This sermon emphasizes the importance of facing challenges with courage and unwavering faith in God, drawing inspiration from the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3. It calls for a deep commitment to God, obedience in the small things, and a willingness to stand firm in the face of opposition, believing that God can bring revival and transformation even in the midst of societal pressures and threats.

I want to speak a message for 2013 to this congregation and to those who are listening today online. And again on Tuesday evening I'll be sharing another message called the people of vision. But I would clearly define that spiritual vision in the scriptures is a specific concrete thing. It's not some kind of ambiguous mist where everybody's running around disjointed from one another saying well I've seen something or have some kind of leading from God. No, there's it's much deeper than that. I want to unlock that on Tuesday night and talk about that ice have anointing in Revelation chapter 3 that Jesus wanted to give to the Laodicean church. And so if you can come out Tuesday night we begin to pray at 5 30. We begin to worship at 7 and I'll be speaking somewhere probably around 8 o'clock or so. 2013 it's time to face the music. It's my message title this morning Daniel chapter 3. Please if you go there in the Old Testament it's time to face the music. Father I thank you with all of my heart. I praise you Jesus Christ son of God from the depths of my being that you have been merciful and kind to us. And you have walked among the candlesticks of this testimony. You've kept this church alive for 25 years. And Lord as we go into our 26th year I ask you in Jesus name to examine us and prove us and to be sure Lord that what we're doing is right. Beginning with me God Almighty there's anything in my heart that isn't clean in your sight show me and I may turn from it and do that which is right. We ask for nothing more or nothing greater in this coming year than your presence be with us. Moses knew it Lord. If you didn't go with him it was pointless. His journey was powerless. We don't want words about you we want words from you in this church. Unlock your word God I ask you in Christ's name for everyone who touches this pulpit Lord that you touch them first. Well unlock our minds and our hearts and our spirits to your word. Give us your word in such simplicity that it will make the honest heart glad. Jesus son of God above everything I ask you to send revival to New York City. I ask you Lord send your Holy Spirit to every church of every denomination even those that are nothing more than museums today. You are able to raise the dead. You can breathe on a valley of bones and bring it back to life. Lord there are many churches in this city where once great men and women of God stood and preached the gospel but somehow they lost their candlestick and they died but you're able to bring them back. You brought Lazarus out of the grave. Oh God you can bring them back to life again. This is the greatest desire of my heart. I don't ask for anything else Lord. I ask you for your glory to be manifested in the city. As the waters of the hurricane covered parts of Manhattan in the city I ask that the waters of God from your throne cover the streets of this city and give drink to those that are thirsty and direction to those that are powerless and strength oh God to those who don't know their way out. Breathe life into your house again. Breathe life into our prayer meetings in this church and keep us. I thank you for past successes but Lord we know that without you we are nothing. We have nothing and we would go nowhere without you. It's all been because of you Lord Jesus. There's no other reason we ask oh God that every time this doors of this church open that every man woman and child who walks into this house not knowing you would leave praising you open the way to the gates of salvation through Christ let every heart understand the power and the victory of the cross. Keep us unified. Keep this testimony alive. Don't let the divisions of this generation get into this house. Keep us from these things almighty God and let there be a love birthed in our hearts that can only be explained by the Holy Spirit living in us. Father I thank you with all my heart for hearing this cry. It's not eloquent but it's sincere. Let us see revival in the city before the day of judgment comes Lord let there be revival. Sweep into your kingdom multitudes. Thank you again Lord for the privilege of being an extended hand to the churches in New York City. Thank you for opening our eyes to see that we have brothers and sisters who are in this battle with us. Thank you for delivering us from the selfishness of closing our own doors and focusing on ourselves. Expand these borders of our hearts. Help us to help those who want to live for you and serve you in their communities. Help us to help pastors who feel that there's nobody there who cares. Help us God. Help us Lord. Give us the strength we need. Fill every empty room that's in our hearts Lord. Places where we ourselves are not whole. Help us. Almighty God help us. Decorate those empty rooms and occupy them. Thank you for freedom. Thank you for victory. Thank you God for what only you could do. Give us the courage not to back away from what you've called us to do, what you've called us to be. Help us Lord not to believe the praise of men nor wither under their criticism. Help us Lord Jesus Christ to walk with you and we ask it in your precious name. Amen. Daniel chapter 3. It's time to face the music. Verses 28 and 29. Sorry about that. There's no way to do that. There's no way to do that eloquently when you get this thing on your tie. Then Nebuchadnezzar, this would be the king of Babylon, spake and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill because there is no God that can deliver after this sort. Now Hebrews chapter 11 is a chapter in the New Testament of faith. Of those that God used, was able to get a hold of, and they worked wonders by faith. And in verse 34 talks about a people who out of weakness were made strong. They were in themselves weak and they knew they were weak. They knew that they were not people of great nobility