Fear Not, I Will Help You — Carter Conlon

And welcome to Old Guy Sunday. Us old guys are needed. You know, I hang around with young people at the Bible School all week, so it was a shock for me one week when I went to get my picture taken for my driver's license and they gave me the picture and I looked at this old guy in the picture and think there's been a terrible mistake here, the camera caught somebody over my shoulder in line.

You forget when you're hanging out with people in their teens and 20s how old you really are. It's an awesome thing. For the young people that are here today, it's important to have those of us who have walked this journey stand before you because then you learn that God will be faithful.

God's Faithfulness Through Every Season

As David the King once said, I've been young and I'm old but I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed-baking bread. And I've been all over the world and I've been in some of the poorest places in the world and yet I've still seen the people of God provided for.

Shelter, food, it's been absolutely amazing to see the faithfulness of God. I can't think of one instance, and I've been in almost every country of the world, not quite all but almost, I can't think of an instance where I've ever seen somebody who's turned to Christ who's not provided for by the hand of God.

It's absolutely amazing. It's wonderful to walk with God. You know, when I was young, I determined in my heart that I want the real thing. I was a police officer and I was 24 years old when I came to Christ, and it was another Christian police officer that led me to Christ.

I went to church with my wife, Pastor Teresa, and we're sitting in the balcony and I've always been an extremist in a sense, like it's all or nothing for me, that's just the way I live, that's the way I am, that's the way I think, and I remember thinking, I'm not interested in Sunday church.

If this thing is real, I want the whole package. I don't want to just put my toe in the pool, I want to go off the high diving board, I want the whole thing, and if it's not real, I don't want any of it.

Not interested in hypocrisy, I'm not interested in being one thing on Sunday and something else on Monday, I want the whole journey. And we were sitting in the balcony in the church and I looked at the platform and I had this question in my heart, I'm 24 years of age, you know, you still got a lot of life in you at that point, and I'm thinking, if I go all in, what will I look like when I get to be 65?

And I looked on the platform, I'm just gonna tell you the way it was, and I leaned over to Passatrisa and I said, whatever road they took, I'm not taking, because I don't want to look like that when I'm 65, I want to be alive.

If this, Jesus said, I came to give you life, an abundant life on this world, I don't want that. I don't want that sourpussed religion, you know, that, I don't know how they get it, but they got it somewhere along the line, and just critical of everything, joyless, can't worship God, people you really don't want to be around when you're young, and I thank God, Pastor, you get so many young people here, because that's a sign that you got life, ministry has life here, don't ever let that slip from your fingers, you hang on to that, stay alive.

There's a song, he's staying alive, staying alive, it's my theme song now, you know, when you get to be 70 years old, that's your theme song, every day is a victory now, by God's grace. They asked me, they were throwing some kind of party for me, and they asked me, what would you like us to sing at your 70th birthday?

I think it was, I said, staying alive, staying alive, that'd be a good song for me for my birthday. I can tell you one thing, and it's the title of this message that God's given me for you as a church, God will help you.

God Helps His People in Struggle and Opposition

He doesn't turn from us when we struggle, he's not a fair-weather friend that we start fighting with thoughts in our minds and behaviors that we can't get through or get rid of, or we go through woundings that leave us reeling and questioning even the reality of God's presence, it happens to everybody that walks with God.

When the enemy is bombarding us with all kinds of thoughts, like we'll never amount to anything, we'll never get free, we'll never be the person that God wants us to be, and there's no shortage of people that add to that, those voices as well, but he's not like that.

He didn't die for us to go back to heaven, fold his arms and watch us try to get through this on our own. As a matter of fact, he came by his Holy Spirit and indwelt our physical bodies. Do you understand that today, that you don't have just a theory about God going on in your life, you have the third person of the Trinity abiding in your physical body.

So therefore, all things are possible now to him who believes. I can do, Paul said, all things through Christ who strengthens me, and that's really been my life, it's been the story of my life. Never qualified to do anything that I'm doing, but it's wonderful when God sets before you an open door and you just choose to go through that door, and then he does through us what only he can do, to bring his own name to glory, because we know we couldn't have done this in our own strength.

