Conquering Warriors — Denny Kenaston

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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The Call to Return to the Real World

I don't know anything more exciting than the reality of the words of that song. And that's the will of God for every child of God. I hope that you can experience that in your Christian life. If you're not already, that's nothing super special.

That's just normal. Amen? Save to serve! Thank you, Brother Elvin, for those beautiful words this morning. You know, young people, it is... it's the burden of our heart. Today, as we think about you going home, it's the burden of our heart to give you some input that will help you in the days to come.

Because it is kind of a greenhouse around here, you know what I mean? And that's okay. God designed those special times when His people would draw aside and draw near to Him and gather together and seek His face and do business with God so that they can go back out into a real world.

So, I'm very grateful for my brother's words this morning. The burden of his heart unites with my heart on Sunday after a week of Bible school. Fall down on your face and pray, young people. Just fall down on your face, and that's the answer.

Well, I'm scared. There are sure a lot of you here this morning. Shall we stand before the Lord and pray? Yes, our God and our Father, we bow down to You. We love You this morning, Lord.

What a good Father You are to us.

Thank You for loving us. Thank You for loving me, Father. Thank You for forgiving me, God. So many offenses against Thee.

Thank You for forgiving me, Lord.

O God, we come now to this next part of this service and this message. We just bring this message in each one of our hearts up before Your throne again this morning, God. And we ask You that You would minister to every one of our hearts.

God, there are people sitting in this room that are way in the back, Lord. But You can reach somebody who is way in the back. You are not limited by any space. You are not limited by the sound of my voice, O God.

You are not limited by whether or not they can see my eyes, O God. You are not limited. I pray that You would settle down upon this place in the name and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray.

God, settle down upon every one of our hearts, Father. We ask You again, Father, that You would bind the devil and every lying, evil spirit, Father, that would hinder the work of God in the hearts of those that are in this room.

Lord, You know. You know who they are, O God. You know. I pray. Send Your sweet words down into every one of our hearts this morning, God, that we may receive life and strength and inspiration and direction for the days to come.

We ask it in the name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. I'll give you a little encouragement before we get into the message. The Lord put it on my heart as I was sitting here waiting to come up.

I know that there are a few of you young people. You're sitting here this morning. You didn't get through yet. Issues in your heart. Maybe struggling today. You may be wrestling with what to do. God bless every one of you.

We love you this morning. We want to see you come through. We want to see you clear with God. Blessed by God. I'd like to say something to all the rest of you young people. Let them alone today. Okay?

They all know you care. They all know. Don't overwhelm them with 25 encouragements or little sermons. Let's just let them to God, okay? I want to encourage you that way. You love them? Pray for them. Trust God.

God will help them. Sometimes, if you push too hard, you will chase them away. Let God minister to them through the day and the evening. Okay? You can open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We began the week looking at spiritual war.

This message is the last. The sixth message in the series on freedom from bondage. But we began the week looking at spiritual war. And we want to finish that way this morning. There's still a war going on.

The Spiritual Battlefield and the Need for Standing Soldiers

Bless God. Many of you are sitting here. You're a bright light shining back at me as I stand up here this morning. And what a joy that is to see. But the war is still going on. It was a sobering glimpse on Monday.

We looked behind the veil that separates the physical world from the spiritual world. And it was a sobering glimpse to look over there and see what the battlefield looks like sometimes. As we gazed over the battlefield, it didn't look very good on Monday.

We saw Christian soldiers fighting with each other. Picking at each other. Upset at this one for the way he's holding his sword. And this one was carried on at this one for the way he's holding his shield.

And this one is fussing at this one for the way he's standing. We saw Christian soldiers fighting each other. And the enemy was laughing. We saw many soldiers weak and defeated in the midst of a battle which was still raging.

We saw many soldiers wounded and bound by sin. And we also saw that it was not God's will that those soldiers be laying around on the battlefield sick and wounded and weak and defeated and discouraged and powerless and useless.

