When we sing to the Lord, we have to pay close attention to what we are singing and not just sing; it’s important that we also believe in what we’re singing. That is why it’s important to listen to music that comes from the heart of worshipers—not just singers or artists, but people who are dedicated to worshiping the Lord. Unfortunately today, many artists are not worshipers, and it’s necessary for us to understand that. When we worship the Lord, it lifts us up, encourages our spirit, and it cheers up the soul, right? And right now, during worship, we just sang to Him, “Lord, I want to be Yours. My love is Yours.” It's not just a love song, but it’s one of romance. It’s a song of dedication—a dedication of yourself to God. “Yours is my love, Lord. I am Yours.”

This week we have been talking about commitment—of how God uses marriage as an example to teach us of the relationship that God has with His church. We were learning about the covenant that God made with Abraham, and how the Lord wanted a people that would be separate and just for Him. We know from history that God’s people were continually unfaithful to Him. Because of their foolishness, God sought another people—a people that, Paul says, were the most vile and despised. God had promised Abraham many descendants and, through this covenant, the Lord made a way to welcome in the ugliest. The ugliest, brothers, are you and me. We must understand where we come from. And when I say the "ugliest," I'm referring here to our hearts and minds, because we come from pagans, from the perverse, the evil, and the dirty. From there, the Lord took us out, and for what? He did this to make His own people jealous.

The Lord had done so much for Israel, for His people. He raised them up, prospered them, and cleansed them; He did many things in their midst, so the Lord will also do it with His church. How many believe that? And what does that mean? It means that you and I can't remain the same as we come to this place. It isn’t possible to remain the same because the Lord changes us, because God is not going to do the same thing. It can't be that I entered the church 20 years ago and after 20 years came out the exact same person. If we believe in the Word, that can't happen, because He's working in His church. And what Word have we learned here in this time? That we have to work for Him. Amen? That we have to work in God’s kingdom, not for ourselves. We have the history of Israel as an example to avoid making the same mistakes.

As we see in the Old Testament, God points out the unfaithfulness of Israel constantly. They were an unfaithful people, an unfaithful people. In the flesh, no one can be faithful to God. Yes or no? No. We can't. And we say to Israel, “Oh, how barbaric that is that they aren't faithful!” But what about us? In the flesh you can't be faithful. And the Lord says to Israel, “You've been unfaithful, you've been an adulterer. In this relationship you have gone to other men, and you have turned to other gods." But the truth is that no man can be faithful and today we are going to see why.

The Lord has been talking about a new humanity, of the divinity of Christ, the divinity that dwelt in bodily form in Christ. What does that mean? God dwelt in the human body of Christ. And Paul says in Colossians, “And now that fullness of God dwells also in you.” What does all this mean? Well, God makes us participants of the divine. So even though many are still stuck in their past situations and many people come to church and cry genuinely because they fail the Lord and say, “I want to, but I can't. I’m failing God, I don't want to fail Him, I don't want to, but I don't know what to do.” There are many people going through these situations in the church, and Paul explains why this happens with the example of marriage.

Many times people get to that point of saying, “I can't,” but you know brother, there is something wonderful here and that’s that you and I are invited to participate in a miracle—the transformation of a natural person to a spiritual person, to a divine person. So, what does that mean? That the Lord comes to cut through lies and through arguments. What lies? “I can't. I want to, but I can't.” Now you come and speak the Word of the Lord, but how will you do it? How has God already done it? It’s clear that the devil’s not going to sit idly by. It doesn’t mean that we receive the Holy Spirit and that now we can say, “Sure, I want this new humanity, I want to participate in the divinity of Christ,” and that the devil is going to sit idly by. “Okay, let him go, let him praise God, let him move forward, let him rise up.” Of course not! That's not going to happen. Neither the devil nor his demons are going to sit idly by while you enjoy what God is going to do in your life.

"...you and I are invited to participate in a miracle - the transformation of a natural person to a spiritual person."

