about 30? God, what about 10? God says, if just 10 people in the city would repent, I'll rescue the entire city. What is that? That is the grace of God. And by the way, guess what? The scripture tells us that God did redeem. Look what he says here, verse five. He says, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness. And seven others who, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Solomon Gamore to ashes, he condemned them to extinction,

making them an example of what was going to happen to the ungodly, verse seven. Listen, and if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. For as the righteous man lived among them the day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over the lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. He says, look, even in the Sodom and Gamore, God rescued lot in his family, his lot and his children, not his wife. She was salty and he did not, he did not redeem her. That was the worst joke I've ever told in my life. (congregation laughing) So, don't you think about this for a second? Don't you think about this? Look, in the middle of this wickedness, can I just tell you, listen, both Noah and Lot are rescued and the question is why, and it's because of this, the scripture refers to the righteousness that they had. That's why they were rescued. Now, if you look at the life of Noah and you look at the life of Lot, you'll recognize, these are not perfect men. Like, you know, as soon as he gets off the ark, he gets drunk and there's all this weird stuff that happens with his family, not a perfect man. What do you find with Lot?

Is greedy, he's got a really dysfunctional family? Imperfect, yet they're called righteous. So how can these imperfect people who deserve God's judgment be called righteous and be rescued from the wrath of God? And here's the answer, the grace of God in their life. You see, their righteousness wasn't something they earned, but was something God gave them on the basis of his grace through faith. You see, Noah heard the word of the Lord and believed it and was given righteousness as a response. Noah's God's grace, because of his faith, forgave him and rescued him. Lot experiences God in the same way. You see, Lot and Noah and his family are rescued the same way that we are rescued. It is by God's grace through faith, believing in what Christ has done for us. And when we receive Christ, we are given the righteousness of God, which we did not earn, but we received on the basis of his grace. And when that happens, here's the beautiful part. We can escape the wrath of God because of Christ. I want you to think about this for a second, Noah. I'm bringing judgment on the world. The sin is before me. And I'm going to just-- I'm sorry even made creation. I'm going to destroy the whole thing. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so God made a way for Noah and his family to be rescued.

And then God extended this invitation to all the known world. Did you know that for 100 years, God sent Noah to be a messenger to proclaim, judgment is coming, repent. Judgment is coming, repent. There's an ark that God has provided. There is a place to rescue you from the condemnation. You don't have to live under the judgment, repent. And there is an ark. There is a place of security and safety. And for 100 years, God was patient. And he was kind. And he extended grace that was rejected until the day. The ark was closed. And listen to this, Noah and his family escaped the judgment of God. Why? Because they were in the ark. The ark-- check this out-- passed through the storm, took the beating, and went through every part of the flood. But Noah and his family were untouched. How? They were in the ark. Church, you realize this morning that God has given us an ark. And his name is Jesus. And the flood of God's wrath that we deserve, Jesus endured on the cross, the flood of his wrath, beat Jesus, crucified Jesus.

And Jesus died on behalf of our sin. And so now, when we place our faith and trust in Christ, the Bible says we are in Christ. We are in the ark. And here's what that means. The flood of God's judgment that's coming on the world. We do not fear. Why? Because we're in the ark. The ark has taken our place. And the ark has made a way for us to endure the judgment. Why? Because God is good. And he's gracious. And he loves us. And he's made a way where there was no way. And that way, his name is Jesus. Amen? This is what Christ has done for us. God's desire is to rescue, not to destroy. But here's the question. Where is the brokenness? Where is the-- those of us in this room who are crying out to a world around us, not compromising with it, but crying out going, there's judgment coming. But God has made a way. There is a cross. And there is a man meant the name of Jesus who died for your sins. And listen, you can change your ways, and you can repent.

