The Path of Truth: Navigating Conflict & Seizing Opportunity

This weekend we kick off our sermon series, Your True Battle. What's your battle? You can win that battle. My name is René, one of the pastors here at TLC, and I get to introduce our very special guest speaker today. But first, a little orientation. We're going to enter into one of the most famous parts of the Bible. And it starts like this. A final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on all of God's armor so you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

Now in this series we're not going to focus on the devil, because in these verses the author, the Apostle Paul, doesn't focus on the devil. His goal is not to satisfy morbid curiosity about the occult. His point is you're in a spiritual battle, so here's how to fight it. For our battle is not against flesh and blood. In other words, other people are not your enemy, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Okay, Hollywood imagines evil powers attacking us by making like drawers fly out of cabinets or haunting dolls or something, but none of that is in the Bible. That's all Hollywood. You know, the Shining was written by Stephen King, not Saint Stephen. So what does this mean when it says spiritual battle? Here's a clue. Look at the weapons he suggests for the battle. "Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you'll be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil, and then after the battle you'll still be standing firm." And then Paul goes on to give you seven weapons. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Bible, and prayer.

And the fact that those are our weapons tells you what our enemy's weapons are, right? If those are defensive against our enemy's weapons, just look at the list and think of the opposite of those things. Lies, unrighteousness, division, cynicism, insecurity, biblical ignorance, worry. And in this series, we're going to focus on those seven weapons, one per week. Now this weekend we're going to hit the first weapon. Stand firm then, he says, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. So with that set up to the series, let's dig in.

With our first message on truth, here is the pastor of New Beginnings Community Church, a favorite of ours at TLC. My very good friend, what a privilege to have with us live in person. Please give a warm TLC welcome to Pastor Herman Hamilton.

Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Good morning, everybody. It's so good to be with all of you today. And wasn't that worship great? Can we just celebrate? Give God a hand. That was a fantastic worship. God bless Trent and the entire team.

I said earlier that there are three churches outside of New Beginnings Community Church where I pastor, where when I walk in, I just go like I'm home. And one of them is the church that I grew up at Zion Chapel Baptist Church in Cuschata, Louisiana. The other is Roxbury Presbyterian Church in Boston, Massachusetts, where I pastor for 17 and a half years. And the third is Twin Lakes. Praise God. I'm serious. And I actually really can't fully explain it.

If I had to guess about it, it would be, it starts with the incredible relationship that I have with your senior pastor, Pastor René, my love and affection for him. A love and affection that flows over to Pastor Mark and Pastor Val, along with just great admiration and respect for the leadership team and volunteers that leads this ministry week after week after week. And then there's such affinity between our congregations. A lot, a number of people come up to NBCC, others come down from NBCC here and watch both ministries online.

But at the end of the day, I think that what really does it for me is just the way you guys make me feel when I show up here. And I just want to say thank you. Can we just give God another hand, praise? Bless you. My wife is here somewhere in the crowd, which is the way she likes to be. She doesn't like to be upfront. But just a testimony to just how we think about this amazing ministry. This weekend is her birthday. And yeah, praise God. So very bad.

And when we got the invitation a number of months ago, I talked to her about it. So, well, this is going to be your birthday weekend. What should we do? She says, well, you know, Santa Cruz and it's one of your favorite churches. It's a twofer. Let's do it. So we showed up here. I don't know where she is, but I want you to do me a favor. Can you just say happy birthday, Rhonda? Come on. Praise God. Praise God. Wherever you are, sweetheart, I love you.

All right. One more thing. One more thing. I was super surprised today because I had a special guest to kind of come in today. My dear, dear, dear friend. We hang out together by phone every week. He is the senior pastor of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. He sneaked in with his lovely wife, Anne, and I just want them to stand. Can their dad, he's on a steady leave in this area. Would you please stand, Pastor George Henneman and Anne Henneman, please stand. Thank you all. Thank you for being here.

All right. We got a lot of work to do, so let's get busy. Would you be kind enough? Those of you who are here, please stand to honor the reading of God's Word. For those of you watching by way of a live stream, God bless you. I want to acknowledge you. Let us have a posture standing in our hearts, even if you're watching by live stream. And I'm going to read two passages of scripture. The first scripture is in Ephesians 6:14. It is the context for my message today as we kick off this wonderful new series. And then I'm going to add to this a story out of Daniel chapter 1, which I believe God will use to illustrate a profound set of insights for all of us that at the end of the day will help us to figure out what does it mean to make sure that the belt of truth is tied around our waist as we engage with our true battle.

