Speaker 1: What a great day.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 1: My name is James.
Speaker 1: We have a chance to meet.
Speaker 1: It's my privilege to serve as campus pastor here, but we've been in the series now for about six weeks or so, called in the fire, and we're talking about the shared human experience of going through difficulty.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you know Jesus and you've been walking with Jesus for 50 years, or whether you've got no faith at all.
Speaker 1: We all go through the trial.
Speaker 1: We all experience the fires of life on a broken planet, and so the question then becomes not will I go through pain or will I experience fear, or will I be angry or be anxious?
Speaker 1: The question becomes when I'm angry or fearful or anxious or uncertain about the future, what do I do?
Speaker 1: Does the fire make me better?
Speaker 1: Do I come out the other side like gold, where I've been purified and been bettered by the fire, or do I come out the other side, broken and crumbling under the weight of life?
Speaker 1: And today we're gonna land the plane on this series by talking about something that's become quite controversial in our world today, and it's the idea of truth.
Speaker 1: The idea of truth How do we know what's right and wrong.
Speaker 1: How do we find the truth and anchor our life to the truth in a world where truth seems to be such a tense topic of discussion?
Speaker 1: So let me pray and then we're gonna jump in Father again.
Speaker 1: We're grateful to be here As we go.
Speaker 1: Now to your word, father.
Speaker 1: We don't need man's opinions.
Speaker 1: We need to hear from your Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: We need your word to do its work in us, to sharpen us, to correct us, to discipline us, to make us more like Jesus, so that we can shine like lights in the world.
Speaker 1: Father, we love you.
Speaker 1: We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: I don't know how closely you guys follow the social media scene, but working with youth ministry for the last decade or so, i've had to at least learn about it so I can like name drop.
Speaker 1: You know TikTok or whatever when I'm talking to youth.
Speaker 1: But one of the interesting things that's happened in the social media world recently was when Elon Musk purchased Twitter.
Speaker 1: Now youth don't care about that because their parents are on Twitter now, which makes it not cool.
Speaker 1: So you talk about Twitter to them and they're like that was so like four years ago.
Speaker 1: You know like why are you living in the past?
Speaker 1: You know, but Twitter.
Speaker 1: Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk and it was fascinating to watch the conversation around that deal go down and not to make a political statement at all.
Speaker 1: But it became a political statement, did it not?
Speaker 1: And what was fascinating, as Elon Musk bought Twitter and then he began to add features to it.
Speaker 1: One of the features was this community notes feature, where now somebody can tweet something but if it's not true, somebody else can put a community note and people can actually vote on the community note, so that what ultimately is hopefully going to happen the truth will rise to the top.
Speaker 1: And what's been fascinating about this social experiment is to see as people make statements and then somebody else makes a community note about their statement.
Speaker 1: That's completely opposite of what the original statement was.
Speaker 1: Then to watch people upvote and downvote these like this search for truth is fascinating, and that's what's happening.
Speaker 1: It's a search for truth, and what I think maybe Musk is after at the end of the day is we need the truth.
Speaker 1: That matter right or left, religious background or what you're walking through, there's something powerful about truth and deep down on the inside, we all know that and we all long for truth.
Speaker 1: Culturally, truth has been defined as what you feel, what fits best with your perspective on life, what allows you to become the most authentic version of you.
Speaker 1: That is your truth.
Speaker 1: Sociologists, psychologists, people that study people have looked at our society and they say that we're in a postmodern society or we're in some version of what they call secular progressivism, which basically holds to this idea that truth, while it may exist, it can't be known by finite humans, which we all are, and so the most accurate statement on truth and modern culture and society is simply to say well, who's to say what actually is the truth?
Speaker 1: And in a culture like that, truth becomes internalized.
Speaker 1: It's what you see, what you feel, what you understand, how you interpret the world.
Speaker 1: That then becomes your truth.
Speaker 1: Then we come to the scriptures and we see a different perspective on truth.
Speaker 1: In John 14, six we talked about this a couple of months ago Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life, the truth, not a truth, an option for truth.
