If you've got a copy of scripture, go ahead, take it out because we are launching into it. Acts 4 is right on the heels of Peter and John meeting this lame beggar at this gate, we talked about this last week, at this gate called Beautiful, this gate called Beautiful. They come up to this man, Peter looks at him, and in the power and in the name and to the glory of God, Peter heals this guy on the spot. This guy is healed physically and he's healed spiritually. We looked at this last week. And as a result of that, this guy stands up, he stands up, he walks from outside the gate, inside the gate.
Now, all three of these guys are now in the temple complex, and at that point, the crowds begin to gather, they begin to swell, and Peter begins to preach the gospel, he begins to preach the exclusivity of Jesus. The miracle propped up the message, it propped the message up. And what happened? Peter, he steps up, and he begins to preach that Jesus is the creator, that He's the healer, that He's the risen Lord, and the present Lord, that He's the redeeming Lord, and that He's the refreshing Lord. We saw all of that last week. And as a result of that, guys, listen, our role is to repent, to turn from ourselves and to turn to Him, to receive Him, and to know Him as ours. Now, that's what Peter is preaching in his sermon. He's pointing to Jesus alone. All right, Jesus alone.
Now, up until this point in Acts, in Acts 1 and 2 and 3, I want you to feel what is happening in the believer's lives. Everything is great, it's great. Is it not? The Holy Spirit has come, people are being saved. This movement of God is going. 3,000 are saved at Pentecost. Now, all this is happening. This guy gets healed, and this movement is started, all right? God's power and God's presence is on the move. That's what we've seen so far in the Book of Acts.
But church, I also want you to notice something today, and that is in the text, it's going to show us that along with this movement of God happening and this power of God happening, that there is another power that is always at work, there's another power that is always evangelical because it wants to capture souls, and it wants to capture people's hearts. There's another force that wants to change, that wants power, and this other force that is out there will do everything it can to shut down the name of Jesus. And it's always there, it's always been there.
Actually, this power it really does a good job at what it does. It's been around since the beginning of the fall of man on this planet. Sometimes it looks like pure evil, sometimes it morphs and it embeds itself into culture or even religiosity or even politics. There's another force, but it's always from Satan, and its mission is to stop the gospel, its mission is to silence and to persecute those in which are standing for the truth.
Now, I don't know if you've been tracking anything this week, but we're leaning into this a little bit this week. There was a brother in Christ that was killed this week. Yeah, he had some strong political feelings, but on top of that he, was a follower of Jesus that was unashamed to what his life stood upon. And I think that it actually was the larger reason that people couldn't deal with him.
So today under just, I think, the sovereignty of God, what we're about to see today is what do we do when these forces collide, what do we do when these two forces that equally want our souls begin to hit in the middle? And in the middle of a movement of God, what we're going to see today is some perspective of what it looks like to stand, how we can pray when laws and culture and God collide, what does it look like when Jesus is the answer, but culture is trying to say, no, he's not?
Man, these verses today, straight out of the Book of Acts and Acts 4 are going to resonate because of what we're living right now.
So here's what I want to do today, I want to look under the title of Living in the Opposition, and I want to point out seven quick thoughts or challenges or lessons, call them what you want to, that gave them hope, because listen, believers, there's hope this week, they can give us hope, and they can also give us a game plan of what do we do when culture begins to shine a light and try to oppress us, or try to press into us and oppose us?
So let's read the text, and I'll stop at a couple places and point out a couple of things, as well as just give you some pretty hard questions that you can ask yourself this week. Here it is, Acts 4:1, it says this, it says, "The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead." Which leads me to the first one.
Listen, listen, listen, Jesus follower, listen, here's what Peter and John would say. They would say, "Number one, here's your first living in the opposition lesson. Number one, expect opposition, expect it, expect opposition." I think, in many ways, that this would not be as fresh for us if we wouldn't have just walked through what we just walked through this week. I can tell you how many conversations I've had this week that have been around this whole idea of, "Matt, do you feel like this is a spiritual thing or not?" To which I would say, "Listen, believer, expect opposition, expect it."
In fact, if I could bring Peter and John up here on the stage just for a minute and put them on some stools and just ask them, they would look at us and say, "Not only just expect it, but you better expect it because this is actually just part of how the gospel works, it's just part of how Jesus works."
