Well, Kent read that for us a moment ago. And we just prayed. But I want to pray again and just ask the Lord to help us. Father, Lord, there's no doubt we underestimate the power of what Your Word can do. And Lord, we really don't put our hope in ourselves and what we can get out of this or what can be given to us But Lord, we need Your voice to speak. We need Your Word and Your Spirit to transform. And so we ask You to do it for the glory of Your Son. We pray this in His name, Amen. Well, the book of Daniel, especially chapters 1-6, is probably the best teaching I think in the Bible about the Christian in the workplace that we're going to find. And I want to talk about that tonight. Let me remind us, from a literary perspective, the book of Daniel is what they call a chiasm, which means that running through the book are these parallel structures and themes. So, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 4 and 5, you have almost the same themes, but different characters and events. And so you see this repeated pattern that God communicates with a corrupt king via a vision, a dream, or writing on the wall like chapter 5. Then Daniel is called upon to interpret or rightly divide the dream, the vision, or the writing on the wall. And then the king is humbled and Daniel is promoted, which shows us the main theme of the book, which is that the kingdom of God is and will continue to overthrow all the kingdoms of the earth represented by these Babylonian kings. And so that's the pattern. We see it in chapter one, chapter two, chapter four, chapter five. And it is a chiasm. And we'll even see that getting into the apocalyptic sections in chapters 7-12 as well. But I want to drop down into this text tonight and look at the theme of work. And specifically, three characteristics about Daniel's work that we desperately need. And when I say we, I also mean stay-at-home moms. I also mean those of you who may be retired. These characteristics apply broader than just the workplace. But three characteristics of Daniel's life and work And I'm going to just name them, and then we'll go through them. But the first is competency. The second is integrity. And the third is truth-telling. And so those characteristics, I really don't think they need to be added to or taken away from. This is a very sufficient guide to how to approach work from a Christian perspective. So let's start with the first one, competency. Now, I'm not going to reread this whole scene here, but a reminder of the context. You basically have a very, very, very corrupt work party. King Beltshazzar's throwing a party, there's a thousand people there, they're all getting drunk. There's a lot of money involved, a lot of famous people in the kingdom, you can bet. And they reach into wherever they were keeping these vessels of the Lord, the gold vessels that were in the temple of God in Jerusalem, and they're now getting drunk out of these. And so just this mass corruption. Here's what I want to focus in on, because this is where the story picks up is verse 5. It says this, God begins to supernaturally intervene into this work party. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appear and wrote on the plaster of the walls of the king's palace opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. So there's this shadow writing on the wall. Then the king's color changed and his thoughts alarmed him and his limbs gave way and his knees knocked together. And the king called loudly to bring the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers, And the king declared to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads the writing and shows the interpretation shall be promoted, basically. She'll be clothed with purple, a chain of gold around his neck, and she'll be the third ruler in the kingdom. So a massive promotion for whoever can figure out what the writing means. Then all the king's wise men came in. and they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Beltshazzar was greatly alarmed and his color changed, and the lords were perplexed. The queen, because of the lords of the king and her lords, came into the banquet hall, and the queen declared, O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom who is the Spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians and enchanters and Chaldeans and astrologers." So this is Daniel's competency in his work. Because an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, solve problems were found in this Daniel whom the king named Beltshazzar. Now, let Daniel be called, and he shall show the interpretation." So he's competent. He is excellent at his job. And the first thing we've got to remember is if we aren't, we may have just killed any opportunity that we wanted to have at our job to be a witness for Christ. This is important. Sometimes people have asked me, what's the most important thing I can do to be a Christian at work? And I heard this from another pastor, but I think it's right. He said, do your work to the Lord, unto the Lord first. Second, do your work really, really, really, really, really good. That's the first two priorities for a Christian in the workplace. So if you make hamburgers, do it to the glory of God and then make a really good hamburger. If you're a salesperson, you know, do it into the glory of God and then be the best you can be at that job. We got pilots here, you know, we've got some of y'all that are in flight school and in training and then others of you who are instructors, we always have pilots in this church and those training to be pilots. And I, you know, obviously I