Years ago I addressed a large conference for Christian workers on the topic of brokenness, I experienced a dramatic increase in invitations to speak at other gatherings. I was truly grateful and deeply awed by what God had done. But the publicity poured fuel on a fire I had battled most of my life—a craving for human applause and recognition, or what the Bible calls “love of the praise of men” (see John 12:43 ). I found myself relishing what other people said about how God had used me. I was quick to pass along complimentary letters, emails, and write-ups about my ministry to others in hopes that they would think highly of me. I loved seeing my name in print and at times would take steps to ensure that full credit was given to me. As the scope of my ministry grew exponentially, so did my battle with pride and self-exaltation. And all this was taking place as I was traveling around the country delivering what had become my signature message on humility and brokenness! As is always the case with sin, the solution was to get my pride out “into the light.” I realized that I needed to humble myself before others. The Danger in the File Folder One morning I sensed the Lord directing me to write a letter to about a dozen of my “praying friends”—men and women whom I knew cared for my soul. I admitted my struggle with pride to them and asked them to pray that I would be delivered. One of those individuals wrote back and shared an idea that had come to him as he had prayed for me: Perhaps for a season you might collect letters of commendation, praise, and anything that could be the occasion for pride. Do you have a fireplace? If so, once a week, light the fire, and then read through at least a few of them. Then tell the Lord that you know everything will someday be tried by fire and only the gold, silver, and truly precious things will last. At that point, toss some or all of the letters into the fireplace as a symbolic gesture. As I read this suggestion, my thoughts flew to a file in my study that contained memorabilia related to that week in the summer of 1995. In that file I had placed flattering letters, published accounts, and articles about the event, reprints of my message in other publications, and other complimentary responses. I understood at once that the file had served to fuel my pride and had been a means of the Enemy gaining a foothold in my life. A Bonfire of Vanity As the Lord would have it, a couple of weeks after receiving the letter from my “praying friend,” I was scheduled to be in the city where he and his wife lived. I contacted them, explained how the Lord had spoken to me, and asked if they would be willing to meet with me when I was in town to witness the burning of the material in my file. They graciously agreed. A journal entry I made at that time offers a glimpse into what was going on in my heart: There is a dying involved in walking through this process—dying to be able to ever go back and reread the words of praise, dying to anyone else ever reading and being impressed by what’s in there, dying to ever being able to draw affirmation or a sense of personal worth from those flattering words. This exercise gets to the heart of some of the deepest needs in my life. Flesh dies hard—but I know that beyond the brokenness, there will be wholeness; beyond the death, there will be a new experience of His abundant life. In the days after I placed the contents of that file into the fire, God began to grant me an unusually sweet sense of His presence. I found my heart growing in tenderness for Him, and His Word was quickened to my heart in richer and more personal ways than had been true for a long time. New Life from the Ashes You may or may not relate to my particular battle with pride as a public speaker. The point is that, whatever our form of temptation, pride and self must die. Then, through our brokenness, we will experience the release of the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus and the free-flowing power of His Holy Spirit. Making It Personal What causes you to struggle with pride? Your looks? Your intelligence? A particular gift or ability? Find some means—not just as a gesture but in reality—to give up your desire for worldly recognition. www.reviveourhearts.com .

They say that comparison is the thief of joy, and whoever “they” are, I agree with them. If we are always measuring ourselves against our neighbors who are broadcasting their latest and greatest on Instagram or Facebook, how are we to be content with our own lives? Everyone struggles with comparison, but I believe that perhaps the struggle is compounded for women. As women, we tend to be more emotional by nature, and it’s easy to let comparisons—however minor they may be—turn into shame.  And friends, if comparison is the thief of joy, shame is the prison that locks it away. Comparison is an extremely destructive thing. It leads to self-depreciation, self-rejection, and depression. When we believe the lies of comparison, that’s where shame steps in—the fear of being unworthy. Shame makes us feel small, unwanted, and unloved. And together, comparison and shame will keep us from living the full, happy lives we’re destined to live. I don’t know about you, but I want to live a life full of joy. A life free of comparison and shame. But in order to live that life, I have to consciously fight back against the comparison trap each and every day. Here are three ways I’ve learned to fight back against comparison: 1. Begin the day on a positive note. The way I begin my day typically sets the tone for how I operate the rest of the day. Am I frazzled and stressed? Or am I grounded and at peace? For me, starting my day reading the Bible and in prayer—not work email or skimming social media—prepares my mind and my heart to combat comparison. 2. Value your uniqueness. The tendency that most of us face is to devalue our own uniqueness, and instead attempt to become a carbon copy of those we admire. Instead of thinking “I wish I was more ____ “ or “If only I could ____ “, remind yourself about what makes you, you. What makes you unique. There’s only one you on this planet, only one person who can do every single thing you do—and that’s the way it’s supposed to be! When you catch yourself in the comparison trap, remind yourself of your strengths, talents, gifts, and abilities. 3. Limit the time spent on social media. While social media certainly isn’t the cause of the comparison trap, it does seem to make us more susceptible to the trap!  Social media is not real life, but rather a highlight reel that can make our minds run wild with comparisons.  I suggest limiting the amount of time you spend online and instead filling your life with the good stuff—people and relationships. The truth is, this is your one and only life and you should never squander it in the world of comparison. It is great to be stirred and inspired by one another, but not to compete and compare with each other. Let’s cheer each other on to live our best lives, valuing our uniqueness and differences. www.propelwomen.org .

Flight crews routinely announce, “If you’re traveling with a child or someone who requires assistance, in the case of an emergency, secure your own oxygen mask first before helping the other person.” Those instructions may sound selfish, just as it sounds selfish to say that one of our main duties in life is to find happiness, satisfaction, peace, and rest in God. But only when we’re delighting in our Lord do we have  far more to offer everyone else —especially in times of stress and difficulty, when life demands even more of us. Consider the example of George Müller, who immersed himself in the care of thousands of orphans in the 1800s, and suffered from bad health and the weight of stressful responsibilities. One day he wrote in his journal, “This morning I greatly dishonored the Lord by irritability manifested toward my dear wife.” He said he fell “on my knees before God, praising him for having given me such a wife.” Müller didn’t excuse his irritability. He knew his unhappiness and bad mood had displeased God and hurt his wife. He owned up to it. But George Müller couldn’t eliminate stress or occasional bad health. So what was his solution? He wrote, I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was, not how much I might serve the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. . . . I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it. He put into practice what  Psalm 90:14  says: “Satisfy us in the morning with your loyal love! Then we will shout for joy and be happy   all our days!” (NET). On another occasion Müller said, “In what way shall we attain to this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? . . . This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the holy Scriptures.” We may not always recognize it, but we long for God and for His Word, that truth which is an extension of Himself, that clarifies and explains and shows us life as it really is, not as it is constantly misperceived. The world, with its sin and shallowness, leaves a sour taste in our mouths, but there is an eternal sweetness and delight to God’s Word. After we’ve spent enough time there, we’ll find that television and social media and news sites and popular culture will only leave us hungry and unsatisfied. In his excellent  article , Brett McCracken argues that just as fats/sugars/oils fall in the “use sparingly” category of the food pyramid, so too the internet and social media should not make up the bulk of our mental “diet.” In fact, I believe that sometimes it is just toxic, and those who eat a toxic diet will not be spiritually healthy. This is why we see Christians on social media who appear to imagine they are representing Jesus, while they fail to realize everyone else is shaking their heads at their constant launching of verbal grenades and stating their own biased opinions and conspiracy theories as if they were facts.  In my opinion, it’s nearly impossible for perpetually unhappy and critical people to share the “good news of happiness” ( Isaiah 52:7 ) effectively. Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs (1600–1646) spoke about the futility of finding happiness in anything other than God: “That is just as if a man were hungry, and to satisfy his craving stomach he should gape and hold open his mouth to take in the wind, and then should think that the reason why he is not satisfied is because he has not got enough of the wind; no, the reason is because the thing is not suitable to a craving stomach.” That’s why we’re to develop a taste for God’s Word, for it is as desirable and essential for us as milk is for a baby’s growth: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” ( 1 Peter 2:2 ). Like eating good food and exercising regularly, if we develop the holy habit of daily meditating on Scripture, we will deeply appreciate it, realize our need for it, and miss it acutely whenever we’re away from it too long. And we’ll understand that only God can satisfy and sustain us in every season of life. Related to this topic, our friend and EPM board member Robin Green recently sent me this note. It’s a reminder of the ever fresh, perspective-giving power of God’s Word: This morning I was reading in Exodus 32 , how Moses is on the mountain with God, receiving the law. Meanwhile, the Israelites are making a golden calf and worshiping it and sacrificing to it and saying it is the god who brought them up out of Egypt. And God is angry and says He will consume them. But Moses implores the Lord and reminds Him of His covenant and all. “And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” Of course, when he gets down from the mountain, Moses throws a fit and is furious with the people. And Aaron says he threw the gold into the fire and “out came this calf.” It’s ridiculous! For some reason, this passage spoke to me about our sin, the sin of our nation, the sin of our world in turning away from God and ignoring Him and wishing to go our own way. And I was moved to pray that the Lord would relent from the disaster that is on us… not just the virus, but the crazy politics of our day, the division, the hatred, the flying after foolish answers to serious problems, the idolatry of wealth and health and youth. I just wanted to say that God’s Word speaks to us each time we read it. No matter how many times it is read, it still speaks freshly to each day. I find that amazing. Of course Exodus 32  isn’t speaking directly about the pandemic of 2020. But God takes His word and reminds us that we are but dust, just as the Israelites in the desert were dust. We are wayward, just as they were. And He has a way out, which He graciously provided through Jesus. It’s amazing. “How sweet are thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” ( Psalm 119:103, NIV ) “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.” ( Psalm 119:20, NIV ) “I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.” ( Psalm 119: 131, NIV ) “You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.” ( Psalm 63:5, NLT ) epm.org .

