Fencesitting - Life of Christ Part 73

My boys have a term that they use for friends at school or whatever, and it's not a complementary one. Sometimes I'll hear them come home and say, you know, he or she, they're such a weatherman. I mean, at first I was like, well, what are you guys talking about? I mean, do you mean like Bob Ryan, you know, meteorologist? No, and the issue is not that at all. Do you ever hear kids use that?

No? Well, what it means is that this is a person who kind of blows with the wind. Whichever way the wind's going, that's the way they go. A person that has no convictions, a person that sits on the fence, a person that kind of waffles and goes one way or the other, whichever way is best for them to go and that you can't really count on them. And in my day and age, we used the term fence sitter. We talked about a person that would sit on the fence, they weren't on one side, they weren't on the other side, and they just kind of waffled and went wherever the political winds were going.

Well, whether you use fence sitter or whether you use weatherman or whatever you want to use, that's the issue that Jesus Christ wants to talk to you and me about this morning. And so I want to ask you to take a Bible and let's open it together to Luke chapter 20. And if you didn't bring a Bible, we want you to borrow our copy.

You'll find it on the back of the seat in front of you. We're going to be on page 744 of our copy of the Bible or Luke chapter 20 in your copy. Now, remember, we're dealing here with the last week, the last week of Jesus's earthly life.

And as best we can tell, this is about Tuesday, we're not exactly sure, but we think this is Tuesday that this event happens. Verse 1, Luke chapter 20, one day Jesus was, as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law together with the elders came up to see him. Now, Jesus is teaching in the temple and suddenly the Jewish Sanhedrin comes to see him.

You say, Lon, what's the Sanhedrin? Well, they were the highest ranking religious officials that consisted of, look what it says, some of the elders of the people, some of the priests, and some of the most outstanding teachers of the law. And they were the ruling council over all the religious life of Israel. They would kind of be like today the council of cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, except they didn't have the red beanies, that's the only real difference.

But that's kind of who these guys were. And they come to visit Jesus in the temple and they have a question for him, verse 2. They said, tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Now, remember they were the people who in Israel licensed rabbis.

They were the ones who licensed teachers of the law. And they came and said, hey, we didn't license you. We didn't give you any kind of licensure to go in the temple and do this.

So where do you think you get the authority to do this? You say, well, to do what? Well, they said, hey, you go around the countryside healing people. You go around the countryside telling people their sins are forgiven. You ride in Jerusalem on a donkey. You say you're the fulfillment of the Old Testament. You let the people proclaim Hosanna. Here comes the Messiah. You come into the temple. You throw out the money changers and the merchants that we, the rabbis, said could be in here. And now you're standing here teaching a theology that we don't agree with, and you're telling everybody that we're wrong and you're right. I mean, where do you get the authority to do this?

Who do you think you are? I have a question for you. What do you think was motivating the rabbis to go ask Jesus this question? Why do you think they showed up down here and asked him this? You say, well, Lon, maybe they were sincere seekers of truth. Maybe they were ready to embrace him as their personal Lord and Savior.

Maybe they were just waiting and saying, please convince me because we really want to acknowledge you as the Messiah. Survey says, eh, wrong. You say, well, now wait a minute. You weren't there. How can you be so sure of that? Who gives you the right to judge their hearts?

Well, I'm not. Look up a couple of verses in chapter 19. Look at verse 47. It says, in every day Jesus was teaching in the temple that last week, but the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people, these very same guys, were out to try to kill him. Oh, OK. See, the real motive of the rabbis was to in some way entrap or snare Jesus so that they could carry out what they wanted to do to him. Now think, if he stands there and he says, my authority is from God.

I am the Son of God. They were prepared to accuse him of blasphemy, the penalty for which is death, and kill him right on the spot. If he would have stood there and said, my authority is not from God, they were prepared to brand him a false prophet and drive him out of the temple and say, by his own mouth, he branded himself a false prophet. If he says, I have political authority to do this, they were prepared to run to the Romans and say, there's a guy out there in the temple that's formatting sedition and treachery.

