Who’s Standing With You When Life Gets Hard? | Game Plan Week 4

Just one more shout of praise to Faith Promise. Come on, across Tennessee and beyond. Amen, amen. Hey, I wanna welcome you to Faith Promise. No matter where you're joining from right now, we are together, whether you're live at a campus, if you're watching live or later online, God Behind Bars, Wynn Community Gatherings, literally around the corner in Tennessee and around the world. Christ followers, you are being equipped to win your world. I'm getting stories every day of lives being changed, and so I'm so proud of you. God's so proud of this church, and if you're not feeling that in your life, I'm telling you, you're gonna get a chance today to just change paths. You're gonna get a chance today to be all that God's called you to be and do all that he has called you to do. In this season of August, we've been really leaning into God's game plan and learning different plays that he tells us to have in our lives, like our purpose in serving or whether that's leading people to Jesus or whatever else it might be, how he wants us to live with our money, just different things like that. He has specific plans for us to follow,

and if you need any coaching in any of those areas, all of the messages from this series are on the app or on our YouTube channel, or you can go to Next Steps Today, discover your purpose, and get all the spiritual coaching that you need. But what we've been leaning into lately is in God's game plan, old habits still win new battles. I want you to think about it this way. You have a fight coming up. You've got a wrestle coming up. We all do. Let's just say next month, but can I promise you something? Listen, the fight you face next month will be decided by the habits that you practice this month. Let's not wait and see what the battle might be. Let's put habits in our life that makes for sure that we will win that battle next month. Because listen, you can't choose the battles that are coming your way. You can't control every text message you receive, every post that you see, every student, every temptation that you face at school, what season your marriage is in, or the challenge your kids will face. You cannot pick those things,

but you can pick something that's even more important, and that is who will be standing beside you when you face those battles. Let's get right to it today. In God's game plan, God's people gather in groups. Actually, in your seat, there was a card about groups, and I just want you to have in your hand, because throughout our time today, we're gonna talk about groups, and I just want you to have something, an action step for what God is calling you to do today, but it's so clear in the Bible and in history that God's people gather in groups. No man of God, no woman of God has ever been a lone wolf. Even Jesus himself had a group, and this is something that since the first chapter when the church has started that we have seen. The church really starts in Acts chapter two, and I want you to read a description of the first church in Acts chapter two, verses 46 and 47. It describes them this way. Every day, they, that's the church, continue to be together in the temple courts, like what we're doing today, where you're at right now, and they broke bread,

they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. So not just at church, they would gather together in homes, they would eat together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. That's special. Listen, we wanna win personally and eternally, and if we will be the church like God has laid out for us to be the church, we will see the world won, not just on Sunday, but literally every day. And this habit of groups, it leads to wins, right? So like this week, I got a video from, which will show up one day, from some young ladies out at the Blount County campus. I don't know what grade you guys are in, ladies, I'm so sorry, they're probably eighth, ninth, tenth grade, something like that, and they were at Kroger, two of them, and they walked around Kroger just sharing the gospel. That's what they were there, they shared it with some younger people, with some older people, they just shared the gospel, and they were talking about how much fun it was, but because they were together, their faiths united, they were bolder. It works in the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

Well, one of my friends lost his job this week, but guess where, we'll talk more about it later, but guess where he was? He was at group. God has given us this, this gift from the Lord, so that we can do all he's called us to do and be all that he's called us to be. I just wanna encourage you, you don't know what battle is coming, so build your circle before the battle comes. That's the wise thing to do, that's the biblical thing to do. You don't know what battle's coming, so build your circle. Before the battle comes I want us to see this first and foremost in God's Word so hey about 600 years before Jesus was born there was a country a nation called Babylon and Babylon actually comes and conquers God's people the Israelites in Jerusalem So the Babylon's come and captured Jerusalem and the king of Babylon was named King Nebuchadnezzar that's a weird name Okay King Nebuchadnezzar and what he does is he takes some of the brightest young men from God's people and he marches them back to Babylon 900 miles from their home back to Babylon it was how they were going to assimilate God's people's culture into their culture now these were teenagers and Scripture says that they were chosen to be taught the language the literature of Babylon It was they were in prison they it was like a forced re-education program to reintegrate that Babylonian culture back into the culture that God had for them to do So their country their language and their culture were replaced But something I want you to see the first thing that tries to get replaced It's their names in Daniel 1 verses 6 and 7

