Run Your Race || Victory Church

All right, good morning, everybody. Hey, we got the whole family with us today. We got Victory Midtown, Victory Hamilton Mill, Victory North Cobb, we got the whole Victory Online family here locally as well as around the world. Come on, let's welcome everybody in this morning. Hey guys, we're all here today together because it's a special day, because we have one of our, I would say one of our fastest friends. He became one of our fastest friends here in the house. We have Dan Lee Ann with us this morning. And if you were here last time, you know this, he's a special man. He's an amazing son of God. He's an amazing father. He's an amazing husband. He is the Asian sensation. But he's from some of our friends just up the road in South Carolina, in New Spring Church up there. He's from there. He speaks nationally, internationally. He does a lot of amazing things. But I was just thinking about it this morning and the best compliment that I can give him is one of kind of like my spiritual mentors from afar, A.W. Tozer. He talks about the beauty of a spiritual man. And Dan is a spiritual man. He's the type of guy that you just can't be around him for more than a few minutes and not love Jesus more

after that conversation, after that time than the moment you first encountered him. And so if today's your first time meeting Dan, then you're gonna receive that blessing as well. And so let's do this here in the room and across all of our campuses. Let's give a very warm welcome to our friend, Dan, the man Leanne. I love you, man. Come on, keep that round of applause going for King Jesus. Amen. So good. Well, hello, how you doing? That introduction was so kind and so warm and just reminded me that we're relatively new to one another and I might be a little bit confusing to you if I don't explain that I was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. That's the reason my voice is this way. My mother and father are Chinese. That's the reason my face is this way. But yep, I live in Anderson, South Carolina, just up the road, so I'm a southerner now. That's the reason I drive a truck, have type two diabetes. Take college football way too seriously. And it's just an honor and joy to be able to hang out with my victory family and that's what you guys are. You're my family, so just consider me your cool Chinese Australian brother that you only get to see every now and then.

But I feel like we need a hug at the end of this gathering. So when we're all done with this service, I'm gonna be hanging around the front and if you just want a hug from a chunky Asian guy, I'm your dude this weekend. In fact, the last time I was here, I've shared this story in many places over the last couple of months. The last time I was here, I was wearing a white sweater and after the last service, I get into the car to drive away and I thought there was a bug on my shoulder, like an insect, and I just like mustered up my courage and I grabbed it, but it wasn't a bug, it was a fake eyelash. So if that was you, I still have it. So come and see me after, I'm just trying to return the property to the owner. So I want that to happen again today. I have some really special guests traveling with me today. My beautiful wife of 25 years, Krista is here. My beautiful 71-year-old mother who I haven't seen for four years. She's just flown in and she's come all the way out to hang out with the Victory family and I just love the Bowie family so much. Pastor Johnson, you have become a dear and true friend of mine and I have traveled the world. I've seen a lot, my eyes are small, but they're surprisingly strong. So when you come across a man worthy of imitation,

a man worthy of following, you take notice and that's what you are, Pastor Johnson. We love you, your whole family. So how about we just honor our senior Pastor Johnson in the house right now, come on. Amen, so good. All right, I've got a really simple word for you today. Pastor Johnson gave me the liberty to just press into the heart of Jesus and to ask for a now word for my Victory family. I know that we've been in a series and we'll continue this series about the Sermon on the Mount and a lot of what I've got to share today kind of syncs up with what we've been talking about, but I felt the Holy Spirit bring one simple word to my heart for you when I was praying about this service this week and this is the word. The word is. Simply live. You have a life, but are you truly living? Are you breathing in and out right now, but are you really living? Hey, you're going about your day to days, but are you truly living? Hey, the sun rose this morning, and by the grace of God, it's gonna set tonight, but are you truly living? I've been thinking a lot more about life lately, because it feels like life is flying by faster than ever.