You need to go deal with this guy. I mean, hey, no matter what he said, they thought they had him. Well, Jesus knew that. That's why he answered them the way he did. Look, he said, verse 3, well, wait a minute, guys. He said, I got a question for you.

You answer my question, then I'll answer your question. You tell me, John's baptism, was it from God? Was it from heaven?

Or was it from man? You want to know where I'm getting my authority? You tell me about John the Baptist and his baptism. Where did he get his authority? I was dealing with a guy who was a management expert, and he's trying to help me become a better personnel guy. And he said to me, whenever somebody comes and asks you a question, one of the best things to do is ask them back a question.

Oh, OK, that sounds like a good idea. So that's what Jesus did here. Now, he was talking about John the Baptist and John's ministry.

I want you to see part of this. Flip back just a couple of pages. Keep a finger here in Luke 20.

We're coming back. But flip back to John chapter 1. It should be maybe a couple of pages back, that's all, towards the back of your Bible. John chapter 1. And let's pick up and let's see about John the Baptist and what Jesus was talking about. John chapter 1, verse 24. John 1, verse 24. Now, some of the rabbis who had been sent questioned John and said, well, why are you baptizing if you're not the Messiah, you're not Elijah, you're not the prophet? John said, I'm baptizing with water, but among you stands somebody, I don't know who he is yet, but he's the one that comes after me, the thongs of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. The next day, verse 29, John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, look, here he is, this is the one, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I was talking about when I said that there was a person coming who I wasn't sure who he was, but I knew he was coming and he is greater than I am. And look, verse 32, John gave this testimony. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Jesus and I wouldn't have known who he was except that the one who sent me, God, the one who sent me to baptize told me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain on is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, verse 34, watch, and I have seen and I testify that this person, Jesus, is the Son of God. Now he said that in the presence of all of those rabbis, all of those chief priests, all of those religious leaders and he said, I'm testifying to you, I as John the Baptist, that this man right here is the Son of God. Now, Jesus said, was John's ministry from God or wasn't?

Let's go back to Luke 20. The cardinals have a problem here. So they call for a timeout. They say, Jesus, timeout. We're going to go have a little strategy session and so they go and here's what they say. Verse 5, they discussed it among themselves and they said, hey, if we say, well, John's ministry was from heaven, from God, well, then he's going to say, why didn't you believe John when he said that I am the Son of God? But if we say that John's ministry was from men, that he didn't have any divine authority, all the people will kill us because they're persuaded John was a prophet.

Do you understand what they did when they went to the strategy session? They said, well, we only have two options, but if we take the first option and we say, well, his ministry was from God, then you know what Jesus is going to say to us. He's going to say to us, well, if his ministry was from God and he said, I'm the Son of God, why don't you guys have the answer to your question, where I get my authority? And then we're going to have to acknowledge him as the Messiah and that doesn't work. They said, but the other option is we say that John's ministry was not from God, but all the people love John. All the people worship John. They thought he was the greatest thing since sliced matzah. They just think he was the greatest. And now that Herod cut his head off, he's a folk hero. If we say he wasn't from God, they're going to kill us. We'll have a riot on our hand. And so, not feeling like they can go with either option, they come up with the ultimate wimp out of all time. Look at this.

I mean, this is incredible. So they come back to Jesus and they say, John's baptism, John's ministry, well, we don't know where it was from. We can't say. We can neither confirm nor deny that report. We can't do anything.

We don't know. So, sorry. And Jesus said to them, verse 8, okay, then neither will I tell you by what authority I'm doing the things I'm doing. Well, guys, if you're not going to tell me where John got his authority, then I'm not going to tell you where I got my authority. So, see you.

Have a nice day. End of passage. But what's the point, huh? It leads us to ask the really important question, so what? Yeah, Alon, what's this got to do with me? I don't understand.

What differences does it make to my life? Let me see if I can answer that question. I'm on the board of several other organizations, and one of them in particular, I was on the board, and I'm also on one of the committees of the board, and there was an issue that came up, doesn't matter what it was, so I'm not even going to tell you, but we were talking about it in committee, and there were three of us board members in committee. We all discussed it, and all three of us with conviction, with passion, said, this is a terrible idea. And so we reported back, this is a terrible idea. We discussed it for hours, this is a bad idea, and we said, junk it, trash it, it's no good. Months later, it came up at the board meeting, you know, where all of us are in the board meeting, right? And the executive director who wanted it to put a little different wrinkle on it and a little different salt and pepper on it was the same thing, and I spoke up and said, hey, we told you months ago, this is a bad idea.

