The Reality of Resistance - LIVE

♪ ♪ Any time God calls us forward, resistance won't be far behind. Nehemiah came to build, an opposition showed up. The same is true in our spiritual lives. Growth invites pushback, freedom invites resistance. The question isn't if it will come, but how we will respond when it does. ♪ ♪ All right, blessings to all of you. I too am excited about what we're about to share. Pastor Dallas is very excited, but I am also excited. And looking forward to it, you know, I'm paraphrasing Shakespeare here. But Tiss and Il cook indeed who doesn't enjoy the meal he's making. And you need to be able to enjoy the meal you're making. And I think we heard that in worship. I think we heard that also in this little introduction. That we want this to be something that is accessible, but meaningful, and also, and we use this word, provocative, because I want us to be provoked unto love and good works, and a deeper life with Jesus. And so I really mean that. This time, as we share, you know what it's been, what? This is now the seventh Sunday into this New Year's series, building this idea of commitment, a commitment to build, and building for tomorrow, and that whole theme. But it's also about what God's trying to build on us. And some of us, again, heading into this coming week. This is the week where the historical church, it's not in the Bible, but the historical church marks, you know, Ash Wednesday as a lean in that prepares us for Easter. Certainly not a requirement, but it is an opportunity that many Christians have, historically taken advantage of, at a time to really think about, is there some area where I might exercise restraint for this 40 days, heading into Easter, and then really honor Jesus in his crucifixion, and then be just filled with his joy as we celebrate the resurrection. And so these are things to be thinking about this week, and you know, it doesn't mean any of. We have to get a marking of some type of, you know, on Ash Wednesday, but I think I do believe that the idea of considering, if there is something the Lord might want us to respond to, as a way of exercising the degree of restraint, and enlarging our capacity to commit to Jesus in ways that I think we want to. And part of this is actually really connected to the idea of resistance. The message that teaching today is on the reality of resistance, and how we can overcome. And I'm going to try to put it into a context in a moment, but I have two questions. I want to just submit to you at the outset. And you can weave in and out of this in different ways. But. And I did do this on the online. On the online is off to a little shorter than the in person. But here's the first one. What are some things you sense the Holy Spirit might want you to. might want to deliver you increasingly from? So, are there some things that the Lord might want to get us more free of? Is there some areas where we've been feeling constrained, a little bit beaten down, or hindered in our desires, our good intentions, to honor God? And so, what would they be? What are some of those areas? And then secondly, what are some things that we sense the Holy Spirit might want to establish or increase in our life, right, inside of us? So, this is a season that we're entering into that invites into these two places to wrestle with, to talk about what is it that we think sense of the Lord is trying to free us from, and get us more free in. And then what is he actually trying to grow in us, build in us? So, think about that. Because we often talk about how the Lord, when we share his word together as a people gathered, that his word is both something that is designed to enhance our understanding and knowledge, and it's great that we do that. But there's also usually a word within his words that he's saying he wants us to hear at a. I almost like the Holy Spirit is taking a pen and certainly saying, "I need you to hear this. I don't want you to run past it. Like embrace it. I often talk about listening to your life. Listening to our life. Like I need to listen to my life, and then also listen for the Lord." So, doing both of these things. And we don't get a lot of places to do that. So, this is a safe place to do this. And so, even now, Lord, I welcome you. I truly do with great enthusiasm in my heart. And if I may even say it this way with actually an expectation that you will speak, that you are not the God who is a far, but you've been brought near to us through the kingdom of your dear son, that you paid the price to create the room for us to have that intimacy with you. And speak to our hearts. We need you. We need you, Lord. For some of us we've been struggling. We need you. For some of us we've been running well. We need you to keep doing it. So, be with us now we pray in your name. Amen. That'd be your Lord. All right. So, one of me engage. I kind of want to, well, I want to pick up on our series here, which is already mentioned, is centered on Nehemiah, and learn from his first encounter with the people of Jerusalem, the people he had come to help. And I know that not everyone is necessarily familiar with Nehemiah. You might be here for the first time, and you were brought by a friend or a loved one, someone who clearly cares about you if they brought you here. Because it means something. And if that's the case, some of us may not be aware. There's a book in the Bible in the Old Testament called Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a leader, but he really wasn't a, what we would call a pastor or a spiritual leader. He was more of a marketplace man, that God used to help lead an initiative, to help free up the people of Jerusalem, and give them the strength and vision and passion to build a wall that was to be able to