In fact, if you look at Jesus's life over and over and over again, people were opposed to Him, people were pushing back on Him all through the gospels. Their nickname was the Pharisees. It was all over the place. It happened over and over and over again, and now, we've got these three other groups that we're going to see all through the rest of the Book of Acts that are taking up the mantle of what these Pharisees did in a little bit of a different way.
I want you to notice the language of what we just read. It says they came up to. That doesn't mean they were like, "Hey, guys, just maybe hold it down a little bit." That's not what the Greek means there. The Greek means there, they actually came and they threatened. It said they were greatly disturbed right there in verse two. Even later, you'll see that they actually laid hands on them.
Now, look, this was a new trajectory for the disciples. They had never dealt with this before, but I got news for you, from Acts 4 till the end of the Book of Revelation, it is always going to be this. I'm not sure what you signed up for, but it's always going to be this.
In fact, if you go throughout history, you see in AD 67, Nero pretty much perfected this idea of persecution by killing many, many Christians. You see Domination do it again right after that, in AD 162, you see a brutal round of persecution. AD 300, you see 300 Christians literally thrown into a kiln and killed again. We see 11 waves, theologians would tell us, of persecution from Jesus till now, and right now on this planet, more people are giving their lives for the name of Jesus than at any point in all of Christendom.
At any point, we can expect it. This is the beginning, this is the beginning, and in one way or another, the church and the message of Jesus has always been persecuted, always.
In fact, I didn't put this in your notes, but opposition isn't just possible, it's inevitable, it's inevitable. In Satan's persecution, it's always morphing. It moves from the death of followers of Jesus to, it moves to you having to take a stand and me having to take a stand and me suffering the consequences when I do take a stand, whether that's socially or in my job or in my friends or whatever it is, listen, it will come.
In fact, the question that's been on me all week is this, if you never face spiritual opposition, are you really walking with Jesus, are you really walking with Jesus?
Now, look, I can feel it. It's going to be like, "Matt, you're taking it a little far here. Can I just love on people and everybody love me?" That's not what Jesus says. In fact, if you're not suffering spiritual opposition, it probably, if you are a real believer in Jesus, it's probably because Satan has you right where he wants you, and he will just leave you alone the rest of your life to drift to your ways. That's what the Bible describes over and over and over again.
In fact, listen to what Jesus says about it in John 15:18. He says this, He says, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." Be like Jesus. "If you belong to the world," listen to it what tells us, "it would love you as its own. As it is," listen to me, students, "you do not belong to the world. But I," Jesus said, "I've chosen you out of the world, and that's why the world hates you."
Man, the apostle Paul takes it even farther to the Holy Spirit. He says this in 3 Timothy 3:12. He says, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." It's not that we walk around looking for it. So don't think, "Well, man, I'm going to go out there and get myself some persecuted." That's not what it means, okay? I know you're like, "Well, how can I be persecuted this week?" No, no, no, no, no, that's not what it is. It's not that we go looking for it, it's just the fact that the forces that I explained to you earlier are so opposed, at any moment, if the light is shined on Christ, people will oppose you, they will. It has always happened, and it will always happen. When we follow Jesus, it brings opposition.
You say, "Well, Matt, what is it that brings opposition?" I want to show you what it is. Look at back at verse two again, I want to show you what it is that brought them opposition, because it wasn't their personality, it wasn't just because they were jerks, and they were judgmental, and they just had that resting face where you feel like that person is always mad at you or whatever. That's not what it is. Look at what it is. Look at verse two. It says, "They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead." You see why the persecution came? It became because they were actually preaching Jesus and preaching the resurrection, and people were so disturbed because they could not grasp hold of it.
But who was disturbed? Well, first, it was the priests. Now, the priests, they were supposed to be the men of God, they were supposed to be the most holy of holy people in the Jewish life.
Second of all, it was the temple guard. Now, the temple guard, all they did was they protected the temple. They really didn't care about spiritual things. They just wanted Rome to stay off their back so they could keep doing their job and keep getting more and more, more and more riches.