We saw that on Monday. It is my joy to come to the end of this week of Bible school and see many more soldiers standing on their feet this morning. Amen? Many. And we rejoice in all that God has done in each one of your hearts through the many messages that you heard.

God bless you for subjecting your heart to so many messages in one week's time. But I assure you, God will bring it all back when you need it. He will. We see many more soldiers standing this morning.

The chains of sin and Satan are broken. Their hearts are clear and upright. The wounds are healed and healing. New courage beats in their breasts. And a new respect and hatred for the enemy is in them.

And we're glad for this. This is the picture that God gives us in His word of a Christian soldier. One, standing, endued with power, clothed with Christ, able to withstand the attacks when they come, able to keep on standing after you've withstood an attack when it came, able to wrestle with the enemy and come out on top when you're done, able to prevail against the gates of hell.

My dear young people, and all of us as God's people, it is His will that we, as the church of Jesus Christ, be able to prevail against the gates of hell. Jesus promised when He was upon the earth, He said, I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church that I build.

And we have such a beautiful example of how that works as you look through the pages of the book of Acts. The Acts of the Apostles or the Acts of the Holy Spirit, however you want to say that. But we see this picture as God's picture of what a Christian soldier is supposed to be.

A helmet of full salvation on their head, a breastplate of imputed and imparted righteousness, truth abiding deep within them, a preaching soldier that can't be moved, opening up his mouth with the gospel message to those that are around him, a living faith which is a mighty shield against all the fiery darts of the enemy, and a sword that is alive that fights off the enemy and breaks the chains of others, and a soldier praying prayers that get answered.

That's the beautiful picture of a Christian soldier that we see in the Word of God. His armor is on, he's on his feet, his heart is clear, his mind is alert, his eyes are open, his heart is bowed before the living God, and there he stands with a sword in his hand and a shield in the other hand and a prayer in his heart, a prayer that gets answered.

Now, when you find a soldier like that, look out. Things are going to happen. Things are going to happen. The title of my message this morning is, Conquering Warriors. Conquering Warriors. That's God's will for each and every one of us as we're in this room this morning.

That is the picture that I get as I look into the New Testament. Now, if you go by what you see, when you look around you, you may not get that picture. But if you go by what you see in the Word of God, which is a revelation of the heart of God, which is a revelation of God's desire for every one of His people, which is a revelation of what Jesus bought and paid for, you get a picture of a soldier who is clear, who is strong, who is standing, who has an upright heart, who is anointed, who is ready to go.

Conquering and to conquer. Reading in 2 Corinthians 10, as we read down from verse 1 through 6, I want you to consider this. Because most of the time and most of us, we look at this text that I'm going to read and apply it to our own heart and life.

And that's right to do that. But, it's really not a picture of that. Picture, as we read, a humble soldier walking through the land equipped with spiritual weapons, setting the captives free. Picture a soldier, a humble soldier, a broken soldier, yielded to God, walking through the land with spiritual weapons, setting the captives free.

Chapter 10, verse 1,. Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence and base among you, but being absent, in bold toward you. But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

For though we, Paul, giving his testimony, though we, Paul, walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our, Paul's, warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your, Corinthians, obedience is fulfilled.

He is giving a testimony of his ministry in this chapter. He begins his testimony, which goes from chapter 11, chapter 10, chapter 11 and chapter 12. It is all a testimony of Paul's ministry and he begins his testimony of his ministry explaining the functions of spiritual warfare in the ministry of his life, or his life ministry.

Here we have an example of a conquering warrior walking through the land with weapons. Oh, not the weapons, not carnal weapons. Here's a man walking through the land, but he doesn't war after the flesh, though many, many, many flesh is warring after him, but he doesn't war after the flesh.

Oh, no, he doesn't need to war after the flesh. He's got his sights clearly set and his hands clearly gripping some spiritual weapons which are way more powerful than any pop-gun that anybody could have in their hand.

Here we have Paul meek, gentle, base. Those are the words he uses. Well, that's a different kind of soldier. Surely it is. That's not the kind that we would think of when we think of soldiers, but that's the kind of soldier that fights in this war that we've been talking about all week.