That's been the story of my whole life, and it's been an amazing life, and so my challenge to you is don't settle for mediocrity when we're supposed to have a supernatural life. As the Church of Jesus Christ, we were birthed supernaturally in an upper room, cleansed with the blood of Christ, empowered by the Spirit of God.

Don't let that become a natural thing, don't let it just become religious routine, or rote, or boring, or just beginning to do things because you just feel that you have to, don't let that happen. Fear not, God says, I will help you.

Isaiah's Promise: “Fear Not, I Will Help You”

Isaiah chapter 41, please, if you go there in your Bibles, and I shared this morning, if you got your Bible on your phone, take out your phony Bible and you can follow along with me. Isaiah chapter 41.

Father, I just thank you, God. Lord Jesus Christ, I am so grateful for the life that you have given me. I'm so grateful for the floods, the fires, the trials, the difficulties, the seasons where I had nobody left but you.

But God, you have never failed nor forsaken me, and now at 70 years of age, I still have your joy in my heart, I still have light in my eyes, I still have a future and a vision for something that you're about to do in the not-too-distant future.

Thank you, God, for living long enough to see all these young people at this altar this morning, how that must gladden your heart. Oh God, don't let even one of them turn back. Lord, you have such a life, Lord, for your people.

Don't let us turn back because of struggles and trials, because you said, don't be afraid, I will help you. Help me today, Lord Jesus Christ. My voice is powerless, but yours can create a universe. So speak through me, and God, multiply the words that you've given to me and go into every heart, every situation, every place in everyone's mind, and visit the dark areas of the heart today, places where the enemy thinks he's got a stronghold that can never be broken.

You showed us, Lord, in the Scriptures that you can send somebody into those places and you can break those strongholds. So do that today, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Fear not, I will help you. Isaiah chapter 41, beginning at verse 8.

But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham my friend, you whom I've taken from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest regions and said to you, you are my servant.

I've chosen you and not cast you away. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced.

They shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish. You shall seek them and not find them. Those who contended with you, those who were against you, shall be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.

For I, the Lord, your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not, I will help you. Fear not, I will help you. The Bible tells us that in Christ we become a new creation. The old things in our lives pass away and behold, all things become new.

We're given this clarion call of God into this life that's impossible in the natural, but it's only possible through the Spirit of God. We enter through the door by the blood of Jesus Christ, trusting him for our salvation.

We begin to walk in this newness of life, but there will be opposition. When you walk in, you might be the first one in your family here. I was the first in my family to come to Christ. As far back as the cavemen, I don't think there was ever a conman that walked with God.

A lot of horse thieves and saloon keepers, but nobody ever preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I've faced tremendous opposition from my own household, my own family. I had a sister that didn't speak with me for almost 20 years, hardly at all, other than say hello when I'd come on vacation and goodbye when I'd leave.

It's difficult and you will be opposed, but God says I'm not going to put you into the hands of those who oppose your forward journey. There's a day coming when you will look and the opposition is gone.

As a matter of fact, you'll have a hard time even to remember it. They will be powerless. Their words can't stop you from doing what I've called you to do and becoming what I've called you to become. God says I'll help you when the battle before you seems overwhelming.

Entering the Fullness of God's Promise

In the book of Joshua chapter 1, the Lord spoke these words to Joshua. It says, after the death of Moses in Joshua 1 .1, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise and go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I'm giving them, the children of Israel. You see, there are people who choose not to go in to the fullness of God.

They come to the cross, they come to Christ, they see the promises of God in the Word of God, but they themselves do not go into these promises. The Lord took Moses, and I actually was in Jordan and stood on the mountain where God placed Moses and looked at, you can see the promised land from there, at least a good portion of it.

He saw it, but he didn't go into it, nor did much of that original generation go into the promised land. But there's a new generation, we're here now and we've got a choice to make. And the Lord's saying, I'm giving you something, I'm giving you something that I promised to others before you who chose not to go in.

There's so many people who just settle for religion, they settle for going to church, they memorize even Scripture, but it never becomes part of them. It never takes them out of the natural and into the supernatural.