Speaker 1: Jesus defines himself as the truth, and so, if we take that picture of truth, truth becomes then, not something internal that is based on our interpretation or understanding, but truth is a person.
Speaker 1: It's not something that we find or discover within.
Speaker 1: It's someone that we encounter, and truth becomes something that changes everything about us.
Speaker 1: This is an interesting topic.
Speaker 1: Anytime you start talking about truth, it just for me it feels like a tense subject, and the reason I think that is is because the enemy Jesus describes in Scripture as the father of lies.
Speaker 1: So when we, as the people of God, begin to talk about truth, what we are doing is we are taking the fight directly to the enemy And we're saying, hey, in a world full of lies, we want to follow the truth.
Speaker 1: We're going to push back the darkness of lies with the light of the truth of God.
Speaker 1: And so just know that, like the parable Jesus told us, we begin to talk about truth.
Speaker 1: The word of God is like a seed and our hearts are like soil, and there is a very real enemy who wants to snatch the seed of God's word before it can take root in the soil of our hearts.
Speaker 1: So my ask for you today is to open your mind and your heart to the truth of God's word, wherever you're at in your journey of faith, whether you're a follower of Jesus or not.
Speaker 1: Open your mind and open your heart and let the Holy Spirit do His work on the inside.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go back today to Numbers, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: We began this series a few weeks ago in Numbers 13, and the scene there was a great moment in Israel's history.
Speaker 1: They have come to the brink of the promised land that God promised to Abraham a long time before.
Speaker 1: They're at the edge, they can see it, it's right in front of them.
Speaker 1: And so Moses sends 12 spies, if you remember into the land.
Speaker 1: And the 12 go into the land and they find fortified cities.
Speaker 1: There are armies waiting on them on the other side, and not only that, but the armies that are waiting on the Israelites, they're made up of people that are huge, like these are giants.
Speaker 1: This is like a Pee Wee football team going to play the Dallas Cowboys, like it's not like a fair matchup at all.
Speaker 1: And so the spies come back and they give this report to the people of Israel.
Speaker 1: They're like, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: I know what Moses said and I know that you know God's told us this is our land.
Speaker 1: But we saw the city, and they're big and they're fortified.
Speaker 1: And we saw the people, and they're huge, and they got weaponry that we don't have.
Speaker 1: Like we don't seem like we can take this land.
Speaker 1: In fact, we seem like grasshoppers compared to these people.
Speaker 1: And so now what happens in chapter 14 is that Israel, the people of God, have a choice to make.
Speaker 1: Will they trust the truth of God's word Or will they trust the reality of what they see, their interpretation of the circumstances in front of them?
Speaker 1: What will they do?
Speaker 1: Who will they trust?
Speaker 1: So numbers chapter 14, we're going to start in verse one and read the first 10 verses here.
Speaker 1: This morning, at the report of the spies, all the congregation raised a loud cry.
Speaker 1: And if you're in church and the congregation raises a loud cry, that's not a good thing.
Speaker 1: The people wept that night and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
Speaker 1: The whole congregation said to them it would have been better that we had died in the land of Egypt, or it would have been better that we had died in this wilderness.
Speaker 1: Why is it that the Lord is bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?
Speaker 1: Why is the Lord bringing us into this land with our wives and our little ones?
Speaker 1: They'll become a prey.
Speaker 1: It's like a wild animal is going to devour us.
Speaker 1: Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?
Speaker 1: And so the congregation said to one another let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt.
Speaker 1: Now remember, egypt was not a good place for the people of Israel.
Speaker 1: It was familiar, but it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: It was comfortable, but it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: It was what they knew, but it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation and the people of Israel.
Speaker 1: And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jefune, were among those who had spied out the land.
Speaker 1: They tore their clothes And they said to all the congregation of the people of Israel the land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about the truth.
Speaker 1: It's a good land.
Speaker 1: If the Lord delights in us, he'll bring us into this land and he'll give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
Speaker 1: Only, do not rebel against the Lord.