Hi, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in. And I sure look forward to being together again. Hey, but until then, thanks for joining us from the comfort of wherever you are joining us from. And for those of you who have allowed us to be your church while your local church is gearing up to reopen, we have certainly enjoyed having you and we will be here as long as you need us. Today, we begin a brand new four-part series entitled "Leading Through", and the subtitle is "Three Essentials for Navigating Uncertainty". "Three Essentials for Navigating Uncertainty". Now here's the thing. Here's what we all have in common. In light of everything that's happened the past several months, there's a sense in which we are all picking up the pieces, moving forward the best that we can, but many of us, and I bet this includes you, many of us are responsible for helping other people move forward as well. Family members, maybe employees, team members, students, members of the community. So if you're a parent, a manager, a business owner, an executive, a teacher, a coach, a mayor, maybe part of a city council, people are looking to you and they're looking to me for direction. They're looking to us for inspiration. And mainly they're looking to us for hope. And you know this because you're a leader. Leading under normal circumstances and leading in normal conditions is tough enough, right? But leading people through and out of what we've just come through? Not for the faint of heart. And, and I won't tell if you won't, but the people who are looking to us for leadership, they have no idea how unprepared we are and how unprepared we feel, right? Because come on, we don't have all the answers. We don't have all the answers. We don't always know what to do. And isn't it true? We're just kind of making this up as we go along. At least I know I am. Now this is super important. About 20 years before the story we're gonna look at today, about 20 years before that, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah. The city of Jerusalem was actually spared for the time being. But while he was there, Nebuchadnezzar went in and rounded up members of the nation's elite, their citizens, their best and their brightest people, and brought them active Babylon as hostages. And included in this number of folks where Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel. Then, a few years later, Nebuchadnezzar returns to Jerusalem. He sacks the city. He destroys the temple. But before he destroyed it, he looted it. And then he takes all the contents of the Jewish temple to Babylon, and he places them in the palace vault. Now I need you to log all of that away because those details become very important toward the end of today's story. Now, Daniel and the Judeans exiled in Babylon, for them, the moral of this story was simple. That God was judging the nation of Israel for its disobedience, and that basically God was putting the nation in timeout until they got their act together, until they decided to become faithful to the covenant. So for them, that's how they understood these events. But King Nebuchadnezzar didn't see it that way. The way he saw it, it was very simple. His God, Marduk, was clearly more powerful than the Jewish god, Yahweh. And Israel's god had lost. So consequently, that's just the end of the story, right? But as it turns out, that was not the end of the story. In fact, it's actually why we know this story. Daniel documents these unusual events in the Old Testament Book of Daniel. He'd been in Babylon for about 20 years by this time. He'd become a trusted advisor to King Nebuchadnezzar. And according to Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had a disturbing, terrifying dream that he was absolutely sure had some kind of significance for him and possibly for Babylon. And so Daniel documents what Nebuchadnezzar describes as this horrible dream. Here's what he writes. He said, "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous, and I had a dream that made me afraid". And here's what he dreamed. He dreamed that there was this enormous, beautiful tree that was visible to all the earth, and all the animals of the earth rested under the canopy of this enormous tree, and it provided food for all the earth's creatures. Then, in the dream he hears this loud voice from heaven that says, "Cut it down". And in his dream, suddenly this enormous tree is cut down to a stump. And then in the dream, the voice says this. It says, "Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. And let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him". And then the voice announces this. "The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that". And here's the bottom line for Nebuchadnezzar and here's the bottom line for us. That all the world would know that "the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people". So when Nebuchadnezzar wakes up from this dream, he is terrified, and he knows it has something to do with him. So he calls in all the usual suspects to help him interpret this dream, and they either can't or perhaps they won't, and eventually he brings in Daniel. And when Daniel hears Nebuchadnezzar's dream, he also is terrified. In fact, Daniel is so terrified when he hears Nebuchadnezzar's dream, that Nebuchadnezzar actually has to comfort Daniel. And here's what Daniel says. He says, "My Lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries". But it doesn't, it's all about you. And then I think, perhaps, because of what he was about to say, Daniel takes a step back and he says, "King Nebuchadnezzar, here's what the dream means. The Most High God has decreed that you will be driven away from humanity. That you're about to become like a wild animal. That you're going to humiliate yourself publicly. And that this will go on until you finally acknowledge", and then maybe he takes another step back, "until you finally acknowledge that the Most High God, not you and not Marduk, is sovereign over the kingdoms of men". And then he gives him a little bit of good news. He says this, he says, "Your kingdom will eventually be restored to you, but not until you acknowledge that heaven rules. Therefore, your majesty, be pleased to accept my advice". And then Daniel steps into his role as an advisor to the most powerful man on the planet, and here's what he says. He says, "Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue". Well, Nebuchadnezzar was terrified by the dream, but apparently he wasn't all that terrified, because nothing changed for 12 months. And then everything changed. 12 months later, King Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and he said to himself or he said out loud, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty"? And we can hear the music change, can't we? And we can pretty much guess what happens next, can't we? "The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven". And the voice said this. "This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar". Now King Nebuchadnezzar is the one who's accustomed to making the decrees. Now someone is making a decree about him. "King Nebuchadnezzar, your royal authority has been taken from you". It's been taken because it can be taken, and it can be taken because it was given. It was on loan. It was a stewardship, Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar, you didn't know it. But you are accountable and you're being called to account. You made it all about you, and now you're through. "King Nebuchadnezzar, you will be driven away from people and you will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox. And seven times, seven times will pass by for you, until you acknowledge". And here's the bottom line. "Until you finally acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign, the Most High is sovereign over all the kingdoms on earth, and he gives them to anyone he wishes". And immediately Daniel says, immediately, "Nebuchadnezzar was driven away from people and he ate grass like the ox. His body was eventually drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird". Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind, possibly stricken with boanthropy. Boanthropy is actually a real psychological disorder where the person is suffering from it actually believes that he or she is a cow or an ox. So what happens is his attendants or his wife walks in one day and they find King Nebuchadnezzar crawling around on all fours making animal noises. They take him out to a private garden and they try to keep this story private, and he lives there. We don't know how long, but eventually he comes back to his senses. And when he's told what happened, of course, he's absolutely humiliated. And he puts two and two together. He remembers the dream and he remembers Daniel's interpretation of the dream. And Daniel takes down his confession, and here's what Nebuchadnezzar said at the end of that time. He said, "I, Nebuchadnezzar, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was finally restored". And then, then of course he did. "Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion". Suddenly it's not all about Marduk, it's all about Daniel's God. "His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation". This is so powerful. "No one, no one can hold back his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?' And now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride... Those who walk in pride, he is able to humble". So here's the lesson for Nebuchadnezzar and for us. Leadership, even kingship, is a stewardship. It's a gift, it's temporary. Leaders and kings, leaders and kings are accountable. And so we dare not, this is our lesson, we dare not leverage our power, we dare not leverage our influence to oppress. Now this whole incident with Nebuchadnezzar did not happen in secret. Wherever there were slaves, there were no secrets. And this story eventually circulates throughout the royal family and beyond. Then, follow along, 40 years go by, 40 years later, by this time Nebuchadnezzar dies, there were two or three other kings that lasted for a very short time, but 40 years later, the new king of Babylon is Nabonidus. He's the brand new king of Babylon. He's the king of Babylon, but he is no King Nebuchadnezzar. And as the glory of Babylon begins to fade, in the East, the Persians, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, begin to flex their military and economic muscle, and Cyrus the Great sets his sights on the city of Babylon with all of its legendary wealth, and he launches a campaign of conquest and destruction with Babylon, the city of Babylon, as the ultimate prize. So King Nabonidus, who's the king now in Babylon, he put his co-regent, Belshazzar, in charge of the city. I know it's a lot of names. He puts Belshazzar in charge of the city of Babylon. Then he and the Babylonian army go out to confront Cyrus who's making his way toward the city of Babylon. Well, the Persian army under Cyrus decimates the Babylonian army. They capture Nabonidus and they march on the city. And Cyrus knows, Cyrus knows that the great city of Babylon, the defenses make it pretty much impregnable, but he's gonna march on the city anyway. Meanwhile, inside the city of Babylon, Belshazzar, who now considers himself the king, prepares the city for a protracted siege. He reinforces the gates as the Persian army surrounds the city. And he is so confident the Persians will never breach the walls of Babylon. I mean, from his perspective, the Persian army is gonna thirst to death, starve to death, or if they stay too long, they're gonna freeze to death. But there was no way they would take the city of Babylon. So with the city's defenses set, Belshazzar decides to throw a party. A huge party. Now, in light of what happens next, it's important to note that Belshazzar was actually the late King Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. In the text, it refers to him as Nebuchadnezzar's son, but that's just the way they talked. He was actually King Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. So here's what happened next. "King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for 1,000 of his nobles". This was a big party. "And he drank wine with them. And while Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father", or his grandfather, "had taken from the temple of Jerusalem". We talked about that up top, remember. "So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them". They essentially made a mockery of these sacred things that had been taken from God's temple in Jerusalem. But it gets worse. "As they drank, as they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold, the gods of silver, of bronze, iron, the gods of wood and the gods of stone". And Yahweh had finally had enough. The text says that suddenly, "Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand, in the royal palace". And the party stopped, right? The king watched. "The king watched the hand as it wrote", but he can't read what's being written. In fact, nobody can read it. The text says that "his face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking". And then Belshazzar announces to everybody at the party, "Anyone who can read this, anyone who can read and interpret this writing, I will make them the third highest ruler in the kingdom". But nobody steps up. Now his queen, who apparently either wasn't invited to the party or who left early, hears all of this commotion, or maybe she hears a lack of commotion, she steps into the banquet hall, she glances up at the wall and sees this strange writing on the wall, and she comes over to the king and she says, "Pumpkin", or however she referred to Belshazzar. "Pumpkin", she says. "Don't be alarmed. Don't look so pale. There's actually a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. King Nebuchadnezzar actually appointed him to be the chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners a long time ago. And this man has in him the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and to solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means". Now, Daniel must've been in his 70s by this time. Apparently he'd been forgotten by everybody, except perhaps the queen. So they find Daniel, they usher him in. Belshazzar repeats his promises of wealth and glory and power. Daniel shakes his head. He glances up at the strange script that's written on the plaster and he says, "You may keep your gifts. You may keep gifts for yourself, Belshazzar, and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and I will tell him what it means". And I'm sure you could have heard a pin drop in the throne room as Daniel begins. And he says this, "Your majesty, your majesty". He recounts a little history, puts this in context. "Your majesty, the Most High God", and here's our word, "gave your father or your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor". It was a gift. Because, he says, "Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and all the peoples of every language dreaded and feared your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar. But when his heart, but when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory". Until, until, until. "Until he acknowledged". And here's the bottom line. "Until he finally acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and he sets over them any one he wishes". Then I think he paused, and he looks at Belshazzar right in the eye and he says this. "But you, but you, but you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all of this". You've heard this story before. You knew what happened to your grandfather. You've been warned, you should know better. "But instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven". And then I think Daniel got a little bit angry, because as he looked around the throne room and he saw these precious articles that had been stolen from the Jewish temple being used the way they were, and he shakes his finger in the face of the king and he said, "You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles and your wives and your concubines drank wine from them". You have made a mockery of Yahweh. And then, to make it worse, "You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand". He just offends their entire pantheon of gods. "But you did not honor, you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription". To which he could have added, and are you really sure you wanna know what it says? "Here is what the words mean. Mene, God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end". Belshazzar, your leadership was a loan, and God is calling the loan. "Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and you have been found wanting". You are accountable, you've been evaluated. "Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians". It's been taken away. You thought it was yours. It was never yours. He gives and he takes away, and now he's taking it away. Now, while all of this is going on, while they're having the party, you know, while Daniel's interpreting what's been written on the plaster, unbeknownst to anyone in the room, Persian engineers were actually diverting a portion of the Euphrates River into a swamp outside the city. Now the Euphrates River actually ran under the wall of Babylon and through the city, that's why they had an endless water supply and that's why they were not afraid of a protracted siege. But here's the thing. By diverting the water supply, the Persian engineers caused the level of the Euphrates River to drop. And when it was low enough, a Persian SEAL team swam under the wall, killed the Babylonian guards guarding the gates, and then dragged those enormous steel-girded doors open, and the Persians look the city. In fact, Daniel tells us that that very night, "That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain. The Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, and he gives them to anyone he wishes". Now, I'll be honest. I'm not sure how all that works. But if it's true, and I think it is, there's something there for all of us who have any measure of influence. Your talent, your education, your family connections, your hard work, your discipline, or maybe just your plain luck, you know, puts you in a place of influence. But what you do with that influence determines whether or not you are a leader worth following, a leader worth emulating. And this is what's so catalytic about this idea. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar in his early years and unlike Belshazzar, when we view our influence, when we view our influence, however great or small, when we view it as a temporary stewardship for which we are accountable, we will be far less likely to spend it all, focus it at all, or leverage it all on ourself. And we will be far more inclined to leverage our leadership and our influence for the sake of those we have the privilege to lead. We won't need to be reminded that greatness is more than progress. When we embrace this definition of leadership that incorporates the idea that it's a stewardship, that it's temporary and that we're accountable, we won't have to be reminded that people matter, that people matter most, that what's best for people is always what's best. We won't need to be reminded that people matter to God, because we will live with the understanding that it's God who loaned us our temporary opportunity to begin with. So, whether you're leading a family, a business, a nonprofit, a division, a department, a team, a city, a state, or a nation, remember this. Leadership, leadership at every level, leadership is always a stewardship. It is always temporary. And you are accountable. And here's why. Because the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and he gives them temporarily to any one he wishes. Now all of that is simply the setup or the context for where we're going over the next three weeks. And next time we're gonna tackle the first of these three essentials for leading through times of disruption and uncertainty, so please, please, please, don't miss part two of "Leading Through". The world needs leaders, especially during times of uncertainty. But not just any leaders. King Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by God in a drastic way, but learned from his suffering to trust God and lead wisely. We can learn to lead in difficult times too. Preached at North Point Church.