And the third group, and this is the ones that we actually see the rest of the Book of Acts, so we should probably get to know them a little bit, is this group called the Sadducees. Now, the Sadducees were this incredibly theologically liberal group of quasi-spiritual people. Now, is that a great definition for you right there? It basically means this; all they wanted was the notoriety of being a held-high person, but they didn't believe in miracles, they didn't believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and they didn't believe that anything would happen to them after they die.
You see, that's why they're sad you see, that's why right there. That's an old preacher joke right there that'll help you pass a theology test. They're sad because they have no hope, they have no hope. So here, I want you to put yourself in the scene. Here, God is moving, God is actually up to something, the movement of God is happening, Pentecost has happened, people are giving their life to Jesus, they're losing control. Rome is going to have to get involved later on. These guys didn't care about actually anything that was happening, but now, Jesus's name and His power can't be denied, it can't be because of what's happening, so what did they do? Look at verse three. It says, "So they seized Peter and John because it was evening, and they put them in jail until the next day." Oh, but circle this, watch this in verse four, "But many who heard the message believed, so that the number of men who believed grew to about 5,000."
Now, look, if point one is that we should expect opposition as followers of Jesus, point two really should be the next step of that and that actually we should embrace the paradox here, embrace the paradox. You're saying, "Matt, that sounds real complicated. I don't even know what paradox means." You're going to see it in just a minute through what's happening in the message.
You see, most of us think persecution is what will squash the gospel, but that is nowhere near what we see in the gospels and in our faith. What is happening here? The religious people are now in panic, and what do they do? They start to run out of daylight, and oh, boy, do they make a mistake. What do you mean they make a mistake? Well, listen, they don't know our God, they don't know how our God operates, and they don't know that it's actually opposition that fuels the gospel fire. They don't know that. We're seeing that this week. Are we not?
I don't know if you've been scrolling the gram lately, but are you watching revivals break out, are you watching people stand up for the name of Jesus, are you watching how many spiritual conversations are coming up, are you watching how many young people are going, "Wait, maybe there's something to what happened this week"? Actually, it is the opposite of what people think. Opposition fuels the gospel far. You leave the church alone, the church does nothing. You start putting the heat on the church, God goes, "Okay, I'll show you. Watch this."
You see, persecution has been and always be a key catalyst to the gospel reaching the world. We're going to see that in the Book of Acts as the people begin to get even more persecuted. What happened? God goes, "Okay, I'll just spread them out everywhere, and there'll be little lights from me all over the world."
You see, these brothers right here are standing for Jesus. These religious people right here don't know the God we have, they don't know the God that says this in Romans 8:28, where he says that, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, and who've been called according to His name." They don't know that, and they also don't know that we as believers can claim what Paul claimed in Philippians 1:12 when he's in jail and he says, "Hey, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel."
You see, these leaders thought that they were controlling these Jesus men. Did they not? "Hey, I got an idea, let's lock them up in jail. That'll do it. That'll shut them up, right?" But what has God done? God has already saved these 10,000 people right here in the text, and God is moving. This miracle happened, the message has happened. Peter begins to preach to these guys, and under the power of the Holy Spirit, now God has given these guys the ability to speak Jesus.
Church, listen to me, persecution is always worth it, it's always worth it. God uses it for growth, God uses it in our lives to strip off and purify who we are, and God always uses it to reshape what Christianity actually should look like to get rid of the fat. That's what he does every single time, and what an example that we're about to see.
So what happens? These 10,000 people give their life to Christ. They put these two guys in jail. Boy, I would've loved to have sit through that night, just one night, just one night, love to sit there with these two guys because watch what happens in verse five. It says, "The next day, the rulers and the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, also so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the high priest's family." It was like a family affair with his business. "And they had Peter and John brought before them, and they began to question them."
Are you seeing this, are you seeing what's happening here? All these people get saved, they put them in jail. The next morning, they gather Peter and John together, and they march Peter and John over to what we would kind of call the Supreme Court of Jerusalem, the Supreme Court of Israel. All right? Over 70 of the top officials are in this room.
