The Spiritual War Behind America's Chaos | Colby Wiltse Ep. 007

What if the greatest battle facing America isn't political at all?

In this episode of The Defending Freedom Show, Colby Wiltse explores the spiritual forces behind the chaos we see in our culture and challenges Christians to stop living in fear and start living boldly.

This isn't a message about retreating from the world. It's a call to be salt and light, speak truth with courage, and stand firm in a culture that desperately needs hope.

Because the real battle isn't against people, it's a battle for hearts and souls.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let me ask you a question. What if the chaos that we're seeing in our culture right now isn't primarily political? What if behind the confusion and the violence and the lies and the attacks on truth, there's a real war happening? Not just a war for the heart and soul of our nation, but a war for the heart and soul of people. What if we're in a spiritual battle? In this episode, we're going to be exposing the real darkness behind that chaos. And we're going to be talking about how Christians are called to stand and be salt and light in that darkness. And my hope is that by the end of this show, you'll be encouraged to live out your faith boldly and with conviction. You know, it's hard to ignore what's happening in the world right now. It's we have conflicts that are escalating globally with the war in Iran. Our nation to a great degree is deeply divided. And many people feel that there's a growing sense of uncertainty about our future. And when the world feels unstable like this, I think it's it can be natural to kind of want to shrink back and get scared and kind of live in a place of fear. But the Bible reminds us something important. 1 Timothy 1, verse 7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power and of love and a sound mind. And that's why now, more than ever, followers of Christ, believers, Christians, we have to live out our faith boldly. We have to keep shining the light wherever we go. You know, that phrase, shining the light, there's several phrases in the Bible that I want to highlight. It talks like what does the Bible mean when it says things like, you are the light of the world, or let your light shine before men. I think in order to kind of understand this, I want to take us back again. I want to go back to Genesis. Really, the opening chapter, the first five verses of the Bible. And it says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning on the first day. So literally, the first thing God noticed after creating the heavens and the earth, he noticed that it was full of darkness. So what did he do? God said, Let there be light. And light came flying at can you imagine this scene? Light came flying out of God's mouth at 186,000 miles per second. I mean, that's incredible. That speaks to a creator God. You know, the atheists, they think that they try to explain these things away. They'll say things like, oh, well, it was a big bang theory, right? And you know, I have to agree, this might be one of the only times I might agree with the atheists on this. Yeah, there was a big bang. It was the moment when God spoke light into existence and it came flying out of his mouth. I imagine that that was a pretty big bang. But I'm telling you, God's word, the Bible, has the answer to every single question, whether it's in science, whether it's philosophy, all the things that man wrestles with in life, if you just go to God's word, those answers are there. You know, and I just personally, I don't just I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. So, but when I look around at creation, when I see uh when I read God's word, it's so obvious to me that none of this happened by time and chance. That there's a created order behind the creativity, there is a divine designer. So we have this biblical account, right? God's uh creating the universe from scripture, and it's this dramatic image of light penetrating and exposing darkness on a cosmic scale. And as Christians, made in the image of God, we're called to shine the light in the same way. We're called to speak truth and penetrate the darkness just as God did in the beginning. What does that look like? I mean, what does it mean for you and I to shine the light in the darkness? How does this concept play out today? Well, I don't think it's any secret that we are in a spiritual war in our country. I mean, if you just look at what we've been through as a nation, what people have done over the course, just let's just go back 60 years, right? We see the mass murder of innocent unborn babies on an epic scale. Over 63 million babies have been aborted in America. Right now we're seeing there's this great effort in our school systems to sexualize and indoctrinate our children with radical sex ed programs and woke curriculum like DEI. You know, we have we have the LGBTQ and transgender movement that's taking place in our country right now that's created a real identity crisis among our young people. We have young people to the point where they're getting irreversible surgeries that does tremendous damage not only to them physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. We're constantly being fed lies and false narratives by the media, and our country has created welfare programs, government-incentivized divorce and separation to create what I would say is one of the most epic crisis of our time, which is