This is nothing but a rebaked same thing. It's still a bad idea. One of the other guys on the committee spoke up very forcefully and said, I agree, this is a terrible idea. Anyway, they pushed it to a vote. We voted on it, and I said, well, I know we got at least three votes against it, mine, the other guy who spoke up, and the third guy in committee who'd been so vehemently against this thing. So we voted, we voted and raised our hands, and you'll never guess what the third guy in this committee did. I voted against it. The other guy that spoke up voted against it. You know what the third guy did?

Guess what? He voted for it, and it passed by his vote. Oh, man, oh, man, I was really unhappy, really unhappy. You say, why, because you lost the vote? Well, no, I mean, I don't like to lose votes. I'll just tell you that, but that's not why I was unhappy. What really made me unhappy is that this guy waffled.

He never opened his mouth. If he'd have said in a public meeting, look, I used to think it was a bad idea, I've prayed about it, I've thought about it, I don't think it's a bad idea anymore, I'm going to vote for it, no problem. But to go into a committee and speak out so forcefully and to say I'm against it, it's horrible, it's terrible, never say a word and vote for it, and I got to tell you, there were some political winds blowing in that big board meeting, too. You know what I'm trying to say?

And he goes with, you know, the powers that be. Oh, I was flying home, and I said, we need to calm down, you know, a little self-talk here. Maybe it's not that big a deal, maybe you're being too sensitive. So I said, all right, God, I'll tell you what, I'm going to give it a month, and if a month later I'm still upset about it, I'm going to write him a letter.

Well, a month later, I'm still upset about it. So I write him this letter. And I say, hey, look, I got to tell you, you waffled.

I can't believe what you did. I mean, and I said, it makes me wonder, if you're a weatherman, it makes me wonder whether I can count on you in a firefight, friend, that whether I can count on what you say in private is what you're going to do in public, and I can't serve with people like that. I can't serve with people like that. I can't look people like that in the eye and shake their hand with authenticity and say, we're buds, we got to deal with this. We need to talk, because I need to know why you did what you did.

I got a real problem. Say, what did he say to you? Well, I haven't heard back yet.

But when I hear back, we're going to talk about this. Do you know people like that? Do you know any people who just kind of blow wherever the wind's going? You say, yeah, Lon, the House and Senate are full of them. No, no, no. I mean, I know. But you know any other people like that in your office, in your neighborhood, in your family?

Sure you do. That's the way these rabbis were. They were just sitting on the fence, and whichever way the wind was blowing, it was best for them.

That's the way they went. Man, Jesus was not happy with that. He said, well, what did Jesus want him to do, Lon? I'll tell you what he wanted him to do. What he wanted him to do is get off the fence, get on his side of the fence, embrace him as their Lord and Savior, turn their life over to him so he could forgive their sin and take them to heaven and change their life. That's what he wanted. And by the way, if you're here this morning and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way and you want to know what does God want out of my life anyway, I'll tell you what he wants. He wants you to accept him as your personal Lord and Savior, turn your life over to him so he can change your life, forgive your sin, give you a new life that's worth living and take you to heaven. That's what he wants from you. That's what he wanted from these guys. But if they weren't willing to do that, at least Jesus wanted them to stand up like men, declare where they stood, say the baptism of John was not from God.

You are not the Messiah. We'll take whatever heat comes, but we'll take a stand. At least do that.

They wouldn't do that either. Just to sit on the fence and waffle? That's disgusting. How many of you guys like liver? Yeah, yeah.

All right, I'm kind of with you. I hate it. How many of you all grew up? I grew up with a mom who believed you need to eat liver. She was obsessed with this idea. You need to eat liver once a week to grow up healthy.