Speaker 1: Don't fear the people of the land.
Speaker 1: They're bred for us, their protections removed from them.
Speaker 1: The Lord is with us, don't fear them.
Speaker 1: Then all the congregate listen to this response.
Speaker 1: Then all the congregations said to stone them with stones.
Speaker 1: But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
Speaker 1: Let me sum up the rest of what happens here.
Speaker 1: So the glory of the Lord comes down and God is not pleased with the lack of faith in his people And he's ready to discipline and correct.
Speaker 1: And so Moses prays and essentially says God, remember who you are.
Speaker 1: You're the God who's patient in the face of offense and you're slow to anger.
Speaker 1: You're abounding instead of fast love and faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Please forgive us, please forgive these people.
Speaker 1: And God relents.
Speaker 1: He forgives, but he also disciplines.
Speaker 1: He says this generation of Israelites who didn't have the faith to trust my word, they will die in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Only Joshua and Caleb will go in to the promised land because of their faith, their different spirit, and then from there Israel begins their wilderness journey, if you will.
Speaker 1: There's political unrest.
Speaker 1: A couple of chapters later there's a rebellion against Moses and Aaron and some other guys try to take power.
Speaker 1: Economic uncertainty it's hard to become an economically viable people when you're living in the desert and wandering around from place to place.
Speaker 1: There's uncertainty about the future because they're surrounded by enemies And, most of all, the Israelites are a people without a home.
Speaker 1: They're in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: You know, and sometimes we think, the Bible's unrelatable right.
Speaker 1: Political uncertainty, economic tension.
Speaker 1: We feel like people without a home, surrounded by enemies.
Speaker 1: The title of this talk, this message today, is Strangers in Exiles.
Speaker 1: You ever felt like that, like you're in a place that you don't understand and you don't know what the future holds, and you thought you had a path forward.
Speaker 1: But now it's just uncertain.
Speaker 1: Or maybe in today's culture, today's world, you're trying your best to anchor your life to the truth of God's work, but then everything you hear around you is how this book, written thousands of years ago, is out of touch and out of date and for people in another time and another place.
Speaker 1: And it's like I feel like a person without a home, a people without a place.
Speaker 1: How do we anchor ourselves to the truth of God's word in a world that seems to quickly believe any other option for truth?
Speaker 1: When I love about the scriptures, somebody said one time that the Old Testament is not just the story of what happened.
Speaker 1: It's the story of what always happens And there's some things that we can learn from the Israelites in Numbers 14.
Speaker 1: But the big question for us today is this will I believe God?
Speaker 1: Will you believe God, even in the face of opposition, in a world full of lies?
Speaker 1: will you believe God or will we compromise our convictions for the sake of our comfort?
Speaker 1: Will you believe what God says?
Speaker 1: Will you trust and obey the scriptures, the word of God, the truth of God, or will we become people who compromise on our convictions for the sake of comfort?
Speaker 1: A couple of thoughts on truth from Numbers 14.
Speaker 1: Number one is this when it comes to truth, we don't always get it right.
Speaker 1: We don't always get it right.
Speaker 1: The sin nature within us is real, is it not?
Speaker 1: Sometimes we look at Israel and we're like how could they not get it?
Speaker 1: They saw the Red Sea split.
Speaker 1: They saw the Israelites, their enemies, wiped out.
Speaker 1: They saw the pillar of cloud in the day and they saw the fire by night.
Speaker 1: How could they not get it?
Speaker 1: And I feel like if the Israelites were in the room with us, they'd look at me and they'd be like James.
Speaker 1: How do you not get it?
Speaker 1: You got the whole story of God's word.
Speaker 1: You know Jesus, who is the Son of God, who shed his blood and gave his life and resurrected from the dead.
Speaker 1: And how do you not get it?
Speaker 1: How do we not get it?
Speaker 1: See, we're so quick to look at Israel and be like how Israel?
Speaker 1: could you do this in Numbers 14?