All right, Daniel 3:14, here's what it says. It says, "And Nebuchadnezzar said to them, 'Is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now, when you hear this sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music: if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand?' Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the King, 'Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it and he will rescue us from your hand, oh King. But even if he does not, we want you to know, oh King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.' Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes". I have to resist the urge to comment on how much outfit is going on here. Because we already have a trouser and a turban and a robe, but that's not to mention all the other clothes they were also wearing on this particular occasion. "They were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The King's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, 'Weren't there three men we tied up and threw into the fire?' They replied, 'Certainly, oh King.' He said, 'Look, I see four men walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.'" "Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out. Come here.' So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. And the satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisors crowded around them". Don't miss this. "They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed. Their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, 'Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who has sent his angel and rescued his servants.' They trusted in him and defied the King's command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any God except their own God". As we close out this message series, "Up In Smoke," I want to preach to you a message that I'm calling "Worth Dying For". Come on, anybody have faith to believe that God's going to move and empower. Jesus, we ask and pray that you will show us something brand new about who you are. And that we could see in ourselves these same qualities that are being held up from these three Hebrew children as a result of your work in our lives because you are the very same God who worked in their lives on this day. And we have access to what made them so strong then even now. Help us to see it, help us to believe it, even though often times it doesn't seem like it. And we ask that if even one person is here who doesn't know you, in this moment you would draw them to yourself by your Holy Spirit. We pray this in the mighty matchless name of Jesus. And everyone who believes said together Amen. Nebuchadnezzar was king around 600 BC at this time of this story, where he and his Babylonian empire had pulled an Alexander the Great and conquered the world. Or we could have said Napoleon Bonaparte, we could have said Julius, but he was at the top of the food chain. He was in that rarefied air with other dictators who had basically conquered the entire earth. And one of the things that he had the habit of doing was taking captives from countries he overturned. From countries he conquered he would bring the best and the brightest back home to serve in his city. And so those who are teenagers would be what he would be thinking for. So, if he took over America, he'd be going to Harvard, he'd be be going to Yale, and going to MIT. And he would basically, like, no, you're coming with me now. And he would change their names because all three of these Hebrew children, we read their names like 15 times, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these were not their God-given names. No, their names they were given as Israelites, as people who followed the God of the Bible. He changed their names and gave them all names that paid homage to Babylonian deities. And so they went through this intense brainwashing situation, but then eventually they were going to ultimately serve in his cabinet. That was the goal. And these three that we are reading about, they were a part of that group of people that were taken captive and dragged off in chains as teenagers to live in Babylon. Now, what we know of these three Hebrew children and their friend, Daniel, who is the author of the book that we are reading, is that they chose to respond to their time living in Babylon the same way that we are called by God to approach living in the culture that we live in today. That is to say that we would follow Christ being in the world, but not of the world. Now, that's easy to roll off the tongue because it's a verse that's somewhat familiar, but so many of us struggle with it every single day. Why is it so hard to live in the world but not of the world? Because what's far easier as Jesus' followers living in a world that does not follow Jesus, because can we all agree our culture, the gods that are worshiped, the way of life, the world view, what is normal today is not like honor Jesus, love God, live your life seeking Him first, focus more on heaven than on here now. No, that's not the plan, that's not the goal, that's not what we think of today, what we see today. So we're living in the midst of Babylon right now, so we have to live in a world, not of the world. And that means there's two mistakes that we must not make. Mistake number one is separation. Separation where we try and pretend like we're already living in Heaven. Christian bubble, Christian everything, offended by the world, lalalala lalalala, like the world doesn't exist. It's evil and bad, it's got cooties on it so we're going to live over here in this compound 20 floors below the earth. We have a lot of rations, we're going to make it. That's the separation. The problem with separation is that you bring sin and defilement into your bunker with you in your heart. And so you can't escape sin because you've got some inside of you too. So we're trying to avoid being defiled, but we've brought in with us the most sinister of all pride and religion and smugness. And, plus, that's not to say anything of the fact that you can't reach a world you've abandoned. You can't reach a world you're hiding from. You can't reach a world you won't allow yourself to touch. And so separation is not a great plan. The other often repeated mistake is imitation. This is where we don't want to separate so we just, basically, we worship the gods of this world. We, basically, live exactly like those who are in this world and we're so eager to not offend anyone that we don't stand up for anything. And, basically, we don't have anything to offer them because we've become identical to them in worldview. We're meant to be a peculiar people in a certain way, we're meant to have different values. And so separation and imitation are both equal mistakes. What Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did that was so wise is they did exactly what we're supposed to do, and that's to not choose either of those. To know that we'll always find tension because, at any given moment, we're being pulled in one of those two directions. Sometimes in the same day, sometimes in the same school day, sometimes in the same work day, sometimes in the same email you're writing, you find yourself wanting to separate and having to catch yourself, wanting to imitate and having to have to correct that too. So what do you gotta do? You've got to infiltrate. That's number three, that's right in the middle: Infiltrate. We're not going to separate from the world, we're not going to imitate it. We're going to infiltrate the world with the love of God. We've got to be in it without being of it so we can give something to it. Then we can build it, then we can change it, then we can love it, then we can touch it, then we can show it the way that's the way, the truth, and the life. By getting our hands dirty, by getting to know people, by not being offended by the fact that sinners sin. It's what they do and so do we. It's loving them as we follow a perfect God imperfectly. And being on the journey with people, and being in the communities, and being in the city. This is why "Rock the City" is so important to us. If you're watching on TV, we do what so many churches try to do and love the cities that we're in. We're in 12 beautiful cities and our church online family jumps in and shows the love of Jesus in other cities as well. It's amazing to see when that happens. But what we're trying to seek the peace of the city. We care about the parks, we care about the schools, we care about people having blood to have put into them in transfusions. We're going to go willingly give our blood. Why, we're following someone who's the original blood donor. He shed his blood on the cross so we're willing to give a little bit of ours too. We want to get our hands dirty, we want to get our feet dirty, we want to be around the brokenness of our cities and infiltrate workplaces. And we're not trying to create a sub-Christian culture of this. No, we want to be in the arena, we want to be in politics, we want to be in government, we want to be in sport, we want to be in all of these things not so that we're insulated, but so that we can constantly be doing what Jesus said to do: to give, to show, to serve, to love. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are prototypes for how we should love and serve and have influence. So they're brought in, they could have reacted one way, oh, we should be back in Israel. They're not in Israel and you're not going to be there for a long time. All right? What can we do here? See, so many people live focused on what's been taken from them and they forget about what can't be taken away. If we would live more, what can't be taken away? They could take me to Israel, but they can't take the God of Israel out of me. He's with me here. I'm going to let this be a little expression of the Holy Land wherever I walk, wherever I go. OK, you're in chains now and you're brought in to Babylon. What are you going to do? Do the best job you can. OK? So that's exactly what they did. And living the way they did was a great plan until the day came to a head, when part of the responsibilities of being a citizen of Babylon was, oh, the King built a really giant statue made of gold and he's ordered that everyone has to bow down and worship it. Now, at this point, they're at a dilemma because their goal is to seek the betterment of Babylon, see the King thrive. They were in, literally, his inner circle. We'll talk about how they got into that in just a little bit longer, but they got favor and influence that's scary in the kingdom. But then one day the King has this crazy idea, wish I could tell you the back story of his resisting the grace of God. The statue was him resisting the grace of God because God had done something crazy to speak to Nebuchadnezzar and he was fighting against it. And he was doing what in the New Testament later, Acts would describe as kicking against the goats. God was goading Nebuchadnezzar trying to reach him with his love. And his statue is his fighting against that and trying to scare God away. So everyone has to worship this statue. Now, their goal is to infiltrate but to worship this God would be to imitate. So they can't do it. They can't do this. Why? Because here's how they were raised, here's what was imprinted on their heart when they were just babies. The Bible says, "You shall have no other gods before me". Look at this next verse. "You shall not make yourself an idol in the form of anything of Heaven above, Earth beneath, to the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them". So they had to choose between God and honoring man here. And when that push comes to shove, what they had to do, what they were modeling for us how to do, is to say, respectfully, we must not bow. We'll do everything we can, we'll be the best employees we can, but this is something that we cannot do. And the King said, if you don't, you're dead. And they said, but our faith in God is worth dying for. We are willing. We're willing. Can you not celebrate that kind of man! Respectfully, King, Your Majesty. Then we have to go into the oven. 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, a kiln used for baking bricks. They said, please, show us the way to the oven then. Because we'll honor you, we'll serve you the best of anybody of our effort, but we will have to die then. And I think all of us just want that to be in us on that day. Let's deconstruct it then and try and figure out how. Because I don't think it's an accident that they ended up here at this place at the top of the mountain, right? There's an old saying that says if you see someone at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there. And I think it's easy in the Bible to go, at a moment like this and go, man, they're at the top of the mountain, and just assume they fell there and hope that we'll fall there too. But you don't fall up a mountain. And you don't just accidentally end up one day with the kind of guts and steel in your spine that causes, thousands of years later, people to still be stirred by the story of what was written on your soul. So how did they get there? Here's, I think, a couple of things. Jot them down. I think there was a consistency in behavior that we should celebrate. I think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, long before they're jumping into this fire, they were consistent day by-day with small decisions in little ways in behavior. Oh, it's great to talk about the plain of Dura and a 70 foot tall statue. And you think, ah, man, I would do the same thing, I would die for God. And that's great, would you live for Him? Well, I'll die for Him. That's great but what about tomorrow at work, would you live for Him? What about when you're watching TV and you're choosing what you watch and bringing, will you live for Him? Consistency in behavior. Well, you're kind of reading that into the text. Oh, no, no, I'm not, is actually the back story. If you read Daniel 1 this week, it started with carrot sticks. Started with carrot sticks. First day on the job was like, hey, orientation, here's what you eat. Here's the thing, here's where you're going to read, here's how you're going to study, and they were like, oh, man, there's some dietary issues here, and we're not being picky but some of the things we're supposed to eat, we're not supposed to eat. And so there's this beautiful moment where they just were willing to say, hey, could you, and it was so cool how they framed it, they were just so diplomatic. The guy who was supervising the program. They said, let's do a test instead of saying, we can't eat that, you pig. How dare you eat such foul things? They were so diplomatic. Daniel was like, well, obviously, the King wants us to be really healthy and this is what you're feeding us. And that makes total sense, actually, it's probably the best thing anyone should eat. But here's a crazy thought. And he suggested what they wanted to eat because they were supposed to eat, which just at that moment would be vegetables and water. He's like, what if you just ran us as a pilot program, a test. Who knows what can happen if for 10 days, let's say, we just ate that, then you let everybody else eat the regular stuff. Then you test us and compare us. Hey, if we're not healthier, we'll be happy to figure something else out. And so they drew a line in the sand on small things is my point. And, of course, at the end of the 10th day, they were better looking in complexion, in strength, in vitality than all those that were eating the delicacies brought in from the King's table and the wine that he drank. And they were healthier, they were better, they were fitter, and so they were allowed to stay on what they wanted to bring into their bodies for the rest of the entire program. So how do you get one day to have this kind of amazing strength? I believe it starts in the small decisions that you're pre-making day-by-day. I'll have you notice that when they got to this moment, they were asked, we'll heat it up seven times hotter and you'll have to go in. They said, we don't even need to think about it. He was basically saying, take a moment and think about what's going to happen. And they go, we don't actually need to, our decision was made long ago when we got here. And we decided that God first, and after that we're going to honor each other and honor the King and do the best job we possibly can, that he put inside of us. But they said, there's certain things we can't do, there are certain