Therefore, I'm going to discuss two obstacles that we face today in participating in this, in fulfilling the call for which we are here. This week we learned about God's covenant with Abraham. And God told Abraham, “Walk before Me and be blameless, walk with Me.” He made a covenant with him, a commitment. When you make a commitment you must fulfill it. You must be faithful to that commitment, to that covenant. You sign a contract, you must fulfill that contract, that commitment—whatever that may be, right? You made a commitment to someone. But here's the situation. We come to the church and we say to the Lord, “I want to be faithful to You.” How many of you have said that to the Lord? “I want to be faithful to You, Lord. I don't want to fail You.” And then you’re out on the street corner and what happens? What's wrong with that? Do you know why? What the Word of the Lord tells us is that we already have a prior commitment. You and I are already married. We already have a contract signed with someone else. That's why we want to sign the covenant with the Lord, but that's not allowed, that can’t be done, right? You can't marry someone else while your wife is alive, right? Not here, at least? So, you can't do that. But what does the Word say? Let's go to Romans 6:16. Here you have the verses in front of you, let's read the New International Version. The Word of the Lord says, “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey? Of course you are, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to life.” And to whom were we surrendered? To sin. To whom were we committed? To sin, to death? We are of death aren’t we? “Unless,” he says, “we surrender ourselves to obedience,” which will indeed lead us to life.

But then again we come from an old contract of sin. We are all born sinners. So, before we were even born, we already had a signed contract. Even if we come here and say to Him, “Lord, I want to be faithful to You.” We belong there, we belong on the other side. Ah, but then we’re going to stay like that? Then we’re never going to get up. Then we're always going to be failing the Lord. We're always going to be like, “Oh well, Lord, You forgive me, beloved Lord.” Every Sunday we come and cry, and we don't cry for the presence of the Lord. Instead, we come to cry because we remember all the bad things we have done. Right? We come and say, “Forgive me, Lord” and start to remember. Right? And the worship isn’t enough, the songs aren’t enough, and we cry about all the things we have to ask forgiveness for. Every Sunday we come and that's all we come for.

But you know what? The Lord came to do precisely that, so that you and I could live differently—as new people. “Old things have passed away, all things have become new.” How many of you know that verse? But what about the old things? Let's go further down then. Today, I want to preach on the title: One New Covenant, One New Life. Romans 7:1 and onward. Do you have it in your Bible? Say Amen. Romans 7:1, “Brothers and sisters, I speak to those who know the law. Do you not know that a person is subject to the law only as long as he lives? For example, a woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from that law. Therefore, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and she is not an adulteress if she marries another man.” Okay I just want to explain this part. We’ll continue later, but what is the Word saying? What is Paul saying? Paul isn't giving the ladies any ideas, is he? Paul isn’t giving them ideas, he is trying to give an example, right? Of what? When you sign a contract, you have an obligation and you must fulfill that obligation. It's like when it says, that “When a woman marries a man, she can't marry another man while her husband is alive. Because if she marries another man she is an adulteress. Now, if the husband dies, she can remarry.” He’s giving an example here, and pay attention to this, brothers and sisters, let's not get sidetracked. This isn’t a verse where Paul is saying that he accepts divorce or remarriage, right? No, the Bible, this part, isn’t talking about that, he's talking about something else. He’s saying that for a contract to be invalidated, that person has to die so that a new contract can be made. That's all he's trying to say, right? Not to teach about marriage.

Let's continue in verse 4. “Likewise, my brothers and sisters, you died to the law.” What did you die to? To the law. Through the crucified body of Christ, in order to belong to him who was raised from the dead. So, what’s going to happen? To belong to Christ, what has to happen? We must die. Ok. Now we’re changing things. Verse 5, “For when our sinful nature still dominated us, the evil passions that the law stirred up in us were at work in our bodies, and we bore fruit for death.” We couldn't control ourselves. This is the part where everyone says, “I just can't. I do things, the thoughts come to mind. And look, I feel it pulling me in, I feel like I can't.” Right? There it is. Because the sinful nature dominates. It dominates, it’s a boss. We can't do anything.

I don’t think it’s hit you yet. When we say that, when we say we can’t, it’s because we’re living according to our carnal nature. When I go and say, “Lord, I can't handle this. I can’t control my thoughts.” I'm living in my sinful nature that dominates me. Right? We’re driven by our instincts, just like little animals. They do things by instinct, nothing more—no reasoning, nothing in the heart. But there’s the Holy Spirit who’s willing to speak and guide man, telling him this and that, so that you don’t move by instinct. “Oh, it's just that I think, it seems to me, everyone does it, okay?”

Understand this, Paul is telling you that you are dominated by your passions, your body, the desires of the flesh. We say we’re Christians, we say we’re going to heaven. But the truth is, the Word of the Lord is saying, you were like that and you’re not going to stay like that. Verse 6, “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit…” With what are we going to serve God? Knowledge? Attitude? The other day I saw an advertisement for a church conference. The title of the conference was: “Bring Out The Best Version Of Yourself.” All the topics were motivational, about being good. But the Word isn’t talking about being good or doing good things, right? It’s talking about the power to serve God with power. But we're going to get to that—the power that the Spirit gives us, not by the “old way of the written code.”