or resource or influence. And this is the way it was with the three servants of God in our opening text. They began their journey as part of what seemed to be a conquered people. Their homes, their families were separated and seemingly sitting in ruins. The dreams for the future were gone. Their future was in the hands of forces that were generally unsympathetic to their values and traditions that they cherished or at least longed to cherish. You can just imagine as they were being led on this forced march into captivity how hopeless the situation must have seemed, how overwhelming their enemies were. How their own influence and authority seemed to be so small in comparison to what they were facing. And the question would have come into their minds as does come into many of us today. What possible change could I bring to this situation? And if I could do something, how could it be accomplished? Now you and I know historically they did bring a change. As a matter of fact in the whole known world of that time a change was brought about through these three. Marginalized, seemingly ineffective, their homes in ruins and that is many people who are here today. You're basically just in a sense scraping to hold on to your sanity. You're out in the shards of what used to be your life and you're looking to pull something together that looks like family or at least some memories of it. Some shred of hope for the future. And the thought of ever doing anything great for God is almost remote because it's just about survival right now. And it's about finding some meaning even in the small sphere that you and I might occupy that we're in today. But verse 28 gives us the key of what was in these young men that made this difference. Now these are the words of the king of Babylon. It was his testimony of them. He said they trusted in him, in God that is, they yielded their bodies that they might not serve or worship any God except their own God. Now the people of that time would know that because of these three young men the worship of the true God of all the earth was both protected and encouraged. Could you imagine if that happened to us in our generation? That somehow the direction of this society was turned. Now there are people here today that say well pastor no that's that's just too high in the sky that's too idyllic. Well if you believe that then you really don't know scripture. You don't know what God can do. God can send a man called Jonah into a society that didn't have a bible and in just a few days can bring a whole city to its knees and cause people to turn from their sin in that generation. Although the Assyrians went back to their wickedness but for that season and that moment they turned to the worship of the true and living God. If you don't believe that God can change the situation then I want to suggest to you that perhaps you've not experienced much in the way of personal change yet. Because when God begins to change you personally in the secret places that nobody else but he and you know about then suddenly something of faith comes into your heart and you begin to say God can do whatever he wants to do. He is God. He created the entire universe by the word of his mouth. Who am I to say there's something that God can't do? People knew that worship was now the worship of the true God encouraged and protected. But they would not know that the journey to this divine moment in history began with a three young men four including Daniel and perhaps others are not mentioned in the scriptures but I'm focusing on these three who made right choices in hidden places. They made right choices in those secret battles that nobody else knew anything about. Right choices not to be bitter for example for being led captive family destroyed they were made eunuchs of course in the king's palace which meant they were castrated they had no chance of ever having family themselves a lot was taken away from them they could have been bitter but they refused to yield even a small portion of that which was given them to keep in spite of the strength that was superior and the ferocity of what was looking them in the face. When they were sat at a table as young boys brought into the favor of the king because they seem to have something going for them that the king might want to use for his own glory when the dominant society as it were told them to partake of of what they knew they sat them down and said here eat this and eat this and eat this and eat this but they knew that what was set before them would defile them it would it would defile their separation unto God and even though they had a right to be bitter even right we would say now wasn't a lawful right but I'm talking about in our humanness they would sit there and say well what has God done for us we're raised in in a home that believed in God and our family was destroyed our home was taken away we're led into captivity our future is gone from us the things that we cherish and value are taken away and you know folks people who have suffered loss sometimes say well what has God ever done for me and use that as an excuse to indulge in things they shouldn't indulge in but these young men had to have a sense that's even in this despicable condition that somehow still God's name could be glorified through them and so when these things were set before them they petitioned the king's servants that they should not partake of these things it would be so easy for them to cave in as I'm sure so many around them were there would even be people there saying what is your problem why don't you just have a little bit of pork and a little bit of beef and a little bit of this and a little bit of that why don't you just partake what is the big deal why don't you have a little bit of wine like everybody else it might gladden your heart why don't you lighten up a little bit Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and Daniel why do you have to be so intense about this faith that you say you have in God and it would be so easy and undoubtedly if they had done so they would never have been aware of the incredible consequence of their lack of courage and conviction and there are so many people today who are not aware who taste and touch and handle