things we can do. Some of y'all need to pre-make more decisions. That is to say, don't wait till you're in the heat of the moment. Don't wait to draw a line sexually till you're on your date. Don't wait till you're in the theater to say, what am I going to bring into my soul? Make some decisions ahead of time for your heart. This is what I'm going to live for, this is what I'm going to stand for, these are some things I'm not willing to do. I'm not willing to get into a shady business deals, I'm not willing to do unethical things or things that are illegal, or things that are outside of law. We need to choose ahead of time who we are going to be. That's how character is formed. What I'm trying to say is that the key to confidence in the bad times is consistency in the good times. And you are today determining what you're going to do on that dark ultimate day. When you get into that, like the pressure's really on, it's right now that you're forming character, or the lack thereof of, that's going to be there to help you or to be there to hurt you. Don't wait till you're off at college to figure out what you're going to believe and wait till you're off at this situation. Choose now what kind of a husband you're going to be, choose now what kind of a wife you're going to be, what kind of a mom you're going to be. I just encourage you to make some decisions ahead of time, make some resolutions inside your soul. But because they were consistent in their behavior, they ended up courageous under pressure. And that's the second thing that we have to marvel at: that these men reached a place where they were just courageous under pressure. Why is that? Well, because I believe they knew who God was. They knew who God was and that's what they were thinking of on this day. The cool thing about the Bible is that we get a picture of chronology. And I love that the book of Isaiah was written before the book of Daniel. The book of Isaiah was written before the book of Daniel. What does that mean? That means Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had access to what Isaiah when he talked about this. Look at it. "When you pass through waters, I'll be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they won't sweep over you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze". So they are consistent in behavior, they remember God is with them, now they're courageous under pressure. Why? Because they fear God. These are three people who fear. They revere God. Like the encounter Isaiah had. Woe is me for I am undone. God is worthy. They had this worship of God that was written over their life. It was the major story, it was the all caps headline, everything else was a detail. And church, I got news for you. When you fear God, you don't have to fear anyone else. You never have to fear men, you never have to fear situations, you don't have to be afraid of anything when you ultimately fear God more than everything. So they were courageous under pressure. Third thing I see is that they were cut free by the fire. As I read the story, I marvel at the fact that they actually, if you want to be technical about it, they were better off after the situation than they were before it. This was actually a gift, strangely wrapped, I'll grant you that. Strangely wrapped, I'll grant you that, by a gift. When it was all over, not in the moment, I guarantee you that. They were standing there, everyone's bowing. They're like ahh. It's hard to go, that's a gift, this is a gift. This is a gift, what a great gift. Yeah, thanks for the gift. But by the time it was over: why? Because before they were thrown in they were tied up. And by the end of it they were unbound and unharmed. They went in tied up, they came out unbound. Tied up, unbound. Tied up, unbound. Tied up, unbound. How many of you know that sometimes the only way to get unbound is to be going into the fire sometimes? That God has to put you in to a situation that will burn away what ties you up and keeps you away from your God-given destiny. Sometimes there are passions in our heart that aren't helping us, sometimes we're tied up to addiction, sometimes we're tied up to situations, sometimes we have unhealthy addictions. We have unhealthy dependencies, reactions, and sometimes going into a fire helps you to find the dross burned away, that you're actually going to have more liberty because of the hard thing you went through. Because God's going to show you he's with you and that He'll never abandon you. 1 Peter talks about this kind of purifying. He says, "In this now you greatly rejoice". Greatly rejoice, greatly rejoice, all God's people said: Greatly rejoice. So that's not a little rejoicing, that's not like, yay. Praise Him. With a shout of joy, with arms raised in belief, with eyes closed in humbled dependence: "Greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved". Look at it, go back. Grieved. Grief? Greatly rejoice in grief? Greatly rejoice, triumphant victorious joy? Grief? Hurting, hard, weeping, our automatic go-to response isn't yay. Why? Because we're back in Dura and everyone's bowing, and it's hard to go, gift. It takes faith to say this is a gift. Strangely wrapped, I'll grant Him that, but a gift. Look at this. Why would we rejoice in the grief? Here we go. Because the result of it it's going to be that, "The genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ". The only thing that comes out of a fire is preciousness. Gold comes in, pure gold comes out. And I just encourage you to believe you're going to be cut loose by the fire. And that just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who by the end of the story, we didn't read it, they get promoted. So the goal of this backstory is their enemies wanted to tear them down and that's why they set up this whole thing. And then made sure, engineered this situation, to cut them down. The end result was they get promoted. Now in the middle of it, it felt like they were going to die. But the end result is better, the end result is purified, the end result is stronger, the end result is more confident, the end result is more reliant on God's presence, miraculous strength. What I'm trying to say is I just encourage you to believe that when life gets seven times hotter, it's actually God trying to make you 10 times better. That right now, whatever you're going through that feels like it's not just a furnace, it's a furnace heated up seven times hotter. It's because on the backend, God wants you to be 10 times better than you are right now, 10 times fitter than you are right now, 10 times the father that you are right now. But what we shouldn't be so naive to believe would be that it's always going to look exactly like it looked on this day. What do you mean? Well, I mean on this exact occasion God chose to glorify himself and purify His people by bringing them out of the furnace. But God doesn't just work in one way, He has lots of ways and his ways are not our ways. And what I've learned in my life and from scripture is that God can deliver you from the furnace or through it. He can deliver you from something or through something. So what does that mean? That means that sometimes God calls you out of the furnace and that's the deliverance. But other times the deliverance is He allows you to stay in the furnace and that can deliver you too. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew exactly that that was a possibility. In fact, if you look back at verse 17 and 18, they mentioned three things. I'm going to show them to you. The God we serve is able, He will rescue us from your hand, third thing is but even if He doesn't. Look at it again. Our God is able, He will deliver us from your hand, but even if He doesn't. And if you could learn those three things and hold them up, our God is able, no matter what I'm delivered, no matter what I win, no matter what God is glorified, no matter what his plans are aren't thwarted. And even if He doesn't choose to do what I hope He does right here, what He is able to do, we're not going to bow anyway. We're still going to fear Him, we're still going to love Him, we're still going to keep loving you, we're still going to keep praying for you. Let's define our terms. God is able. He could snap his fingers, the oven goes out. Snap his fingers, your heart goes out, Nebuchadnezzar. Right? This is what was in that. He could right now swoop in with angels. Our God is able. But even if He doesn't, meaning He may not choose to do what He can do because of the plans that He understands that we don't even have access to. So what's the middle part? The triumphant part is no matter what, He will rescue us from your hand. What does that mean? Well, let's say God chose to let them get put into the fire and they burn and they die. What happens to them next? They instantly are transported to Heaven, where they are delivered from Nebuchadnezzar hand and they instantly have no pain, instantly have no guilt, instantly have no sin where they are out of his clutches forever in God's presence for all eternity. So even if they die, they win. But if God chooses to deliver them out, which He is able, we win also. So no matter what, all we do is win, win, win, because we are on the winning team. So no matter what, we're going to bow because we've already bowed down. You can't bow down when you're already bowing, and in our hearts we're already worshipping the true and loving God. The fourth thing is I love that they came out of the fire collected and not sour. Jot it down, they came out collected. These are men who have just been in an oven. An oven so hot the people who threw them in died throwing them in. They came out collected, which, by the way, I could preach for a long time about how when there's a grace on your life, you can do what other people find impossible. It's just all about the grace on you. But I won't. I want to talk about they came out collected and not sour. Why? Because the text tells us that their clothes, they weren't burned. The hair on their head not singed. They didn't even smell of smoke. I'm just telling you there's just something beautiful about understanding that the hard things you've gone through don't have to define you. They don't come out smelling like their trial. Oh, man, you must have been through it. Yeah, let me tell you about it, it was horrible. You would never even know. And I'm just believing for a kind of strength, a kind of faith, a kind of resolve, a kind of worship in your life that being around you, I'd have to even wait, you've been through what? You've been through that, you're going through cancer, you're going through this? But there's such a strength about you, such a sweetness about you. You're not walking in all the time like, oh, it's so bad. Oh, it's so hard. Oh, woe is me. Oh, woe is the world. There's such a beautiful strength about you, that God has done such a vibrant work in you. We'd be surprised if we even knew what went on inside of you. Because the devil wants you to smell like your trial. But there's just such a beauty in understanding that the work God wants to do is to free you from the victim mentality by giving you the victor's personality. And just to understand the power and the strength that comes from being able to go through bitter experiences without becoming bitter yourself. And that these men were still sweet. They didn't smell like burnt flesh, they didn't smell like burnt hair, and they still had a pure heart towards Babylon. The next day, what do they do? Go to work. Go back to work for the King and work alongside people who had conspired to take them out. These are people who had the kind of faith my friend, Pastor Jensen Franklin, talks about, that is to be able to love like you've never been hurt. To love like you never tried to get assassinated, to love like you weren't maligned, to love like you weren't conspired against, to love like you weren't gossiped about. I'm just believing for you that you will not smell like the smoky situations you've been through. Why? Here we go. Because like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you're going to live a life coated in God's power. Coated in God's power. I bought my kids a book of science experiments and one of the ones that we read about in the book was one that involved soapy water and a beach ball. This is my daughter, Alivia, by the way. Say hi, Alivia, everybody. But I think, safety first, children, so we'll be protected. This one involves a beach ball, but not just any beach ball that you would fill normally with air before you take it to the beach. We filled this one up with methane gas, which is pretty dangerous, actually, to be completely honest with you. And if you take a beach ball full of methane gas into a container full of dish soap, you can kind of do something neat. Because what you can do is... This is a methane bubble. Don't breathe this, kids. Let's get a little deeper. It's like I'm playing the bagpipes. There we go, that's the sweet spot. So these bubbles are all full individually of trapped methane gas. Before I grab it and have Alivia set it on fire in my hands, what I'm going to do is coat my hands in water. Hey, come on, let's hear it. Good job, Alivia, thank you so much. Now here's the thing, the reason that didn't burn me is because the fire couldn't touch me. Because they were coated in the water that absorbed the heat. And I love so much that we get a picture of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, how are they loose walking in the fire? Because of the one who was walking with them. The fire couldn't touch them because of who they were walking with, who absorbed the flames, who absorbed the heat, who took the pain so they were pleasant walking around the fire. And this story in Daniel 3, it actually points to Jesus. It points us not only because He was the one walking, I believe, in the fire with them, not only because Jesus was the son of God who showed up in that fire, but because on the day that He went to the cross, He willingly walked into the furnace so that you could safely come out. That's the gospel. Jesus willingly went into the fire. You'll notice that Jesus didn't walk out. These three men walked out, he stayed in. Why? Because He had unfinished business. As He would go to the cross and hang there in the fire, absorbing the fire in the heat of the wrath of God against sin, so that we could safely come out. And I love so much that this story shows us what happens when we're coated with God's power. And, ultimately, the great strength we're going to have in the battles that we face is not relying on our love for God, but relying on His love for us. I titled this message "Worth Dying For" not because I want you to walk out of here thinking, I'm going to live for God and he's worth dying for. No, no, no, it's about you. You are worth dying for. What do you mean? I mean John 3:16. "God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten son, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life". We're going to walk out of here today with our heads held high. We're going to praise God in trials and in grief because we were worth dying for. He loved us so much, He gave himself for us. Father, we pray for peace in trials and strength in difficult deeds. And consistent obedience in unseen little ways. And that through all of it, what would give us power, would give us victory, is keeping our eyes on the one who walked into the fire so we could safely come out. This belief in you surrounding us like a coat, surrounding us like a blanket, surrounding us like armor, surrounding us with power from above. Even when it seems like that's the last thing that seems true, believing it's true and keeping our eyes on you. And that the things that we face are no match for the one who walks beside us and who surrounds us. Help us to believe this, we pray in Jesus' name. Young Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to choose between God and facing the fury of one of the most powerful kings in history. They chose to face death rather than forsake their God. As believers, we must model the same kind of uncompromising integrity as these Hebrew teenagers. We must not bow. God will show you His work in your life that will empower you through any crisis, any challenge you face. God alone is who we have to fear. The same God who worked in their lives can give us the strength to lay down our lives and see His deliverance at work. Preached at Fresh Life Church. www.sermons.love .