They never become a partaker of this new and abundant life that God promises through Jesus Christ. Fifty years in the church and at the end are the same as they were in the beginning, except they know a lot of Scripture, but nothing is really, they've wandered in a wilderness.

Yes, they are children of God, please don't misunderstand me, I'm not suggesting they're in hell. They are children of God, but what a tragedy to get to the throne of God one day and see what your life could have been.

Had you fully surrendered, had you and I actually believed that God was able to do something through us that is way beyond our natural ability, way beyond us, but not beyond the ability that God places within us.

He said to Joshua in verse 3, every place the sole of your foot will tread upon I've given you as I said to Moses. From the wilderness in this Lebanon as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the great sea towards the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

In other words, I'm taking you into a place of promise. Now for them at that time it was a physical land, for us it's a spiritual place that is ours through Jesus Christ. If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a what?

A new creation. The old things have passed away. They've lost their power. The old thoughts, the old ways, the old bondages, the old limitations of what your life could become have all passed away and all things are now become new and there's this incredible place called the land of promise which is ours through Jesus Christ.

It's not a physical nation anymore, it's a spiritual place in Christ. And God says, I told Moses about it but he didn't go in, he didn't see it. But I'm calling now another generation to go into this place of incredible blessing and promise and supernatural life in Jesus Christ.

No one, he says in verse 5, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. There will be people trying to stop this journey. If I had the time, I'd have you crying here. I've been lied about, I've been slandered, I've been betrayed, I've been threatened, I've been, I can just tell you all the stuff that came my way over the years to try to stop this forward journey.

But I would not be denied what Jesus Christ said would be mine, what he would do through my life. We're called into a supernatural life and when you start moving in that direction, you will be opposed.

I promise you, you'll be opposed. But no one will be able to stand before you. No one can stop you if God is with you. As I was with Moses, he said, I'll be with you. I will not leave nor forsake you.

Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you'll divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. And in verse 9 he says, have not I commanded you? Be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, pass through the camp and command the people, saying, prepare provisions for yourselves.

Within three days you'll cross over this Jordan to go in and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. You have an incredible potential in this church. You're a young church and I saw that even to a greater extent with all the young people.

You have an amazing possibility that God is setting before you as a congregation. As your pastor stands in this pulpit and begins to tell you to prepare for this journey, we're going in to possess these places that God told us we're going to possess.

Now you're going to face opposition. As soon as they went across the river, they faced Jericho, which was a fortified city. They say about, I think, about eight acres square. And there was no way to penetrate those walls.

They were so thick that people had apartments in them. They could live in them. But yet God gave them a battle plan. Have you ever noticed that God's battle plans are always ridiculous? No, for real. Imagine you get your 400 years in captivity, and in comes an old man, 80 years, and his 83 year old brother.

Don't be afraid, God's going to take us out of here. He's an old guy with a stick and he stutters and he's got a one-line sermon to deliver and he needs his brother to deliver it for him. This is the victory plan of God.

Now I could take you all the way through the Bible and you'll see God's battle plans never really make sense to the natural mind. So you are God's ridiculous battle plan for this generation. That's the reality.

Turn to the person beside you and say, you're God's ridiculous battle plan for the generation that we're now living in. I will not fail you, God says. I will not forsake you. I'm seeing this from a position of authority.

I've lived this. I've stood before crowds in countries that are in civil war and I've seen civil war come to an end. I've been in Burundi. I've seen genocide broken. I've seen things throughout the world.

I've seen the power of God. I've watched God do what only God can do and he says I'm not going to fail you. That which I have assigned for your life to do will be done. Every person in the sanctuary today, you have an assignment given you by God.

Something he's destined your life to do, or may I put it this way, he's destined to do through your life that will bring his name to glory. Because you will know you couldn't have done this in your own strength.

He will take you where you can't go in your natural strength and when you get there, he'll give you what you never could have possessed with your own ability and he will do through you what you never could have done.

That the glory goes to him. When you get to the end of your journey, you just say only God could have done this. How else could this have happened? I wish I had time to tell you about the disadvantagedness in my own life.