Any of you grow up with dysfunctional moms like that? Oh, man. And once a week when I was a little kid, they'd flop this old piece of calves liver on my plate, and I'd look, and oh, oh. So I'll never forget. One time I was about six or eight years old, somewhere in that range. We had calves liver. We're all sitting at the dining room table, and they put this piece of calves liver in front of me, and I swear to you, it was still moving, still quivering on the plate. And they said, you're eating that, and I put that in my mouth, and when I put it in my mouth, I hit one of these huge pieces of gristle.

You know the gristle that's in that thing? Well, I hit one of those babies, and I chewed, and I chewed. I must have chewed on that thing for 40, 50 minutes maybe. And I could not swallow it. I could not get it down. Now, we had a rule in our house, never, ever, under any circumstances does anything that go in your mouth come out of your mouth. You can't put it in your napkin. You can't go excuse yourself. It goes down. That's the only direction it can go.

That was the rule. And I could not get this down. And finally, I said, I can't swallow it. They said, you're gonna swallow it. I said, I can't swallow it. They said, you're gonna swallow it. So you know what I did? I threw up. Right there at the table.

All over everything. It's true. And you know what? They never made me eat liver again.

It was great. Now, you say, Lon, just out of curiosity, what are we talking about here? What is the point of this? Well, there is. I want you to turn back to the book of Revelation with me. Revelation chapter 3, if you're using our copy of the Bible, it's page 869. Revelation chapter 3. Now, you know, to actually, to find something so distasteful that you have to spit it out of your mouth like that, man, you gotta be at the end of your rope.

And you gotta really find something totally distasteful. Can I show you something? Look at this. Revelation chapter 3, verse 15, Jesus is talking to professing Christians. If you're a professing Christian, this is for you.

Listen. I know your deeds, Jesus said, that you're neither cold nor hot. Gosh, I wish you were either one or the other. I'd like you to really be hot for me. But if you're not going to be hot for me, I'd rather you be stone cold and not even claim my name. But, he said, verse 16, because you're lukewarm, because you're sitting on the fence. You're not hot, you're not cold, you claim my name, but you don't live like it, you don't honor me, but you want to be a Christian, you're right in the middle. Because you're lukewarm, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. I find that so distasteful, Jesus said, that I'm going to spew it out of my mouth. You say, Lon, that's pretty strong language.

Yeah, it is. But you see, what I was trying to tell you was, you don't talk like that and you don't do something like that unless something is real distasteful to you. Can you therefore see that us, we as Christians, being on the fence is real distasteful to Jesus Christ? He'd rather have us be stone cold on the other side than sitting on the fence and pretending like we were going both ways. And if you're here this morning as a Christian and I'm here this morning as a Christian, what does God want from us? What God wants from us is for us to get off the fence, friends, and for us to come out clearly and unapologetically for Jesus Christ and to say, God, you can count on me in a firefight. What I say in private is what I'm going to be in public and when the fire starts flying, God, I'm there. You can count on me.

That's what he wants from us. Somebody faxed me a statement, just a real little short thing, that was written by a young pastor in Zimbabwe, Africa. I was so impressed with this, I want to read it to you. I don't think it can be said any better than this guy said it. He said, I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line.

The decision's been made. I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right. I don't have to be first.

I don't have to be tops, or recognized, or praised, or regarded, or rewarded. I live by faith. I lean on his presence. I walk by his grace. I'm uplifted by prayer, and I labor with his power.

That's pretty awesome. I read that and I said, wow, you can't say it any better than that. And you know it says here right on what I got that the guy was martyred for his faith. Does that surprise you when a guy lives like this? No.

And I don't think everybody who lives like this gets martyred, but it doesn't surprise me in a firefight this guy stood with Christ. Now friends, if God were to say to you, what I want from you as a professing Christian is this, I think he could fax you this document and say, this sums it up right here. This is it. This is what I want from you. What are the fences that we sit on that keep us from living this way?

Let me close by giving you three of them. And maybe some of you are sitting on these fences. I hope you'll examine your life as we talk about this. Number one, fence number one, the fence of creature comfort. Creature comfort. Hey, what's it going to cost me?