Doesn't it feel like since 2020, someone bumped the fast forward button? And everything is just hurtling at a speed that we haven't experienced before. Come on, we're nearly in June right now. If I like yesterday, we were just putting away our Christmas decorations, and now we're getting ready for Memorial Day next weekend, 4th of July, and a couple of weeks after that, where Americans gather together, grill out, celebrate their freedom, and watch fireworks, which side note, was a Chinese invention. You're welcome. Blink twice, take two more breaths, and what is it? It's like Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The food digests, and all of a sudden, it's Christmas. Time is flying fast, but are you truly living? Are you truly redeeming every single day? That is a precious gift from God that cannot be replayed. Are you truly living? This is the question that I was pondering this week. This is the question I've been pondering a lot lately, mostly because I'm getting really old, and it's very clear that I have less days ahead of me than behind me. I turned 47 this year. I know I don't look it, because I'm aging well. You know how they say that black doesn't crack?

Well, yellow only mellows, you know what I'm saying? And I'm like, feeling like I'm looking young, but I'm feeling every single one of those years, you know what I'm saying? I'm at that age where, you know what I'm saying, men in the room, multiple trips to the bathroom each night while you're trying to sleep, come on. You know you're getting so old when you find yourself going to bed without an injury, and you wake up with an injury. Like, you know what I'm saying? You're going to bed, I feel good in my body, and then you wake up and you've pulled a hamstring. You like had a vigorous dream, and then it's like, oh, I guess. I look in the mirror and the wrinkles are getting thicker as the hair is getting thinner. I'm getting old. All the young men in the room, the young men in the room, you don't understand, doctor's visits change. Once you hit 45, they become a lot more invasive, if you know what I mean. You're a young man, you're just rolling in there, and like, they check your blood pressure, give you a fist bump, and then you're out. You turn 45, all of a sudden, your doctor looks at you weird when you walk in. Come over here. Goes over to the cupboard, pulls out a glove. What are you doing with that glove?

Oh, you kind of like, do you want to like hold me for a little bit first, or do you want to talk for a while? Like, I feel like I should know your first name at least. And I kind of, I'm getting old, and it feels like time is flying faster than ever. So we must answer this question daily with this fleeting life, with this flying time. Are you truly living? I'm not talking about are you existing. I'm not talking about are you breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. I'm not talking about are you getting engaged in a job which you do five days a week, nine to five, and then you hit repeat. I'm talking about are you truly living? Because the Bible consistently and continually challenges us to not just waste days, but to number and to value them. Lord God, give me a heart of wisdom so I can understand the value of each and every single day, because tomorrow is not good enough. Guaranteed. The psalmist would declare as a challenge for us to live. Live, for every day is a gift. There ain't no replays. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Live. So here's the question.

Okay, cool. I took the time to come on out for the 11 a.m. gathering today. That word is resonating with me right now because it feels like the days are bleeding into weeks, weeks into months, and it feels like entire periods of time just disappear before my very eyes, and I'm really not sure if I'm redeeming every single one of these days. Eternity is coming upon us really, really quickly, and when I stand before Jesus, I want to testify to a life that has been truly lived. How? Big Asian guy who obviously does a lot of upper body work in the gym, but not as much on his lower body, how? How do I truly live? Well, the good news is every time you have a question, you don't have to wander or ponder. You don't have to grope around in the darkness wondering if there's an answer to this question. You can simply turn to the Bible because the Bible isn't a piece of archaic literature from back in the day. The Bible is a living, breathing conversation that God wants to have with you every single day. So that's what I did. I heard that word live. I wrote it down and I started scanning the scriptures, trying to find a word from God regarding how to make sure we make the most of our life

that we truly live. And the Holy Spirit led me to 2 Timothy chapter four. If you have your Bibles, would you go with me to the book of 2 Timothy chapter four, verse six specifically. And these are words penned by a man named Paul, an ordinary guy like you and me called to an extraordinary purpose like all of us. And this is Paul who was entrusted with writing much of the New Testament in his last days. 2 Timothy is a little bit different than the other Pauline epistles which are like instructions to the church. This was like a personal letter written to a spiritual son. And he specifically in chapter four, most commentators think these are the very last words he wrote when he was on this earth were a charge to his son Timothy, were a challenge to us in 2023 regarding how we can redeem our days and truly live our lives. Live. 2 Timothy chapter four in verse six, the Bible says, for I'm already being poured out like a drink offering and the time for my departure is near. Friend, my time is basically done. The race has been run. The final boarding call was flashing up on that screen. I'm being poured out like a drink offering.