haven't been through flight school, so I don't know what you would say is an excellent pilot, but I'm pretty sure two of the criteria would be a good pilot is one who can land the plane and then land it in such a way it can be used again. You know, no one cares much about other things at the end of the day as if you get the plane down, land it, and then it's usable for the next time. The first way Daniel honors God in his work is that he's really good at it. And some of y'all may already be thinking, well, I'm not very good at my job, or I don't even like my job. And I would just say, first of all, for the Christian, whether we like our job or not is not the issue. Most of America doesn't like their jobs. That's not really the point. For the Christian, the first priority is, are you good at it? Are you competent? And can you do it with excellence? So that could mean for some, you need to transition if that's not possible to be excellent at your job. For others, that could mean that there needs to be a greater devotedness to be able to do your job. Maybe you need to pursue more training. Maybe you need to put in extra hours to do your work with excellence. I was reading some statistics yesterday on millennials in the workforce. You know, our churches, a lot of millennials, those born from 1980 to 92, I think is the technical, but certainly this would apply for those after, that they're changing jobs higher than any generation. And so they're saying that a millennial, they get a job and then they're already looking for another job as soon as they get the new job. And this is causing companies billions of dollars for one. But then they're struggling to get good work out of the employees because it's so much turnover. Nobody really knows what they're doing. And they're always doing something new. And I think there's something to be said or seen from Daniel, who works essentially the same job for 70 years. And there's something to be said about staying in a career so you can get good enough at your job that you can be an asset to that company. So that your employer can trust you to be good at what you're doing and begin to even help them. And Daniel certainly was doing that. There is a reminder that's worth giving here. And Daniel wasn't, he didn't avoid this. Since Genesis 3, work is a curse. The curse still applies to work. All right, so that means there's going to be futility in work. That means that work will be hard. It says, by the sweat of your face, thorns and thistles, right? You go, it's hard to make a living. Yes, it's hard for everyone. All right, that's part of the curse. You say, well, it's futile. I feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over again. It's never satisfying. It never gives me what I want it to give me. Well, that's the curse. You know, you think of a musician who puts out a really good song and it hits the top of the charts and they're fulfilled and satisfied for a few weeks until everybody's tired of the song. All right, or an athlete who wins a championship and then it doesn't take but what a few weeks, maybe a month before they're already dissatisfied with their past work in there. It's just futility. It's futility. And if that's some of the best jobs, how much more for 99% of other workers that have less glorious and glamorous careers? So what if one of the points of work isn't to get personal fulfillment and enjoyment out of your work, so much as to do excellent work as worship to God? Think about Jesus. Is there not something significant about the fact that Jesus only did quote-unquote ministry occupation for three years, but the rest of his life he was a carpenter? I mean, he had 20 plus years as a carpenter. His workshop was his temple that he built chairs and tables to the glory of God. there's something significant about that. I think when you approach work as worship, is not the quality of your work going to increase? Here's something else I think Daniel was able to do that really helped with his work, and this is a big topic, a big category in this topic of work, is calling. He had a sense of calling. You say, what do you mean that he viewed his work as calling? Martin Luther talked a lot about this during the time of the Reformation. There is an idea in the church for a long time that the only real work of God was done by a monk or a priest or a minister. They were the only ones that were really able to honor God with their work. And Luther would take passages like 1 Corinthians 7, 17, that says each person should live as a believer in whatever situation is assigned to them as God has called them. This is a rule I lay down in all the churches. And Luther would say that category of calling, and he would translate it in the German as occupation. So he would say, your occupation is your calling. There needs to be a sense of which you view it that way. And this is the way that he argued it. You're commanded to love your neighbor. Can you not do that in your job? Love your neighbor? You must. That's a massive part of everyone's job. It's a way to love our neighbor. Or whether you eat, drink, or whatever, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Does work not fall into theirs? So you can do your work to the glory of God. And so in that sense, all work can be worship, all work can be sacred, and therefore is massively significant. So Daniel, no doubt, had a sense of calling. And he knew a few things. He didn't choose his job. I mean, we in America, most of us get to choose the kind of work we want. Daniel's just thrown into the Babylonian royal court and he's essentially a slave