Meek, humble, base, lowly, one who is very used to falling on their face before God in prayer again and again and again. And Paul is a beautiful example of that to us. It is right to apply these verses as key verses for our personal freedom because that which sets me free will also set someone else free.

But if you really get honest with the context of the verses, Paul is not telling you what you should apply to your own heart. He's telling you what he does in his ministry. Now, what he's doing in his ministry works for his own life also, but there's more to this whole thing, young people, than getting back up on your feet and being clear.

There's a war going. And there's work to be done. And that's where we find the Apostle Paul. Paul is a man who has been set free. Paul is a man who has been freed from the strongholds which were in his life.

And we know what some of those strongholds were. We know what some of those big towers full of lies and whole systems of theology and thought, which were absolutely wrong, those things came crumbling to the ground in the life of the Apostle Paul.

But now, Paul, as a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is free, who is upright, who is moving forward, who has his armor on, who has a sword in his hand and a shield of faith in his other hand, he's moving through the land, setting the captives free.

Young people, the context here in 2 Corinthians 10 is the context of others. It's the context of others. Notice what he says in these beautiful verses. He says, we do not war after the flesh, in verse 3, but we do war.

We war after the spirits. You know, I ponder that a lot this week. You know, the difference between the physical wars, which take place all over the world and will be all the way to the end, to look at the comparison and the difference between the physical war and the spiritual war that we've been looking at this week.

How futile to pick up a gun or a sword and think you're going to be able to do something. How futile when you begin to see the powerful weapons which God has placed in the hands of the children of God.

Paul warred after the spirits. He mentions here that he uses mighty spiritual weapons, and we will speak about those a little bit later. But we see a beautiful picture of a man who knows how to set the captive free.

He's in a spiritual war. He's using mighty, powerful spiritual weapons. He uses them to tear down spiritual strongholds and to set captives free, and set those captives free and bring them to the place where they become yielded, anointed servants of God.

That was what Paul was about. That's how Paul saw this spiritual war. And that's the way that we need to see it also.

Dear people of God, we need to see it the same way.

It's not a spiritual war where we hide in our little fort and take a shot at the enemy who comes near us. That's not what the spiritual war is all about. The spiritual war is about the souls of men and women who are held captive by the enemy of every one of our souls.

That is what the spiritual war is all about. Remember the beautiful testimony that God brought to us last Sunday evening here in this building? The testimony of that house church movement in China? Think about it in light of these verses right here.

Think about them, young people. Think about those soldiers over there in the Chinese church. And whether you realize it or not, dear young people, multitudes and multitudes of those soldiers in that Chinese church are the same age that you are as you're sitting here today.

Think about the testimony of the house church movement in China. Humble, broken soldiers anointed with the Holy Ghost walking through the land, releasing prisoners as they go, binding the strong man and spoiling his goods.

Think about it! That old story about those two little ladies that went to that village? Who was the strong man around that place? Well, they bound that strong man, that demon-possessed man who lived down at the edge of the village.

They bound that man and set him free. And guess what they did? They spoiled 300 souls out of that village. Now that's a spiritual war! 300 souls right out of the gates of the enemy. Hallelujah! I want to leave a challenge to us all this morning and to you young people.

Joining an Army That Sheds No Blood

Come join an army which sheds no blood. Come engage with an enemy that you cannot see. Come fight in a war that guarantees victory. And you'll have the challenge of your life. Do you understand that young people?

Youth like a challenge. I'm giving you one this morning. You want a challenge? Come join an army that will shed no blood no matter what happens to them. Come engage the enemy that you cannot see with these eyes.

Come serve a captain that you must draw near to to get your instructions and fight in a war where there's guaranteed victory. We need to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit according to Paul.

We need to put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Amen? Amen. We need to put on the whole armor of God. These are beautiful, challenging verses to us this morning to put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, which by the way, is the whole armor of God.