There were times where I talked about being a servant of Jesus, a co-heir in the kingdom, a co-laborer in the work. Right now, I feel like just a splash of wine on the altar that is evaporating in a moment. My time for my departure is near, but here is my charge to you. This is how you live, victory. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race and I have kept the faith. That's all I wanna drop on you here this morning. If you wanna truly live, if you wanna step out of this place and make sure that you redeem every single day, make the most of every single moment, see God do everything he wants to do through your extraordinary life, make sure you decide in your heart, determine in your mind and invite the Holy Spirit to help you to fight the good fight, to run your race and to keep the faith. If you're writing down notes, I need you to take out your leather-bound journals and your pens right now and scribble this stuff down. An old mentor of mine used to tell me that a blunt pencil is more effective than a sharp mind in remembering the things God whispers to us about. I'm not saying you need to take notes to get into heaven. I'm just saying, why take a chance? It could be like an open book test in the end,

not messing around with it. Scribble this down. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you can open up the Note app and thank the Lord Jesus for Steve Jobs. If you do so, that's a wonderful piece of technology you have right there. If you're one of those kind of Android or those Samsung-y devices, you can put it away. I've got nothing for you from this point on in the message. Because you mess up our group texts with your green bubble energy. You know what I'm saying? Like 15 people in that group message, there's always that one friend who got a deal at Verizon, you know what I'm saying? Got like the Samsung Galaxy, you know what I'm saying? And it turns it all green. I'm messing around, you can take notes too. If we would all decide to take one step deeper into fighting the good fight, running our race and keeping the faith, not only does this kingdom advance faster, not only does Jesus' bride become stronger and more beautiful, but you truly live. Fight the good fight, that's the first point. Make a decision, determine in your mind, ask the Holy Spirit for help. Come on, two, fight the good fight. Everyone say fight.

Say fight like an Australian, fight. Fight. Say fight like an American, fight. Say fight like my dad, fight. Awesome, torture languages was a little bit racist. Fight the good fight. Now you're gonna fight for something, you're gonna struggle for something, you're gonna strive towards something, the question you have to answer, is it a good fight? Because when the Apostle Paul challenges us, dares us, double dog dares us to fight the good fight, he is strongly insinuating there are a lot of fights in the earth right now that aren't necessarily that good. So what are you actually fighting for? Process this question, who do you find yourself fighting with all the time and is that a good fight? Because you're only given so much energy in a day. You're only afforded so many minutes in a day. Don't waste one ounce of energy, don't waste one minute fighting after something or fighting for something that in the grand scheme of eternity means nothing. Fight the good fight. Because I know you're fighting, because you're American and Americans love a fight. Every movie from Hollywood shows us that. The aliens show up, you know what I'm saying? Blow up Asia, go through Europe, they don't put up a fight, but then they show up in America

and they were in for a surprise, you know what I'm saying? That's the reason America's got the most combative anthem in the world. It's not like Australia's national anthem. Australia's national anthem is literally about being on a beach so we should chill. The Australian national anthem is Australians, let us all rejoice, for we're young and free. Our land is good, my sea. Or in other words, there is water all around us, there's beach everywhere, so everyone just chill out a little bit, open up a coconut and just hang, you know what I'm saying? Not America. You got bombs and guns and flares. There's a battle going on, there's a guy in a jail cell, he's looking through the little window telling the boys, you keep on fighting, don't let that star spangled banner hit the ground, you know what I'm saying? It's in your DNA. But the question you have to answer is what are you actually fighting for? Is it market share? Is it that magical number in your head that you need to have in your savings account to define you as a success? Is it social media fame? Is it this car that you think that