fatherlessness. Right? That alone has had a devastating impact on our culture. And so the list goes on and on and on. We can get into things like the Epstein files and all the other things going on, but we have to ask ourselves, why are these things happening? What is behind this? You know, a lot of people don't really understand what is behind that, what's taking place in our country right now. It's it really at its core is a spiritual war. And again, I go to God's word, right? We look at this from a biblical lens. If we just go to Revelation 12, Revelation 12 sets the stage for this. This isn't anything new. This has actually been going on long before you and I were even on the scene, right? And the Bible talks about in Revelations 12 that there was this great war that broke out in heaven. And Lucifer and the angels that were with him went to war against Michael and the other two-thirds of the angel. And it talks about that Michael and his angels overcame Lucifer and his gang of angels, and then cast them to earth, right? And it says that when Satan was cast to earth, that he became enraged, and he went off to make war against those who keep God's commands and hold fast to their testimony in Jesus. Folks, that's who is that? That's you and I. That's Christians, right? Followers of Jesus Christ. But the Bible says in verse 11, it gives us the formula to overcome this darkness, to overcome Satan and his schemes. What does it say? It says that they triumphed over him by what? The blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death. So everything you're seeing right now in our country is part of this ongoing conflict, and you and I are caught right in the center of it. But according to verse 11, that formula that I was just talking about, that is our role in this process, right? So, number one, they triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb. In other words, we're called to repent and make Jesus the Lord of our life and obediently serve him. The second thing is it says, and by the word of their testimony, we're called to be a bold witness for Christ, to share the gospel as we engage. And then the third thing is that they did not love their life so much as to shrink back from death, right? In other words, it's having courage. That's all that is, right? Being willing to pay a price, to stand on God's word, to speak truth, to penetrate the darkness, to be salt and light in the world, even if it costs you everything. That's what God's calling us to do. And so, this is where we're at in our country right now. We need God-fearing men and women. We need pastors to lead with courage and stand against the evil that is trying to destroy our culture in our communities and in our families. There are greater forces at work behind the scenes. Forces that you and I don't often see, right? These are demonic influences on people that are causing them to perform these atrocities on others and in our culture, right? And support these wicked agendas. So we are in a war, but as Christians, our battle is fought in another realm. Ephesians 6.12 says this. It says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. So I want to say something. I really hope that it lands well. But people are not the enemy. People are the opportunity. Right? Because we're not just dealing with evil people, but we're actually at the core of it, we're dealing with demonic spirits. We're dealing with satanic influence from the kingdom of darkness, and either that influence fully possesses a human, and as a result, you end up with events and things that take place like, let's not forget, I think that we live in a culture where the media cycles so fast that we tend to forget what just happened. But it wasn't that long ago that our friend Charlie Kirk was assassinated live in front of the whole world in Utah. August 22nd of last year, we had the 23-year-old Ukrainian girl that was viciously murdered and stabbed to death on a train. And then we had the August 22nd, we had the mass shooting of children in Minneapolis at a Catholic church. What is that? What would cause somebody to stoop to levels of such evil? In my mind, these are acts of demonic evil that are carried out through human beings. And you may disagree with me on that, and that's okay. But I'm fully aware that if the Bible is true, then we know that demon demons and demonic activity is real. But we're not called to be scared, we're not called to shrink back, we're called to be full of the Holy Spirit and to step in and stand up against that evil that's coming against others and us and our families. Hey, wanted to take a quick break from the show to tell you about one of our sponsors, Citizens Defending Freedom. If you've never heard about Citizens Defending Freedom, they are an incredible nonprofit organization that was designed to help train and equip the body of Christ to stand for and preserve their liberties at the local level. Basically, Citizens Defending Freedom is putting government back into the hands of the American people. I want to encourage you to go to Citizens Defending Freedom.com, check out their website. You can sign up to subscribe and get mailers from them and learn about what they're doing. You can check out their incredible resources and toolkits. You can reach out to them and they will be in contact with you. Or if you want to support them financially, I would encourage you to do so. Citizens Defending Freedom is doing the meaningful work to turn this country