It says this and some of these names you might recognize some might be new to you in verse 6 It says among those who were chosen those the people who went from Judah Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah the chief official gave them new name first thing new names To Daniel Belshazzar if you're looking for baby names skip that one Okay to Hananiah Shadrach Mishael Meshach and Azariah Abednego Now some of those names might sound familiar, you know Shadrach Meshach and Abednego We'll talk about that here in a minute, right? But what Babylon did is the first thing that they did to these guys is they changed their names to names that were Associated with the Babylonian gods and not the one true God where their identities were rooted Babylon was trying to redefine them the fundamental part of who they were which was built on God They were trying to change that does that sound familiar to the world that we live in today? But what I want you to see is they didn't do it by force they did it by offering the Kings food the best food the best wine the best education a Career in the Empire a career in the palace. It wasn't to force these men to change It was offering them something different the same thing the enemy's trying to do today He's not forcing to have a bad marriage. He's just offering you some other places for your time and your intimacy and your communication He's not forcing you to have bad grades in school. He's just offering you some other things to put your heart in He's not telling you to do these things. He's just offering you something else Listen, you need people to remind you need people around you to remember and remind you of the names that God calls you When the world tries to rename you we find that in group and you know what I'm talking about You know the names that the enemy calls you the names that the world calls you We need to have people who can remember and remind us of the names that God has called us and listen The enemy's trying to do this to us today But he tries to do more he tries to do more than just a little name-calling than a little name Changing and so these guys face another battle these guys face even more in chapter 2 The the King Nebuchadnezzar he has a dream and listen. I know that our politicians are narcissistic and selfish now Think about this King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and he tells all the wise men You are gonna tell me what the dream was and what it meant. He won't tell him what the dream was He says you have to tell me what it was and what it meant So I know that you're not lying to me and he said if you can't I'm gonna kill all the wise men

So the guys in the room couldn't tell him what it was. So listen Scripture tells us that soldiers came looking for Daniel and his friends could Daniel and his friends they were wise men So they were coming to kill them with the rest of the wise men Daniel is gonna get arrested is sentenced to death for a test that he literally never took What would you do with news like that? Through the grapevine you read a post they're coming to find you at home or at work and they're gonna kill you Well, listen Daniel knew exactly what to do. We see how Daniel responds in Daniel 2 17 and 18 He says then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends through his group Hananiah Meshael and Azariah. I want you to notice when they were together. It didn't matter what they got called at work It didn't matter what they got called out and about the men of God still call themselves by the names of God that they were given. He urged them to plead for mercy from God in heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Listen, Daniel gets terrible news and he knows exactly what to do. Do you? Do you know who to call when you need prayer? Do you know, does anybody know what's going on in your marriage? Does anybody know what you're struggling with? Does anybody know, students, how you're tempted? Does anybody know what you're afraid of? Does anybody know the real you enough to pray specifically for you? You know, most people, even the people at church, even people at Faith Promise, one of the greatest churches in the nation, answer that people don't know what's going on. You know, at the beginning of the year we took a survey, and in that survey there were seven really areas of life that we asked about. And it was all these things, there's a lot of research around it, it's about human flourishing, and you filled, I didn't fill it out, you filled it out about you. I wasn't guessing, this is what you had to say. And you pointed out one area of your life that felt the lowest. It wasn't your finances, it wasn't your physical health, it wasn't your time with God, it was your relationships. Far and away our church said the lowest part of our lives are our relationships. Now can I ask you, you said your relationships needed help. Will you let God's game plan help? Because he has a

plan, he has a play for us to run, just like Daniel's group had a play to run. So they faced a challenge in chapter one with their names, they faced a challenge in chapter two with what they were going through right there with the dream. Chapter three, listen Nebuchadnezzar is a wild man, he builds a golden statue of himself, and he says everybody has to bow to it. Think about how crazy that is. He says when you hear the music, if you do not bow to this idol of me, then you will be burned. That's the only, those are the only options, you bow or you burn, that's it. The music plays the first time, a sea of people bow, everybody's bowing except for three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Together they stood. Do you know why they could stand? It's not just because they were tough guys, it's not just because they had changed their name, they could stand because they already pre-prepared for this battle in group when they prayed together, when they face hard times, whenever they stay true to their conviction. I love our military, this is actually one of the quotes our military uses about situations like this. The United States military says this, under pressure you do not rise to the occasion, that's not what happens, you fall to the level of your training, you sink to your training. So can I ask you when it comes to your relationships, are you on your way to rising? Are you on your way to sinking? The king is furious, the king loses his mind, he brings these guys forward, he says guys I'm gonna give you one more shot, I'm gonna give you one more chance, and if you do not bow you will burn in the fiery furnace, I will burn you to death. And I want you to listen to their answer. I think how they answered is very important. Listen to what they said in Daniel chapter 3 verses 17 and 18. I love this so much, 17 and 18. It says this, no three, sorry, hold on, time out, everybody just chill. Okay, 3, 17, and 18. Here's what he says, he says, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we will, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up. You notice all the we's in there? You notice all the us in there? We're not gonna bow down, we've