So Ephesians 6:14, listen to what it says, "So stand ready with truth." Everybody shout, "Truth!" "As a belt tied around your waist with righteousness as your breastplate." And then from the book of Daniel, "At the end of 10 days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nursed than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others." And everybody shout, "Amen!" Please be seated.

So let's begin with our focus text today as Paul writes here in Ephesians. And there are three words that I want to call out for your attention today, and I want you to be able to draw a straight line from one to the other to the other because in fact they form the basic insight of the message that the Lord wants us to hear today. The first word that rises up out of our text in Ephesians is the word "truth." Everybody shout, "Truth!" And so the writer writes, "So stand ready with truth as a belt tied around your waist." Now when Paul uses the word "truth" here, he's not talking about the kind of empirical external truth that you and I may think about when if, for example, if you ask the question, "Is the world round or flat? Which one is true?" That's not what he's talking about, not that kind of truth.

The word that he uses at the heart of the Greek word is this notion of unconcealment, full disclosure, fully revealing. In other words, he's suggesting that full transparency, that what you are on the inside is exactly what I see on the outside. Another word, then, for truth in this text is integrity. Everybody shout integrity. So the fast and the belt of truth around your waist is in fact to be one who is a person of full integrity. That's the first word, truth.

The second word that flows to us out of this text is the word "conflict." Everybody shout "conflict." You see it embedded in a variety of different ways. For Paul says, "Put on the full armor." He's using the imagery of a Roman soldier as he prepares for battle. He goes on to say, "For we do not wrestle or we are not fighting or we are not in conflict with flesh and blood," which is a very interesting point. I know that perhaps it may feel like the teenager who is rebellious in your house is the enemy, but he's not or she's not. It may feel like that insensitive parent is the enemy. It may feel like that somewhat careless, significant other, partner or spouse is the enemy.

It might feel like that person who has been a friend to you for a long time, but recently, their position on political and cultural issues have become so fantastically like getting on your last nerve until you just want to get them off your Facebook page and get them out of your TikTok feed. It may feel like they're the enemy, but Paul says, "They are not, for we are in conflict with something that is greater and higher power and principality." There's more to the story than the flesh and blood, but it comes back to conflict, shout "conflict." Then the other word that emerges out of the text, it really flows out of the context. Notice Paul does not say, "Put on your full armor." He says, "Put on the full armor of God." Then the imagery that he uses as he breaks up the pieces of the armor reflects the emotional and spiritual characteristics of an individual who's in a transformative relationship with Jesus.

Notice what he talks about. He talks about the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the sword of the word, the power of prayer, this notion of someone through whom the power of Jesus is flowing through your life. So the suggestion here Paul makes is that if I engage conflict out of a place of solid integrity in such a way that the spirit and the power of Jesus can flow through my life, then conflict becomes an opportunity. Shout opportunity. An opportunity for what you ask. Paul, you ask great questions. An opportunity for God to break in, to break into the conflict and bless and transform you, to break into the conflict and bless and transform those who you are engaged with is an opportunity for God to break in. That is the connection between integrity, conflict, opportunity.

Now, one of my favorite books that I've been engaged with recently, both me and pastor George in particular, we've partnered around. This is a book written by Pete Cazaro's entitled Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. And one of the things that Pete argues is that so often our emotional maturity limits our spiritual maturity. And at the end of the day, you can measure how mature I am based on how I engage with conflict. That's the same point that Paul is making. Paul is saying that there is a measure of spiritual and emotional maturity that allows us to recognize who the real enemy is as we engage in conflict.

Ask the person next to you, how mature do you think I am? And of course the answer is, well, let's wait and see how you respond in the next heated conflict that you're in. I'm mindful. My wife, August 2nd, which is just a few weeks from now, Rhonda and I will have been married 37 years. Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. And in the first 10 years, it was horrendous. I can't tell you how many times we were headed towards the divorce court. It was tough. It was tough. Somebody say tough.