back to God. Again, go check out Citizens Defending Freedom at citizens defending freedom.com. All right. Now back to the show. So what's interesting is if you look back, there's a drawing uh in the journal of the Minneapolis shooter, right? And we'll pull up this drawing in the episode, but you can clearly see that this person has drawn an image of what appears to be himself looking into a mirror, and there's a demon that's looking back at him. He doesn't even know who he is anymore. This is what I'm talking about. Now I don't think that every person who carries out something bad is necessarily fully possessed by a demon. That's not at all what I'm saying right now. But there are people that are living in disobedience to God. They're rejecting his ways, they're rejecting his truth, and they choose to rebel against him. And what happens is when you live a lifestyle like that, it leaves yourself open and vulnerable to demonic influence. And over time, through a series of bad decisions, that can lead up to an individual carrying out acts of pure evil. And I'm still, to this day, even now, I'm still wrestling with the fact that Charlie Kirk is not amongst us anymore. You know, I got I got to meet him at one of our um, we had a we had a gala in Frisco a couple years ago, Citizens Defending Freedom did, and I got to meet him, I got to shake his hand. It was brief, but just his life, his legacy just had such an impact on me, and I was honored to get to meet him. Um and and it is crazy that he's not with us anymore. Uh his life was snuffed out, he was such an incredible young man, he had such a bright future, and uh and that's why we do what we do. We're not called to shrink back in these moments. That's that what happened to him should not cause us to go into fear and say, well, I'm just not gonna speak up anymore, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna step out in faith, I'm not gonna get into these issues or have a conversation with somebody because you know it might get violent, it might turn into that's not the right attitude to have. We're called to be a bold witness for Christ. If anything, his life and his legacy should cause us to be convicted to want to step out more boldly. It should actually have the opposite effect on us. But I'll tell you that I'm not surprised uh by it anymore because I know that every day we wake up and we are one day closer to Jesus returning. And he tells us in Matthew 24, he says, this is how it's gonna play out on earth before I return, right? He says, Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name that claim to be the Messiah. They'll deceive many. You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. See he's saying, But don't be alarmed by this. This is coming, but don't let it catch you off guard. I'm telling you in advance. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nations will rise against nations, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of birth pains. Then you'll be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, but you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith, and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one I love this, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Right there. Jesus says, But the one who will stand firm to the end will be saved. Folks, you and I are called to stand firm. We're called to stand in the breach. We're called to be a bold witness for Christ. We're called to penetrate the darkness and be unashamed, unafraid of our faith. And live out our faith courageously. Because people are looking for truth. They're looking to see who is gonna stand in this hour, who is gonna stand against what's happening in our public education system, who's gonna stand against what's happening in our communities across the country, who's gonna stand in the face of millions of babies being aborted? Who's gonna stand in the face of this wickedness and all this propaganda and this corruption that's happening in politics? As Christians, we're called to stand firm. You know, I just read from Ephesians 6 a minute ago, and if you keep reading after verse 12, what does it say? It says it goes on to say, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. Right? The Christian life is a spiritual battle. Standing firm here means to be anchored in Christ's strength, clothed in his armor, and refusing to give ground to the enemy's lies or temptations. And that's our job as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We're called to shine the light of God's truth and his love, to expose the darkness and reach people with the gospel and overcome it. Again, Ephesians 5 says this. It says, Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them, because it is shameful to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed in the light becomes visible, and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. So I'm not going to assume that everybody that's watching this podcast or listening today is saved. But the Bible says that once you have received Christ, that you're now transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And then you become a child of God. And I can still remember the night that I gave my life to Jesus. I was a lost college student. I was doing all the things that I guess a college student does, which is kind of sad, or what you would think a college student does. I was I was drinking, I was partying, I was living a promiscuous lifestyle, uh, I was a liar, I was a