Where God took me from and what he has done and where he's placed me throughout the world, the places that I've spoken, the people that I've had the opportunity to speak to, knowing that I could never have done this in my own strength.

Only through the strength of God. I will hold your hand, he said. I will help you. I will walk with you. And if God be for us, who can be against us? Who can stand against the plan of God? If you are completely yielded to the plan of God in your life and you're beginning to walk with him into that plan, tell me who has the strength to stand against God?

Who has the strength to say, oh you've come this far but no farther? No, the God who created the universe by the word of his mouth is able to take you into the fullness of whatever it is that he's assigned for your life to be.

You and I don't know what that is. We have no idea what it is he's asking us to do. But I do know this one thing, that if we go through the open doors he sets before us, miracles happen on the other side.

And I tell you that, I can tell you that with authority this day. I remember my first pastorate, I ran out of gas at a certain point. I just, I pushed a little too hard. Pushed my body a little too hard and I just, I just lost heart.

I lost hope. I lost energy. And one day I was, on Sunday morning, I'm in the church and we're sitting in the, standing in the front row worshiping. I was so exhausted I couldn't sing. I tried to sing and nothing, only air would come out of my mouth.

I couldn't form the words. So that's how tired I was. And I remember standing there saying, in my heart, God I can't do this. I can't preach today. I can't go on. I'm out of gas. I have no strength left.

It's the only time in my life I heard an audible voice. Now many times through my life I've had strong impressions in my heart that have led me to the things that God would have us to do. But this particular morning I heard, and it's only once in my life, an actual voice over my, from behind my right shoulder into my right ear.

Somebody said, I've come to help you. And it was as clear as that. And I actually jumped and looked because I heard the voice and nobody was there. On the strength of that voice I got back in the pulpit that morning.

I have never stepped out of the pulpit in 46 years. I've never turned away from what God called me to do. Don't be afraid, Joshua, and don't be dismayed. Fear comes when we see the size of what's before us and what we're called to do.

And dismay comes when we look at ourselves and see how little resource we have to accomplish the task. But it's not about us. It's about Christ in us. That's where the strength is. That's where the grace is.

To do what God's called us to do is by this indwelling strength of the Holy Spirit. Now God will lead us to places. We have to say, God, help me not to be afraid when you lead me to places where I wouldn't have gone before.

Peter's Open Door to the Gentiles

Acts chapter 10 verses 19 and 20, it says, Well, Peter thought about the vision. The Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise and go down with them, doubting nothing, for I've sent them.

And we know the end of that story is that Peter was led to a Gentile's house called Cornelius, where they were waiting to hear something from God. And going through a door which his own culture forbade him to do, it wasn't lawful for a Jewish man to assemble himself with Gentiles.

It was against everything that he'd ever been brought up to believe. But stepping through that open door brought the gospel to the rest of the known world, not just to the Jewish people. That was the moment the gospel came to the Gentiles, which of course, unless you're Jewish here today, that's what we are.

When a man decided to go through a door and into an unfamiliar place that he would never have gone to before. I shared this morning that when I was a police officer, for about the first two years of my walk with God, I struggled.

I had a lot of stuff in my life, and I was ashamed in a sense of my own inability to speak to other people about Jesus Christ. And one day I was driving my patrol car, and I actually punched the wheel, and I said these words, God I'll serve you if it kills me.

I'm just so fed up with mediocrity. I didn't want to be a mediocre Christian. I was reading the Bible, and I saw there's so much more for me, and I want more than just a Sunday hymn singing. You understand what I'm saying?

I really want this life that you've got for me. And so I went back to work that week, and another police officer's name was Bob, he said, Carter, he says we're going to the prison here next Wednesday, I think it is, I think it was, and he said we have permission from the chief to go there in uniform.

I said, Bob, there was a riot there a month ago. They've set the place on fire, they're burning mattresses, and and I said, you're talking about going in there in uniform. I said, if there's another riot, we'll never get out of there alive.

And he said, I know, are you coming or not? And I remember thinking, God, you didn't have to take me up on it so soon, you know. So that week came, that weeknight came, and he said we're going to, I'd like to stop at a halfway house on the way to the prison.