In the 10th year, praise God, Rhonda said to me, I can't remember the particulars, but I remember the context. Rhonda said to me, if you would just do X, Y, and Z, our relationship would be so much better. And I was stopped. I was stunned. I was shocked. I said, that's it. All I have to do is X, Y, and Z. She says, yes. I said, well, how come you just not telling me? She said, I've been telling you for 10 long years. Well, why is it that I just heard it then after the fact she's been telling me for 10 years, because it took 10 years for me to mature to the point that my old woundedness and my old triggers, come on now, we wrestle not against just flesh and blood. Come on now. That my history of brokenness, come on now, was supplanted by my maturity driven by my growing relationship with Jesus. I could hear it. I could respond because I got just a little more.

You got it. So here was the big idea. Here's the big idea of today's message. Transform conflict from opposition to opportunity. Change how you perceive, change your paradigm for conflict. That when you hear conflict, when you think of conflict, don't think of opposition, fight or flight. Think of opportunity and opportunity for God to break in and to do the unexpected with me and with the other. Say opportunity, different context.

Now, for many of us, because of where we are in our maturity, we often view conflict as opposition, fight or flight. And we usually have two responses. One, we tend to avoid it out of fear. You've heard these statements, keep quiet in order to keep the peace. Or you've heard, you know, I just got to go alone to get along. The suggestion is, or the reality of that suggestion is, I'm going to pretend that things are right, even though they are not right. But we need to avoid it because we see conflict as opposition. Or the other stream, we weaponize conflict. We scream and yell and cuss and stop talking and isolate. We weaponize conflict, right? And traumatize in the process, but we also do that out of fear and pain.

And for those of us who have figured out how to weaponize conflict, here's the deal. You may succeed in winning the argument while at the same time losing the relationship. Or you may win the argument, keep the relationship, but you leave such trauma behind that the relationship is almost permanently damaged. That's opposition. Say opposition. Oh, it's different though when we think about it as opportunity.

So let me just take a few moments and talk a little bit about avoidance. And then I'm going to give you two kingdom insights, a few principles and some skills so that we can begin to engage with conflict. First, we see it as opportunity and we engage in such a way that it becomes opportunity for God to break in. But first, you know, Pete says, so often when we pretend that things are right in the name of peace, when we know they're wrong, that's a false peace. I add to that statement that wherever there is a false peace present, it means that truth, integrity, the belt of integrity is missing.

Let me give you a few examples. These are Pete examples, but they're great. Carl is upset about the behavior of his spouse who constantly comes home late after work. He says nothing. Why? He thinks he's being like Christ by not saying anything. Although he does give her a cold shoulder. Carl is a false peacemaker. Pam disagrees with her coworkers at lunch when they slander her boss. She's afraid to speak up though. She goes alone. I don't want to kill the atmosphere by speaking up and disagreeing. She thinks she's a false peacemaker. Bob goes to dinner with 10 other people. He is tight financially, so he orders salad and an appetizer. Meanwhile, the other nine are the appetizers. Staved wine, dessert. Some of y'all know this story. And when the bill comes, someone says, well, you know, let's just divide the bill up equally. It will take forever to figure it out. Everyone agrees Bob is dying on the inside, but won't say anything. He is a false peacemaker.

Pete says the problem with all these scenarios is that the way of true peace will never come through pretending that what is wrong is right. True peacemakers love God, others and themselves enough to disrupt false peace. It's a part of what I'm suggesting is that to wear the belt of integrity is to be willing to disrupt false peace, but to do it in a way that it creates opportunity, shout opportunity, for God to break in.

So kingdom principle number one that allows us to do this. You've already studied this. Pastor René has brought you through this, Ephesians 4:16. Here we find Paul saying this, speak the truth in what? In love. That's the first kingdom insight. Speak the truth in love. This is how, as we see conflict as an opportunity, this is how we begin to engage with it so that it becomes an opportunity. Speak the truth in love. To speak the truth means to be honest, to have a belt of integrity, to be honest about whatever it is that you need to be honest with. But in love means to be very clear about why you're speaking the truth. What's your agenda for speaking the truth and to be very thoughtful about how you speak the truth.