Now, get it in your mind, you've got Peter and John now standing up in front. You've got 70 of the top priests, the top temple people, the top Pharisees, all of them are there. This is the decision-makers, this is the trend-setters of culture. You've got the high priests sitting right behind them, and now Peter and John are about to get to speak not on the corner of the street, but now in the actual high priest's chamber. And this is amazing. Why? Because God has laid it all out, God has ordered every step, and Satan has actually overplayed his hand, amen. That's what we're seeing right here.
This could have never been possible if they wouldn't have arrested them, it could have never been possible if they wouldn't have put them in jail, it could have never been possible. They couldn't have scheduled an appointment right here in front of all these people and Peter and John going, "Hey, we'd love to come preach to you. Is that okay?" That's what opposition does, that's what persecution does.
Look, persecution and opposition, if you're obeying God and it's still there, if you're trusting God and it's still there, if you're following the spirit and it's still there, church, I know it's hard, and I know it seems like nonsense, but accept it and walk it out and watch God get the glory.
In fact, write this down, number three, see every opposition as an opportunity, see every opposition as an opportunity to stand in Jesus's name. Listen, even when it doesn't make sense. You see, Peter thought, "Oh, man, here we go," and that should be our thought. Even when it doesn't make sense, we should filter every opposing moment.
And listen, I've had some opposing moments this week. I don't know if you know this or not, but people know that I'm a preacher, people know that this is what I do. Sometimes I hate even telling people because it shuts down the conversation or it really opens up the conversation sometimes. And so all week long, all I have heard from people is, "What do you think about this Charlie Kirk thing? What do you think about this Charlie Kirk thing? Do you think it's a spiritual thing? Do you think he was a martyr? Do you think it was a God's will? Do you think it was this? Do you think it was that?: To which all I can say is I don't know all the details, but I know in moments of opposition we can use this as an opportunity to watch the gospel progress to the world. That's what I know, that's what I know, and we have a responsibility to do that. When a brother gives his life and he loves Jesus, man, we have an opportunity to go, "Hey, Lord, use us."
Keep reading, watch what happens. "They had Peter and John brought before them, and they began to question them." Oh, I love this. "By what power or what name did you do this?" Are you watching what's happening right here? What a question.
Now, listen, Peter and John, they don't even need an intro statement at this point. That's the hardest part of writing a message, that's the hardest part of writing a speech. I don't know how many evangelism classes you've been to, I've been millions of them, and you spent about the first 75% just getting to the gospel, don't you? That's what you do. But now these guys are in the room. Their opposition has created the platform to prop up the life that they have been living, and what a challenge to us. Consider it an open door when people look at you and go, "How are you getting through this?" Oh, believer, that's a great question, is it not?
In fact, a question that hit me this week, I put it in your notes: how often do people see my life and ask, "How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you get through this stuff? How do you find your strength? How do you find your hope? How do you find that attitude that you have? How do you find the love that you have? How do you find the grace? How do you find the moment? And what drives you?"
Reminded me this week of 1 Peter 3:15 where he says, "But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord, and always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Oh, but listen to me, believer, "But do this with gentleness and respect."
Look, this couldn't have been a better question for these guys, could it not? They're about to preach Jesus, which actually leans into us for our number four lesson that I'm seeing here, in opposition, speak with spirit-filled confidence, speak with confidence. Are you seeing the trajectory here? Expect that it's coming. Know that when it does come, the paradox is actually this is a propelling thing for what Jesus does. See every opposition as an opportunity, and when it comes, believers, speak with the confidence that the Holy Spirit gives you.
Now, what this means is that we need to be ready. It means that we need to be learned, it means that we, through our discipline in every moment of our lives, need to be reading scripture, need to be praying, need to be following after God with all of our heart, which makes me ask, "Am I living a life that is doing that? Am I living a life that studies scripture, that walks through the word, that asks the Holy Spirit to move in me at every single moment? Am I living a life that just constantly walks with Jesus?" Because you know what? That's how we walk confidently, that's how we walk confidently in the spirit.
You can't study for this kind of talk that they're about to have. You can study for the talks that I give every week. You can. You can put the time in, you can grind it out, and you can get there, but what they're about to do standing in this place, you can't study for that. You don't know what's coming.
In fact, Jesus said it like this in Luke 12. He says, "Hey, because you know me in the spirit," listen to what he says in Luke 12, and this whole story is actually is fulfilling this. He says, "When you're brought before the synagogues, rulers, and authority, do not worry about how you will defend yourself or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."