help protect them, a wall around the city. Some of us may recall, just put the map up real quick, these are not just made up stories. They had to do with places in specific time in historical moments. Nehemiah is in, you can see the capital city of what was then the kingdom of Persia. You see the great rivers, some of you can note them, the Euphrates, of course, the Tigris. And then if you go far below the Mediterranean Sea right there on the edge of Palestine, you go down, you see Egypt and the Great Nile. There's some of the great rivers of the world. Nehemiah is making this journey from Susah all the way to Jerusalem. That's where this, where we're reading takes place. Now, okay, one more thing real quick. Whereas last week, we looked at a passage, and we're going to revisit the passage we actually looked at last week. But last week, we looked at it more from the perspective of how the Holy Spirit wants to help us overcome and build things in our lives. And how Nehemiah's name literally means, "conferter," the God-conferents. So there's a real tie-in to the Holy Spirit helping us, because Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, the one who can help us strengthen us. And I'm not going to necessarily pull completely away from this idea that the Lord wants to help us become more free and have greater security and joy in our life. I believe that. That was a lot of our focus last week. But I want to take this same passage and look at it from a different angle. So one angle can be, the Lord has come to help us and His presence, His Spirit. But another angle of approach could be the reality of resistance whenever we are trying to move forward in a good endeavor. And that's where we're going to focus on today. Whenever we're trying to make progress in the Lord, we are going to experience headwinds. But then how do I deal with that? How do I sustain growth? How do you sustain growth? Some of us have been making good decisions. We've been taking our life, which Jesus more seriously, we've been gaining ground. We've been more open than ever in our lives. So how do I keep that moving when resistance inevitably comes? We're going to talk about that. And see, has Nehemiah models how we can approach also a delicate and challenging situation in our lives, right? In his case, he had a unique thing that he was trying to accomplish. On the one hand, he was trying to inspire the people to act in their best interests, and to contend for the things of God and their own well-being. On the other hand, he had to deal with this response of anger and. criticism and even more than that potential danger that was coming from I guess what we might call opposition that was equally as committed to keeping Jerusalem under their thumb the people of Jerusalem under their thumb vulnerable dependent and insecure as Nehemiah was committed to seeing them more free more secure and more able to compound blessing you see you see what I'm saying so there's he he's trying to both motivate and inspire and at the same time he's having to do with this other front of resistance and people who don't want the status quo changed the yet there would be his enemies the enemies of Jerusalem and so we what do you where do you relate to this right so we we are going to try to learn from his example as he's fighting okay I know this knowledge doesn't work for everybody but he's kind of fighting a two front war he's got to motivate his people to do what's in their best interests and they have been a generation a generation that has been dysfunctional and they inherited so much of that dysfunction from the generations that were in front of them and so he's trying to get them to break out and just trust God in new ways and to get to work and to create movement and on the other hand he's trying to hold back and deal with this very angry resistance that's now coming his way that doesn't want anything to change so keep those two things in mind so I want to read the passage at least the first two verses of Nehemiah 2 he says and Lord help us to think help us to focus help us to listen for your words then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river we looked at the map he crossed over the river you Freddy's he finally makes this way to through says now the king is sent with me officers of the army and horsemen verse 10 the mention of the enemies the opponents those who didn't want anything to change in Jerusalem liked it the way it was he says but when Samboat the hornite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this heard that I was coming it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel they didn't know what he was coming to do but they knew that he was coming to help the people of Jerusalem and in some way he had authority to do it this was a problem and again one of the realities of the Christian life is that when we are trying to move forward and honor God we are going to experience resistance this is a spiritual axiom as true as night follows day it will be the case it can be no other way and rarely does anything I think we all know this really does anything of genuine value or quality come easy I mean if you think about it that's true in any area of life anything whether it sports or art or when we're trying to build a business some of us are trying to acquire a degree or improve our overall life-standing we have career goals some of us have other areas that we're really trying to get better in but it's especially true and I'm going to call this three areas where followers of Jesus are you're going to really notice the heat coming at you like when especially when it is relating to something what I call well our relationship with Jesus when we are trying to improve our relationship with the Lord and