already made a decision, right? They did not meet in the furnace, they did not meet at the fire, they'd already prayed together. Again, I'll use an example from what this, literally this week, a friend of mine lost his job Thursday morning that he's had for 27 years. Do you know where he was Thursday night? Spartan group at the campus. And then Saturday morning when we had, I get chills thinking about it, at the end, because I'm a bully, I always make somebody pray who I know is uncomfortable praying, just to push them out of their comfort zone. And my friend beside me put his hand on my legs, hey, hey, can I pray? The guy that just lost his job in 27 years, do you know why he wanted to pray? Because he's excited about the season that God's putting him into. I know that I know that I know that group is a huge part. We were both encouraged. Everybody at the table was ready to charge hell with a water pistol. If we'd have one, we'd spit on it. We're so excited about what God's doing. What about you? Listen, back in Daniel, they had gathered together before they walked through the fire together. There's a fire coming in your life and in my life. Are you walking with anybody who's preparing you for it? Who's gonna be there with you? Listen, some of you guys are waiting till the fire starts for you to find people. Can I beg you not to do that? The king was so angry that he orders the fire to heat up seven times hotter. He gets his strongest men, it says, to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them in. It's so hot, it kills the soldiers. Throws them in and the flames engulf Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And then in Daniel 3 verses 24 and 25, it says the king jumped up and he says, guys, did we not throw three people in the fire? And they said, surely my Lord, we threw three people in. He says, why is there a fourth one? If you know the story, you're getting chills like I'm getting chills. He says, why is there a fourth man in the fire? Those guys went in there. God shows up. It says they came in, they even smelled like smoke. We can't even go get Mexican food without smelling like it. These guys went into stinking of fire, came out fresh as could be because God met them there. Can I pause for a second on group? We can give God some praise if you want. I love this story. We're gonna come right back to group. I just want to stop for a

second. It's super important. There's five, maybe you're in a fire right now. Can I tell you, I love group. I'm fully committed to group. Group cannot save you from hell. Only Jesus can save you from the fires of hell and the fires, because group helps us in the fires of this life, but in fires of eternity, only Jesus can help you. Can I stop for a second? Have you ever given your life to Jesus? Have you ever bowed your knee to God? Maybe you're feeling it right now. You try to live your life on your own. You try to earn your way there. It says in Romans 5, 8, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You don't have to get yourself right. You don't have to fit in. You don't have to be a part of the group first. Jesus said while we were still sinners, he died so that we can be in a relationship with him, and people have been getting saved all day. People are getting saved all week, actually. God is moving here, and I believe there's people here right now that you need to give your life to Christ, so we're gonna take a moment right now and give you an opportunity to do that. It says in Romans chapter 10, all you have to do is confess with your mouth that you believe Jesus died on the cross for you, and you will be saved. I know you still have more questions, and we want to walk with you through all those questions, but can we answer the first question? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? If not, we're gonna pray right now as a family. You can bow your head and close your eyes with me. Come on, across Tennessee, let's pray this out loud, boldly together. Say, Jesus, I know I've sinned, but I know you came to pay for my sin because you love me, because you want me. You died so I could live. There's no fire too hot for you. Be Lord of my life. With heads still bowed, eyes still closed, hey, if you prayed that prayer today, you gave your life to Christ, on the count of three, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. This is why you came here today. This is what God has for you today. The best decision you ever made. On the count of three, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. You're just gonna raise it up. I got a little gift. We have a gift for you, and come on, man, this is the first day of the rest of your life. If you gave your life to Christ today, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hands. One, two, three. Go on, raise them up high. Some people couldn't wait. Their hands are