You’ve heard people say that marriage can be hard, but you didn’t know it could be this hard. You married with the hope of sharing your life with someone who’s as pumped to make the most of it as you are, so how did the two of you end up here? Maybe the turbulence of the recent months – with lifestyle disruption, threat of COVID and economic uncertainty – is taking its toll on how you both feel. Your daily activities are no longer what they used to be, and while there some changes you enjoy, your marriage feels worse than before. Lockdown has amplified all the annoying habits of your spouse. He chews his food too loud. She never gets out of yoga pants. You wonder to yourself, if you ever need to be quarantined again in the future, is this the person you want to be quarantined with? As a divorce attorney and mediator, I’ve walked with hundreds of people who’ve left unhappy marriages. If you’re like many of us, you’re not dealing with a harmful or toxic marriage, but an unhappy one. The line between harmful and unhappy is not black and white, and you may need to reach out to someone wise you trust to help you discern the difference. If you’re like most unhappily married people, when your disappointment feels strong, you wonder whether you’ve signed up for a lifetime of misery. I get it. There are times every marriage feels hard, even impossible. In today’s blog, I’m asking you to set aside your cynicism, your disappointment and your disillusionment for a few moments to ponder a few thoughts about separating . Why am I writing? Because I’m so grateful there were people, including friends, speakers, authors and counsellors who I listened to and learned from while our marriage felt like it was breaking down. Carey and I now enjoy a thriving marriage we wouldn’t dream of leaving. Who knows? Maybe one of these 3 things will help you start to move out of your distress, too: 1. YOUR VICTIM STORY WILL BLIND YOU Let me guess – so you think it’s all your spouse’s fault your marriage is so hard? For many years when Carey and I had heated arguments, I would withdraw. I would slip off into my own little world and go silent and become basically unreachable. But going silent wasn’t Carey’s wiring and it drove him crazy. I would insist he leave me alone while he persistently tried to draw me back into some kind of engagement. I labeled Carey’s behaviour as aggressive and this dynamic carried on over time only led us into bitterness and resentment. Years in without realizing it, I was telling myself a victim story that threatened to derail us. It was a tangled version of I can’t do this anymore and if only he would also fight for peace and leave me alone… Turns out, my victim story distorted the truth. When I slipped into silence during an argument, I wasn’t simply ‘fighting for peace’ – I was also stonewalling. There were times when I withdrew into my self-made fortress and treated every advance by Carey as an attack. It was only after I absorbed the wisdom of counselors, engaged in some serious self-reflection, and developed the maturity to face my own blind spots that I could see my role more accurately. My victim story was clouding my vision. When it comes to relationships, if there’s a victim, there’s a perpetrator. When you adopt a victim mindset especially in marriage, the psychology of ‘we’re a team’ breaks down. Then you feel divided and disconnected from each other. The vast majority of my family law clients saw themselves as having been victimized by their spouse in some way. Most people who were leaving said their spouse was emotionally abusive. That label has really caught on. A victim narrative is problematic because it takes relational dynamics with inherent complexity and oversimplifies them. You, like me, will have a human tendency to oversimplify the story in your favour, to help you avoid pain and cause you the least personal discomfort. Is there a subject you and your spouse avoid because one or both of you gets triggered when you broach it? How to get the other to stop being so negative? How to fight clean instead of ‘dirty’? How to solve that nagging parenting problem? How to handle your growing money problem? How to fix your failing relationship? How much sex? Chances are, you both believe the other person’s to blame for the unsolved problem(s) in your relationship. You too, may have a victim story running in the background, blinding you to your own part in whatever your problem may be. But if you walk away without trying to spot your own role or offense, you’ll leave believing your part truth, part fiction victim story. If I’d walked away when my victim story spoke to me the loudest, I would have carried the same stonewalling-under-the-guise-of-peace tendency into my next relationship. Maybe after two or three partners, the part of my story that was fictional would become more visible. I’m grateful it didn’t happen that way. And you don’t need to wait for the passage of time and experiences of life to open your eyes to the whole truth, either. As long as your marriage is unhappy and not toxic, you are not a victim. While the ‘blame’ for the struggles between you may not even out at 50:50, and perhaps your spouse is 90 % responsible – you still have your 10% to own. Make yourself a promise to look for your part. Avoid passively allowing time to teach you. Search for the fictional part of your victim story, with humility. When you find it, own it, apologize for it, and start taking steps to make it right. 2. YOU MAY BE LISTENING TO THE WRONG MESSAGES Your friends will influence you either to lean into or away from your marriage. Research shows how much your marriage decisions are influenced by the people around you. In recent years, neuroscientific research has uncovered fascinating insight into how our brains respond to the influence of the brains of the people we surround ourselves with. Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist and professor at Northwestern University, has done research into the social aspect of decision-making. As one reporter says of Cerf’s research: So long as we make the right choices, the thinking goes, we’ll put ourselves on a path toward life satisfaction. Cerf rejects that idea. The truth is, decision-making is fraught with biases that cloud our judgment. People misremember bad experiences as good and vice versa; they let their emotions turn a rational choice into an irrational one; and they use social cues, even subconsciously, to make choices they’d otherwise avoid…” His neuroscience research has found that when two people are in each other’s company, their brain waves will begin to look nearly identical. Says Cerf, “This means the people you hang out with actually have an impact on your engagement with reality beyond what you can explain. And one of the effects is you become alike.” Cerf’s research findings don’t strike us as counterintuitive; in fact, our life experiences have already taught us that people tend to rub off on each other. We become more like the people we keep company with. If the norm among your friends or social circle is to get a divorce when the marriage feels over, then according to the research, divorce becomes a more likely outcome for you too. But it doesn’t have to be. You already know that you choose the company you keep and the voices you listen to. Look around you. Are the people you’re closest to cheering for your marriage? Or are they cheering for you to walk away? While you need friends who will be with you through the ups and downs, you may need to be selective about who you receive advice from. Do the messages of your friends bring you comfort, or wisdom? If you were choosing between two job offers or two cities to relocate to, I’m guessing you would weigh the pros and the cons. You would try to see both the risks and the benefits as objectively as possible. You might also visualize what life would look like down the road for each option. But for me, during our rough season of marriage, that kind of objectivity was hard to grasp through desperate emotions. Your pain will push you to give up, and may even cause you to visualize what a new chapter of love might look like. But add your pain to the voices or influence of people around you who have left marriages, and you may do what you never would never do with any other major life decision. You may be drawn by your emotions and the social influence of your friends to only see the pros and not the cons of walking away. What to do? If you’re feeling stuck and unhappy in your marriage, you need to seek out some other voices to give you informed perspectives about your options. Commit to spending more time with people who value their marriage and yours. Invest in a relationship with a couple who have gone through unhappy seasons but are now deeply satisfied. Combat your internal resistance toward finding a qualified marriage counselor who comes with great reviews from couples who were distressed but aren’t anymore. Sign up for a marriage course, retreat or marriage support group. There are people who have invaluable messages for you while you’re struggling with your marriage, but chances are they won’t just show up. You need to make the effort to seek them out. Choose to listen for wisdom over comfort. 3. YOU WON’T FEEL THE COSTS OF LEAVING UNTIL YOU’VE LEFT Ever witnessed a divorce that seemed hasty and premature? After dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s on the divorce settlement, I had a few clients who said, “If I’d only known then what I know now, I would’ve tried harder to save my marriage.” There’s no way around it: splitting isn’t going to look or feel the way you imagine. I walked through divorce with many clients who were shocked by the gap between what they expected after separating and what they experienced. They had a hard time coming to terms with it. If you’ve been married any length of time, and especially if you have kids, even an out-of-court divorce will be harder and more complicated than you imagine. Many of the parents I advised told me the primary reason they were walking away was to stop the negative impact of their fighting or their indifference toward each other on their kids. The sad reality is that the fighting didn’t stop and their indifference proved to be problematic after they walked away in most cases. Your divorce leaves its mark on your kids, and despite your best intentions, the emotional impact of your broken relationship will escalate as you’re forced to make critical decisions after splitting. Who pays the price for escalating conflict? You all do, but your kids may pay more than you think.   Either through your own experience or that of others, you’ve seen the other consequences of divorce. Maybe you’ve helped a friend through the grief of their marriage breakdown. Maybe you’ve seen how the demands of making divorce arrangements pushed other priorities such as work or personal health further down the list. I’m sure you’ve heard about the financial loss people suffer when they divide the family income between two separate households. The costs of separating only become stark reality when you take the real steps. Please don’t hear me say that divorce is never an option. In some cases, the divorce is hard but spares the family from further harm. However, don’t make a hasty decision to split. Listen to wisdom first. Choose the hard work of facing the fictions in your own victim story. Chances are, your courage combined with action will keep you from the regret of wishing you’d tried harder. You may believe it’s your spouse who needs to do the hard work, not you. But this decision is high stakes, and you have more influence than you think. So, where do you start? While there are many useful steps you can take, I have a couple of ideas that I believe can help. Don’t make a hasty decision to split. Listen to wisdom first. www.careynieuwhof.com .