things they shouldn't they sit their minds feasting on things they shouldn't be feeding on not realizing the measure of dullness that it brings into your spirit the inability to hear the voice of God the courage that it takes out of your heart if you and I are not careful as to what we feed into our mind and into our spirit especially at this time in which we're living there's only one thing I can really promise you is that relatively little of lasting value will happen through your life I can promise you that if you are sitting and I can't believe how utterly dumbed down television has become I don't watch television but every once in a while I'm forced to go to a doctor's office and sit there with the idiot box on up in the corner I can't believe what people are listening to and feeding on there was one place I went I had to go to a doctor and I was sitting in the waiting room and it was a daytime two in the afternoon talk show it was so vile I picked up the huge armchair I carried it through the door and into the hall and said I'm not sitting in that room as long as that thing is on I'm not sitting there listening to that absolute idiocy nighttime talk shows scorners and I can't fathom the number of God's own people sitting in the seat of the scornful wondering why their lives are not amounting to anything but why there's no testimony in the neighborhood why there's no influence in the workplace well the influence doesn't come because you go to church it comes because you have the presence of Christ in your life the presence of the Holy Spirit in you and in me is what really makes the difference you know living a kind of a marginal Christian life where you just do enough to squeak by might get you into heaven but the question I have for you this morning is are you okay with that are you okay with just squeaking into heaven is that what Christianity really means I mean there there were others other than Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that went into Babylon and no doubt through their laws and rituals etc squeaked into favor with God but you don't hear you see their names they're not changing anything hearts are not changed around them Paul the apostle spoke to the Corinthian church and he talked about those who fail to realize what it means to be part of the body of Jesus Christ and they come into fellowship and communion with one another and supposedly with God but never really fully embrace what that means and Paul said because of this many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep in other words they're spiritually asleep and can barely survive and don't seem to be able to find the strength in a sense to to win even the smallest of victories constantly living in defeat always coming to church looking for some new fix because they're they're not finding victory throughout the week well in many cases if if we were able to see what we do throughout the week there'd be an obvious reasons why some are not finding victory I don't know these three Hebrew boys in their youth that they could ever have imagined how depraved this new world in which they found themselves was going to become they couldn't fathom as they're being led into this captivity that one day that all people everywhere would be required by law to bow down to the image of a man or the image of man and as it happened here in the days of Babylon the scripture tells us in the last days of time that's exactly the way it's going to happen again there's going to be such a spirit against Christ that's going to come into this world that people will be required to bow down before it and bow down before its image I don't have time to go into all the details of that but if you understand the books that speak of these things you would know that what I'm saying is the truth in Daniel chapter 3 verses 3 to 6 says that the princes the governors the captains the judges the treasurers the counselors the sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together so it's it seems to be all those in authority are gathered together to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up then a herald cried aloud to you it is commanded oh peoples nations and languages that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet the flute the harp sackbut psaltery dulcimer and all kinds of music you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up now in other words here's what they're saying when you hear the music bow to it when we tell you you can't pray don't pray when we tell you you can't educate your children and tell them that Christ is the king and the son of God then you can't educate your children when we when we play the tune to you you bow down I find it amazing I read a book recently that I don't have the exact statistics but it I think I'm fairly close to the way they quoted it in a recent survey they found out that over 80 percent of the population of this country still believe in God and still believe that the bible is the inspired word of God now some don't believe it's infallible but at least they believe it's inspired of the 80 percent about a quarter or so of of that percentage of people consider themselves evangelicals it's not a very high percentage but still there's a core there's a core value of belief in God in this society so the question comes to my mind when I read these things who's telling us we can't pray who is who's telling us we can't tell our children about God or at least even have a discussion an intelligent discussion and present the two sides in our schools what voices are we bowing down to in this generation how have we so fallen asleep in the church of Jesus Christ with churches on every corner this whole society should be singing the praises of God and yet we so fall in the sleep that when the music plays everybody bows down it's always been the goal of fallen man to be as God and to have everyone bow to him as such that's always been from the day in Eden when Adam fell Satan instilled in humankind that seed that man himself can be as God and that's always been the goal of man to be as God and to make his own declaration of what is good and what is evil which inversely without the worship of the true God will end up calling evil good and