really follow him with as much integrity a sincerity dependence honesty like we really want to do this and some of you are amazing you want to do this and that's why we challenge ourselves to get better to grow to be free of things we're trying to deepen our life with Jesus and so that's why we're here so we live in it's why we're investing in a community so we're spending time devotionally with the Lord we want we want to be closer to him that's why we're going to try to take advantage of this season coming up the Easter season with so many people all over the world are turning their eyes towards the cross and then the empty too like there's an opportunity but some of us really want to move forward with the Lord like we want to grow and that does not always an age issue every season presents an opportunity for growth everyone we from the day I from the day I live to the day I die to the day I live and I said that intentionally there's a Matt Redman song over the day I live to the day I die to the day I live you see the jump into eternity we have a place to grow so whenever we're trying to grow in the Lord or wrestling with real desire we are going to get resistance another time we're gonna experience resistance is when we're trying to help people get better could be in our own home like we really want to try to represent we want to help make something better for the Lord we're applying ourselves for the welfare of others think about that's what Nehemiah was doing it the resistance that he was going to get actually wasn't resistance connected to him it was connected to the fact that he was trying to help people break free and that was going to create a resistance and then another area where I've really noted there's a tendency to get resistance is when we are trying to develop our character become the person that this is who I usually am and when I am not this way that's the unusual thing and the more I can get my to a place in the Lord where I start to look like him more and when I deviate from that it's that is the uncommon thing that where someone would say that's out of character for them because they know our character to be this so whenever we're trying to form these things in our lives with the Lord and improve and get better and grow we are going to experience resistance and I've been saying so much of the story of Nehemiah when looked through the Christian lens reminds us that the Holy Spirit has been given to help us live as a people secure and safe and capable of compounding blessings the Lord wants us also and I hope you see the analogy he wants us also to have a defense system in Jerusalem's case that defense system was rebuilt walls and restored gates so that they could prevent or at least minimize sabotage or spiritual you know in our case it could be self sabotage like I'm a worst enemy you know I just takes a few buttons and boom I'm back into doing dumb things or it could have to do with a direct spiritual attack or that we just like the enemy really is on our trail we feel it every now and then you'll feel have hell breathing down your neck trying to yeah provoke and agitate I'm not making that up just to say it because I wouldn't even say it if Jesus didn't say it as a reality he talked about the evil one falling he said get behind me evil one say he said it he said it's a Peter it wasn't really Peter but he knew who was speaking and you trying to move him off I mean there's so many examples of this remember so because we need to remember the scriptures it's not paranoia to suggest that there are spiritual forces that are arrayed to exploit our vulnerabilities that's just a truth that is part of the resistance just as real as Sambo Latin to via we're trying to hinder the breakthrough for the people of Jerusalem and and minimize Neomize impact so it is that there's an evil one that is designed sent in some way to undermine the purposes of the Lord at work in us and the Holy Spirit is trying to help us establish at a very deep internal level so that we make good decisions better decisions so here's I'm gonna say this if the enemies of our soul cannot cause us and I've talked about this with to the men's groups that I work with if he cannot destroy our faith completely then the great enemy of our soul will settle for the next best thing and cause us to drift away or turn away you know and to such a degree to a place of essential deep to defeated discouragement that that we we are essentially rendered ineffective and unable to live in the joy the Lord and unable to transfer our faith because if we cannot live in the joy the Lord we cannot transfer that faith that faith is untransferable and that is a beautiful thing to the opponent of our soul so the Lord's will listen and I'll put this up the Lord's desire is that we not settle for an ineffective joyless I would say un or non-transferable faith for our faith to be transferable It has to be effective and it has to have joy in it. And I've seen effectiveness without joy and it's not transferable and I've seen sometimes joy but not really being effective in regards to really applying it and it's not transferable, not nearly as much as it could be. What the Lord desires for us is to have an effective, a workable faith that we can apply in every area of our life, not just on a Sunday for a couple of hours but every area of our life is integrated. It affects how we look at the world, it affects how we work, it affects how we engage people. It's like our dominant way of being, our whole, well our primary identity is forged in Christ. And that creates an effectiveness in our lives and then that effectiveness when it's working right, there's a joy, a vital optimism that begins to almost irrepressibly emerge inside of us regardless