Remember: List 5-10 things you remember from childhood. Now, go back and scan your list.  How many of those memories are negative in nature? Don’t be alarmed if most of the things you remembered were negative. It turns out  this is normal , even if our childhood was heavily filled with pleasant experiences. Consider the following 2 explanations. Psychological and Physiological According to Clifford Nass, Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford University and director of the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab, the fact that we tend to remember the negative over the positive “is a general tendency for everyone.” Yes, he explains “Some people do have a more positive outlook, but almost everyone remembers negative things more strongly and in more detail.” In the book,  The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships  which he co-authored with Corina Yen, Nass says, “The brain handles positive and negative information in different hemispheres.” Furthermore, the authors assert, negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the information is processed more thoroughly than positive ones. Thus, we tend to ruminate more about unpleasant events — and use stronger words to describe them. Another interesting point offered by Professor Nass is that we generally tend to see people who say negative things as smarter than those who offer positive input. Therefore, we are more likely to give greater weight to critical comments. A Metaphor In their book,  How Full is Your Bucket? , authors Donald O. Clifton and Tom Rath use the filling or emptying of a bucket as a metaphor for positive and negative interactions with others. The authors imagine that each of us carries a bucket as part of our daily attire – a bucket that needs to be filled with positive experiences or words. The premise is that when we are negative towards others, we are using a dipper to remove from another’s bucket. Conversely, when we treat others in a positive manner, we fill not only their bucket but ours as well. The authors also make mention of “the magic ratio” of positive-to-negative experiences in connection to the bucket filling. “The magic ratio” is 5:1 . (In other research, the ratio was listed as anywhere from 3:1 to 6:1.)   This ratio means it takes five positive comments to “undo” one negative comment.  Or five fillings of a bucket to outweigh one dipping! Applications What does all this mean for us – who are now helping shape the memories of our children and grandchildren? Criticism Realizing the magnitude of weight heaped on by our negative words and experiences, we must take care. Instead of slinging a constant barrage of criticism, we would do well to learn to offer criticism constructively – and sparingly. Most people, adults included, can take in only one critical comment at a time. Encouragement and Affirmation Five positives to one negative. That’s the ratio. Perhaps it’s time to focus on the positive by offering encouragement and affirmation. ENCOURAGEMENT  – words or actions that offer support, confidence, and hope. Encouragement looks forward, painting a bright future of something that “could be.” Think of it as “cheerleading.” AFFIRMATION  – words or actions that confirm something that has already happened. Affirmation looks backward, corroborating actions and events that have been observed. “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another….” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NASB) www.deborahhaddix.com .

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7b (ESV) I want to invite you to journey back with me into a familiar passage of Scripture in the hope you’ll see something you may have missed before. It’s the story of a nameless woman caught in the very act of adultery. I want us to pause long enough to imagine both the terror and courage of this obviously guilty woman. John 8 clearly juxtaposes the cruelty of law-led religion and the beauty of God’s mercy and love. So, friends, let’s visit this scene together and view it with a fresh perspective. In the dim light of early morning, a large crowd awaits a young rabbi named Jesus. When He appears with His disciples, He greets them and then sits down to teach. Those who gathered listen closely, their hearts hanging on every word … when suddenly there’s a disturbance at the edge of the crowd. It’s the religious leaders, dragging a disheveled woman who frantically clutches a remnant of cloth to herself in an attempt to hide her nakedness. The leaders have dragged her from a bed of adultery, but the man she was with is nowhere in sight. “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  (John 8:4b-5, NIV) His response is delayed as He writes in the dust. Then He challenges her accusers: “… Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her”  (John 8:7b). The religious leaders leave one by one until it’s only Jesus and a nameless guilty woman. Then He rises and asks: “‘… Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin’”  (John 8:10-11, NIV). What I find courageous is the fact that this woman stayed. I might have slipped away when the last stone was dropped. I like to think she stayed because she was tired of being talked about. She waited until Jesus spoke directly to her. Many will hear the words,  “Go and sin no more ,” as a threat of future punishment, paraphrased as, “Do it again, and you’ll find yourself under a rock pile.” But I hear it as an empowerment to walk away different, for the next verse reads: “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’”  (John 8:12, ESV). Jesus gave the power of choice to a nameless woman who’d found herself a public spectacle. Jesus looked beyond the obvious, and He refused to acknowledge her present state as her permanent condition. No one is without sin. Many of us have turned to men, religion or the world for our affirmation, only to be betrayed. I love that this interchange with the obviously guilty helps each of us embrace His mercy and grace in areas where our sin and struggle might not be so obvious to others. These words of Jesus speak to the weary mother who lost her temper when her patience was tried. They speak to couples trapped in unhealthy patterns that are deconstructing their marriage. His words speak to men and women trapped in the shadowed shame of porn or addiction. Jesus says to you what He said to her: “Then neither do I condemn you  … go now and leave your life of sin.”  (John 8:11b) When the serpent shames and accuses us, it’s time to wait in the presence of Jesus until His mercy and grace speaks to us. God’s forgiveness is where our freedom begins. Jesus did so much more than forgive this woman … He sent her away freed from the bonds of sin. Because of Jesus, the power of our former bondage has been broken. It’s time to have more faith in the words of Christ, our liberator, than in the power of the chains. Dare to believe, and leave behind the shadows of your past! Lord, thank You for defending us, when we could not defend ourselves. Thank You for saving rather than condemning us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. TRUTH FOR TODAY Romans 6:14, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (ESV) Hebrews 8:12, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (NIV) www.proverbs31ministries.org.

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 (ESV)   Trying to control your own life is exhausting. Ask me how I know. I say I trust God with my mouth, but in reality, I get overwhelmed trying to fix and control things myself. My trust in God becomes nothing but a statement I feel I should say rather than what I’m actually living out. Distrust settles in. Self-reliance becomes my go-to. And then I wonder why I feel more and more exhausted. If you can relate to these confessions, there are specific passages of Scripture I want us to look at together today. Second Chronicles 16 is the last of three chapters detailing the story of Asa, king of Judah. Sadly, though, this chapter stands in sharp contrast to the two just before it. In 2 Chronicles 14 and 15, we learn that God had given Asa  “rest on every side”  because of his dependence on the Lord (NIV). God even gave Asa victory in the face of a  massive  army. Yet in Chapter 16, when King Asa finds himself in a border conflict with King Baasha of Israel, Asa has a sudden and surprising shift in behavior. Instead of crying out to God as he has before, Asa immediately turns to his own means of addressing the situation — misusing the treasures of the temple and placing his hope in an unwise military alliance. The ultimate result? Unrest for Asa and his people. This king whose faith meant victory in the past invites battles into his future because he refuses to trust God in the present. I find his story convicting, sobering and so very important to pay attention to. Just like Asa, our past declarations of faith are no guarantee that we will rely on God in the future. Faith is a present, ongoing choice for every believer. That’s why I want us to look at two truths from 2 Chronicles 16 that will help us keep choosing to trust God, not just with our words but also with our actions: 1) God is not blind to our circumstances or our choices to trust Him. When life gets hard, we can sometimes wonder if God is blind to all we’re facing. But there’s a beautiful reminder tucked into the words the prophet Hanani speaks to Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9a,  “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” We serve a God who  sees . He is an all-knowing, ever-present God who is continually aware of every detail of our lives. And not only is God aware, but He’s also looking to strengthen individuals who are willing to wholeheartedly place their trust in Him. 2) God has been faithful before, and He will be faithful again. I wonder how differently Asa’s future would have turned out if he had stopped to remember God’s faithfulness to him in the past? Fear makes us forgetful. This is why we must purposefully look back and trace God’s hand of faithfulness in our lives. God’s faithfulness before assures us He will be faithful again. (Hebrews 10:35-36) We see this truth not only as we look back at our own lives, but also as we read the story of God’s faithfulness woven throughout all of Scripture. Oh, friends, are there any areas where we’re inviting not only exhaustion but possibly destruction because we’re refusing to rely on God? Do our frantic and controlling actions fail to match our faith-filled declarations? Let’s not just declare we have faith. Let’s live out loud that we believe God is good, faithful and trustworthy. Let’s stop running to fix things our way so we can stop and fix our eyes on God. (Isaiah 26:3) He sees. He knows. He cares. We can rest assured. Father God, I confess that sometimes I forget to remember Your faithfulness from the past, especially when I am overwhelmed with unpredictable things today. Keep reminding me that not only do You see me, but You love me. I don’t know exactly what tomorrow will look like, but I do know who I’ll be looking to — You, Lord — whose love is unfailing and whose hand is the safest place to entrust my hope. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. TRUTH FOR TODAY Psalm 111:7, “The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.” (NIV) Psalm 71:3, “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.” (NIV) www.proverbs31ministries.org.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)   It all started the day God told me to give away my Bible. I was exhausted from traveling and speaking. All I wanted was to get to my assigned seat on the plane and settle in for a nap. I was just about to close my eyes when two last-minute passengers made their way to my row and took their seats. Reluctantly deciding to forgo my nap, I opted instead to pull a manuscript out of my bag and read. I didn’t want to chance the embarrassment of falling asleep on anyone’s shoulder. When the guy sitting beside me asked what I was working on, I told him I was a writer and was working on a book about leading women to the heart of God. He smiled and said he thought God was a very interesting topic. I agreed and asked him a few questions about his beliefs. Before long, I found myself reaching into my bag and pulling out my Bible, walking him through some key verses that dealt with the issues he was facing. He kept asking questions, and I kept praying God would give me answers. All of a sudden, I felt God tugging at my heart to give this man my Bible. Now, this was not just any Bible. This was my everyday, highlighted, underlined, written-in, tear-stained Bible. My kids had even drawn pictures in this Bible. I started to argue with God in my head, but His message was clear. I was to give away my Bible. I emptied it, took a deep breath and placed it in the man’s hands. “I’d like for you to have my Bible,” I said. Astonished, he started to hand it back to me, saying he couldn’t possibly accept such a gift. “God told me to give it to you,” I insisted. “Sometimes, the God of the universe pauses in the midst of all His creation to touch the heart of one person. Today, He paused for you.” The man took my Bible and made two promises. First, he said he would read it, and second, someday he would pass it on, doing for someone else what I’d done for him. As I got off the plane that day, my heart felt conflicting emotions. While on one hand, I was overjoyed at what God had done, I was also brokenhearted by the flood of thoughts that came to mind recounting times I’d told God “no.” I just kept wondering,  How many times have I told You “no,” God? How many times — because I was too tired, too insecure, too uncertain, too busy or too selfish — have I walked right past Your divine appointment for me and missed experiencing You? About a month later, the businessman I had given my Bible to called. We had exchanged business cards, and he wanted to tell me how his life had totally changed. He had taken a week off from work to read the Bible, and he’d already shared his testimony with numerous people. He also told me that after reading the Scriptures, he knew he needed to get involved in a church. God was definitely pursuing him in a serious way. And I was blessed and amazed by the way this man was responding. When I asked him what his favorite verse was, he said it was Proverbs 3:5-6:  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” What a perfect verse to represent what God had asked of me. When God impressed on my heart to give this man my Bible, I didn’t know what would happen. He could have thrown my Bible into the nearest airport trash can, for all I knew. Normally, I would have come up with a hundred reasons  not  to give my Bible away, but that day something changed in me. For the first time, I chose to be a woman who’d do whatever the Lord asked of me. A woman who wants to continue seeing God work miracles through small acts of obedience. Lord, please forgive me for all of the times I have told You “no.” Right now, I say “yes,” Lord. Even before I know what You might ask me to do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. TRUTH FOR TODAY John 2:5, “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’” (NIV) www.proverbs31ministries.org.