He said there's a friend of mine, he's an ex-outlaw biker, which is similar to Hell's Angels, I guess, and he's celebrating his one-year spiritual birthday. And I looked at him, I said, Bob, that's not possible.

He said, you know the initiation rites these guys have to go through to get into these clubs. I said, there's no way, there's no way this guy's a believer in Jesus Christ. He said, well, come see for yourself.

So we ended up in this halfway house in uniform on our way to the prison, and these guys are, this was not a light thing, these were heavy-duty guys. I mean, these guys had, these were heavy-duty criminals.

This is not like, you know, I jaywalked and did two days in jail kind of thing, it was like I killed a jaywalker and, you know. So there's about 14 to 18 of them around there, some of that number, and they're in the house, and these guys really seemed to really love the Lord.

They'd all found Christ in prison, and this is a halfway, they're being reintegrated into society, so this is kind of like a halfway place between prison and getting back into it, and many of them have been away for a long time.

And so Bob says to me, he says, they're having a testimony night tonight, a song and testimony night, would you like to stay here instead of going to the prison? And I thought, well, it's, I looked around, I said, I could probably get out of here easier than I can get out of there, so let's stay.

So then these guys were worshiping like you were today, and they were crying like some of the worship leaders were on the platform today. The tears are coming down their faces, they're singing about Jesus, and they started testifying about how he had saved them, and then when it was over, they all gathered around me, and a couple of the guys said, hey, are you baptized in the Holy Spirit?

Now, I was saved in the Baptist Church, so please don't take offense, I'm just telling the story, okay? And so I gave them my theology that I'd learned, you know, I got the whole package, you know, and you know, when I got saved, you know, you guys need that, you guys need that, right?

You're out of jail, you're trying to make your way, you need a little bit of emotion, I don't need that. And this voice in the back of my head is saying, who are you kidding, Matt? Aren't you the guy that just punched the steering wheel a couple days ago, said I'm fed up with the way you are?

And they said, can we lay hands on you and pray for you? Yeah, I'm in uniform, I'm carrying a gun, okay, you understand, and these guys are all big-time. So after a while I said, okay, all right, you guys can pray for me, and so they gathered around, there was a guy who stood behind me, I said, don't stand behind me, he said, I think I should, I said, well, I think you shouldn't, don't stand there, you know.

So he said, okay. So they gathered around, they said, would you lift your hands up while we pray for you? And I'm thinking, this is like weird, like, I'm raising my hands, and these are all ex-criminals, and isn't it them supposed to be raising their hands?

Like, this is all backwards, something is really wrong with this whole, and then in my mind I'm thinking, what if the chief ever finds out about this? I'm in a halfway house with ex-bikers and ex-cons, and I've got my hands raised, and they're all putting their hands on me, and there's a guy wanting to stand behind me, and I've got a loaded gun on my hip, and it's just like, wow, this is, so I said, okay, so I've raised my hands, and they started praying, and the next thing you know, I was flat out on a hardwood floor speaking in a language I'd never learned before.

Nobody told me that was going to happen to me. It just happened, but to find the fullness of God in your life means to be led to places you wouldn't normally go to. Remember when Peter was speaking to Carlelius's house, before it even got to point two, the Holy Spirit came down.

Imagine what we would do today, pass away, just don't talk in tongues yet, I'm not done my message. I got two more points to go. As he's speaking, the Holy Spirit comes down. They all start speaking with other tongues, and he realizes that God has done something phenomenal.

In my case, it was the other way around, and a lot of these guys became good friends over the years, and Brian Bloomfield, the guy who was the biker, do you know what? He became a cake decorator, making roses on wedding cakes and stuff like that.

The guy who would have killed me a year, two years before that, or I would have killed him first, is making roses on cakes in a bakery shop, and it was only a few years ago, I had the privilege of going back to the city that I used to be a police officer in, and I was speaking in a Pentecostal church there, and this guy comes up to me, and he's now, you know, probably in his 60s, says, do you remember me?

I said, oh do I ever remember you? I said, you're still walking with God? He says, yeah. He said, I'm a deacon in this church. Only God, only God, only God. If you want to know the fullness of God, you have to be willing to go to places you normally would not have gone.