cheat, I was all these things. I still remember the night that I surrendered my life to Christ, man. It was it was such a powerful event. It it changed who I was. It changed me completely, not only here, but for eternity. And I'll never forget it. It was September the 5th, 2008. And I went, I stumbled into a college campus ministry, and it was the first time that I had ever experienced the real presence of God. I mean, I saw these young people, they were raising their hands, they were worshiping, and I was like, what is going on here? This I've never been in an atmosphere like this. Like you could, not at the time, but now I know it was the presence of God. And then my pastor got up and he started preaching the gospel, and he it was almost like he was reading my mail, just calling out every sin of my life. He wasn't intentionally calling me out, but it was the Holy Spirit in the room that was speaking to my heart. And I knew that in that moment I was living in such rebellion to God. I was I lied, I took advantage of people, I was using drugs, I all the things that you shouldn't be doing, I was doing. And then he made the altar call. And I had a choice. My heart was beating out of my chest, and I had a choice in that moment. I could either run out of that building. And run away from God, or I could run to the altar. And I chose to run to the altar and surrender my life to Jesus. And I remember when I got home that night, I went back to the house. I was still in shock. I was still processing what happened. And I just had this overwhelming peace upon me. I can't even explain it. It was like I had been freed from all the sin and all the garbage and all the old me was gone and the new me was there. And my buddies that I was living with at the time, they had gone out partying and they came home and they saw me and they were like, hey man, where were you? And I was like, guys, you'll never hear what happened. It's like, this is what happens when you surrender your life to Christ. Like you immediately want to tell other people the good news. You want to explain and share with them what just took place in your life. And I told them, I remember saying, guys, you'll never believe what just happened. I just went to this ministry and I heard, and I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And they were shocked. They were blown away because they knew who I was. And I remember one of them distinctly looked at me and he said, You know, I can tell what you're telling me is genuine. I can see it on your face. I can see it in your eyes. You're different. Because he could tell there had been a shift in my countenance. And what he saw was the transforming work of Christ that had taken place that night in my heart and in my life. I was no longer a child of darkness. I was now a son of God. And as sons and daughters of God, we have a great responsibility. That comes with a great responsibility. We carry a great weight. Ephesians 5.6 says that for you were formerly darkness, now you are the light of the world. So walk as children of the light. We're called to walk as children of the light. In other words, live a life that honors God. Live a life that brings him glory. As Christians, we are God's ambassadors here on earth. We're called to be salt and light. God's entrusting us with the gospel message. As we go through this world, as we represent his kingdom, it is our responsibility to reflect the official position of heaven here on earth, to let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father who is in heaven. So how can we let our light shine? I'm going to give you three ways to let your light shine. You ready? The first thing is you have to go where it's dark. Think about that. Light can't shine where there's already light. Light shines in the darkness. So are you the light of the church? No, no. Are you the light of your living room? No. No, the Bible says you are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. So listen, if you've surrendered your life to Jesus and he lives in your heart and you're filled with his Holy Spirit, the Bible says that you are the light of the world. Right? As Christians, we're not just supposed to go to church on Sunday morning. We're not just supposed to stay in the four walls of the church. No, we're supposed to get out of the four walls of the church. We're supposed to be out there. We're called the ecclesia, the called out ones. We're to go engage culture. Culture shouldn't penetrate and influence the church. The church should be out penetrating culture and influencing culture. See, the body of Christ, the church, is in us. It's not a building. That's where people get this whole thing, oh, I'm going to church on Sunday. It's not what it is. The body of Christ, we are the church. Right? The church, the building itself, is actually just a place where we can go, we can get filled up, we can come together as believers, we worship the Lord, and then we get charged up to go back out into the battle. All right? That's what the building of the church is for. But you and I, we are actually the church. We're called to be boots on the ground. We're called to be in the trenches, house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood, right? In our schools, in the public square, at our city council meetings. We're called to be voting our values. We're supposed to be at the voting polls, voting. Sadly, Christians aren't showing up to vote their values. Now, you can fact-check me on