already up. Just give us just a second. Let's get these out. Awesome. Praise God. Raise them up high. Come on, we're bold here. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Awesome. Awesome. Take promise. Can we celebrate with the people who gave their lives to Christ today? Come on. Come on. Hey, if you gave your lives to Christ today, there's a number on the screen. I want you to text SAVE to it. Make sure that you've got your next steps, because God's got so much for you. Text SAVE to the number on the screen. Hey, when we think about group, we think about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, there's actually a place in history where I saw it this year that I want to share with you. It really marked me for the rest of my life. Rach and I were in Oxford, England, working on our doctoral work, and we found out about this part of history that happened in the 1500s. In the 1500s, England was being torn apart by spiritual pressure. And there were three guys that have now become known as the Oxford Martyrs. Their names were Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer. The leader at the time for England was Queen Mary I. Now, if you ever heard the name Bloody Mary, maybe even the drink Bloody Mary, this is named after her. And the reason that her name is Bloody Mary is because of all the people that she killed trying to bring Christians under the rule of the crown. So in this time, they're facing murderous pressure from the government. And in 1955, all three of those Oxford martyrs were sentenced to death because they would not bow down to Bloody Mary and her demands to really make her and the church more important than Jesus and salvation. And so since they were sentenced to death, they were dragged out of the city,

actually to the spot, I got to go to this spot. This is a spot right here, still in Oxford, England, right outside the city. You can see where they've chiseled the asphalt out from around it. That literally is where they would build the pyres, is what they're called, and they would burn people to death that would not recant what they were told to recant. Now on that spot, I want you to think, this is a real spot, this is a real story, this is a real group of men. Latimer is on that spot, the first guy, and he is set on fire. And as the fire is rising, he looks at Ridley, the next guy, and this is what he says, this is the quote he says as he's being lit on fire. He says, be of good cheer, Master Ridley, play the man. I don't know, maybe it's just a man thing. When he says play the man, it gets me so, I want to punch the devil in the forehead so bad, right? But he says, we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust, shall never be put out. He says, our bodies will be lit on fire, but spiritually a fire will be lit in England that will never be put out. And it went on to do that. But listen, both men, those two men were burned to death. Centuries after Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

a different ruler, one was Nebuchadnezzar, one was Queen Mary, but the same old habit. God's people need God's people. Now, maybe you picked up on it, I said there were three Oxford martyrs, but only two of those guys got burned to death. Cranmer, he broke, he's watching his friends get burned to death, he recants, he says, I'm out. He says, I can't do it. He bowed down to Queen Mary. He said, I'll take it back. I'll recant my convictions, there's no way. So he gets put in a prison while they build this stage. I was there, the biggest church in Oxford, they build this big stage off of it to make it a spectacle so that he can be made an example of. They put him up there after a couple months, they build it, I'm there. They put him up there to read his recantation of his convictions that salvation in Christ alone and that every man or woman should be able to read the Bible for themselves. All these things that he believed, right? But can I just pause for a second and ask about you? He bowed, he ran from the fire. Have you ever done that? Have you ever thought you would be stronger? Have you ever thought you would never go back, you would never compromise, you would never make that decision again,

you would never be too busy, but the pressure came and you blew it? Maybe you're still sitting there, maybe you're thinking, Pastor, I'm not Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I'm not an Oxford martyr, right? Maybe you're thinking that, maybe you feel more like Cranmer, but can I just tell you this? That your worst moment does not have to become your final moment. Some of you guys, your worst moment was 10 years ago, and you're still living it like it's today, like it's gonna be your final moment. But can I just speak this into you? You need to hear this. When Cranmer got up on that stage and the whole city of Oxford is waiting to hear his convictions in Jesus Christ, he can't do it. In front of the crowd, they gathered to watch Cranmer crumble, he spoke with boldness. He had bold statements about his salvation in Jesus Christ alone, his convictions that every man or woman should be able to read the Bible, that we will not be led by Queen Mary, but we will be led by Jesus Christ alone. And I was standing at that place

the next morning, I got up really early, and I just walked back and forth. I walked from the place where they expect him to recant, and they yank him off the stage, and they start dragging him about 250 yards around the corner to that same spot where he burned his friends, and they're dragging him there. And I can't, can you imagine your heart pounding? First of all, standing in front of all those people and saying, okay, I can't do it, I can't say this, I can't say this, I'm gonna say it, but when I say it, they're gonna burn me to death. And then can you imagine them ripping you off that stage, and they're walking you down, and you know what's about to happen? They're building a pirates mob mentality, and they're gonna light you on fire in front of everybody else. I don't know if he had family there, he's got friends there, they're gonna watch this guy die. Can you imagine just your heart pounding, pounding, pounding? I don't know what all he was thinking, but I bet you he thought about it. his friends. I bet you thought about his friends just a couple months earlier that stood strong and said a candle's gonna be lit that no one will be able to put out for the gospel. And they burned him to death. They put that power together