Now to that end, let me offer a couple of principles, but in so doing, let's look at this wonderful story about Daniel that we find. And here's what we learn about Daniel. In Daniel chapter 1, here's what you know. First of all, the Babylonians in 586 BCE, they swoop into the southern kingdom of Israel, capture it, destroy it as capital city of Jerusalem. They take the brightest and the best out of the capital city. Among them are four young men, Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. And they bring these young men with a ton of other folk into the kingdom and they proceed to educate them, to train them, to change their names, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But in the process, they also want to fatten them up. And so they put before them a diet that is in conflict with their Jewish faith. And it is at this point that Daniel draws a line and says no. And he draws the line knowing that it's going to create conflict, but his belt of integrity demands that he draws the line. Now with this set up, let me give you your first principle. The first principle is search me and identify the value. Say it with me, search me, identify the value. All right, here it is. Psalm Psalms 139 verse 23 to 24. Some of you recognize this. Here's what the Psalmist teaches us how to pray. Search me, O God, and know my heart, point out anything in me that offends you.

This is the insight here, that before I draw the line, I need to make sure that I spend some time in prayer and I ask God to search my heart to reveal to me what's the why behind drawing the line. Why is this such a big deal? It might mean that I need to process it with some other people who are objective to make sure that my heart is right before I draw the line. And one of the ways to make sure that this is line drawing worthy is to determine what value is being violated. Now we see clearly in verse eight what value is being violated for Daniel. It says, "But Daniel was determined not to defile himself." See that was a conflict with his faith. He went on and said that the food was completely unacceptable food.

Now, this is an important issue. Daniel did not draw the line when they changed his name. He did not draw the line when they told him that he had to get into their educational context. Ultimately, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and Daniel become powerful figures in the Babylonian kingdom and Daniel becomes second only to the leader of the entire empire. He does not draw the line in those areas. He only draws a line when the value of his faith has been disrupted. Now, here's the insight. Here's the insight. Stop drawing the line every day on every issue.

Because when you draw so many lines of conflict every day on every issue, we cannot determine which moment is the most decisive conflict moment because everything with you is a conflict. Pick your issues determined by your values being broken. Is somebody being wounded emotionally or physically? Is somebody being misused in your house, in your family, on your job? Good. Examples of values that may be disrupted, or bothered, or broken. Second, so the first principle is search my heart, find the value. The second principle is check my assumptions. Tell the person next to you, check your assumptions. Y'all should have talked quietly. Try it again. Check your assumptions.

What do you mean? We go into conflict with our assumptions built in. Notice Daniel. Daniel checks his assumption. He doesn't go in and assumption the previous verse says that Daniel begins to have a conversation with the chief of staff and he asks permission to do something different. You can hear the politeness in there. And then we learn in verse nine, this, now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. Here's the point. Daniel did not go in assuming that this was going to be a fight. He did not go in adversarial and therefore he was discovered that he was surprised that God had gone ahead of him, granted favor, and created opportunity.

Now, let me give you a skill that helps you in this notion of checking your assumption. Here's the skill. Learn to say, may I check my assumptions? Is that right? Say with me, may I check my assumption? Then you add the assumption and then you end with the question, is that right? Say it. Turn to the person next to you and just say, may I check my assumptions about you? Now, let me give you an example. Now, let me just say upfront that this is a made up example. This did not happen because it involved me. I want to make sure you get this. But that's just a suit that on Monday night I was flipping through my Instagram feed and I saw my friend John gather together some of our best friends and they hanging out at the movie watching Flash.

And then I see some more photos, man, they eating pizza and having a great time and nobody invited me. My basic first reaction couldn't be simply that dirty dog. I can't believe that he pulled the guys together and left me out. You know what? John must be still upset over the argument that we had just last week about the warriors. What they say, I know he's still upset. Somebody shout assumption. It's assumption, assumption. So now I've got a couple of options. I can call up John and say, John, I cannot believe that you left me out. I saw y'all bookers out there at the movie theater and you didn't even invite me. I know why you still upset about that whole warriors argument. Isn't that right? Didn't that hurt you upset?

That's one approach. It leans towards opposition. But if I want to lean towards opportunity, I call John up and say, John, I saw you and the guys at the movie theater and hanging out in pizza. Nobody invited me. So may I check my assumptions? John will say, well, of course. Is it possible that you didn't invite me because you were still uncomfortable about the argument that we had about the warriors last week and you just didn't want me in that context? Is that right? When I say, is that right? I'm acknowledging that my assumption could be either right or wrong. And now I've created opportunity and John is not defensive. And he comes back and he says, where Herman, here's the deal. We knew that you had to preach at Twin Lake this coming weekend. And it's the same weekend as your wife's birthday. Come on now. And so we figured you needed some time to work out your message so that you could hang out with your baby on the weekend and still have a message on Sunday. So we were just trying to be sensitive. Somebody shout opportunity. Check your assumptions.