sometimes of the most difficult situations and even sometimes of our personality dispositionally, which I get it, not all of us are more mellow and more serious by nature. And that's okay but within that framework God has joy for us. They did not say, "There is Jesus, the joyless man, I guarantee it." That was what Willard said, the Dallas willard, he said, "When Jesus walked in the room, they did not say, "There he goes, the unhappy man." No one said that. The Lord wants us to have something inside of us that is alive and transferable. What I'm about to read, don't hear it please through the lens of legalism. What is that? You hear that word? Don't hear it as a list of do's and don'ts. But I would rather have us, and I include me, look at this list that is in the book of Galatians, as well through the lens of what freedom in Christ looks like. And yeah, and how it is God's will for us to live in the fullness of His freedom in the face of resistance, whether that resistance is within or without. And this is what Paul writes in Galatians 5. I'm not going to spend a lot of time just to read through it. So I hear it, those who would follow the Lord. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your simple nature craves. Check this out. The simple nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. The spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the simple nature desires. And these two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. And he writes the believers, he says, when you are directed by the spirit, you are not under the obligation of the law of Moses. Actually, you have a higher law, the law of love. And when you follow the desires of your simple nature, the results are very clear. Here are the results. Now I want us to see how countercultural this is. Because any of us who spend any time in culture just watching basic stuff gets immersed in the very things that Bible tells us are not helpful. And I'm not angry at all. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, Paul's just making a little quarreling. Jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, have a lot of that going on. Envy, drunkenness, wild parties, other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Whoa, wow. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law against these things. Those who belong to Christ, Jesus, have nailed the passions and desires of their simple nature to His cross. And they've actually crucified them there. Do you see the imagery? Nailed with Jesus on the cross. And since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Now that is way easier to read. But three things stand out to me, and I'm going to just submit them really quickly, and then bring us back to Niyamaa. One, the Holy Spirit, the Lord wants us to let the Holy Spirit guide our lives. That's clear to me. The Holy Spirit at work in our lives shows up in certain specific ways that we refer to as the fruit of the Spirit. And that was listed there. What we're saying is when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, it will show up this way. When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, it shows up. These are the qualities that is not, that is not, you know. He's saying this is how you can tell when the Lord, this is what it looks like. And the second thing, drawing from it, stay with me, is that we also have an old nature. We have the crazed things that are contrary to God's desires for us, and then hinders our ability to carry out our good intentions. So there's both realities in us. I have been saved, and to some degree transformed, but I still carry with me things. And how can we say it? The old simple nature doesn't die easy, and it shows up in certain specific ways. That's what Paul will say. It shows up in certain ways, and we read the list, by the way. That was not a comprehensive list. Well, maybe I'll say it this way. It's comprehensive, but it's not exhaustive. So it covered a lot of ground, but it's not the whole ground. And then thirdly, we are reminded that when it comes to following Jesus, okay, just watch with me. We have a part to play in this. We too must choose to nail the passions and the desires of our old nature to the cross. And this is no easy thing. Why? Because the flesh doesn't die easy. And one of the things I appreciated about that list that we saw in Galatians, which had both positives and negatives, it wasn't just stuck on unhid sexual behavior. It had a lot of other stuff going on in there. NV, divisions, anger. There's a lot of stuff. It wasn't just zeroing in on one thing. It was saying, "When we live increasingly in the direction of Christ, this is what starts to flow into out of us, as flows in and flows out." And this is what it looks like when we're not. And that's no easy thing because dying to our old nature is no easy thing. In fact, Jesus reminded us that it's something we must decide to do daily. And I'm going to put this phrase up for you. I was reminding myself of it. There's a kind of daily shelf life to the spiritual life in Christ. I said, "What are you saying?" I'm saying, "Yesterday's victory won't guarantee you today's. That's what I'm saying." I'm certainly not the first to say it. Yesterday's man won't suffice. Jesus said, "Take up your cross daily." There's a reason. He put it into it. He talked about it. Look at what it says. He says, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross." "Dally and follow me." So this is the idea of a daily spiritual life in Christ. So that is why there is a rhythm to the way of Jesus. And it's a daily rhythm. And if we want to really sustain growth and build those walls and create that safety and compound the blessing, we realize it's a daily life. It's a life of new