if you could roll up into the parking lot, you would garner so many oohs and ahs and eventually you'd be, what are you actually fighting for? And is it a good fight? Can I just challenge every single person under my voice right now to determine in their heart to engage again, come on, in a good God fight. Come on, stop fighting against your spouse. Stop fighting with your spouse for your family. Come on, stop fighting with your children. Start fighting for your children and a living faith in their life. Come on, stop fighting with your neighbors. Start fighting for your neighbors and believe that there is more light for you to shine, more love for you to share, more Jesus for you to show. Come on, in your cul-de-sac, fight the good fight. I wanna challenge the men in this room to fight for purity, to fight temptation. Stop just laying down and giving up and saying, well, everyone's doing it. No, no, no, there is no temptation that will take you out that isn't common to your brothers. I'm telling you, every single time temptation rises up in your heart, God will give you a way out, fight. Come on, young women in the room, fight. To allow God to frame your identity. Society should not get a say,

that cute guy should not get a say. Let God let you know who you are, fight the good fight. My mother's here in the corner. I remember the first time I ever got a detention. You know what a detention is at school? You get in trouble, principal's office situation. I was in the fourth grade and I got a detention for fighting. My little brother was getting picked on in the sand pit. I watched for as long as I could, I couldn't handle any longer. Eventually jumped in there and the spirit of Bruce Lee came over me and I went up and I kicked the kid in the back. That's the gangster that I am. I'll kick you in the back. The kid gets off my brother, I jump on top of the kid. I didn't know what to do but the spirit of Bruce Lee is strong. So I got sand and I put it in his mouth. Next thing I know, there's a teacher dragging me off. I'm in an office and I've got an angry mother. Not angry at me because I got into a fight. My mother was angry at me because it took me so long to jump in and to help my brother. Next time you'll see a fight, you will jump in the fight right away. You do not let your brother get knocked down. Even you lose the fight, you will fight. I pray that the Holy Spirit uses

an old Asian lady's accent to remind you that every day you have a kingdom fight that you're invited in to play a part in. There is a real devil, there is a real enemy and there is a real kingdom of light that needs to forcefully advance and it advances through kingdom warriors who will make a decision to fight. So all the stuff that you're fighting over right now, you gotta ask the Holy Spirit to clarify and to crystallize whether or not that's truly come on a kingdom fight. And you gotta ask the Holy Spirit to fill your eyes with vision and your heart with a passion regarding things worth fighting for. And jump into that fight. Can someone say a good amen to that? Fight the good fight. Number two, run the race. Specifically, run your race. I need everyone to turn to their neighbor and say, run your race. I need you to turn to your other neighbor and say, hey, second choice, you gotta run your race as well. That's what he said. I live my life and I'm good. I'm about to see Jesus, that's gonna be sweet. I'm gonna get my crown. He gonna put it on my head. This is how I live my life.

I fought the good fight and I ran my race. Get your mind around that, that God in his goodness marked out a race for you to run. That's what Hebrews chapter 12 tells us. Let us run this race that he has marked out for us. Before we got up this morning, God had already marked out a race for you to run. A family for you to encourage, a smile for you to offer, a listening ear for you to lend to somebody. Come on, a hug of compassion that somebody needs. Come on, a word of encouragement that somebody needs. body but by that word will not get through the day. Come on, we have all been given a race to run, run it. Your race is different than mine as mine is different than yours but all of us collectively if we would make a decision to say I refuse to just sit in the stands, I need to get back into the race, the kingdom advances, the devil shakes, God is glorified, run your race. My son Josiah is 17 years old and he's the most American out of our family. He has embraced all things athletic, he played some football, he's never played basketball, played a season of basketball, last year he ran track, he's never run track before, you know what I'm saying, never run a lap of anything, never jumped anything, he signs up for track, the only event that wasn't filled

was the 400 meter hurdles. Yeah, those who are like groaning right now, yes, you know it's a difficult event but my son's on the taller side so they said, you know what, you'd be great at it and I'm thinking to myself on the way to the first track meet, maybe he is, maybe the coach identifies something that I didn't see, he might be like a prodigy at this, he might be freakishly good at it. Like, this will be interesting so we get along there and before we know it, he's lined up, bang, the starter's gun goes off and guess what, after 50 meters, he's winning, he is a prodigy. This is amazing, I can't wait for the D1 college scholarship office to roll in, he might be running the Olympics, I'm Googling where's the 2028 Olympics, I'm like, this is amazing. Now, by the 100 meter mark, the rest of the field had caught up. By the 150 meter mark, he was kind of like, you know, falling behind, when everyone else was at the 200 meter mark, he was kind of still around the 150 meter mark and as the dreams of him going to the Olympics was basically disintegrating before my eyes, his gas tank was emptied and he stopped jumping the hurdles. He started doing this. By the last 100 meters, he didn't even have the energy