Now, look, now, listen, brothers and sisters, that come from the Pentecostal world, this don't mean be lazy your whole life and just you lean into the Holy Spirit, expecting Him to get you out of a jam. This means that I study like my life depends on it, I pray like everything happens in me, and my daily disciplines consume me, so that when I stand in these moments, I can rely on what He has done, is doing, and will do. Does that make sense? That's what it means to walk in the spirit. Don't expect this insto-connection if you haven't put in the work.
Watch what Peter does. Man, we're just going to read a bunch of texts here because Peter says it's so good. Watch this, verse eight, he says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit. You notice what that said? Was he filled at Pentecost? Yes, he was, but this is what God does in us, He fills us at salvation, but then He keeps pouring and He keeps pouring and He keeps pouring, and it overflows and it overflows and it overflows.
Watch this, Peter said to them, "Rulers and elders of the people, if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man that was lame and are being asked how he was healed." He's just repeating their question, it's good sense, and when you're doing an oratory moment, "Then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you today healed." He's going to present the gospel. He's going to preach the gospel. These people who live so far against the gospel.
Watch what he says in verse 11, two verses, awesome. Highlight them, underline them, draw a star, whatever you do in your Bible, "Jesus," he said, "is the stone that you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. And salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."
Here's number five, here's number five. Write it down, write it down. Believers, in opposition moments, you need to stand on Jesus's exclusivity. What does that mean, what does that mean? That means this, in other words, there is no other name under heaven or Earth that one can be saved. That means that in love with grace that we stand on the name of Jesus. There can be love in our tome, but there's exclusiveness in the message, but oh, friends, don't we live in such a pluralistic society that wants to say, "You find your way, you find your truth, you find this"? No, no, no, no, no, that's not where salvation comes.
In fact, 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, and this is the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself up," for what, "as a ransom for all people."
And I know what you're thinking, "Matt, it just sounds so rough, it sounds so judgy when I get that." No, it doesn't. It sounds loving because He's the only way. "But Matt, these guys, these guys could say that, these guys were educated, these guys knew their facts, these guys knew everything to say." Okay, well watch what the Holy Spirit gives us right here. He says in verse 13, "When they," that's the whole council, "saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that these guys were unschooled." Well, that's a whole bunch of us, amen. There it is. "They were ordinary." That's all of us except for like three of you. We're ordinary men. "And they were astonished that they took note."
Oh, here's the challenge that they had been with Jesus. You see it, they're regular people. They're just like me, they're just like you, they're just like all of us. And they're just living and speaking and standing in the Holy Spirit.
But watch this in verse 14, "But since they could see the man who had been healed standing with them." Can you imagine the look on that brother's face? He's like, "I don't know, but I'm just healed." "There was nothing that they could say, so they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin." Like, "Hey, you guys step out for a minute. We need to talk." "And then they conferred together. 'What are we going to do with these men?'" they asked. "Everyone living in Jerusalem knows." Do you see what happens when we begin to stand in opposition? Everybody knows what's going on in our life. "For they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any farther among the people, we must warn them." It's like, "Hey, don't do that again." Watch, that's really what they say. "To speak no longer in His name.
"Then they called them in again," called Peter and John in again, "and they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus." What would you do right here? Watch what they do. "But Peter and John replied, 'Which is right in the eyes of God: to listen to you or to Him?' You be the judges. As for us," I love this, "we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
Oh, man, I love this. Why? Because here's number six in opposition, here's what we're seeing in these guys, we need to choose our ultimate authority, we need to choose our authority. What do we do and culture and Christ collide? We need to choose who it is that is going to be the Lord. And can I tell you how you're going to know what that choice is really in your life? It's not what just comes out of here. It's what you walk out with your life, and where your devotion goes, and where your heart goes, and when your mind goes, one that rises to the top is the Lord, it's the Lord of your life.
I love what Peter says here. He's like, "Hey, guys, I know you look great and all, and I know you got a lot of power, and I know you guys are in all the control and all, but it's really and truly God that I'm concerned with pleasing, and you can take your stuff and go home." That's what he says right there. There's probably a lot of other words that he could have said right there, but that's what he said. He said, "It's God that made me and God that saved me and God that gave me life, and there is nothing that you can do to this little flesh suit that I got on right here, that He has not already given me in eternity."