The verse here is saying, “Look, there’s a power that had bound us.” What does that mean? Trapped, imprisoned, detained, right? So what is it that stops us? What is it that traps us? The two obstacles that we’re going to see, as the law says.

Number 1: What stops us? What is an obstacle today? And what I'm about to say is interesting—those of us who have been in the church longer can probably identify with the one, and those who are newer can identify with the other. Paul says, the first is the law. What is he talking about? The first is the letter of the law, self-justification, seeking to please God through things, through rituals, through everything we do. This obstacle is important because just as we talked on Thursday about circumcision—man starts well, but then ends up doing things only out of obligation, only out of habit. Man starts doing things just to be seen, he only cares about the things others see. People don't like doing things no one sees. And how am I so sure of that? Because people—not everywhere—but people like to sing, right? They like to preach, they like to teach, they like to talk. But who likes to pray? Who likes to fast? Those things you do in secret with God. People don't like to participate in those things, the things that aren’t seen. And they'll say, “Brother, I'm not looking for that, I'm not looking for fame.” But where is their time going? For those of us who have more time, this has happened a thousand times. Don’t we think that we can replace our relationship with God with what we do, with spending time in the church? But the Word tells us that it's time to work in the kingdom.

It’s not about doing church things, but about listening to God's voice and being willing to do what we have to do wherever we are. God told Abraham, “Walk with Me, let's walk together, don't walk alone anymore.” He didn't say go start a church and do this and that. He didn’t say any of that. He said let's walk together and be united and in that, people see you and say, “Wow, that man has something different, that man isn’t like us. What makes that man prosper and rise up?” It’s because he’s honest, because he’s upright, because he's different. But not in the church? If it weren’t for union with God, we’d be dead. We’d be free from the law. We have been freed from the law! What holds us back? The church of today is looking for salvation through the law.

The law does not lead to salvation. There is no salvation in the law. There is no salvation in rituals. There is no salvation in service; although later He says that He gives us power to serve Him. But this is where we become confused. We start serving Him and we believe that is where salvation lies. No! We think we're fine, we've talked about that many times, but it really hits my heart. It really does. Why? Because as we discussed the other day, serving God is with power. He empowers man. That is why man is transformed through the power of God, so he can do God's work. Because if he is called to do something, he will have God’s power. To what end? Fruit. To be able to bear fruit in what he is doing. It’s not just about preaching, it’s not just about singing. It’s not about teaching - it is about touching hearts and changing the hearts of children, of people, about the person you are speaking to about the Word of the Lord. Where it's not just about singing, it's about touching God's heart, praising Him, ministering to His presence. But not only those standing here at the front, but of each and every one of us who come to the house of the Lord. To minister to the Lord’s heart. That's why we’re here, that's the purpose. “Come and walk with Me.”

Those who come to worship the Lord aren't just the people standing up front, nor are they those who are simply rehearsing. You and I come to worship the Lord. We come to minister in His presence, to praise Him, and to give thanks for what He has done. But we must do this not in the flesh. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "The hour has come for you to do it in spirit and in truth." For that to happen, we need to have died to our flesh. Many times we fall back into old habits and old ways, neglecting justice and mercy. Remember in Genesis 17:1, when God established His covenant with Abraham? He asked him to walk with Him and be blameless. To be blameless before the Lord.

What is the other great obstacle we face? This is obstacle number 2: Sin. As we saw in verse 5, sin is what hinders us. The Word says we are sold to sin—all those bodily desires that destroy us. But not only the body, also the mind and the soul, because everything that happens to us or that is happening in the world is a consequence of sin, right? We might point to people and say, "That addict, the alcoholic, the drug user—that's sin." But it's everything! What destroys the mind and the soul also stems from sin. Why all the suffering that happens to us? Why are so many people depressed? Why are so many people going through all these hardships? There's a reason, and all these issues stem from sin.

The Lord comes and says He controls all of this, too. Haven’t we seen it ourselves? Haven't we watched it happen to someone we love? They get absolutely stuck in life—they can't move forward, all because of a single thought. Have you ever stopped to think about that? Just one thought! I don't know if this has happened to you, but because of one thought, many times it feels like someone is threatening us, like we have no options left. We start to think, "I can't do this, I can't do that. I can't move here. They're watching me. They're talking about me. They’re here, they're there." And yet, you are all alone in the room.