quickly. They tied him up quickly. And history says, you can look it up, the Oxford Martyrs. Look, he gets his right hand out of what, and maybe, maybe you think he's gonna try to escape. He gets his right hand out of where they tied it. You know what he does with it? He shoves it down in the fire first. Do you know why he shoved it down there? He shoved it down there because this is the hands that he wrote his recantations with. This is the hand that he bailed on his convictions with. He shoved it down in there and he quoted a scripture from Matthew that said, it's better to enter into heaven maimed than to go with your full body into hell. Amen. Can you hear y'all say, is that not exciting? That's amazing. It's amazing. And you think, I could never win that battle. I could never face that fire. Well, if you don't have the people around you, the friends to face the fire with, probably not. Listen, some of us need to hear this today. We've blown it. I've blown it. Maybe you bowed. Maybe you ran from the fire because you didn't have the right people around you. Maybe you did have the right people around you and you blew it and you ran away from them. We need people in our life to have the courage to run towards the fire. If I'm gonna blow it, I'm not to crawl over my friends to do it. You need people whose faith reminds you of what faithfulness looks like. That's what my friends do for me. People who will pray for you when you panic. People who tell you the truth when you want to compromise. People who don't take your side or your wife's side. They take the side of the union between you and your wife that's called marriage. People who will remind you of the names that God calls you whenever the world is trying desperately to rename you as a loser, as broken, as dirty, as not enough to remind you that you're more than an overcomer, that you are who God has called you to be. This, that's why we have group. This is why we gather. But can I tell you, the enemy doesn't want this for you. The enemy does not want this for you. He's gonna give you some excuses. He's gonna tell you some things. And listen, when it gets hard, you need it. But listen, here's some of the things the enemy's telling you, even he's telling you right now. He's telling you, you already have friends. I already have friends. That's fine. Are they fire

friends? Are they friends that let you adulterate on your commitments to the kingdom of God? Do you have real fire friends? If you don't have those friends, then you don't have the right friends. Number two, you might say, hey, I don't have time. I don't have time. I love this quote from John Piper. John Piper says that the greatest gift, it'll be on the screen, but he says, one of the greatest uses of social media will be to prove at the last day that prayerlessness is not from a lack of time. How many of us said, well, I would pray if I had more time? Well, your screen time report says otherwise. I got mine before I went on stage. If you're a Christian or an iPhone user, then you did too, right? That was a joke, but still. It's true about group two. We say we don't have time. Hey, parents, I hope that we feel like the short time we have with our kids, we don't have time not to model for them what it's like to gather with other believers and help them grow. To say that I have friends but they're not fire friends is wrong. To say I don't have time to be poured into and poured to others is wrong. If you say, hey, I've tried it. I've been a group before, or maybe that season my life's over. Can I talk to our senior saints real quick? Hey, maybe you've been a group and it wasn't a good experience, or you feel like that's not for you anymore. God is bringing so many young families here, so many kids and students. We need you in the game. We need you to lead group. Listen, God didn't put you through all those battles. God didn't see you through all those victories. God didn't show you how really was for you not to bring that back to the coming generation, for you not to make them stronger than you were. That's why you went for those things. Romans 8 28 says that, listen, God works all things out for the good of those who love them. We should all be in group. A hundred percent of faith promise should be in group. There's no excuse for it. So I'm gonna give you some options today. I'm gonna give you some options on the habit around group. Listen, old habit still in new battles. Here's your options for today, and they grow in commitment. The first one is just the minimum, the minimum. I want you to be in group digitally with the Faith Promise app. I want you to be in group. Next week, come back next week. There's so many stories. We've done some innovations in