Paul broke it down and defined it in terms of helmets and truth and faith and all that, but in reality, in simplicity, the armor of God is to be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ every moment of every day.

That's it. Come join an army that will shed no blood. Learn the rules. Learn the weapons. Study the enemy and go out to war. That's my challenge to you this morning. This is not a defensive war, young people.

We want to consider that a little bit here this morning. Come, let us reason together. This is not a defensive war. If we are going to be in the spiritual war which God reveals in this book, and I hope that we will, the one that I find in this book is an offensive, aggressive war.

It is not a defensive one. Now, you do some defending while you're in it, but it is an offensive war. Think about it. Imagine the utter foolishness of a war that is defensive only. Defensive means with a purpose of resisting attack.

You know what? That may be where the church in this land has gone wrong for the last 100 years. Here we are, hiding inside the walls, keeping an eye, and kicking him away when he tries to get in. And then we just stay up here, looking out over the edge of the fortress.

A defensive war is a war that is fought for the purpose of resisting attack. But an offensive war is an aggressive movement that is on the attack. There's a big difference between the two of those. Imagine with me this morning, standing on the battlefield with weapons that are guaranteed to defeat the enemy, and promises that are more sure than heaven itself, and armor that will protect you from every onslaught of the enemy.

Imagine standing on a battlefield with all of that equipment, and there you stand doing nothing, waiting to protect yourself the next time the enemy attacks you. That is utter foolishness. I've got the most powerful weapons in my hand.

I am utterly protected with the armor of God. And here I am out on the battlefield doing nothing, just waiting. Waiting for the enemy. Waiting for the enemy. Waiting for the enemy. Here he comes. And you block the fiery darts, and you wrestle to stay on your feet, and you ward him off with your sword, and he disappears, and then there you are on the battlefield, doing nothing, and just waiting for the enemy to come and attack you again, so you can protect yourself.

Does that make any sense? How many of you... Does that make sense to you? Nobody would fight a war like that. But I'm telling you, that's about the way it is in this land of ours. Somehow, we ran scared for so long, we're all just hiding there in the fort, doing nothing, and waiting for the enemy to attack.

And here he comes up against the walls, and we throw a few things down on him, and we block a few punches, and we wrestle a bit, and we chase him away, and then we just stand up there in the fort again and say, boy, man, whew, I made it.

Praise God. I'm still on my feet. Well, okay, but you know, come on. What are you going to do when you're still on your feet? That's not the war that God called us to. I'm afraid the American church has done this over and over again.

And worse yet, think of this, this is worse yet. To take some inflicting wounds in that battle, go to the hospital, get your wounds healed, get back out on the battlefield, and wait for the next attack.

Just get out there, wait for the next bullet, so that somebody can drag you off to the hospital again. That doesn't make any sense at all. And as I speak it this morning, every one of us, we know that, don't we?

We know that doesn't make sense. But we also know that that's kind of how it is, you know. That's kind of how it is. The enemy is attacking to gain ground, destroy soldiers, and take prisoners. Why shouldn't we?

That beautiful testimony of that Chinese church is the testimony of a church that is in the aggressive stage of the battle. Amen? No gains. No gains for them. They are in the aggressive stage of the battle.

Very interesting. You know, I gave a little interview to those men after they shared here on Sunday evening. And I asked them, what's the end-time theology of the Chinese church? I thought this ought to be interesting.

See how they believe about the end. And here's what those two men said. They said these words. Their end-time theology is very simple. They believe the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again, and they need to be ready.

Number two, they believe if you are not actively involved in winning the souls of men, you are hindering the Lord from coming again. And to them, it is a shame if you are not an active soldier, actively pursuing the souls of men.

That's what they believe. That's their theology on the end times. Well, I don't know if that's exactly right theology, but I sure like the burden that it makes in their heart for the lost souls of men around them.

If they grew from one million to one hundred million in fifty years, what will happen in the next fifty years? Come join an army that will not shed blood. Come fight an enemy that you cannot see. You want a challenge, young men?