Speaker 1: But the reality is, if we were there, we'd have been just like Israel.
Speaker 1: We'd have been more like the 10 than the two.
Speaker 1: More than likely, the story of the Bible is the story of God's grace and goodness to us, even when we fail and get it wrong.
Speaker 1: We need God to show us the truth, because the reality is.
Speaker 1: Romans once says it really clearly we have a tendency, because of our sin, to suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: We bury it, we push it down.
Speaker 1: We don't necessarily always like the truth.
Speaker 1: Paul says it like this by our unrighteousness we suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: For what can be known about God as plain to them?
Speaker 1: because God has shown it to them?
Speaker 1: For his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have become this, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 1: God wants us to see him.
Speaker 1: He wants us to know him.
Speaker 1: But here's what happens.
Speaker 1: We know God.
Speaker 1: Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.
Speaker 1: But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Speaker 1: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Speaker 1: We may not be building idols to worship today, but we do have a tendency to exchange truth for a lie.
Speaker 1: Truth makes us uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: It forces us to confront some things within us.
Speaker 1: When we read the scriptures, it's like a mirror.
Speaker 1: It shows us the standard of God and it shows us the areas of our life that are not up to God's standard.
Speaker 1: And oftentimes what happens is, rather than deal with the truth of God's word, we would rather bury the truth and stay in our comfort.
Speaker 1: The danger, what we learn from Numbers 14, is that this does not lead us into the path of God's promise.
Speaker 1: God doesn't want us to have a foolish heart and a darkened mind.
Speaker 1: He wants us to have a wise heart and a mind that's full of light.
Speaker 1: He wants us to have wisdom so that we can grow and develop and follow him in faith.
Speaker 1: Romans 12 says it like this what we need is not to conform to the pattern of this world, but to allow God to transform us through the renewing of our minds.
Speaker 1: We need God to show us the truth so that we can walk in the truth.
Speaker 1: Matt Chandler said this recently the reality of Jesus means that truth is external and fixed, not internal and fluid.
Speaker 1: Truth is external.
Speaker 1: It's not on the inside of us.
Speaker 1: It's the person and work of Jesus, it's God's word as revealed in scripture.
Speaker 1: It's external, it's fixed, it does not change, it's not internal and fluid.
Speaker 1: So, in a world that's suppressing the truth, let's stop looking to the inside to base our perspective on truth of what we see, what we understand, what we feel, because what we see is limited, what we understand is finite, our feelings are inconsistent.
Speaker 1: At best, let's look to the external, fixed truth of Jesus Christ in the revealed word of God And then, when the truth of God's word, the leading of God's spirit, when it forces us to confront some things within us, when it puts us at odds with culture, let's just go ahead and make the choice that today we're not gonna be people who suppress the truth, who push it down and try to bury it for the sake of our comfort and our convenience.
Speaker 1: We're gonna live by the truth of God, because the second thing that we see in Numbers 14 is that God is committed to the truth.
Speaker 1: God's committed to the truth.
Speaker 1: That's why, when Israel rebels in the wilderness, there are consequences for their rebellion, because the truth, jesus said, has the power to set you free.
Speaker 1: It's the truth of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It is the way to life.
Speaker 1: Truth is God's gift to us to lead us to what is good and lasting and eternal.
Speaker 1: The opposite of truth is a lie.
Speaker 1: The opposite of God is the enemies, the father of lies.
Speaker 1: God is committed to the truth.
Speaker 1: I love Moses' response.
Speaker 1: When the people rebel, moses' praise and his prayer is really profound.
Speaker 1: It's God.
Speaker 1: Please forgive us for where we get the truth wrong.
Speaker 1: Please be gracious, please be faithful, please remember your steadfast love.
Speaker 1: But also I love that Moses reminds himself of who God is.
Speaker 1: How do we know that God's committed to the truth?
Speaker 1: because God's the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1: He doesn't change.
Speaker 1: In a world where everything changes, god is constant.