What am I going to have to give up? And when creature comfort is the issue for us, what that really means, listen carefully, is that we are worried more about earthly prosperity than we are heavenly reward. That's what it really means. We're worried more about the things of this world than we are the things of heaven. Jesus said, my kingdom's not of this world. I'm not worried about the things of this world. Paul said, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we fix our eyes not on what we can see, but what we can't see because what we can see is temporal.

It's not going to last anyway. What we can't see that God's offering us is eternal. And every Christian who gets off this fence is a Christian who has made the decision that creature comfort is not the number one priority in their life. If God asks them for anything, he's got it. I like the way Jim Elliott put it.

The great missionary who was killed by the Auca Indians in South America. All his friends said to him, you're crazy. You're an idiot. You're a young man. You just graduated from college.

You got so much to live for. Why don't you go work for a corporation? Why don't you make a million bucks? Why are you throwing your life away?

Why are you throwing your life away going to reach a bunch of savages who don't even care? And his comment, which is legendary, is this. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep anyway to gain what he cannot lose. Listen friends, Jesus Christ is not against us enjoying the things of this life. What he's against is when we put the things of this life above him.

That's what he's against. And a true disciple accepts that part of the cost of being off the fence for Jesus Christ is that any creature comfort is completely at the disposal of God and God can take it whenever he wants and it's fine. Second fence is the fence of what other people think about me.

What other people think about me. And this is especially true about family, what my family thinks. And, you know, as a Jewish person that came to Christ, man, I had to deal with that straight up. I mean, what is my family going to think when I tell them, you know, that I'm following Jesus Christ? Catholic folks have to deal with this. Jehovah's Witnesses have to deal with this. I mean, all kinds of people have to deal with this. And it doesn't just have to be something you deal with when you come to Christ. It has to do also with when you follow Christ. Hey, there's lots of times when Christ is asking you to go in one direction and family and friends are saying, you're nuts.

So what are you going to do? We hired a staff couple one time here and they didn't live in the area. They had some small children.

They were a young couple. And they lived right near the wife's parents. And when they were getting ready to move and come join our staff, I got wind that the wife's parents were pretty upset that they were moving. So I called the gal, the staff wife that we were hiring.

And she's just a young gal, precious gal. And I said, hey, I hear your parents are, you know, not real excited that you're moving out here to Virginia to be with us and, you know, out here in the south. And she said, yeah, that's pretty much true. You know, they feel like you're stealing their grandchildren away from them going all this distance. I said, well, gosh, that's got to be really hard for you. I mean, these are your parents.

How do you feel about your parents being so against the move out here and everything? You know, are you sure you still want to come? And I'll never forget what she said to me.

She said, Lon, she said, we love my parents. We honor my parents. But Jesus Christ is asking us to go to Virginia. And if Jesus Christ asks us to go to Virginia, then we're going to Virginia.

And my parents will just have to understand. I like that answer. That's a good answer. More important than I like in that answer, Jesus Christ likes that answer.

Because that says Jesus Christ is first. I'm off that fence. I love people.

I love my parents. But I'm off that fence. Friends, these are the kind of people he's looking for.

People who are willing to say, you know, it doesn't really matter what people think. I'm doing what Jesus Christ tells me to do. Third fence and last is the fence of other lovers, spiritual lovers. See, Jesus Christ demands total devotion, total loyalty, total allegiance. And it means you can't have a divided allegiance. You can't have a divided loyalty. Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. You can't have two lovers.

You just got to have one. And as much as you care for your spouse or your children or your job or your career, they can't be on a level that rivals Jesus Christ in your life. I had a couple in my office not too long ago, and they were engaged. And they were sitting there, and the guy was telling me how much he loved his fiancé, how much he cared for his fiancé. He's going on and on and on. I'm thinking, hey, this is pretty cool.

You know, I don't understand why they're even here. Everything seems to be fine to me. So I said to her, well, what's the problem?

I mean, the guy's head and heels all in love with you. I don't understand what the problem is. She said, well, I'll tell you what the problem is. Is he still seeing his old girlfriend? I said, what? She said, yeah, he's still seeing his old girlfriend.