beginnings. Every day is a new beginning with Jesus. And there are rhythms to my life with him. And they lead me to places where I honor him together in the One in Seven. There are things that I do. Let's talk about this. The One, the Seven, and the Ten. The Daily, give us this day, our daily bread, the Seven. Laura May I honor you in a Sabbath way as a community gathered in church. And then also in my resources, my tithe, my offerings. I think of it this way and it creates a holistic life with Christ. Okay, stay with me. Jesus said this, Luke 9.23, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." And I mentioned that it's not a one and done. Sometimes I wish it was. But on this side of heaven, on this side of the New Jerusalem, this is a daily choice we have to make. And yeah, I can say I have not always made it the way that I should, but I continue to strive by grace to improve. But, stick with me, the enemy of our soul would love to keep us daily under his thumb. And the Lord wants us to be daily renewed. So the bottom line is, "View me." we must resist the enemy of our soul and submit to the help of the Holy Spirit, the Nehemiah who has come to help us, build. Who will, the Holy Spirit who will not only help us do? The Holy Spirit who will not only help us, how can I say this, not to only, okay, this is not only to not do. There's a lot of double negatives there. To not only not do that which brings death, but to do what is reflective of his kingdom and what brings the Lord pleasure. So to live in the reality of Christ looks at all levels something that appears to be increasingly like Him. And this is what it looks like. We become more loving, more joyful, more at peace. How are we doing? There is a peace that passes understanding. The Lord desires us to be more patient, more kind, more able to act with goodness even when things are being hurled at us or we feel offended or diminished. I am not good at this. Some of which of these hits you, the hardest, I feel them hit me hard. The Lord desires us to become more capable of keeping our commitments. Yes, yes, yes, but no, do. What did Jesus say? What do you call me, Lord, but do you do not do the things that I say? Jesus said, in John, I think it was 1421, the one who asked my commands, this is the one, and keeps them. This is the one who loves me. What? He who has my commands and keeps them. And I will love Him Jesus said and will manifest myself to Him. I will review myself. Oh, a few more things. How does it show up, the reality of Christ in our lives? More gentle? Both on others and on ourselves. Some of us are too hard. I was like, what are you saying? Yes, I know, I am saying that. We are not God. We do not always get it right. We will always need grace. That is the truth. And then we are able to exercise self-control, which brings us all the way back to Nehemiah. And in certain seasons of my life, I have since the need to focus on one or more of these in particular ways. And yes, we reflect on this list. Are there any of those that we sense the Lord is wanting us to focus on? In this season leading into the cross in the Easter? And if so, I would really encourage you to not only write it down, but to go back to it. And then to weave in whatever we may do in this next season with the idea of wanting to improve one of these areas and listen for the Lord. But I would also encourage you to pray and share with the friend or two. And say, hey, I really felt like the Lord was speaking to my heart about this one particular area. The Lord was speaking to me about something you need to work on. No, don't do that one. But you could say the Lord was speaking to me about you. And I love you. And I pray for you. But I was thinking about this in my own life. And I would love for you to just pray for me. I want to get better here. Go back to Nehemiah just a few more minutes. So I went to Jerusalem. It was there three days. Then I arose in the night. I, and a few men with me, he sneaks into the city. We read this. I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me, but the one which I rode. I went out by night by the valley gate. He's talking about the different spots in the city of Jerusalem that were all burnt down or ruined or rubble. He says, I went out by night by the valley gate to the dragon spring to the dung gate. I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down in his case that had been destroyed by fire. I went out onto the fountain gate to the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. It was so much stuff there that I went up in the night by the valley. I inspected the wall. I turned back and I entered by the valley gate and so returned. He's just given us a, he's letting us know where he goes within the city. And it's all messed up. And the officials did not know where I had gone on what I was doing. And I had not yet told the Jews the priests and the nobles and officials and the rest who were there to do the work. One of the things that stands out in Nehemiah's discretion is, in my mind is his discretion. He doesn't ride into town horns blaring and guns blazing. It wasn't the Nehemiah show. For three days we are told he, last week we mentioned it. He apparently didn't even say anything about why he was there. He was really careful. And that by the way reminds us all that there is a time to be silent. There's a time to keep things to ourselves. Even good things. What? Here it is. Just because something can be shared doesn't always mean it should be shared. The time might not be right. In Nehemiah's case, and I didn't run past this because I was going, Lord, there's things I can learn. You're really learned. It wasn't just a time for discretion. It was a time for discernment. And he wanted to double check