And this God is bringing judgment. He loves you. And he wants a relationship with you. Where are the knowest today? Broken over the condition of the world, crying out for people to come to the ark. Where are the lots of today? I want you to listen to this. He says this, and if he rests you'd write just like greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. Did you hear lots disposition when he looked around and says, he was distressed. He looked at what was going on around him, and he's like, this is not right. This is an offense toward God, the Creator, and he lived every single day in anguish. How do we know? Look at verse 8. It says this. He lived among them, and he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds he saw and heard. It's tormenting in his soul. He was in anguish. I want to ask you this question. Does this describe you in today's culture, or do you find yourself comfortable, or have you lowered your standard to welcome those things that God has condemned,

and he's going to judge into your life? In other words, are you crying out to culture? Are you compromising for culture? Where are the lots today? And can I just tell you, this is just my heart. And I want you to hear this, I'm not, this is not me throwing stones, I'm not trying to beat hearts. I just want to-- we don't have this anguish. Prayer meeting on Wednesday nights alone testified to that. When God's people were broken, they put on sackcloth, they cried out to the Lord. They fasted. They got on their face and they came together and they pleaded with God for the culture, for forgiveness, for His power and His presence, for His deliver—I mean, they cried out to Lord. Where is that today? We don't have the position and the disposition of God. We're not crying out like Noah. Why? Look at our prayer life. Look at our individual prayer life. Look at our corporate prayer life. I remember 9/11, 23rd anniversary this weekend. I remember, just like many of you, everything that happened that day, but I remember what happened that night. I remember getting a phone call from someone that said, "Hey, this church is opening up because we don't know what to do in the community," and I was not pastoring. I was a youth pastor at the time, and I remember going in and I just laid on the floor and I sobbed. And there was a whaling in that room, "I'll never forget."

No formality. Everyone had plans that night, but the plans changed. Why? The construction, and it drove us to our knees for about 24 hours, and I'm here to tell you church something more horrific than 9/11 is coming. The judgment of the world is near, and it might be a year, 10 years, or 30 years. It doesn't matter. But here's what we know. We've got a little slice of time on this planet, and we better be pleading to God for His work to go forward, for His light to shine bright, and for His will be revival and repentance, because without that we have neighbors and friends and family and loved ones and people in this church who will spend eternity under the weight of God's wrath, and they don't have to. There's forgiveness that's been extended in Christ, and we believe it, or we don't. But where is the brokenness today? It's so easy for us to get amped up and point our fingers at the world, but will we bend our knees and offer prayers on their behalf? And I'll just say this, listen, we are called to shine our light, but your light will not shine brighter than the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in you. I don't care how moral you are, how much scripture you know, it is the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the light. Where is the light right now? It's found in one place on our face. So what we're going to do is we're going to respond. And I just want to open up this altar, and look, there are some of you right now in this room, unless you need to enter the art today. You don't know Christ. You know religion. You've never been born again. You've never been transformed, and there's something inside of you that knows that.

In fact, right now, I'm going to ask those of you who are in that can dispel your heads. And I'm going to ask you right now, if that's where you are, if you want Christ, just say, "Jesus, I need to be saved. I want to be born again. I want to be made new." Transform me. For those of you who are praying that here is my challenge for you, if this is sincere in your life, either you want to receive Christ's date or you just did, if this is sincere for you, then here's what you're going to do in a moment when we stand. There are people already. You can make eye contact and see them. There are people already available to pray with you. Here's what I would encourage you to do. I want you to just go tell them. All you have to say to them is, "I entered the art a moment ago," or, "I want to enter the art." And so you've got to say to them, and they'll know exactly what you're talking about, and they're going to help you start this journey. For the rest of us in this room that know Christ, "Listen, are you comfortable in the world? Are you letting sin in your life? Are you judging the sin of daytime and yet you're holding sin in the night time? Do you have people in your life that are far from Christ, but your testimony is ruined because of the way that you live in front of them? I want to open up this altar for prayer. I want to make our prayer people available. Let's just take a moment and respond to the Lord of the Lord. Father, we give ourself to you. We ask right now in the name of Jesus. Christ for what Jesus gave him, strength to come and just say, "I'm entering the ark."

Break us for Jesus. Jesus name me, man. I'm going to see you stand.