I've spoken now in Hindu-Muslim prisons in different countries. I was locked in Sullivan Prison one time with 60 lifers who are never going to get out, 60 prisoners who are never, ever going to get out of jail.

The worship leader that day was David Berkowitz, I don't know if you've ever heard of him, son of Sam, New York City, terrorized this city for quite some time. Wonderful, wonderful Christian man, don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise.

Wept through the whole worship session, and I was locked in a room with 60 guys who are never going to get out, two guards who are not armed, and I had a trumpet player who was an ex-con with me named Angelo, and when I told them I'm an ex-cop, Angelo goes, uh-oh, behind me.

Because a lot of these guys live to kill a cop, you understand that, and they have nothing to lose because there's no death penalty there. They're in jail anyway for the rest of their lives. But I told them, I said, I'm not here because I have nothing else to do, and I'm not here because I'm a do-gooder.

I'm here with you today because I want to tell you, as Jesus Christ has saved me and set me free, so he can set you free. Though you're never going to get out of jail, you can still be free. And at the end of speaking, I gave an altar call.

You know, in those environments you live by being tough. You live by being tougher than the next guy, and about eight or nine guys, or maybe a little more, came forward to give their lives to Jesus Christ, physically came forward to the front of that that hallway, and I got off the wherever I was, the little platform I was on, and I hugged each one of them, and as I hugged them, they broke down crying.

Each one of them broke down in tears. Here's the next cop hugging these guys. Well, normally we would have killed each other in seasons before. The willingness to be led to places that we would not normally have gone.

It's an amazing thing. You know, on the day of Pentecost, that's exactly what happened. The Holy Spirit came into that upper room. There's 120 failures, really, have gathered. Peter has boasted and bragged and then denied and cursed with an oath and saying, I don't know the man.

John, who told Jesus how much he loved him at the Last Supper, took off out of the garden when he was needed. There's nobody there that's standing in their own strength, no bolsters there, nobody bragging about their faithfulness.

The Holy Spirit comes. When they stepped out of the upper room, they were given of God the ability to speak to people of other cultures in their own languages about the wonderful things that God can do.

And I've found that in my own life, traveling throughout the world, speaking to people all over Africa, speaking to people in India, being in places where I don't really know the culture, but given the ability by God to speak words that mean something to the people and draws them closer to Christ, that gifting of God to speak to people in ways that they can understand the words that we're speaking to them.

Loving Those We Once Rejected

And lastly, the Lord asks us to take the journey with people and take with us people in circumstances which we would have previously rejected. As I said earlier, it was difficult in a sense to go to some of the places I had to go to and then to embrace the people.

It's one thing to go there, it's another thing to embrace the people. Pastor Therese and I started having a lot of these guys from the halfway house out to our farm. We had a farm at the time and we'd have dinner together, we'd play ball, we'd do stuff, you know.

And you know, there were always people around that will scorn that and say, what exactly do you think you're doing? Don't you know who these guys are? You understand what I'm saying, you know. There's always that tendency in all of us to gravitate to people that can build our resume, may I put it that way, and make us comfortable.

The one thing I found about Jesus Christ is that he takes you out of your comfort zone to bring you into his comfort zone, which is really just loving people. That's what it's all about. That's how this world, he said, will know that you are my disciples, that you have a loved one for another.

I look around and I see people of different demographics, different cultures, different ages in this sanctuary, different races, but as one body, as the world starts to fragment and you start coming together, what an opportunity to be a testimony of the power and the grace of Almighty God.

In New York City, at Times Square Church, we had a hundred and four different nationalities in one congregation. Now, people would walk in, I saw unsaved people walk in and start weeping before they got to their seat, and people would look around, and they're not sitting in pockets according to culture or race or class, and everybody's all mixed like a blender together, and people would walk in and say, this must be what heaven is going to be like.

This is amazing. We have people there worshiping together whose countries are at war together, but yet they're side by side worshiping God in the sanctuary. There's a unity in Christ that you can't find anywhere else but in Him and through Him, and as this world, as Jesus warned us in Matthew 24, there's going to be culture rise against culture, and it's happening now.