But that nature—that sinful flesh—it torments us. It dominates us, doesn't it? Of course it does. It seeks to destroy us. But the Word of God says that Christ nullified that power! Christ nullified the power of sin when He died on the cross and rose again with a new body.

"Christ nullified the power of sin when He died on the cross and rose again with a new body."

Now, let's get into the flesh. He suffered it as a man. He went to the cross and died and, I'm going to dare to say, He did this on purpose: He went as a man to die on purpose, so that His body would suffer, so that His body would cease to exist. He did it on purpose.

He suffered as a man, and He went through that process because the Word teaches us this, right? The one who dies is like the seed. To bear fruit, the seed has to fall into the ground and die. There is nothing we can do until this body dies. Until this flesh dies. Because many times, brothers and sisters, this flesh is very much alive. Very much alive! That’s why so many of us say, "I want to, but I can't." Of course we can’t... but God has given us weapons to fight with!

I want us to go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 3. “For although we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” We do not wage war as the world does. And what are those battles? They are the ones we all have, but we don't fight them the way everyone else does!

What problems did Paul have? People were talking about him, putting him in jail, he had an illness—all the things that happen to us were happening to him. And what does he say? "We don't do it the way everyone else does." Because many times we want to solve problems our way, the way we’ve always done it. How do we do it? My way! By talking, fighting, yelling, crying! That’s how we think we solve problems. Someone is going to throw themselves down, cry their eyes out, kick and scream until they are totally exhausted. And according to you, the problem was solved. No, no, no!

It's like I told a dear brother of mine: Many times, all we do is like when we sweep the house and we're just throwing all the dirt under the furniture. And every day we sweep and throw the dirt under the furniture. Until one day, someone is going to move that furniture! That's how we solve things—our way.

Paul says, “I don’t do it the way the world does.” Not the way I think it should be done. Verse 4 says, “For the weapons with which we fight are not of the world, but have what? What do they have? Divine power!”

And to whom have they been given? To me, to you! These weapons were given to us! And what are these weapons like? What power do they possess? No matter how much you shout, the problem won't be resolved. No matter how much you cry, that's not the way. We use weapons that have divine power to demolish strongholds!

We demolish arguments and every pretension that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And listen closely: "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Every thought must be subjected to Christ! Anything that comes to disturb you—every thought must be submitted to Christ. This is where the divinity begins to work. This is where the new man begins to work!

"This is where the divinity begins to work. This is where the new man begins to work!"

You cannot prevent thoughts from coming. You cannot prevent sadness from coming. Let the worry come. Let this come, let that come. But every single thought must be submitted to the obedience of Christ! That is the new man! Think about it: I wouldn't take my broken car to the mechanic, and when I pick it up, it's still broken, and the mechanic says, "Oh, we didn't replace all the bad parts, but the car's still in heaven!" That doesn't work! The new parts have to be the right parts!

A Christian cannot enter the house of God, leave here, and go about their business the same way they always have, thinking the same way they always have, right? As the pastor always says—and it’s not just a saying, it’s the truth: Someone lacking intelligence is someone who thinks they can do something the same way 20 times and expect a different result. Always doing the same thing, always the same way!

But the Word of the Lord says, you have to submit your thoughts to Christ. That’s something we’re not used to doing. We are used to leaving things unfinished, to not persevering. But I will tell you something: Whoever gets involved with God will never be disappointed. Take courage and determination! Even if you don't feel strong, do it!

Now, I look at you right now, and maybe you think I’m talking about things that don't seem real, things that don't seem to happen to us. Okay, I’m going to be a little more specific so that we understand.

Let’s turn to James 4:4. “You adulterous people!” Who is this speaking to? The world or us? "You adulterous people! Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? If anyone chooses to be a friend of the world, he becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think the Scripture says in vain that He jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?”

What is the Word telling us God is like then? What is God like? He is jealous! And He is saying: "Beware, adulterer, I am watching you." He is jealous for His people. He is jealous for His beloved. Have we not made a commitment to Him? Have we not made a covenant with God? So then He is watching us, just as any husband or wife would.

Would you go through life with your husband and see him with other women? No! And the Lord has said, "You are Mine." But be careful! Whoever befriends the world, whoever accepts the things of the world—we are in the world, but we are not of this world. Whoever accepts those things into their home, whoever lives according to those things, whoever continues practicing those things in their life, in their family—be careful. "I am watching you. I am jealous," says the Lord. "Remember that you have made a covenant with Me."