to kick over the hurdles, he started doing this. Now, I don't know who won that race, I'm pretty sure I know who came last in that race but I am certain of this, there was a Chinese guy in the stands, on his feet, yelling at the top of his lungs, go son, go, you can do it buddy, just finish the race, keep on going, you're good. And if I'm like that, how much more is your heavenly father looking at you, letting you know, hey, come on, let's keep on going, I know it's been discouraging, keep on going, hey, you've made a few mistakes, it's all good, keep on going. I know you're tired, keep on going, run your race. Don't look to the left, don't look to the right, don't get crippled by comparison as you get obsessed with everyone else's race. It happens to a lot of people in this day and age. There's a trillion dollar industry between advertising and marketing and social media that's consistently and continually 24 hours a day, seven days a week, trying to make you feel inferior to everyone around you. Because if they can convince you that you have less than everyone around you, then you will go out and try to get the more which they are offering. When the reality is, you already have a race marked out for you by the hands of the king of the universe. You have no one to compare with. And I ain't here to throw shade at anyone who is wrapped up in comparison, I feel it all the time. I travel and I speak for a living.

I show up in cool churches with pastors who are cooler than me. This morning when I hugged Johnson, I felt like a child. He's a big, impressive man. When I hugged him, I just nestled my head into his chest and it was like, papa, you know what I'm saying? Like, he's got a great church with beautiful people. You know what I'm saying? His hair is so lush and so thick. You know what I'm saying? You notice that? It's like Legos, kind of like the Lego hair, just like sits there. He can like change colors depending on the season, like boom, it's like, amazing. But I'm reminded, I'm not called to run his race, I'm gonna run mine. And I've got my lane and I'll stay in it. And one day God's not gonna ask me about how I did living his life. He's gonna ask me one question. He's asking you one question. Son, did you run it? But I kind of got tired during 2020. No, no, I know you did. Everyone did. Did you? Did you get back into it? Did you run it? Oh, yeah, yeah, I kind of felt a little bit misunderstood by my team leader,

because I used to serve and I used to volunteer, but I just felt like a little bit disrespected in that kind of engagement. So I thought I'd better take it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it happens. Did you forgive? Did you process? Did you give up that offense? Did you offer? Did you get back into the, come on. Run your race. Thirdly and lastly, write this one down. Keep the faith. Keep the faith. I wanna invite the keyboardist up to start playing some emotional chords in the background. E minor is one of my favorite ones. Makes us feel receptive and responsive. You know what I'm saying? You ever notice how it feels like Jesus, you know he's everywhere all the time, but he feels like he's more in the room when the keyboards are playing. Yeah, just play, just hit us with something right now. Just give us a little bit of keyboards and I'm gonna show everyone. Not yet, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. He's gone, bring him back.

No, I'm messing around, I'm messing around. Keep the faith. Fight the good fight. Run your race. Keep the faith. When the apostle Paul tells you to keep something, when God's telling you to make the decision to keep something, there's a strong insinuation that there is the capacity for you to give it away, to lose it, to exchange it. But here, the challenge is, is to keep it. Keep the faith. Faith is the belief that the best really is yet to come. Faith is the belief that he's still alive. Faith is the belief that he's still on the throne, still in control and still up to something good. Faith declares that even though the storm is raging and the clouds are threatening, that Jesus, the Son still holds all things, come on, in his hands, keep the faith. And it's heartbreaking that over the last couple of years, I've seen a lot of people, not only as I travel and speak, but even in the community that I help lead, they've exchanged their faith. They might sing about it in church, but they definitely don't live it come Monday. Because they're not walking by faith. I see a lot of people walking by a formula. I worked out the path of least resistance out of 2020.