Thirdly, listen carefully. Listen carefully at the person that you in conflict, not just at how you can win the argument, but listen carefully to hear their pain or their fear. Because oftentimes it's our fears and our pain that stops us from hearing and seeing and agreeing. Identify the fear, the pain and respond empathetically, even if in fact you reach a different conclusion. Watch how Daniel shows this verse 10. But the chief of staff responded to Daniel this way. I'm afraid of my Lord, the King who has ordered that you eat the food and wine. You see, if you become pale and thin compared to the other use, your age, I'm afraid. See the second time I'm afraid the King will have me beheaded. Because Daniel listened closely and he heard the fear, it created the right context for him to fashion an appropriate win-win solution.

So Daniel goes to the attendant and he essentially says to the attendant, listen, let's do an experiment. Let us eat what we're supposed to eat for 10 days. Let the other guys eat what you feed them for 10 days. And then he says at the end of 10 days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the King's food and then make your decision in light of what you see. So the attendant agrees. He says, okay, it's a quiet experiment. So he tested them for 10 days. Watch this. At the end of 10 days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthy and better nurse than the young men who had been eating food assigned to the King. And so when it was all said and done, Daniel and them got to eat the food they were supposed to eat and the chief of staff and the attendant got to keep their heads. Somebody shout opportunity. God breaks in because Daniel listened carefully.

And then thirdly, this is kind of wrapping up where we started. How I begin impacts how the whole conversation might end. I've pointed this out before, but I'll return to it. Verse eight. Daniel was determined not to be defiled. So what does he do? He asked the chief of staff for permission. You can hear the politeness bleeding through. He starts non-adversary. Let me give you two more skills to help you to engage non-adversarial, creating an opportunity for God to break in to conflict. Here's another skill. Say this with me. I'm puzzled. Help me to understand. All right. Now let's say that one of you send Pastor Mark an email. You send it to him on Monday. It's now Sunday. He has not responded. You have actually three possible responses.

One response is you just conclude that he is just a lousy pastor and you are invisible, but you're not going to tell anybody. You're just going to keep it and nurse it as a grudge. It's going to become a grudge. You know, Leviticus 19 says, don't nurse hatred in your heart and don't bear grudges, but you're just not going to tell anybody. You're just, it's just going to be a grudge. That's one option. The second option is you're going to meet him out in the hallway and when he's in the after party time, you're going to say, can we come over here? We need to talk. He said, pastor, I sent you an email. One approach. I sent you an email five days ago and you have not responded. Why have you not responded? The moment you say why you insinuate, right? Here's a third approach. You could simply say, pastor John, may we talk? He says, yeah, pastor John, I'm puzzled. I sent you an email back in Monday. I haven't heard from you. Help me to understand why I haven't heard from you.

That helps pastor John. That says to him that you are open. And so he says, well, I had two funerals and a wedding and I'm just coming up for air. Had to spend a little time with the family. I got a host of church. I looked at the emails. I'll see them on Monday. And you go, ah, practice that everybody go. I see. You see church of several thousand. It makes sense. He might be a little busy. So opportunity. And then here's the last one as we're going to wrap this up. Here's the last skill. Say this. I noticed and I prefer. All right. Let's go back to my favorite example. I mentioned it earlier. You're out at dinner. You're on a tight budget. You order an appetizer salad and water. Everybody else orders everything else at the end of the meal. Y'all know this story. I know it's personally at the end of the meal. Some smart person said, let's just split the bill. Right. And just down the even. All right. Now you got a couple of choices.

On the one hand, you can say, Oh no, you're not. I know that you're not going to do that. All this crazy stuff. Y'all ordered. Did you not see what I ordered? What's wrong with y'all? Too disrespectful. Shout opposition. But you want to create opportunity. So the other option is to simply say, excuse me, excuse me. I notice that all of you order some really wonderful dishes. I ordered salad, appetizer and water. That is because I'm on a tight budget. So I would prefer to simply pay for my portion and then you guys can pay for everything else. Is that okay? Somebody shout opportunity. See, I noticed raises the concern. I prefer offers a solution and you create opportunity for God to break in. If that's helpful, give God a hand phrase.