And the Lord says in verse 6, “But He gives us even greater help through His grace.” That is why Scripture says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'

So submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, you double-minded ones, and purify your hearts. Acknowledge your wretchedness, weep, and mourn. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you!" He is telling us that the key to all of this is humility. Because we must submit to God. Whoever is not submitted to God is submitted to the devil.

The Bible gives us no middle ground. You are either of God or of the devil. You are either of life or of death. You are either of light or of darkness! So, He says, "Submit yourselves to God." Why? Because we are subject to Him, aren't we? If we are not in obedience, we are in disobedience. There is no middle ground.

We must be constantly, intentionally, and deliberately under God’s influence. Why? Because generally, we are under the enemy’s influence! Submitting to God is an obligation. Not just because we feel like it, but because we have to, or we will spiritually die. It is a necessity!

Do you know how we can look at this another way? People love Psalm 91, right? They have it open in their homes: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High…” But what do you think it means to dwell in the shelter of the Most High? Do you think you're going to live there however you want? The one who submits is saying, "I can’t. Of course I can't." That’s what I’m telling you! Because we can't, we have to submit! As Paul said, "I discipline my body." Because sometimes this body doesn't want to. Sometimes this body wants to do bad things. Sometimes that thought comes to mind, and my little feet are already getting ready to go: “We're going to go there. Not the other way, because that brother is over there. We're going this way." We are thinking and moving, and things are coming.

But Paul says, "Submit every thought to Christ! Submit your body! Submit your flesh!" And then you cry out, "My God, I can't! My feet want to lead me to do this! Give me strength, Lord! Give me strength!"

When will the time come when the church will throw itself on the floor and begin to pray and ask, "Lord, help me, Lord, I can’t, Lord, help me!" and be crying there at home? We don't cry! I'm talking about throwing yourself on the floor, breaking the cycle! Start praying! Start asking the Lord! Resist the devil and he will flee from us!

"Oh, brother, I don't just jump from one problem to another..." Get down on the ground and start fighting with the devil! The Word says we have weapons with divine power, and it's true! When will it be that we truly humble ourselves and throw ourselves on the floor? Cry out to the Lord and ask Him!

"Oh Lord, the night frightens me! Oh Lord, scary things happen here!" When will you cry out to the Lord then? I’m going to tell you this because you laugh. It happens to you! I like that you are so sincere; you betray yourselves! The other day I was praying very late at night. I said, "Lord, Father, here I am, reveal Yourself to me." Immediately I felt them walking. I was near a wall; they were walking outside, and I said, "Lord, is it you?" No, it wasn't the Lord, it wasn't the Lord!

You know, when we want to see the Lord, do you think the enemy is just going to leave us alone? I knew it wasn't the Lord. I got up and started to pray. What do you think? That the devil is just going to be walking around near my house? Of course he’s going to want to be there! Of course, he’s going to want to get involved! But the Word says, and I believe it: Our weapons are powerful. We have faith in Christ who rose again, and because He rose again, I too will rise again! I have hope! I have power! Not because I can, not because I am good, but because He who is with me is greater than all those things! I don't know if one day you'll start to believe all those things that are happening to you, but finally, you’re going to say, "I see the devil in my house," and one day you’ll dare to kick him out!

Lately, I've heard people complaining to pastors: "Oh, you didn't go looking for the lost sheep?" They are complaining about the pastors not going to look for the stray ones. And why does this catch my attention? Because some of those people knew the person they were talking about, and they are people whose own children have strayed from the Lord, and they have abandoned them! They come to tell the pastor, talking about someone else, not even their own child: "You don't look for the lost sheep." Meanwhile, in their own house: "In my house, you can do whatever you want. There might be kids in my house, I’ll leave them alone, it doesn't matter.”

But when will we, as a family, unite in prayer? When will we build an altar in our homes? I’ve seen it thousands of times, brothers—people fight here, we finish the service, we hug the brother over there, but there is no real joy because we are all in the same boat. (Well, that happens to me; I don't know about you!)

When are you going to truly believe: "I am of God. I am a man of God. I am a woman of God?" It won't take a day. Who's going to stand in the middle of your house and pray? To rebuke the enemy? To raise an altar of worship right there in your house? To offer gifts to the Lord in your homes—right there where the devil's cave is! Amen!