the numbers, but I think somewhere upwards of 90 million people who identify as Christians, only 45 million of them are registered to vote. And out of those 45 million, only like half, maybe 20 to 25 million, actually get out and vote. And that is in a presidential election. If you start looking at local elections or primary races, the numbers are dismal. They're like less than 5%. Now that's not bad news, that's actually good news. Why? Because that is an opportunity for Christians to mobilize, to come together, to get out and vote your values. Hear me. If the church would come out strong in elections, if Christians would register to vote and then mobilize and come out to, we would sweep every election in the country. But we've divorced our faith from our civic duty. Under the guise of separation in church and state, which is not at all what Thomas Jefferson meant when he was writing that letter to the Danbury Baptist Church. He wasn't talking about, hey, you know what, faith shouldn't intersect with politics. No, that's not at all. Go back and read what that letter actually said, and you'll find out that he was saying it's the government should not infringe upon the church. It's actually the other way around. But we are called. Our founding fathers were Christians. We're called to live out our faith in the civic arena as well. God has something to say about every area of life, and that includes politics. So we can't shrink back. We can't just stay in our four walls. We can't act like nothing's happening. We have to step out, be bold, and courageous in every area of life, and honor God in the process. Okay, number two. Number two. So the first one was you gotta go where it's dark. Number two is you gotta speak the truth no matter the cost. Right? Matthew 10 says, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves. Be on your guard, and you will be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your father speaking through you. I will tell you, before I got involved with citizens defending freedom, I was in oil and gas. And I would say that I was a conservative Christian, I voted in general elections, all these different things. But it wasn't until COVID when what I saw happening, the hypocrisy, I saw what was taking place across the country, people losing their jobs, being forced to get a vaccine that they didn't want. Their rights were being stripped from them. All these things, we we saw what happened in the 2020 election, right? So I was seeing all these things, and I got convicted, and I said, God, I need to learn, I need to get involved. I need to get involved. This is bigger than just politics. This is actually a spiritual battle. And so I began to pray and ask God, how can I do this? And that's how I got involved with citizens defending freedom. But I'll tell you that being a part of this movement has challenged every area of me as a person and as a Christian because before I didn't pay attention to what was going on in the schools. I didn't pay attention to what was going on in city council. I wasn't locked in to what was really happening behind the scenes. I was just living my life, trying to collect a paycheck, provide for my family, and go to church. But I will tell you that it has challenged every comfort zone in my body. Right? And it's, I would say that it that one of the things that I've had to learn is to have the courage to be bold and to step out and go to the school board meetings and go to state legislators and go speak on these issues that are really controversial. But it's important that we do that as Christians because we have to take a stand, right? We like if you look at scripture, if you look at Daniel, right, we have to get in the lion's den. If you look at Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, I'm sure those were tense situations. I'm sure that they in that moment they were standing their ground for the Lord and they were living out their faith boldly, but they were tossed in the lion's den. They were tossed in the fire. But yet God brought them out of those situations. And it's the same thing today. We have to be willing to go and speak truth at local school board meetings, at city council meetings. We have to be involved in what's taking place at our state legislature. We have to. Because the future, our children's future really, is on the line. Our grandchildren's future, the next generation. Think about it as you're not just fighting and preserving your own personal peace and freedom. That may be the case, but you've got to think long term. We have got to be bold and speak truth in this moment so that we can have, so that freedom can last and carry on to the next generation. Right? And unfortunately, because Christians aren't in office, when you go before a school board, when you go before a city council or testify at state legislation, you're most likely going to be addressing a group of people who don't think like you, right? They don't share your values. These people could be pushing radical agendas to indoctrinate children, right? Because why? Because Christians have abandoned our responsibility to get involved in civic engagement and they've allowed wicked people into office. And as a result, ungodly leaders are making decisions on your behalf. They're passing laws locally and at a state level that are contrary to biblical values and the word of God. You see this taking place in our education system, our public schools. We're having to deal with, I mentioned