You want a challenge? This is it. Young men, they like challenges. They dream about doing adventurous things. Oh, some time ago, I think I was at the Bible school in Colorado, and I told the young men, I said, what if I were to tell you young men, we have two land rovers that are parked in Germany, and we need four young men to take those two land rovers and drive them from Germany down to the Mediterranean, across the Strait of Gibraltar, over onto the northern side of Africa, and drive those things down through the desert of Sahara and all the way along the coast and over into Ghana.

How many volunteers would I have for such a challenge as that? Guess what? Every hand went up. Amen, boys? You know why? They said, man, that sounds like a challenge. Out there in the Sahara desert, all kinds of troubles and trials, and that sounds like a challenge.

Count me in. Listen, young men, I'm giving you a challenge. I'm giving you a challenge. This one will stretch you to your limits. This one will make a man of God out of you. This one will fulfill you like nothing you have ever, ever, ever known before.

The Rules and Weapons of Spiritual Warfare

I promise you, it will captivate your attention, and 29 years will go by so fast, you'll look back and wonder where they went. Learn the rules for the war. Humility. Brokenness. Holiness. Freedom from sin.

Love for souls. Self-denial. These are the rules for this war. It's different than the fleshly war. This is the rules for this war. Humility. Brokenness. Holiness. Freedom from sin. Love for souls. Self-denial.

And I could make the list a bit longer, but you get the point. The rules are different. This is a different kind of war. This is a war that you fight, though in your heart, you're standing on your feet, but in reality, you're fighting it on your knees.

This war gets fought on your knees. Anybody want to fight? Learn the rules. Learn the weapons. The Word of God. The blood of Jesus Christ. Fasting. All prayer. The wonderful name of the Lord Jesus. These are your weapons.

And these are mighty through God, Paul says. These are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. These are mighty to God to set the captives free. These are mighty to God to bind the strongmen and spoil the enemy's goods.

These are your weapons. And they are mighty. And they work. Put on your armor. Pull out your sword. Pick up that shield. And attack the gates of hell. This is one of the reasons why we send young people to Africa for six weeks.

This is one of the reasons right here. You sit down with those who have been over there. Sit down with the ten that just returned from there. And ask them about the spiritual war. Ask them what it was like.

Ask them how beautiful it was. Ask them how victorious it is when you're on the aggressive instead of just hiding in the fort, waiting for the next bullet. You ask them the difference between hiding in the fort and getting out there after the enemy.

And they will tell you the difference, because they know. That's one of the reasons why we send those young people to Africa to make it like that. So that for six weeks, they know nothing but spiritual war.

Praying and fasting and preaching and pleading and caring for others and watching and being careful and learning to walk and keeping their conscience clear and all the other things, which we'll say more about later in the message.

They learn the rules real fast when you get over there. Isn't that right, Tanner? You learn the rules real fast over there. Amen? Young men, you're going to stand before one thousand students this evening and something got in the way between your conscience and your God in the middle of the day, and you're going to stand before a thousand students this evening.

What do you think that young man is going to do with that which got in the way of his conscience and God? Well, he knows the rules. And he's going to play by the rules because he has no choice. He's over there right in the middle of the whole thing.

And that's why we send him. You know the saying, and it's true, the best defense is an aggressive offense. The best defense is an aggressive offense. Do you know, dear people, that was one of the secrets of the Salvation Army's fast worldwide growth?

And it may be the reason why it kind of cooled off now too. But in the early days of the Salvation Army, they were an army and their goal was the salvation of souls. And God did use those soldiers to storm the gates of hell in city after city after city.

And guess what they did? They didn't go to snob knob to witness. They went to the drunks of the city to witness. And they snatched those degraded souls right out of the hands of the enemy. Praise God!

Do it again, Lord. Do it with our young people. We know without question as we look into the Word of God that that was the strategy of the early church. The enemy was discomforted by the early church.

I mean, the devils were scrambling in every direction. When the early church took off with the armor of God on, and the unction of the Holy Ghost upon them, with an aggressive proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the devils were squirming and running in every direction.