In your home is the devil's cave! Of course, we have let him in, but it says there, "Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil." Resisting isn't just enduring something for 20 years. The word "resist" means opposing, standing against the devil, and he will flee from there! That is the power of the church! The power of the church is not about saying, "Oh well, another one lost." It’s about going out, preaching the Gospel, and rescuing them by the power of God's Word, because we truly believe in God's Word, and because that power is working in us! Amen!

We cannot believe that we are going to go out and conquer the world without God's help. The devil and his demons are waiting for you there. Temptation is waiting for you there. False doctrine is waiting for you there. Your friends are waiting for you there. All those people who tell you to give up, to stop moving forward—that’s the devil!

Did you hear that? Those people who tell you to stop, that you’re coming to church for nothing, that you are this, that you are that—that’s the devil! Even if your mother told you that—it’s the devil! Because the Word says that I was called before the foundation of the world to fulfill His purpose! He chose each one of you to bear fruit—the fruit of the Lord! Just because you're feeling down today doesn't mean you'll be like that tomorrow! He has given us weapons with the power of the Lord, and that's the new normal!

"...the Word says that I was called before the foundation of the world to fulfill His purpose!"

My wife told me this, and I really liked the expression. You remember COVID, right? It was so long, and what was the new normal? We couldn't go anywhere, we had to wear masks, everything. Our lives changed completely, right? Who remembers that? Life changed completely! You couldn't do what you wanted; we were locked up. It was the new normal. Will we ever understand that there's a new normal for you and me? A new life that can't remain the same as before! The Lord said in His prayer, "Thy will be done, not mine."

It’s no longer about what we want or what we know. Before, we only thought about the things of this world because, frankly, we had no hope at all. But Christ! Now that we know the truth that we won't live here forever—Christ conquered death and overcame all of this so that you and I can begin now with a new normal, a different life!

I want to conclude by going back to Romans 7:6: “But now, having died to those who held us captive, we have been freed from the law, in order to serve God with the new power.” There is a new power! To serve under a new regime—no longer as before, no longer in the flesh, no longer under legalism, no longer in religiosity, but in truth!

All of that old way is based on fear. But what the Word is telling us is based on love, on a new commitment, on a covenant! I want to emphasize the example Paul gives of marriage. It is a covenant—a covenant of fidelity, a commitment. That’s why we were talking the other day: a married man has to behave like a married man, right? He can't be out there fooling around. Likewise, someone who commits to God doesn't go fooling around with other people because he wants to be faithful to God. It doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what friends you have. Daniel and his friends were in Babylon, at the epicenter of sin, of idolatry, of filth, of wickedness at that time! Those people were truly immoral. But they remained faithful to God in the midst of it all!

That is the time that is coming in this era! In the midst of all the immorality and all the filth that surrounds us in our society, it is a time when young people will rise up and be able to say, "Yes, it is difficult, but look, we have been able to rise up! We have been able to say no to sin! We have survived! And not only that, we are carrying the message of the Word of the Lord!"

In every church, I hear messages for young people: "We understand it's difficult, but be careful. Don't let it cause you anxiety. Don't let it cause pressure. It doesn't matter!" Because whoever is touched by God has the power to resist the enemy!

It doesn't matter how old you are. If today you say, "Lord, touch me with that power," you will be able to be like Daniel and his friends. You will be able to say no. No to the world, no to the desires of the flesh, and no to temptation! When the problem comes, when the difficulty comes, you will say, "Lord, give me strength. Help me, Lord!"

Romans 7, verse 4 says, "Likewise, my brothers and sisters, you died to the law through the crucified body of Christ, in order to belong to him who was raised from the dead. In this way, we will bear fruit for God." We have died to belong to God. Don't think it's for nothing. It's not just an obligation, or simply saying, "I'm a Christian." We have died to belong to and be a part of the family of Christ! Not the extended family, not the royal family—but the family of Christ, the Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth!

Just as Daniel and his companions walked in the truth, we must do the same. People are now ashamed to say they are Christians. And of course, since there are so many so-called Christians today, maybe they should be ashamed. But I know that I am part of the family of the Almighty God! That He will come one day! One day He will come for me and for you. One day He will send His angel and sound that trumpet! And His church will be raised up—with all those who persevered, with all those who truly said to Him, "Lord, I want to belong. Call me, Lord, call me."

Because there are still some out there whom the Lord has not called, who don't feel that yet. Say, "Lord, call me, call me!" And when that happens, as it says at the end, in that way, then we begin to bear fruit for God. Who can say today, with full confidence: "I belong to Christ!"