Do you know when she lost her job and she was feeling bad, he even took her away for a weekend in New York City, and they stayed in the hotel together to try to cheer her up? He said, and he said, nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened, but he stayed in the hotel with her for the weekend. And I turned to him, and I said, yeah, what's going on here? He said, well, you know, she was my friend before we were girlfriends, and now that I'm getting married, I just want to keep her as my friend.

I don't see why I need to give up a friend just because I'm getting married. And I turned back to the girl, and she said, Lon, I got a problem with this. You think I ought to have a problem with this?

He says, I shouldn't have a problem with this. I got a problem. Let's take a vote. How many of you think the girl was right? Raise your hand.

Now, guys, think this through before you vote. How many of you think the guy was right? I knew you all are cowards. See, you're all cowards.

All right. Of course she's got a point. Listen, if this guy's not willing to cut off every other lover he's ever had and to do it without any questions asked, he's not ready to get married. You agree with that?

And that's what I told them. I said, I don't think this guy's ready to get married. Paul Simon said, there's 50 ways to leave your lover, and if you're ready to get married, you better think of one of them from every other lover you ever had, and you better use them. Now, friend, when we became Christians, do you realize the Bible says it doesn't matter whether you're male or female, you married Jesus Christ? Do you realize that?

And he became your husband, and you became his bride. And that being true, I wouldn't like it very much if my wife kept contact with all her old boyfriends when we got married. And Jesus Christ doesn't like it, and he shouldn't have to like it, that we keep contact with all our old lovers, whether they're our career or our ambition or whatever it may be.

Hey, he wants old lovers gone, and he's the only face that we see. That's a fence that we got to get off if we're serious about Jesus Christ. And you know, God will test you on that fence. Remember the story of Abraham and having to sacrifice Isaac?

You say, Lon, I always wondered about that. Why did God do that? I mean, you know, God's not into human sacrifice, is he?

Of course not. The point is that Abraham had waited a hundred years for this son, and that son began to become a rival to God in the heart of Abraham. And God said, we need to deal with this, Abraham. We need to fix this.

This is not good. And I need to know that I'm still number one, not Isaac. And that's why God did what he did. Abraham passed the test.

And hopefully you and I would too, but it's a tough test. But who is the lover in your heart? You can't have but one. What are the three biggest fences we as Christians have got to get off? Number one, the fence of creature comfort. Creature comfort. All of my creature comfort is at the disposal of God whenever he wants it.

Number two, the fence of what people think. Hey, I don't care what people think of me. Jesus Christ asked me to do something. I do it.

People can take care of themselves. I'm with God. Number three, the issue of infidelity, other lovers. Wanting to hold on to the world with one hand and hold on to God with the other hand won't work. That's a fence we got to get off and say, I'm just holding on to Jesus Christ. I've jettisoned all the other lovers. They are no longer a threat to my soul. And folks, if you're on one of those three fences, God wants you off of them. And on his side, he wants to know he can count on you.

That's a decision you have to make. And I hope that you will. Let's pray. This morning with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, nobody looking around, please. I'd like to ask you this morning, if you're here and God has spoken to you and you're right on top of one of those three fences, or maybe some other fence I didn't mention, and you're prepared this morning to say, Lord, I'm willing to get off that fence and get on your side. You can count on me. I'm making the decision this morning. And I'd like you to seal it before you leave here today.

And the way you can do that is simply by raising your hand and saying, God, I'm serious. I've made the decision. Thank you very much. Anybody else? God bless you. Lots of hands. Anybody else?

Thanks. Father, I want to pray for these folks who raised their hands. And maybe for others who made this decision that didn't raise their hands this morning. That you would honor the decision that they're making.

Give them the courage that they need to follow through with it. And the dedication for you to stick with it. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that when we decide to get off the fence and get on your side, we never, ever regret it. There's nothing we ever give up that you don't give back to us a hundred times what we ever left for you. Thank you that you love us.

And thank you the only reason you want us off the fence is so that you have absolute control of our life, and you can make it the rich and rewarding thing that you really want it to be. So, Father, I pray that you would find us to be men and women and young people that you can count on in a firefight. Now, like these rabbis who went wherever the wind went, may we plant our feet with Jesus Christ. And no matter what blows along, may we stand for you. Help us to be those kind of followers, God, so you can use our lives to touch others. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.