it earlier, right? The sexualizing of our children, the LGBTQ movement, right? The schools are implementing bathroom policies that allow boys into girls' locker rooms and restrooms, right? We even have uh books in our children's library that are sexually explicit. I mean, I can't even talk about or show some of the stuff on this episode because it's so vile, it's so disgusting. But yet, and by the way, some of these books that are found in the library, they're not even allowed in Texas prisons. Hardcore criminals aren't even allowed to read these books. They're banned off the Texas Criminal Library book list, but yet they're on the shelves for our elementary, middle school, and high school kids. That is crazy. And as Christians, I think, you know, we want to keep our kids safe. We do things by like homeschooling them, we pull them out of there, we we put them in private schools. We right, we want to do good by our kids, but who is gonna fight for the kids who don't have those options available to them? Right? That's where we have to stand up. We have to be bold. It's like it's like walking by a building and the building's on fire, and you see kids inside the building, and they're crying out for help. Um, and then you're like, well, no, I'm here with my kids. As long as my kids are safe, I'm not gonna go help those kids. No, that's a wrong attitude. The attitude should be kids stay here. Daddy's got to go rescue these kids out of this burning building. That's the attitude we should have about what's happening in our public education right now. And there is no better group of people who are equipped in our society to do that than the local church. The local church should be the people that are stepping in, they're speaking truth, especially on these moral issues when we're fighting these battles. These aren't political, these are actual moral issues. And then the third step, finally, is we have to be people of prayer. Prayer is powerful. If we're going to live as light in the world and engage in the battle against evil, we must soak everything we do in prayer. It's the foundation, it's the starting point, it's the place where we humble ourselves before God. We ask Him for forgiveness, forgiveness of our sins, forgiveness for the sins of our nation, right? We need to be praying for our communities. We got to be praying for our leaders. This is where we intercede for others, whether it's for healing, whether it's for salvation, whether it's for revelation of Jesus in their life, for breakthrough, for protection. It's where we spend time with God in the secret place. We allow Him to speak to us as we're looking for direction, for wisdom, for courage to draw near to Him for strength, for clarity when we're facing life's challenges. And when applied correctly, prayer can be a powerful weapon in the hands of a believer in the kingdom of God. So, what do these three things have in common? They all reflect the character of Jesus. This is what Jesus did when he was on earth. He went where it was dark, he spoke the truth no matter the cost, and we know ultimately it cost him his life. And Jesus modeled a life of prayer. And as a result, his impact on the world and influence on people's lives has not been surpassed. I want to read a quote from you from a gentleman named Philip Schaef. He writes this He says, Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander the Great. Caesar, Muhammad, and Napoleon. Without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined. Without the eloquence of school, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects that which lie beyond the reach of orator and poet. Without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion. He furnished themes, more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. And if you model your life after his, God will use you in a mighty way to make a difference, to make an impact on the sphere of influence that he has given you. This is what we are called to do. This is our moment. This is a moment for the church, for the remnant to rise, to push back against the evil that is coming against our families, it's coming against our culture, it's coming against our freedom. It's coming against our children and make a difference. We're called to be transformed into the image of Jesus, to take on his character, his likeness, so that we can be agents of light in these dark times. And when we step up, when we step up and we live out our faith boldly as salt and light, God shows up in the most incredible ways. And he does what we cannot do. He is looking for people who are willing to get in the lion's den so that he can work through their lives to reach people with the gospel. So I want to challenge you today. I want to make an appeal to you. If you've been living in fear, if you've had the mentality that I don't want to get involved, that's not for me. I want to challenge you to get to outside of your comfort zone. I want to encourage you to be the light that God has called you to be. To ask God. I dare you to ask God, God, how do you want to use me? What is your calling on my life? And be bold enough to say, whatever you tell me to do, Lord, I will do it. Here I am. Send me. We are called for such a time as this. It's time to live out our faith boldly. It's time to expose the darkness. And it's time to face this evil head on and turn the tide and turn our culture and our country back towards God. Thank you and God bless you. And may America bless God.