Andy Stanley Moving Forward from a Crisis One of the reasons we respect the people that we respect most is their response to this, to adversity, right? The people that we respect the most are generally people who've walked through a fire or two, maybe through the valley of the shadow of death. We respect people who've been hurt, but who didn't hurt back, who were treated unjustly or unfairly, but who didn't strike back. We respect people who've faced extraordinary health challenges, but didn't lose their love for life, they didn't despair. They exercised their superpower, their superpower. It's a power that we all have and when exercised, it actually keeps us from becoming like our enemies, it keeps us from reflecting our circumstances. It thwarts evil, our superpower allows us to redeem suffering and your superpower is why you can be better for it. We'll come back to that in just a minute. Now, this is the final episode of our series, "Better For It", and I chose this topic because while we're all ready for things to get back to normal or maybe a new normal. We would all agree that all of this pain without any gain would certainly be a shame. So, we're pausing to ask the question, what have we learned and what have we observed that we wanna carry forward or to the point of our series, how, how can we be better for it? What have we been doing or what were we doing that almost led to our undoing that we need to stop doing? Or the second way of asking it is this, what should we begin doing that we should've been doing all along? Because again, it would be tragic to forget the lessons we've learned and it would certainly be tragic to lose the perspective that we've gained. So, last week I talked about how to ensure that you can be better for it and I talked about why we can all be better for it, regardless of what it is. And the reason we can be better for it, is we all have, as I just mentioned, we all have a superpower. We all have a special ability that empowers us to be better for anything that life throws at you or actually anything that life has thrown at you. And our superpower, our superpower, is our respond ability, our respond ability. Our ability to respond rather than react because your ability to choose a response rather than have it dictated to you or your ability to choose something rather than just do what's expected of you or to simply model what you've seen done, your ability to respond allows you to dictate and influence your own future because and you know this. In fact, we've all seen this. To simply react, to simply react to circumstances, it sets us up to reflect those circumstances. Haven't you seen this? You've seen people go through very difficult circumstances and instead of choosing a measured response, they simply reacted and now months later, maybe years later, they reflect the circumstances they didn't even choose. When we react, and this is the point of today's message, when we simply react, we actually relinquish control of our lives and we ultimately relinquish control of our destiny and our legacy. But a measured response, a measured thought through response ensures that that doesn't happen. But as we said last time, there's a catch. There's a reason we missed this and that's the reason we're talking about it. And here's the catch. The response, the response that has the potential to reverse the natural course of things, isn't natural. The response that has the potential to reverse the natural course of things, isn't natural. Or another way of saying it is this, the catalytic response is the least intuitive response. The response that makes the most difference in a positive direction is the response we are least likely to choose and most often we are tempted our tend to miss. So to illustrate this and to drag us deep into the context of this, and the emotion of this, last week we began a story that many of us are familiar with. It's an Old Testament story, the story of Joseph, a young man who exercised his superpower for about 25 years before the story is ultimately resolved. And his story I think better than any other story I've ever heard in any literature, his story illustrates the sustaining, the course reversing, and the sanity preserving power of a measured response. And like me and like you, Joseph didn't know the end of his story. In fact, Joseph didn't even know there was a story worth telling, but throughout his story and throughout his circumstances, he chose the catalytic response, the unusual response, the unexpected response. So, you're probably familiar with the story, but let me catch you up to where we left off last time. Here's basically Joseph's resume, here's a synopsis of his life so far. Joseph Jacobson, kidnapped once by his brothers, sold twice, first to slave traders and then he's sold once again when he gets to Egypt, then he's framed for a crime that he ultimately didn't commit and the reason he was punished was because he wouldn't commit the crime. Potiphar's wife, his master's wife accused him of trying to rape her because he wouldn't go to bed with her and then ultimately he's in prison. So basically this is his resume so far and again, to catch you up at this point in the story, nobody's looking for Joseph, nobody's looking out for Joseph. And perhaps that's where your story intersects with Joseph. And yet in spite of these unbelievable circumstances, I mean any one of those things would be enough. In spite of all that, Joseph continued to respond, Joseph continued to respond as if God was with him. And that brings me to the question we left off with last time, the question we're gonna end with this time as well. How would someone, how would someone in your circumstances respond if they were absolutely confident that God was with them? How would someone in your circumstances respond? You know how people in your circumstances normally react. You know what's expected of people in your circumstances. You know what's been modeled for you. But how would someone in your circumstances respond if they were absolutely confident that God was with them? That there's more to the story than meets the eye, that your current circumstances are simply a chapter, they're not the entire story. So back to Joseph's story. Following the rape accusation, Joseph's master, Potiphar, imprisons him and we'll pick up the story there. Joseph's master took Joseph and he put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in prison and here it is again, but while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him. While he was being punished for something he wouldn't do because he wouldn't do it, this is the craziest part of the story to me. While he was being punished for something he wouldn't do because he wouldn't do it, the Lord was with him. While he's being treated unjustly, while he's being treated unfairly, God is with Joseph. See these are the moments when we wanna say, "God where are you, where are you"? And God says, "I'm right here with you". But it doesn't feel like you're right here with me, it doesn't seem like you're right here with me, where are you? And God would say, "I'm right there with you". So while Joseph was in prison the Lord was with him and God showed him kindness. Now, the word translated kindness in our English text, in the Hebrew text it actually means loving kindness, it's a covenant word. And in fact, throughout most of our English Old Testament, it's translated loving kindness. And the implication is that Joseph considered himself in some sort of covenant relationship with a God who had done nothing for him lately. In fact, what did this loving kindness look like? Well, the author continues and he tells us. Here's what loving kindness looks like. He showed him kindness and He granted him favor. If only it had stopped there. He granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden, which is a problem for us. Because in our way of thinking, if God is with you and if God is for you, you do not have a relationship with a prison warden. In fact, if God is with you and God is for you, you're not in prison. You're certainly not in prison because you've been accused of something you didn't do and found guilty of something you weren't guilty of. someone else for a change". Like, God, god be with my brothers or God go be with Potiphar's wife. I need a break from all this with. Well months go by, years go by, there's no weekends off, this doesn't feel like a story, doesn't feel like it's going anywhere and of course, Joseph certainly isn't going anywhere. And then seemingly, totally unrelated, Pharaoh's baker and Pharaoh's butler have a falling out with Pharaoh and Pharaoh is so angry with them, he puts them in prison and he puts them in the same prison where Joseph is. And then the story has a strange twist. The captain of the guard who was assigned to running the prison, assigned the butler and the baker to Joseph and Joseph attended them. And after they had been there for some time because a lot of times it was by in the story, the story's compressed like most narratives, the butler and the baker, Pharaoh's butler and baker have disturbing dreams on the same night. And Joseph notices that they're disturbed by something and it's kind of a funny part of the story, I mean, here they are in a dungeon. And so Joseph is serving them breakfast one morning and he actually says, "Hey guys, why do you look so sad today"? To which they could've responded with, "Well let's begin with the fact that we're in a dungeon", but that's not in the text. So Joseph says to them, "Why are you so sad today"? And both of them share that they had a very disturbing dream, a vivid dream, they can remember the details. They're both convinced that the dreams mean something, but they have no idea how to interpret their dreams. And then Joseph responds with this, he says, "Do not interpretations belong to God"? Do not interpretations belong to God? He's still believing, he's still trusting, even in the midst of these crazy circumstances, he's continuing to respond rather than react. And then he says to the butler and the baker, "Tell me your dreams, tell me your dreams". So, the wine taster, the butler went first and he tells Joseph this elaborate dream and Joseph smiles and he says, "I've got some good news for you, three days from now, three days from now, Pharaoh is gonna lift up your head and restore you to your position". And of course, the butler doesn't know if Joseph's just making this up, but this is certainly a positive outcome to his dream and it's at this point in the story, we discover something about Joseph that's true of all of us. As much as he had a sense, perhaps, that God was with him, he was not enjoying these circumstances. He despised his circumstances. He was not some sort of superhero, even though he had a superpower. He was not immune to pain and he says to the butler, "Look, when your dream comes true, when you're finally out of here, when all goes well with you, remember me, remember this conversation and show me kindness". Perhaps a different kind of kindness than my God is showing me at this point. Mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrew's, I was kidnapped, and even here, I've done nothing to deserve being put in this dungeon. So even though God was with Joseph, Joseph felt what we would have felt. He was as frustrated as we would be and he says to the butler, "Look, you are my only way out, remember me when this dream comes true". Well meanwhile, the baker's sitting there hearing all of this and he's thinking, "Hey, my turn, my turn". So Joseph says, "Okay, tell me about your dream", and the baker again explains this very detailed dream and when he's finished, Joseph shakes his head and he says, "Gee, that's a tough one. I'm afraid I can't help you". Actually that's not what he said, but that's probably what he should've said. He looks at the baker and he says this, "Well, here's what your dream means". Within three days, Pharaoh isn't gonna lift up your head, he's gonna lift off your head and he's going to impale your body on a pole. He's going to impale your body on a pole. A little TMI, right? Well apparently Joseph was in a really bad mood that morning and he should've just stopped with that, but he didn't and he continued and he said, "Oh yeah, and there's more to your dream. And the birds will eat away your flesh". Have a nice day. Anybody else need a dream interpreted this morning? Well sure enough, three days later, it's Pharaoh's birthday and just like Joseph predicted, he restored the cupbearer and he beheaded and impaled the baker. And now, think about it, Joseph waits expectantly. Because he knows what's gonna happen. As soon as these dreams come true just as he predicted, he knows that the butler's gonna go to Pharaoh and say, "Pharaoh, you're not gonna believe this, while I was in your dungeon, sorry to bring that up, while I was in your dungeon, I met a Hebrew boy who predicted this would happen". So every time somebody bangs on the door of the dungeon, Joseph thinks, "This is my day, I'm out of here". Every time there's a guest, every time there's a visitor, every time the warden calls his name, he thinks, "This is the day I'm out of here". But the text tells us that the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph and he forgot him. And yet this is the young man, now this is the older man, he's in his late 20s by this point that God was supposedly with. Two years go by, he's 30 years old and then suddenly again, unrelated to anything happening in the dungeon, Pharaoh has a series of disturbing dreams. Nobody can interpret the dreams. And finally, the butler remembers Joseph and he says to Pharaoh, "Hey Pharaoh, you remember a couple of years ago we had that falling out, hate to bring that up, you put me in the dungeon, which I'm sure I deserved, but while I was there, there was a Hebrew young man and he interpreted my dream correctly". And the text tells us that immediately, Pharaoh sent for Joseph and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. And when he had been shaved and they changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream and no one can interpret it, but I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it". And what comes next are perhaps the most courageous ever spoken by anyone in history. Here's this foreigner, for whom God had done nothing for lately, this is his big break, he hasn't smelled this good or looked this good in years and Joseph looks at the most powerful man in the world, his ticket out, and he says, "I cannot do it". I cannot do it. And I think the butler is over in the corner and he's squirming like, "Oh no"! Joseph replied to Pharaoh, he should've just stopped with, "I can't do it", but God, but God, but God... The problem with this is simply that Pharaoh thought he was a god. And Pharaoh believed in other gods and clearly the Gods of the Egyptians were more powerful than the Hebrew gods. And now here's this foreigner who has this one opportunity for freedom and he says, "Pharaoh, I can't do it, but my God can". My God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. Well, I think everybody at that moment in the royal courtroom thought this was the end for this young Hebrew boy, but fortunately for Joseph, Pharaoh was more curious than he was offended. And so he explains these two dreams to Joseph and Joseph listens patiently. And then it's quiet and he looks at Pharaoh and he says, "Pharaoh, here's what you dreams mean. For the next seven years, there is going to be an abundant grain harvest in Egypt. There's gonna be so much grain you are not even gonna know what to do with it. But after those seven years, those seven years will be followed by a famine and nothing's gonna grow". In fact, the abundance will not even be remembered. The seven years of plenty will not even be remembered because of the famine that follows because it's gonna be so severe. He's silent, no one says anything. And then Joseph does the unthinkable, he leans in and he begins to tell Pharaoh what to do, he begins to advise Pharaoh and he says, "Pharaoh, here's what you need to do, you need to appoint somebody and put them in charge of this problem, there needs to be somebody who