calling good evil and that's exactly the moment in history that we're living in I don't know how many people realize that in this country we're at a tipping point right now our future hangs in the balance as a nation what kind of a nation we're going to be and what we're going to look like it was in this kind of an atmosphere that three young men would find the courage that would change history in Daniel chapter 3 verses 12 to 14 the report came that there were certain that were not that were facing the music but they were not bowing to it they were staying on their feet and they were refusing and there were certain jews it says in verse 12 that you've said over the affairs of the province of Babylon Shadrach Meshach and Abednego these men oh king have not regarded thee they serve not thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou set up then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and they brought these men before the king and Nebuchadnezzar spake and said to them is it true oh Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that you do not serve my gods nor worship the golden image that I have set up now if you be ready at the time when you hear the music in other words if you bow if you will not worship you'll be cast the same hour into midst of a burning fiery furnace and who is that god will deliver you out of my hands and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king oh Nebuchadnezzar we're not careful to answer thee in this matter in other words this is not a light thing we're not being arrogant we're not being rude before you we respect you as a leader we respect you as that man that god has appointed to govern us in this season but let it be known to you oh king we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up in other words we will face the music but we will not bow to it we will not bow we will speak those things that we have learned we will talk about those things that god is doing we will stand in the face of whatever opposition that we have to face and make a clear declaration that there is a god he does have a name there is a heaven there is a hell there is a savior there is a cross there is a way to eternal life through Jesus Christ we will not apologize for what we believe we will not bend our knee under the weight of all of the threatenings of this generation all the sneering and all the scorning and all of the blasphemies and all of the evil speech we will not bow before it as the people of god we will stand up and our lives will make a declaration that there is a god he does have a name he does sit at the right hand of all authority his name is Jesus Christ he is the king of kings and he's the lord of lords verse 17 they said to the king if it be so our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand o king but if not be it known unto the o king that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up the scripture says that nebuchadnezzar was full of fury and his visage his face in other words changed he was enraged at those who would not bend their knee there is a spirit in our generation after the testimony of Jesus Christ i don't know if you realize that or not i'm not speaking about a specific man or group of people or or specific person or women i'm speaking about a spirit that has come upon this generation that is against the ways of god against the things of god against the truth of god and now we're starting to pay the piper for it now they took these men and they threw them into the furnace see this is there's a cost to standing at certain times in history we've not had to pay it in this country because we've been relatively blessed from day one now some have paid it please don't misunderstand what i'm saying the christianity of this nation has been far from perfect but there has been a general reverence for the things of god which we are now facing such opposition to they threw them into the fire and it says in verse 23 these three men shadrach meshach and abednego fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace it looked like it was all over the testimony was finished their little lives had made their squeak as the king would have them believe and now they were over was done they didn't bow and now it was going to cost them greatly then nebuchadnezzar but they didn't realize that their their little testimonies were going to change the known world change the worship of god change the mind of a king then nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said to his counselors did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire they said true o king he answered and said but lo i see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the son of god may i put it this way jesus will walk with the people who walk with him he will bear witness to those who are his own he will not leave us he will not forsake us we will not be left at the end of time holding on to the short end of the stick i happen to believe that i serve a god who can still change nations he can still touch kings he can break down barriers he can reveal himself he can show himself i believe that with all of my heart no matter how deep the defenses against righteousness are no matter how strong the arguments against christ have become no matter how sinister the sneers become i believe because i know god i have no recourse but to believe because i know god i have hope for the future because i know god i know who god is i know what god does i know what god looks like i know what god is able to do i know that the defenses of man god looks at them from heaven and laughs the scripture says he laughs even when they all get together and they all form alliances and say we're going to drive the name of god out of our society god looks down and laughs because he's omnipresent i've said it before i'll say it again you can't drive god out of anywhere because he's everywhere you can't drive him out of anywhere and so we will have to face the sneers and we have to face the roars and we have to face the taunts and we have to face the threats but i'm telling you in this generation jesus christ is going to be glorified one more time before he comes and takes his people home the fourth man in the fire comes when