I kind of used to go to church because I used to freak out that if I missed a week, then something bad was gonna happen to me. But then I took a whole year off and kind of watched a little bit online and kind of gave up serving and stopped kind of giving. And my life really didn't fall apart. In fact, now I get to make that tea time on a Sunday afternoon. We've got like kind of Sunday brunches. You know, it's kind of cool. So I've got some boxes I like to check. And what you actually did through that process is you exchanged a groundbreaking, kingdom-growing, breathtaking, skin-tingling, mind-blowing faith for a formula, the path of least resistance. Keep the faith. I've seen a lot of people exchange faith for fear. Again, we sing about it. We'll sing about like, you know, walking on the oceans, but then we'll walk fearfully. Everything scares us. Everything terrifies us. The worries and the stresses and the anxieties define your days. Because some of us have exchanged faith for fear. Keep the faith. I have so many people. even in our community, up in South Carolina, who are different now, three years after,

because they're scared all the time. A couple of months ago, I had two men at one of our campuses accost me in an atrium as I was walking into the building, and they came up and they asked me, Dan, what are you gonna do about the spy balloon? Did you hear about this a couple of months ago? There was this like Chinese spy balloon that was floating across America. I don't think it was a Chinese spy balloon. I think it was a gender reveal gone wrong, because you all take this gender reveal stuff way too seriously. You know what I'm saying? Remember in the good old days, where you just like have a baby, and then you just tell your friends at work, you had a boy, oh, congratulations, here's a cigar. Nowadays, we feel like we need to gather everyone together, fill up a hot air balloon with like blue confetti. There was this like balloon that they thought was a spy balloon from China. First of all, why are you asking me about it? Are you assuming because of my ethnicity that I have some kind of special connection with the Chinese Communist Party? I do not. And side note, China doesn't need to put a spy balloon in the sky to hear everything you're doing, because you've got a device on your lap.

Ni hao, homeland. You know what I'm saying? Like, what's up? Don't freak. You laugh now, but a lot of you are more scared now in May 23 than you were in February 20. So, keep the faith because I don't know about no spy balloons in the sky, but I do know this, above that sky balloon is a God who sits on a throne, who doesn't slip, doesn't lose grip, doesn't even go to sleep because He's watching you. Keep the faith. I've seen people, seriously, friends of mine, Jesus followers who are not walking by faith anymore, they're walking by frustration. Have you felt it in the earth? Everyone's just grumpier. People are just triggered. You're like powder kegs walking around and everything is a lit match. You can't even hang out with some people without the conversation turning to some kind of divisive topic within just a couple of minutes. Because there are a lot of people who aren't walking by faith, you're walking by frustration. And if there was ever a time that we as a people of Jesus needed to employ the kingdom principle of forgiveness, of loving people who have offended us,

of seeing people as people to extend grace to, it's now. If this Sermon on the Mount series does not turn into you loving people more, showing more grace, more patience, believing the best, letting people off the hook, reconciling friendships, if that does not come from this Sermon on the Mount series, you all have wasted your time. But if you choose to employ what you've learned over the last couple of months and will continue to learn in the days ahead, you bring the kingdom, you push back the darkness and the light invades that much quicker. But you got to deal with some of this frustration that you got. It's angry. I know it's easy to get frustrated at the world because the world's kind of crazy right now. And it doesn't it feel like every single time you think the world has got as crazy as it could get, the world goes, hold my beer, watch this. You know what I'm saying? But we as the people of God, I'm not gonna live frustrated. I live by faith. Keep the faith. Can someone say a good amen to that? So that's what I'm trying to do today. For my victory family. To remind you that if you have breath in your lungs and the sun is still shining,

that's a Jesus invitation to truly live. Don't waste one of your days, live. So ask yourself this question as we wrap up our time. What's your one step? Come on, what's your next step? That's the reason we say all the time here at Victory, the concept of a leap of faith that you hear a lot about technically isn't in the Bible. But that next step is I'm gonna make a decision out of today. I'm not gonna be just a hearer of the word, but I'm gonna do something. Who in this room needs to get back into the fight? I spent enough time just yelling at the darkness. I'm picking up my light, no longer hid under a bushel. Come on, let's bring the kingdom. Come on, how many people in this room need to start running their race again? You are distracted, despondent, discouraged. Who in this room needs to take that next step, that one step? I'm gonna run my race because the race that I run impacts the people to my left and to my right. I've got a gift to exercise. I've got a passion to stir. I've got a post to stand. I've got a role to play. Come on, run your race. Because your victory and your journey is going to impact countless people for eternity.