Speaker 1: How many of you are glad to know today that God is constant, that in your future he's gonna be faithful just like he's been in the past, that his word will stand the test of time?
Speaker 1: If you build your life on the foundation of the scriptures, the solid rock that is Jesus Christ, you do not have to wonder if your house will crumble in the future If the world crumbles around you, the word of God will remain.
Speaker 1: The truth of God will stand solid in the storm.
Speaker 1: And so Moses says to God now, please, god.
Speaker 1: In verse 17, let the power of the Lord be great, as you have promised.
Speaker 1: Saying and he goes back to Exodus 34-7, the Lord is slow to anger and abounding instead fast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression.
Speaker 1: But he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the sin of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation.
Speaker 1: Please forgive the sin of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.
Speaker 1: And guess what God does?
Speaker 1: He forgives, he forgives.
Speaker 1: Verse 20,.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord said I have pardoned, i have forgiven.
Speaker 1: You know one of our roles in the world today.
Speaker 1: Jesus said it like this in Matthew, chapter five.
Speaker 1: He said you're here to be salt, the preserving agents of what is right and good and true.
Speaker 1: God hears your prayers.
Speaker 1: When you pray, god responds to the prayers of faith lifted to him by his people.
Speaker 1: Let's be people who live by truth and who, in living by truth, become the agents of preservation for a world that is in rebellion.
Speaker 1: Moses prays and God forgives And God forgives.
Speaker 1: Is it possible that, as God's people today pray, that God will move and God will forgive?
Speaker 1: and God will show up and work in the people in your office?
Speaker 1: He'll show up and work in the people in your family.
Speaker 1: He'll show up and work in the people that right now look like they're living in rebellion to God.
Speaker 1: Let's be people who believe God and who talk to God.
Speaker 1: God, you're full of steadfast love and faithfulness.
Speaker 1: God, you're slow to anger.
Speaker 1: You're quick to forgive.
Speaker 1: God, will you show your grace to these people in my life that needs you?
Speaker 1: Will you show up and work like only you can to bring life from death?
Speaker 1: God's committed to the truth.
Speaker 1: Third thing that we see in Numbers 14 is this There's always a remnant.
Speaker 1: There's always a remnant, and what I mean by that is this If you look through the story of Scripture, quite a few moments where humanity hangs in the balance.
Speaker 1: People have rebelled, things have gotten bad and it's like, hey, god's really close to just starting over with this whole deal.
Speaker 1: But what does God do?
Speaker 1: over and over and over, he preserves a remnant.
Speaker 1: He finds someone of faith And that person of faith becomes the channel for God's work and God's blessing in the earth.
Speaker 1: In Genesis six, it's Noah and his family.
Speaker 1: In Genesis 12, it's Abram, it's Daniel and Babylon.
Speaker 1: It's the prophets as the Israelites are in exile.
Speaker 1: In the New Testament, it's the church.
Speaker 1: In a world that is following not the narrow way of Jesus, but the wide road that leads to destruction, there's always a remnant.
Speaker 1: I love Numbers 14, verse 24, as God is promising that the majority of the generation of Israelites in the desert, in the wilderness, will not see the promised land of God become their own.
Speaker 1: God says this, but my servant, caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, i will bring into the land And I read that phrase a different spirit, and that just struck my heart.
Speaker 1: May we be people who have a different spirit.
Speaker 1: That's what characterizes the remnant.
Speaker 1: It's a different spirit In Israel.
Speaker 1: In Numbers 14, there is a spirit of fear and Caleb lives with a spirit of faith.
Speaker 1: In our world today, where the spirit of anxiety rules, may we be people who live with a spirit of peace In a world of anger and hate.
Speaker 1: May we be people who live with a spirit of love.
Speaker 1: In our world today where there is division.
Speaker 1: May the church be marked by the spirit of unity.
Speaker 1: Let's be people who have a different spirit.
Speaker 1: I love Acts, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: There's a moment where the church is expanding There in a place called Antioch and Luke, who wrote Acts, drops this little line in Acts, chapter 11.