And listen, believer, the same is true for us, the same, but are we going to choose for Him to be the authority? Are we going to let culture be the authority? Students, listen to me, don't let it drag you down. It will always leave you high and dry, but Christ won't. He won't, He won't, He won't.
Oh, watch Peter, watch what happens. Verse 21 says, "After further threats, they let them go." I love it. After all of this, they're like, yeah, they let them go. "They could decide how to punish them." Why, why, why, why? Because all the people were praising God for what had happened. Do you see what happens when believers begin to stand and when God begins to get involved and we begin to show them who Christ is? A movement begins to happen that even the crazy religious people have to go, "Yeah."
Watch this. "For the man that was miraculously healed was over 40 years old." Really don't know what has to do with anything other than the fact that now we know how old he is. There it is, okay?
Verse 23, "On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they had heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God."
Now, look, we ain't got time to walk through their prayer, but listen, this week, read every word of their prayer, and watch how God asks us to pray in opposition. Watch, it's good. It gives us a model, it gives us a plan, it gives us a game plan of how to walk out our faith in prayer in these moments, because I can promise you this, it is not what you're thinking, it's not them cowering in a corner, asking God just to get them out of this, "And I'll give you my firstborn." It's not them cowering in the corner, just praying for God for safety and praying for God for heads of protection, praying for God for safety. That's not what it is.
In fact, watch the rest, watch what it says right here, verse 29, it says, "Now, Lord," this is the end of their prayer, "consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness, and stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
Notice, notice, it ain't safety that these brothers and sisters are praying for, it's not even, "God, get me out of the situation." What are they praying for? Two things. They're praying, "God give us power, and God give us boldness. God give us power, God give us boldness. God give us power for your mission, and God give us boldness to proclaim your glory."
Listen to me, number seven, in opposition, we don't need to pray for safety. I mean, safety is great. We need to pray for boldness in the moment that I can stand as a redeemed follower of Jesus, and God will use me. That's the message this week. The message is not for us to cower away, the message is not for us just to be quiet and hope things kind of go away. The message is for us to stand in boldness with love in grace and proclaim that Jesus is King, Jesus is Lord. Jesus wants to stay in me and give others life. That's the message, it's the message.
And watch what happens when this happens. And here's my prayer for us. Verse 31, "After they prayed, the place," oh, hold on, "the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they all," what does it say? "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, all filled with the Holy Spirit," and what? "And they spoke the word of God boldly, boldly."
Listen, listen, listen, I cannot promise you today that God wants to physically shake this building. I can't promise you that, but I can promise you this, he does want to shake your soul. He does. He wants to shake your soul, and he wants to shake my soul. He wants to fill us, and he wants to start a movement just like this one. But here's the question: will we stand? Not stand in just being an aggressive personality that just spouts off, but will we stand in moments of opposition and to deflect the light off of us and shine the light onto Christ and allow God to move?
Here's the thing, believers, here's the thing, I think we need to quit praying for safety and start praying for boldness. What if every time safety came to mind, boldness overtook it? I'm not discounting safety by any means, but I think sometimes safety becomes our priority, and not that God has made me for this moment, in this place, at this time to be His.
So here's the invitation today, what does God need to shake in your life? I don't know. Maybe today He needs to shake your soul and you need to meet Jesus for the first time and just let Him redeem you. And if that's the case, if you need to give your life to Jesus today, I'm going to be over by the next steps banner, I'm going to have some friends over there. And listen, I'm going to ask you for boldness today.
I want you to step out from your seat, walk right over to this banner as soon as I pray in a minute and just look at myself or one of these guys and go, "Hey, I need Jesus today to save me," and we'll walk with you, and we'll pray with you.
But secondly today, there's a lot of you that know Jesus, but you've been on the sidelines for a long, long time, and you've been worried about what will they say, what will they do, what will they have to do with this? Listen, let's forget about the theys, and let's worry about the one that matters, and let's stand, stand, stand, stand and watch God shake this place, this community, and this nation.