And so were the authorities. They didn't know what to do with these fellows. I mean, sometimes I laugh when I read in the book of Acts I get tickled inside, you know. There's Peter and John, you know.

I mean, they come walking up there to the temple. And you know the story. Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ. Rise up and walk. And boom! This guy gets up and goes leaping and jumping and praising God.

He goes into the temple. Now here's Peter and John, you know. And they're standing before the Sanhedrin. And the Sanhedrin has given some instruction to them. And they ask them what they're doing. And Peter and John told them that this man stands here whole by the name of the Holy Child Jesus.

So then they all go out into the other room and they talk a little bit. And they're back there wringing their hands. What are we going to do? I mean, a notable miracle was done. What do you do about that?

And they're all wringing their hands back there. And I guarantee you there was a few devils wringing their hands too. What are we going to do? I mean, look what happened. What can you say? Amen. They've got them all squirming.

I like that approach a whole lot better than just hiding in the fort. What do you think? Ducking bullets, huh? I like the other approach much better. The best defense is an aggressive offense. And the gates of hell were trembling just like the city of Jericho was.

In those early days of the book of Acts, the gates of hell were trembling just like the gates of Jericho were trembling. What are they going to do next? Where are they going to break loose next? What are they going to do next?

Oh boy! How can we stop them? Let's shut them up. Try to scare them, threaten them, beat them. Somehow we've got to stop these guys and get them to shut their mouths and stop doing all these miracles in the name of this Jesus.

But no human authority, no threat from any human authority would stop them. They were not afraid. And we should not be afraid either. Dear brothers and sisters, we are seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

We should not be afraid. We are accepted in the Beloved. God is our Father. Christ is our elder brother. And we are accepted in the Beloved. Join heirs with Jesus Christ. We should not be afraid. Well, if God is my Father and Christ Jesus is my elder brother, I reckon I'm going to be watched over real good.

What do you think?

We are dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Dear people of God this morning,.

We are dead and our life is hid with Christ. When Christ shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. We have all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We need to infuse our hearts and minds with the truth of who we are in Christ Jesus.

People of God, we need to infuse our hearts and our minds with the truth from this book that of who we are in Christ Jesus. This will protect us from so much personal attack from the enemy while we are busy about the master's business.

Standing Against Accusation and Inadequacy

Turn with me to Zachariah for a moment, chapter three. I'm going to show you a picture of every one of your life experiences at least one or two times in your life. Zachariah, chapter three. Joshua was the high priest.

Joshua was the high priest who oversaw the work of the ministry of the temple in Jerusalem when the children of captivity came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Joshua was the high priest. He'd been in captivity all of his life.

There'd been no temple. He didn't know much what to do or how to be a high priest. And I'm sure he felt very inadequate for the task that lie ahead of him. You ever feel that way? I do. The devil took advantage of his feelings of inadequacy here in chapter three.

We get a little glimpse behind the scenes here again, young people. God just pulls back the veil for a moment and lets you look behind it and see. Oh, that's what's going on behind the scenes. I see. And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a bran plucked out of the fire? Hallelujah! Anybody feel like that this morning?

A bran plucked out of the fire? That's what I am. I'm a bran plucked out of the fire. Is not this a bran plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel.

There he was. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

Hallelujah! And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by. Now that is a picture of the accusations and condemnations that the enemy flings at every one of us from time to time in our life.

I'm sure you've been there before. I'm sure you've been there where you were just sitting there in your seat and you just felt like, I'm just, what can I do? And I don't have anything to give. And I've just been a failure.

And all those things go through your mind. It's very interesting to me, you know. We take a couple trips to New York City every year. And it intrigues me every year as we finally get the whole bunch on the bus or the two buses, maybe a hundred of them going down the road, to start moving around among them and ask them this question.

How many of you were tempted to not come today because you just felt like you didn't have anything to say? Guess how many of them felt that way and almost didn't come? Usually, it's about half. It's about half.