wakes up every single day focused on solving this problem and preparing Egypt during the seven years of plenty for the seven years of famine". Well, the plan seemed good to Pharaoh and it seemed good to all of his officials, so Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God", and then this is so amazing, and then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God, your Hebrew God, since God has made all of this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you, you shall be in charge of my palace". He makes him the Prime Minister of Egypt. You shall be in charge of my palace and all of my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect, only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you and I'm making this up, I think perhaps Joseph thought, "Yeah, that's what Potiphar said as well". Anyway, so Joseph goes to work, he begins preparing Egypt for the seven years of famine. In fact, the text says that Joseph began to store up such huge quantities of grain, it was like the sand of the sea. It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. In fact, what he did was brilliant, he built store houses in all the major cities and purchased the grain from the people and again, as there was more and more grain, the price kept dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping, so he stored up all of this grain, seven years after this time of plenty, the rain stopped, nothing will grow. The people of Egypt begin to starve and he opened up these store houses in these primary cities and he began to sell grain in Pharaoh's name to the people. Well, as is the case with all famines, it spread across the borders, it spread to the surrounding regions, and up North of Egypt where Joseph's family lived, Jacob and his sons, Joseph's brothers, they began to starve as well and this is where the store takes a very interesting twist. Here's what happens next. When Jacob, Joseph's father learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you just keep looking at each other? Do something. I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we live and not die". Again, if you've heard this story, you know what happens next. But I mean, there is so much drama because now the stage is set, fortunes have been reversed. Joseph is 40 years old. His brothers have not seen him since he was 17 years old and this will be the ultimate test of Joseph's superpower. This will be the ultimate test of his willingness to respond rather than react. And everybody that knew or knows his story, knows exactly how he's expected to react. And if we can put ourselves in his position, we know exactly what we would probably do if we were Joseph. The story continues. Now Joseph, by this time, is the governor of the land, he's the second most powerful person in Egypt, which means he's for all practical purposes, the second most powerful person in the world. He was the governor of the land and the person who sold the grain to all his people, so when Joseph's brothers arrive, they bow down to him with their faces to the ground. And as soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them. But he pretended to be a stranger. Imagine this moment. He remembers the terror of having his clothes stripped from him when he's thrown into that empty well, he remembers the dampness of the pit and the fear of wondering, "Are they going to abandon me here"? He remembers the lear of the slave traders, the humiliation of being sold on an auction block. He remembers the hopelessness of prison, and then he remembers the despair at being forgotten by the butler. And then he does the most remarkable thing. For a while as he's trying to make up his mind, he toys with his brothers, he actually finds out from them that their father is still alive, he finds out that they have a brother that's not with them, Benjamin, and so he sends them back. He keeps one of them as a hostage, it just goes on and on and on, chapter after chapter, as he's trying to decide what he's going to do and trying ti decide have they really changed and are they still the brothers they used to be? And finally, after this long back and forth situation that's so fascinating, there's so much detail in the text, he finally at the end defies expectation, he defies certainly his own instinct and his own emotion and he employs his superpower one more time. They're gathered with him, by this time they had brought Benjamin, so there's all 11 brothers, he sends everybody else out of the room, they are on their knees and suddenly they are alone with the Prime Minister of Egypt and they are so confused. And he stares at each of them. And then he announces, imagine this, "I am Joseph, I am Joseph". And they look up and they see that 17 year old in the face of that 40 year old man and they realize and before they can say anything, Joseph says, "Is my father still living"? The text says of course, but his brothers, his brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified, they were terrified at his presence. But they did not need to be terrified in his presence because in their absence, Joseph had lived every single day of his life as if God was present. And now, when it counted most, Joseph once again, chose not to react, but to respond and he forgave his brothers. The text says this, "Come close to me", he said. And I'm sure that took a while don't you think? Come close to me and he said, "I am your brother, Joseph". And I guess he just can't help himself, "the one", you remember the one, "you sold into Egypt". But now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. Can I pause and just say something about this real quick? When we are able, when we are able to believe and when we are able to respond as if God is with us, we gain a perspective on what's behind our circumstances that we can't gain any other way. And this is such a powerful reminder of that because Joseph is able to come to the conclusion, the reason I'm here, the reason I went through everything I went through, God had a plan in my suffering, God had a plan in the injustice, God had a plan in circumstances that I would not have chosen for myself. God had a plan for me being forgotten, God had a plan for me being sold, not once, but twice. When we choose to respond, looking back, we will have a perspective on our suffering that we cannot gain any other way. And if all we do is react, not only will we not be better for it, we will never have the perspective that allows us to move successfully into our future. Now, what nobody knew about this encounter was that God's entire plan of salvation for the world, hung by the thread of Joseph's response. That before him is the Nation of Israel, the 12 brothers represented the 12 tribes of Israel and Joseph did what and the 12 tribes of Israel that would become the Nation of Israel that ultimately through him, that nation would come the Messiah, the Messiah who would do for the world exactly what Joseph did that day for his brothers. And this is why I said last time and this is why I hope you'll never forget, never ever ever, never underestimate, never underestimate the power of a measured response. Never underestimate the power of a measured response. Well, the story wraps up this way, Joseph brings his entire family to Egypt and he provides for them for years and years and years. Eventually, his father, Jacob, dies. And once they buried Jacob and they had this elaborate funeral, and they all come back to the land of Egypt, his brothers get together, the 10 brothers that sold him into slavery get together and they realize uh oh, perhaps Joseph was just waiting for our father to die before he exacts his revenge. And so they go to Joseph and the text says this, his brothers came to him and they threw themselves down before him and they said to him, "We are your slaves". But Joseph continues to respond rather than react and here's what he said, these famous words. But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God"? Am I in the place of God? Guys, don't you understand? That God was in this, that God worked through this. Am I in the place of God? The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, it's written this way, do not be afraid, for I am God's. Do not be afraid, I belong to God and since I belong to God, who am I to act like or to step into the place of God. "You intended", he said, "You intended to harm me". That day when you kidnapped me, that when you stripped me of my clothes, that day when you threw me into that empty well, you had the power, the odds were in your favor, there was evil in your heart, you created circumstances that generally transform victims into perpetrators. But not this time. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. "To accomplish", he said, "To accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives". Don't ever ever ever forget this. Don't ever forget this. God's intention, this is amazing, God's intention became a reality through one man's catalytic unprecedented circumstance defying responses. Responses, listen, none of which seem significant at the time. Drop into his story and take any one of his responses, none of his individual responses seemed all that significant, but all together, they were part of the unfolding story of my redemption and yours. God's plan of salvation for the world. Here's the thing, our superpower, our respond ability gives us the potential to be better for it, whatever it is. And you know this, we don't get to choose the it, that's part of the problem, right? We don't choose the it. But our response, your response is what determines whether or not we will be better for it, regardless of what the it is. And it all boils down to this terrifying, liberating, destiny altering question, how would someone in my circumstances respond? How would someone in my circumstances respond? How would someone in my circumstances respond? We know how someone in my circumstances would react, we see that all the time, but how would someone in my circumstances respond if they were absolutely confident? God was with them. Your answer, your answer to that question is your invitation to exercise your superpower. Your answer to this question is your best way forward. And if you act on it, you will emerge from whatever you're facing, better for it. Let's face it, we are no better than our responses, but our responses have extraordinary potential to make us and to make the world better. So one more time. How would someone, how would someone in your circumstances respond if they were confident? God was with them. If they were absolutely confident that it was more to their circumstances, more to your circumstances than meets the eye, that your current circumstances are not the story. They're simply a chapter in the story and that God has chosen to be part of your story and that God is going to connect the dots of your responses, to do something great for you and something great through you. You have a superpower, your respond ability, use it. If you do, you will be better for it, the people around you will be better for it. And who knows? Perhaps, the world would be better for it as well. How would someone in your circumstances respond if they were confident? God was with them. Preached at North Point Church www.sermons.love How would someone in your trials respond if they were confident? God was with them. If they were absolutely confident that it was more to their circumstances than meets the eye, they would be able to pass through life’s challenges as Joseph did. Joseph spent years in suffering but never lost his integrity. He never stopped trusting God. Like Joseph, our troubles are simply a chapter in the story that God can develop your trust and confidence in Him. Wait. Be patient. You will see the whole picture someday. Preached at North Point Church www.sermons.love .

Shame. Shame is the fear of being unworthy, and it adversely affects our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. Shame makes us feel small, unwanted, and unloved. And if we don’t learn how to identify and overcome it, shame will ruin our lives and keep us from fulfilling our destiny. Shame was my companion from my earliest memories, a huge part of my life and identity. My classmates teased me for my Greek heritage, I felt cultural pressures at home to abandon my passions for sports and academics for those of traditional gender roles, and as a victim of sexual abuse, I was ashamed of the horrible things that happened to me. No matter the source, shame is a powerfully painful emotion that shackles us in the prison of our pasts, and if we aren’t careful, we will stay there—missing out on the beautiful lives created for us. That is why it is so important for us to identify and deal with areas of shame in our life. Here are five often-hidden consequences of shame that keep us from the life of freedom we were created for: 1. Shame whispers lies to our soul.  Shame lies—big time. Even today, every now and then, unless I am vigilant, shame still tries to sneak up on me at unexpected times.  Others will find out you are weak, then you will lose their respect and damage your ministry. Don’t be vulnerable! Only project strength. In order for us not to believe the lies of shame, we must be rooted deeply in the truths of our self-worth and God’s love for us. When we hear the lies, rather than believe them, we must claim God’s truth and love for ourselves, robbing shame of the power it once held in our lives. 2. Shame hinders our ability to receive God’s unconditional love . The biggest lie that shame loves to tell is that we are unworthy. Unworthy of love. Unworthy of affection. Unworthy of inclusion. Unworthy of happiness. When we hear and believe these things day in and day out, it makes it nearly impossible to comprehend that there’s a love without conditions—a love that accepts us just the way we are. But the moment you start to move toward God’s unconditional love, your healing from shame will begin. 3. Shame prompts us to toss away the good gifts we are given . Shame has a way of manifesting in the nooks and crannies of our souls, keeping us from truly using and exploring the good gifts that God has placed inside of us. If we allow shame to keep us from using our good gifts, we will never be able to fully experience the life that God created with each of us in mind. We need to recognize our value and understand that we are a gift—an expression of who God is—and the world needs what he has deposited in us. 4. Shame keeps us from seeking help.  It’s sneaky like that, growing in shadowy places until those struggling with it are too ashamed to seek help from the very shame that enslaves them. It lives within women who worship beside you at church, work in the next cubicle, attend your workout class, entertain you on TV, smile at you from magazine covers, or live next door. The challenge is that we’ve been shackled in the dark for so long that the darkness has crippled and immobilized us, but the only way that we can be healed from our shame is to acknowledge, uncover, and hold up our wounds to the One who can help. There is freedom on the other side, but we can’t get there on our own. 5. Shame teaches us to hide.  For those of us schooled in shame, hiding is our go-to coping skill to guard ourselves against the pain of disapproval or judgment, condemnation or mockery, belittlement or exposure, or worse—just fill in the blank with your unique circumstance. Enough practice and we become masters at hiding from others and eventually ourselves. But instead of hiding, we must choose to seek. We must choose to seek God’s love, his unconditional grace and acceptance. There’s an astounding promise that comes with his love—that nothing can separate you from it—not even shame. If I can be set free from shame through the love of Jesus, than anyone can! I want everyone to experience his miraculous love. That’s why I’ve written the book,  Unashamed.  That’s why I travel and teach. That’s why I help others gain freedom through the work of  A21.  That’s why I reach out with  Propel Women. I want people to know that they too are free to choose to get up and get moving into the beautiful future God has for them, and discover an abundance of freedom.