All right. Let me hasten to my conclusion here. Uh, the last service, I kind of slow down. I take a little too much time, but come on, we're going to get you out to the hot dogs. I promise you. The first kingdom insight is to speak the truth and love. It requires the belt of integrity in the ways that I've talked about because you see conflict as an opportunity and you engage with it so that it might be an opportunity. But the second kingdom principle that I want to leave with you is it is also equally as important to receive the truth in love. Everybody shout recedes.

All right. Here's the question that I have for you. How do you respond when people offer you advice or give you constructive criticism or offer you feedback? It may be a child. It may be a spouse. It may be a colleague and offers feedback. It's tough feedback. How do you respond? Do you, do you tend to weaponize the conflict to try to protect yourself? Are you the person who yells and screams and cusses and pouts and stopped talking to people and withdraw? Are you the person who accused you always talking about me, always looking for stuff for me? Are you the person who complain? How come, how come I'm the only one you're picking on? Are you the person who's judgmental? Are you result to sarcasm? If you are, you are not receiving the truth and love. And if you don't have the capacity to receive the truth in love, you have the bit, the belt of integrity is missing. And what does this mean that you're missing out on an opportunity for God to grow you, for God to bless you, for God to make you better.

And here's my favorite proverb, 19:20, watch it. Get all the advice and instruction you can so you will be what? For how long? Say that this should be your posture of your heart, that you should be always the kind of person who's a Jesus follower who's saying that my posture is I want to get better. I want to grow. I want to improve that now that the source of the information, I want to be wise. But if you're the person who yells and screams and cusses and cuts people off, not only are you unsafe, but you're unwise. Here's my last proverb, 12:15, watch this. And as I read this, I want you to ask yourself the question, am I the fool or am I wise? Notice what it says. Fools think their own way is right. You can add all the time. But shall but the wise, what? Listen to others. It does not say that the wise always agree with others, but it says that the wise always listens to others.

So some of you say, well, if you're going to talk to me, you better come correct. You better be respectful. Listen, if you are Jesus follower, listen, the tone may be wrong. The timing may be off and you may distrust their agenda, but you have one decisive question because you want God to make you better in every opportunity. And your decisive question should simply be, is the critique correct? Because you're wise and you want to be better. Somebody shout how all the last question you get to ask questions, you've got to have the process. So here is the process guys. Before you go off, I want to challenge you to go off before you go off on him or her, go off by yourself. And in a time of prayer, come on now, pray through three questions. What am I feeling? Am I angry? Am I feeling embarrassed? Why am I reacting the way I'm reacting based on this? Am I shame? Am I afraid that if I acknowledge what, what am I feeling? Secondly, what am I thinking? Do I think that they're trying to hurt me? What am I thinking? And then finally, what am I missing? Is it possible that even though I don't like what they said, how they said it, but is it possible that I'm reacting and coming off to people like this? What am I missing?

And if you can learn to do that in private prayer, and if you can learn the process that with your friends, then you can learn to do that even in the midst of the dialogue. You can say, guys, let me tell you, here's what I'm feeling, feeling a little embarrassed, feeling some issues going on here. Here's what I'm thinking. And you lay out what you're thinking. And then you say, what am I missing? What am I missing? This demonstrates that you have the belt of integrity tight around you. It demonstrates that you want God to break into your life. And so as I get ready to go back up, no, if y'all, I just want to tell you, you might be 80, 60 or 40 years old. Come on. But I'm here to tell you, God can make you better. You might have had parents with horrible communication styles, but I'm here to tell you that's not an excuse. God can make you better. You might have a horrible temper and a horrible tongue, but I stopped by to tell you, God can make you better. Your life may be riddled with emotional pain, but I stopped by to tell you about someone who can make your life better. God can break in. God can heal. God can empower. Come on now. God can help you to win the battle. South Hallelujah. South praise God. Hallelujah. God, we thank you. We thank you for the good news. You can make us better. You can grow us. You can help us to become more like you. You can make us turn us into the means of an opportunity for you to break in, change us, and change others. We're ready, Lord. Somebody shout, "We're ready." In Jesus' name. Amen.