you and i choose not to bend before the music we don't bend before the music of this world we don't bend before the entertainment of this world we don't bend before that which would dull us down to the point where we have no faith and no spiritual mind we stop bending on knee and then we don't bend to the threats of those who say hey you continue on this path it's going to cost you we don't turn back from these things as the people of god to turn back at this time is to deny who god is he is the god who by the word of his mouth gave our enemies the breath that they breathe that's who he is he's the god who saved us gave us sight broke our chains took away the writing of wrong that was against us in heaven he's the god who's building a mansion for you and i in glory right now he's the god who died on the cross so that he might come in and dwell us as the living temples of a holy god on this earth he's the god who's willing to empower us and give us vision for the future compassion for the lost power that will cause our enemies to stand back and say how could these men and women have such wisdom having never learned having never studied oh no no i'm not willing to finish my course any less than the church began we're not going to finish this age hiding in an upper room when the early church came out of that upper room and they come out with the vision of god and the power of god in their hearts hallelujah to the lamb of god i happen to believe that new york city is going to know one last move of the holy spirit i believe that in my heart as we enter into 2013 we're going to need courage courage perhaps like you and i've never had before we're going to need courage as nebuchadnezzar said of these three hebrew boys they trusted in god and we're going to have to have courage to trust god to believe god for our own provision to believe god for the strength to go through those secret battles that each one of us will have to face for courage not to succumb to fear as so many will be in this generation to give us the courage to be used of god to turn the people back to the worship of the one true living god through his son jesus christ i've never been content to be a squeaker in the kingdom of god and i hope you're not either squeakers like mice squeak squeak just live their whole life squeaking through squeaking how quickly can i get home how can i squeak out of pyramids how can i squeak out of serving god how can i squeak out of this ministry they spend their life squeaking and wonder why the enemy is not afraid of them no i'm not content to be a squeaker i never was when i came to christ i turned to my wife pastor trees and i said to her if this is god i want the whole thing and if it's not i want none of it but i'm it and that was the beginning of my conversion i want the whole thing i want the whole journey i want the whole path and when i began to read the scriptures and saw i could be free i wanted the whole freedom i saw that god could use me i wanted the whole thing that god has for my life i saw that god could give me courage i wanted the whole courage i saw that god is willing to put a love in my heart i wanted all of the love he had for me and was willing to express to me and through me i'm not content to be a squeaker when i saw in the scriptures that that there are things in this world that could cloud my vision and rob me of the testimony of christ i wanted none of that and i wanted everything that god could set before my eyes that would put faith into my heart could you imagine with i don't know how many thousands are i'm guessing by the seats is probably 3 000 people combined in this church today with overflow but could you imagine if everybody here went the full distance with god could you imagine if everybody said today i will put away from before my eyes and everything that's laid before me of this world that is blinding me and making me spiritually weak i will put it away in the name of jesus i will stand up i will be a witness for christ god will give me wisdom i will know when to speak i will know when to be quiet i will not be arrogant but i will stand for jesus christ in my generation i want to suggest to you if that was the case 3 000 would be six by next week would be 12 by the week after would be 24 the week after that to be not room enough in the new york city to contain those that would come to christ if you and i would just stand up for christ in the midst of this generation do what is right turn away from what is wrong put away sin and put before you what is right put before us what is wholesome and what is healthy and what is true and what is pure and begin to focus on that begin to read books that will inspire you put away these dumb books of this generation and read what will expire inspire your heart get good biographies of men and women of god of all races that were used in times past and read them and see what it was that they possessed that caused their lives to be used so greatly of god i've read most of everything on these things i can get my hands on and i see one thing in common in all of them and it's everything i'm preaching on this morning men and women who said i'm not content to be nothing in the kingdom of god my life is going to count it's going to matter i'm going to pray and what god tells me to do that's what i'm going to do you would be amazed what god will do when a skinny preacher in pennsylvania decided to turn off his television set and started to pray god told him to go to new york city and begin to work with gangs who had murdered a man in the wheelchair as insane as that instruction was hundreds of thousands have millions of people around the world have found freedom from drug addiction i've found christ as lord and savior i happen to believe that's not the exception i believe that's the rule in the body of christ god couldn't if he can look and find a man or find a woman that just says lord jesus all the way with you i'm going all the way whatever that means for me personally it means something different for everybody but whatever that means for you and nebuchadnezzar said of these young men that they yielded their bodies as expressions of true worship to jesus christ paul wrote in the scriptures and romans that