Come on, what's your one step? Because some people in this room need to come back to the king and say, all right, I'm so sorry, I gotta re-exchange. I've got some fear and frustration. I need faith. So King Jesus, stir that afresh in you. What's your one step? As we wrap up our time, I wanna do two simple things. Number one, I wanna give someone an opportunity to open up their heart to Jesus. Because you can't truly live until first and foremost, come on, you're connected to the life. And that's what Christianity is. It's not about rules or regulations, jumping through hoops or clearing legalistic bars. It's about recognizing that God loves you and comes to find you exactly where you are. And you'll pound at your heart's door. And some of y'all have felt that in the last 35 minutes. Man, it feels like this dude's talking straight to me. No, God's trying to get through to you. And if He would open up your heart, He will enter in, give you life eternal and life to the full. But you must open that door. So with every eye closed on every single campus and every heart open, if you're saying, I want to invite Jesus

to be my Lord and my Savior, my King and my friend, I would love to lead you in a prayer that heaven will hear. And I promise you, it'll change everything. So with every eye closed and every heart open, if you're saying I have felt God trying to get through to me over the last 36 minutes, if that's you, when I count to three, just lift your hand where you are on every single campus and give me a wave. Are you ready? One, two, three, just lift your hand where you are. Keep your hands lifted. I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. In fact, we'll do it all together as an act of support. Dear Jesus, I open up my heart to you. Help me by your Spirit to live now for your glory. I repent, I turn from my own way. I turn your way. Fill me with life. Help me live this life. Amen. Can you put your hands together for all the people who lifted theirs? Wow. So cool. If you lifted your hand, I'm gonna be hanging around the front and I would love you to come and give me a high five, a fist bump.

If you feel comfortable, like an appropriate side hug. If you really wanna kind of just go all in and leave a fake eyelash on my shoulder, I'm down for that too. We're pumped about your jump, but we're committed to your journey. And so make sure you make yourself known to someone around you. For the rest of us, with every eye open and every head raised and everyone looking around in a judgmental manner, I had to mix it up a little bit. No, all seriousness, the Bible says, God, I lift my hand to you. opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble you know what I'm saying like UGA you got a pretty serious d-line going on you can put like seven eight guys in the league every year and just reach like reload that's crazy okay all right the bulldogs d-line got nothing on god's d-line and the bible says god's d-line is set up against you if you want to hold pride in your heart but oh what glorious things you'll receive if you have humility that's the reason come on there's nothing as humbling as saying yo that's me with people watching am i right so let's activate a promise right now if you're in this room right now when you're going that word was for me dan like i need to get back into a good fight i gotta stop fighting for things that really don't matter in the grand scheme of eternity i got to get back come on into a god fight come on some people need to say i gotta get back into the race i got tired i stood to the side for a while but i need to get back into the come on some people are saying yo dan that whole walking by faith thing i need to do that i'm doing that fear thing i've done that frustration thing i'm over it i want faith again if that's you with every eye open and every head raised and everyone looking around i want you to be honest enough and say hey that word was for me help me not just be a hearer of the word but a doer of the word lift your hands in the sky if that's you

see every see all the hands lifted keep them lifted it's early in the day your deodorant will hold keep it lifted lord jesus you see these hands lifted as an act of surrender in profound humility the lights were on people were watching but we're saying we care more about your help going forward than how we appear to the people around us so holy spirit keep the promise of the father show your son jesus through my friends and help them to fight the good fight to run their race and to keep the faith faith in jesus name and everybody said amen just encourage people around you and praise god for a moment victory church i say it all the time you are a gift to the body of christ hmm you are a slice of what heaven is going to feel like for eternity and there is so much more of god that he wants to show you there's so much more power he wants to work through you you so by the grace of god as you sail forward may you feel the wind of heaven behind you as victory church you fight the good fight you run your race and you keep the faith