Speaker 1: I think it's verse 26.
Speaker 1: He says it was at Antioch that they were first called Christians.
Speaker 1: That's one of those verses you can read about.
Speaker 1: That's cool, a little trivia fact there.
Speaker 1: You know, next time in Sunday school live group you need to throw out a fact.
Speaker 1: Where were they first called Christians?
Speaker 1: Antioch.
Speaker 1: But what's fascinating about that verse is that the church didn't have to tell people hey, call us Christians.
Speaker 1: No, it was at Antioch that they were called Christians because they were characterized by a different spirit.
Speaker 1: People in Antioch were looking at them, going wait a minute.
Speaker 1: They don't look like us, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: They're not acting like us.
Speaker 1: They're not speaking like us.
Speaker 1: They're not afraid like we are.
Speaker 1: They're not chasing after what we're chasing after.
Speaker 1: There's a different spirit.
Speaker 1: They look like Jesus.
Speaker 1: The Christians little Christ.
Speaker 1: Clearly they're following after the way of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's like when I read that and begin to think about it like that, the Holy Spirit just impressed on my heart this question do people know that you follow Jesus by the way that you live your life.
Speaker 1: Did they call you a Christian?
Speaker 1: or do you have to tell them that you're a Christian?
Speaker 1: Would they be surprised to hear me say oh yeah, i follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: Oh, really you do.
Speaker 1: May we be people characterized by a different spirit because we have, as followers of Christ, the Holy Spirit living on the inside.
Speaker 1: And Jesus had this to say about the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: He said when I go to be with my father, i'm not going to leave you as orphans.
Speaker 1: You might feel like strangers, in exiles.
Speaker 1: You might feel like you're fighting upstream against the tide of culture, the pressures of the world, the ideologies of the day, but I will not leave you as orphans.
Speaker 1: My helper, the Comforter, will come and dwell with you on the inside so that you never walk alone.
Speaker 1: So we close this series today.
Speaker 1: We're going to close a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: I'm saying you want to go ahead and get ready up here.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago, we you know it was 2020, covid hits, shuts the world down And man, you all remember those days.
Speaker 1: We don't have to keep revisiting that, but it really did.
Speaker 1: It turned the world upside down And so much of what we trusted in for stability and consistency was gone.
Speaker 1: It was unstable, inconsistent, and people were struggling.
Speaker 1: People continue to struggle, and we went in 2021, the first part of that year, like January, something to what we call the mountain experience.
Speaker 1: It's our annual youth retreat up to look up Lodge, And we wrote a song that year for that retreat, called Strangers in Exiles, and it was all about the reality of walking through life as followers of Jesus in a culture that is out of control, where nothing is consistent, where everything is uncertain, where there's turmoil and tension.
Speaker 1: Think back to those days, man.
Speaker 1: It was crazy.
Speaker 1: Everything was political.
Speaker 1: It's like you said you like Burger King better than McDonald's, and it was like we can't be friends.
Speaker 1: It's racial tension, economic uncertainty.
Speaker 1: It was chaos in 2020.
Speaker 1: And so we wrote this song to communicate one big message that in the fire, we do not walk alone.
Speaker 1: We've got the spirit of Jesus living on the inside, and so the fire that is inevitable doesn't have to be our destruction.
Speaker 1: God can actually use it to discipline us, to correct us, to grow us, to change us, to make us more of who he's called us to be.
Speaker 1: And so, as we close this series out today, sometimes music has a way of sticking where words fall short, and so I just want you to sit and hear and worship and allow these words to impact your heart, and my prayer is that the truth of this song, rooted in the pages of God's word, would remind you, in whatever fire you're walking through today, whatever fire comes next in your life, and even as we wander, even as we feel like we're a people without a home, we never walk alone, because the spirit of Jesus is with us and within us.
Speaker 2: Over hills and through valleys, all the highs and the lows.
Speaker 2: I have searched for you, jesus, down a long winding road And I'm worn out and weary.