it where you give us updates on your prayers. Marriages are being restored. People are being saved. People are being healed every day. Every day you should spend five minutes as a church praying for people in the church. So that's the minimum. Every, if you're a Christian, you should be doing that starting today. No, no question. The next level, the next level, well I think we're gonna cut, yeah, the next level, treat your family as a group. Hey, man of God, at least if there's not a man of God in the house, family, we sit at the table at least once a week and we eat dinner and we don't look at screens and we don't, we don't do it. And we ask some group questions. Hey, what's hard right now? Hey, we do high-low Buffalo. What's the best thing? What's the worst thing? What's a weird thing? And then I share with them just something I got from the Lord. I asked them, what'd you learn at Epi Kids Day? What did you learn in Students Tonight? What's that look like? Treat your family as a group. You want to go to the next, next level? You want to take this thing for real? Join a group today. If you are not in a group, join a group today. Join a group today. If you have an excuse that you think is good enough, I want you to find your campus pastor, look him in the eye and tell him. Just go ahead. Because whenever you externally process what the enemy has told you internally, you will realize it is him keeping you from God's best for your life. The next, next is join a group. Here's the, here's the big one, big time right here. The next, next, next. Oh, these aren't great names. I don't know, this is the best I come up with at the time. Whatever, okay? Listen, you're welcome, guys. Lead others to group by inviting or lead, by inviting to or leading a group. Listen, if you've been given a gift, you share the gift. You do it. Let me give you an example. Just leave those on there. I want you to decide today who you're gonna be. Are you gonna go, are you gonna be a rookie? You're gonna be a veteran. What are you gonna do? It balls in your court, I cannot do this for you. I wish that I could. You've, you've heard plenty today from Daniel to the Oxford Martyrs and you've been given steps. What will you do? Let me give you just another, this huge example. A year ago, on August 12, 2025, I saw a family come in. I just reckon, I just saw they were new. I went

over and chatted with them and, and then I just saw him and then I gave the gospel and I saw him raise his hand. And so I went to our kids' pastor and I was like, hey, I don't know his name. I can't remember what he looks like, but he had two kids. They're about this big. Find them. And they did. And they gave me that. I don't, I don't, I don't know his name, anything. So I text him. I'm like, hey, did me and you talk in the lobby? This is pastor's act. He did. He gave his life to Christ. His life's been radically changed. But the reason I tell you that, I got a text from that same guy. What's important in this story is he was gonna deploy five weeks later. And I said, hey brother, you gotta, you gotta go quicker. I need you to get your wife in group so we can be her family while you're keeping us safe. And so, and the church absolutely did. That's the kind of church we are. But here, think about this. One year later, literally, it was a year and a week later, on August 19th, he texted me. And he says, hey, I'm about to be deployed again, but I know God has told me to start a group for service members. God has told me to start a group for people. This is a hard life that we live. And he's told me to help raise these men up. I want you to tell, this guy's been in two deployments, one year, and he's went from salvation to I need to lead a group. Where you at? I love you. You got some praise if you want. Go ahead. Go ahead. It's good. It's good. And I love you. And I know, you guys know, like, I'm kind. I genuinely am. I pray for you every day. Where you at? What are you gonna do? You've heard Daniel Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You've heard the Oxford Martyrs. You heard this guy that's about to go again for a couple months to keep our freedom safe. He's coming back. He's thinking now about coming back so he can lead a group. Where you at? There are thousands of people, thousands of men, thousands of women who desperately need the hope that God's given us. And groups are one of the main ways that we do that. Where you at? What are you willing to do? Are you willing to put those excuses aside? Because I'm gonna give you a chance today. This isn't something we're gonna pray about. You know what? Faith promised. We're about it here. We're about some action. We're about some movement here. So here in a moment, I'm gonna pray. And while we sing, there's hundreds of leaders who are out there.

And again, don't let the numbers overwhelm you. There's people out there that want to help you get connected. In your age, in your stage, or whatever else you need. Some of you guys realize you should be leading a group. Go out there. I've been praying that the movement of God's people today would be overwhelming to us. That we'd have to just count on Jesus to get everybody connected. If you're not in a group today, and you leave today without trying to get in a group, you are in disobedience. Not to me, but to God's game plan for your life. What are you willing to do? Will you stand up with me as we prepare to respond? God, right now, we're standing up. And you're telling us that, I mean, we have our group card in our hands. God, we're already standing up. God, the only thing keeping us from all that you've called us for is our obedience. We might be a little nervous. Maybe our stomach hurts. Maybe we've got some excuses, but God, you are worthy. You are worthy, God. And so I pray that we would be obedient. Whatever you have to say today, we would obey. In your name we pray. In all God's people said. Amen. Hey guys, we're about to sing. As we sing, if you need to be in a group, I want you to head out. Group leaders, let's go ahead and head out right now as we sing. Go ahead and make your way out. Let's go. Let's get in a group. Let's win our world. Come on.