it's a reasonable service to yield ourselves as living sacrifices to god yielding their bodies it's it's been the hallmark of the church throughout history that those have been the people that god has used from the i could name names and go through times and seasons that you know we we romanticize a lot of the missionaries that were the first end of many countries like hudson taylor for example but we forget that he buried a lot of his family in these places and yielded they yielded their bodies to god recently in india i was told that i was in an area that had been known as the the missionary's graveyard not just because of the violence but because of the disease of those who yielded their bodies to the cause of christ but because some did i was able to minister in that area to over 4 000 leaders who are now carrying the banner of christ in one very very difficult area of the world healing our bodies we've had a we've had a kind of a soft christianity in north america for our generation for sure but god's grace is going to change that and we're going to find something of christ that you're going to love it doesn't come any other way but you'll find something of christ a strength that is not necessarily there for the casual seeker but as you and i are forced to seek god we're going to find the strength and we're going to be glad and realize that everything that's happening in our generation is is all about mercy god is being this country to this city i thank god for that with all my heart i want to give an altar call this morning for 2013 for those who just say lord for my life whatever going all the way with you means and wherever that starts it starts in the small places starts in the secret places starts with the hidden battles it starts with the small fears that we all have to face and then it moves from there to do what god speaks when you begin to pray he speaks clearly and sometimes it will seem so preposterous it could only be god but he speaks he speaks and it's little things like forgive that person make right a past wrong give something to those that family down the hall it's just little things i could testify from my own life it was a little things just it didn't start by saying you know now that you're saved go to new york and pastor a church of 10 000 people i would have had a heart attack and the lord i mean they're too big of a bridge from the two you don't know where your life will end and how much influence it will have but if it will never get to here unless we start obeying the little things along the way and that's how i found god has led my life it's just the little things the little things and he still does that today i i was very rude to a homeless man about a month or two ago and it so grieved my heart and uh i prayed to god let me meet him again and i did about a week ago and i said i wanted to talk to you said i i need to ask you forgiveness i was i was very rude to you and it's the little things i i preach to a lot of people now but it doesn't it doesn't exempt me from the little things because that's always been the source of god using my life is the obedience in the little things those little things that nobody else sees and nobody else has to know and whatever whatever going all the way with god means for you and i want to encourage you to do that just whether it's just i in your heart you could say i don't even know where to start but i'm going to start i don't even know what start looks like but i'm going to start and lord you're the one that's going to have to show me and he will if you're sincere he will it'll be strong impressions in your heart i'm only one time ever heard an audible voice i'm going to talk about that this morning but that's years ago only god doesn't speak to me that way it's strong impressions on my heart and quite often when i'm reading the scriptures my own devotion it's a strong strong leadings to do something and you'll know that voice that if you're willing to be obedient in the small things now father i thank you that you will help us as a congregation i'm asking you to strengthen us and take us farther than we've gone before all of us lord give us strength lord give us strength father help us to do right help us to put away wrong help us to shun sin and to embrace what is good and father i thank you god that you will help us as a congregation so that this city doesn't have to die in its sin and i bless you for it in jesus name we're going to stand and as we do if you'd like to respond to this message by just coming forward and please do so and then we'll pray together lord i pray for those that have responded in heart today father in jesus name i'm asking you to unlock to us what it is you'd have each of us to do and how it it works together collectively with your body your church on this earth i ask lord that ministries be born and others be made aware of them that you begin to warm every heart in a special way today and speak to each person every man every woman about the full potential of what you have called their life to be let none of us say no help us god not to say no help us lord when you whisper turn away from that not to say no help us not to look for excuses to disobey you help us god to turn to what is right and good help us lord jesus christ to stand as lights in a darkened world as salt in the streets of a city that has lost its way help us god almighty help us father to lock hands with our brothers and sisters in christ all over the city and to believe god that you are able to bring great deliverance in the midst of what looks to be a difficult time father thank you we pray for our leaders god almighty for our government lord jesus christ those who govern us at the federal the state level the city level and townships lord we pray god almighty god almighty god almighty lay hold of every heart turn us from where we're going lord and turn us to righteousness father we thank you i thank you lord that every life counts in your kingdom everyone counts let it be to the fullness of god of what you've given us to do keep us as a church in the days ahead keep this testimony alive and father we thank you for it we praise you in jesus mighty name hallelujah thank you lord thank you father thank you jesus