Speaker 2: I hear your voice, calm the storm, an invitation to rest In Jesus alone.
Speaker 2: You were with me through the wandering in and out.
Speaker 2: You'll be with me through it all.
Speaker 2: So come with me, with my eyes on you.
Speaker 2: My whole being could end in Him.
Speaker 2: Oh, i never walk alone.
Speaker 2: I see your grace in the trial, bringing hope in the pain, and I call you by my fire.
Speaker 2: I know you're working here in me.
Speaker 2: Yes, you are.
Speaker 2: You were with me through the wandering in and out.
Speaker 2: You'll be with me through it all.
Speaker 2: So come with me, with my eyes on you.
Speaker 2: My whole being could end in Your name.
Speaker 2: Oh, i never walk alone.
Speaker 2: You'll make rivers in the desert, make a way through the sea.
Speaker 2: You're the fourth man in the fire.
Speaker 2: Now your spirit lives in me.
Speaker 2: You have carried your cross.
Speaker 2: You have carried my sin.
Speaker 2: You have laid down your whole life To give me mine back again.
Speaker 2: You're bringing heaven and earth back together All as one, all your sons and your daughters Laying crowns at your throne In the light of your glory.
Speaker 2: My soul finds its home.
Speaker 2: So I can trust you in the wandering.
Speaker 2: I know I never walk alone.
Speaker 2: You were with me through the wandering in and out.
Speaker 2: You'll be with us through it all.
Speaker 2: So come with me with my eyes on you.
Speaker 2: My whole being could end in Your name.
Speaker 2: Oh, i never walk alone.
Speaker 1: So come with me.
Speaker 1: With my eyes on you, my whole being could end in Your name.
Speaker 1: Oh, i never walk alone.
Speaker 1: You were with me through the wandering in and out.
Speaker 1: And He will deliver us out of your hand, o King.
Speaker 1: But even if He doesn't, let it be known to you, o King, that we will not serve your gods Or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Speaker 1: It's a different spirit.
Speaker 1: We're not bowing.
Speaker 1: We serve the one God, no matter what comes our way.
Speaker 1: Our eyes are on Him and our hope is anchored in His name.
Speaker 1: In His glory, our souls have found their home.
Speaker 1: So the three men are thrown into the fire.
Speaker 1: It's turned up so hot that even the ones who throw them in Die in that moment.
Speaker 1: But King Nebuchadnezzar, he's astonished.
Speaker 1: He rises up in haste.
Speaker 1: He asks his counselors Did we not throw three men bound up into the fire?
Speaker 1: His counselors answered and said to the King true, that's right.
Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar answered and said but I see four men Unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they're not heard.
Speaker 1: And the appearance of the fourth Is like a son of the gods, you don't walk alone.
Speaker 1: You don't walk alone Even in the fire.
Speaker 1: You're not alone.
Speaker 1: If you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus, i want to extend that invitation to you today.
Speaker 1: The prayers are coming.
Speaker 1: This life is hard.
Speaker 1: Jesus is willing to walk with you, to lead you through and to lead you home.
Speaker 1: It's by grace, through faith.
Speaker 1: Scripture says that we're saved A trusting and the blood of Jesus That was shed for the forgiveness of our sins, by confessing Him as Lord, believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead.
Speaker 1: So today, for the first time, you want to give your life to Christ, with every head bowed and every eye closed.
Speaker 1: This prayer along with me.
Speaker 1: Dear God, i trust my life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I ask you to forgive me.
Speaker 1: I ask you to lead me today and every day In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: If you prayed that prayer in just a moment, when we stand and sing, i wanted to ask you to step out from where you are, come down front, grab me by the hand And share that.
Speaker 1: We'd love to celebrate that with you this morning.
Speaker 1: There's no greater way to end this day Than to walk out of here knowing that never again, no matter what happens in life, will you walk alone?
Speaker 1: So, father, as we stand and sing, may the truth of your word Find good soil in our hearts And produce a great harvest.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, everybody says amen.