what he thought he knew about the true condition of the city. So what he did was he assessed the challenge under the cloak of darkness. And he models. This is a leadership and life principle, by the way. He models the value of not just acting or creating a plan without first seeking to understand the real problem or where the real opportunity is. A lot of times we act without really diagnosing. There is a wisdom in trying to identify what the real problem is and where the most important spots on the wall project need to be attended to. What's the true condition here? And what is it that you want me to give attention to first, Lord? How do I devise a plan and strategy? I need to first understand what my real challenge is. And a lot of times we just see something we go, but we don't really process it through. And then one more thing. His willingness to just take his time and not really share why it was there, reminds me that there is a time for speaking out and persuading others to join us in a cause. I look at this because he gets to a point where he says, look, we need to do something about this. And it kind of reminds me that he's a recruiter. One of my sons is a recruiter for a company and my oldest son. And I've asked him a few times what the process is. And I thought in a way, every one of us are recruiters. If we know Jesus, remember we always talk about it. If you've been rescued, you didn't know it, but this is true. You are part of the rescue team. When we are rescued, we became part of the rescue team. So it is and so will always be. Thank you, Lord, for that. 17, 18, then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in? We're finishing up here, guys. How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned? Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem. Here's the recruiter. The time is right. We may no longer suffer, division, no longer be handicapped, hindered, beaten down. We can actually begin to build our lives in a way. I want you to have a new vision of what God can do in your life. What He wants to do in us, He sent me. It's like me, am I saying? He sent me for this reason. God is with you. And I told him of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good and also the words that the king has spoken to me. And they said, let us do it. Let us rise up and build. And they strengthen their hands. I love that. For the good work, notice He shares what He believes. He believes, okay, we'll finish this and bring the plane down on the land. He shares what He believes they should do in an inspirational way. Let's build the wall so that we can be free of our shame. And I was sitting with that and I was going, man, what's fascinating to me is what He doesn't do. He doesn't point fingers and criticize. That would have been easy to do. He doesn't say, hey, what is wrong with you guys? How can you live like this? He doesn't say, don't you have any pride? How can you live with this rubble? What's going on? Or how come you're so lazy? This is your front yard. What is wrong with you people? I mean, how much time have you had? And I felt a little convicted here because there is the absence of negative motivation. I mean, there's a little bit of it that we may no longer suffer to Risen, but the other version of it may no longer be disgrace. But it's really his neomyas approach is very aspirational. It's not critical. It's not negative. see the negative. He used his we language. This is by the way good for a lot of us in our relationships. We see a problem, but it's a you problem. And this is all the things you're doing wrong. And in the end, nobody says the trouble we are in let us build the wall of Jerusalem. That we may no longer suffer to origin. And then of course one more thing he does, maybe the most important thing he shares the story of God's involvement. He recounts the story how God is with him and he declares, "Look God is with us. He's with us now. He's this is our moment." And they responded, "Yes, let's do it." Okay, the final verse, two verses. But when Samble out the hornite and Tobiah the Ammonite Servant and Gisham, now we see a third opponent arising. Gisham heard of it, they jurned us and they despised us. And they said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" And then I replied to them, "The God of heaven will make us prosper "and we are his service and we will arise and build, "but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem." And that brings us full circle back to where we started, the reality of resistance whenever we're seeking to make progress and break free, but also the reality. And it's the secret to overcoming that the Lord is on our side and he will be our strength and he will help us. And he can't help us. Okay, I actually could say more, but I'm not going to because I'm gonna get in trouble, especially from the kids department, but I felt very motivated by this word. And I want us to close in a particular way. So I love the band to come up and then I'm gonna pray for us as we close in a particular way. Now the song, stick with me here for a minute 'cause we'll close together before the Lord and try to derive strength in these closing moments. The song is going to connect to the Lord's prayer, to some degree, but there's also a line in this song that talks about broken cities, which I found fascinating 'cause that's exactly what Jerusalem was. And then also these two things that I have from you, the Lord is strong and he loves me. The Lord is strong and he loves us. He's on our side. So we'll just receive it together like it's a closing prayer, bringing all the elements of what we shared together. And then I'll just come right behind it and just close us out, all right? So let's share this together. (silence)