there. He doesn't have much choice. So he knows God has providentially put them there, but he also knew why he was there because of Jeremiah's prophecy in Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah says, seek the welfare of the city in which I sent you as exiles. And so Daniel goes, well, I'm an exile, God sent me into Babylon, and I'm going to seek the welfare of the city. That's mainly through his work. We're to bless our city in large part through our work, not just, hey, on the weekend, I've got two hours, can I help the church with an outreach program? What if one of the primary ways you're to bless and serve the city, and to do good works, to do love in the city, is through your job? And so Daniel had some of these categories, and here's it in the text. Go back to chapter 1, Daniel, chapter 1 verse 17. Daniel also knew he was gifted to serve. So look at what it says. It says, and not just Daniel, his other co-workers that were these Jewish co-workers. It says, these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Among all of them, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. So they knew God has done something here to increase my ability to serve. Daniel 2, verse 17, Nebuchadnezzar's upset because nobody can basically do the job he wants done to interpret the dream. And it says, Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, his coworkers, and told them, seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery. so that Daniel and his companions may not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. And the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom. and might, and He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding, He reveals deep and hidden things." Verse 23, "'To you, O God of My Father, I give thanks and praise, for you have given Me wisdom and might, and have made known to Me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the King's matter.'" This is a man who does not feel his work abilities were something he brought about himself. He knew he was dependent on the grace of God. He knew God had gifted him to serve. I tell my kids often, God is giving you wisdom and knowledge right now as a child. Not so that you can grow up and make a bunch of money and just spend it all on yourself. But so that you can go out and advance the cause of Christ. So that you can go out and serve. There's a purpose for this. As parents, I mean, it's like we know our kids have understood something of the purpose of work when they aren't just landing the high-paying job, but when they are seeing that God has put them in whatever type of work they have to love, to serve, and to do it for God's glory. Now, something else that I need to point out here on this first point and the last thing I'll point out is in chapter five, the queen and the king both recognize something in verse 11 and verse 15. And they recognize this quality of Daniel's work that they call the spirit of the gods. That's interesting. This is kind of an ancient Babylonian way of saying there is something about Daniel's work that's supernatural from his God. that there's something that kind of infuses the way that he does work that they have to accredit to the spirit of his gods. Guys, whatever employer you work for needs to see that. Even if they don't know what to call it, and they call it the spirit of the gods, they need to see the spirit of God, his love, his fruits. something of His wisdom in how you work your job. That's necessary. Navy Federal needs to see that. The military base, the hospitals, the schools, the places that y'all are employed need to see something of the Spirit of God there. That's essential for us to work with competency. Here's the second thing. Integrity. I was tempted to do the whole sermon on this topic, because this is huge. 70 years. Daniel's in the workforce 70 years, and he's blameless. I actually forgot to point this out last week, so I'll mention it here. This is an interesting point to integrity. Daniel in chapter 4, what is it? Verse 19. He has this genuine care for King Nebuchadnezzar. He gets the vision and he knows it's not a favorable one. And he goes, oh king, may it be for your enemies and not for you. That's really significant. Because this is the same man that threw his friends in the fiery furnace. And yet he cares for this boss. He legitimately cares for his boss. shows his integrity. He's forgiven his boss and he genuinely cares for him. And look, one interesting thing I was saying to somebody before the service, I think there's something significant to see about Daniel's work here, because you can't find a flaw. You can't find any dirt on him. There's no sin in Daniel showed here. Now, we know theologically he's a sinner. He's not perfect. But that's not a mistake, that this man is literally blameless. In chapter 6, next week we'll get to this, chapter 6, they say there's no ground for complaint. Which just sounds like Jesus before His crucifixion trial, when they're trying to find dirt on Him, and they say, this man has no grounds for accusation. And I think what this is getting at is that Daniel is a type of Christ. Daniel is showing us what it would look like if Christ works a job. You ever wondered that? What would it look like if Jesus worked your job? How would He speak to other employees? How would He handle the boss? How would He handle regulations that are opposed on Him that hinder his Christian freedoms? What would that look like? I think Daniel is a type of Christ-likeness in the workplace. We see no flaw in him. And I don't think that exalts Daniel, I think that exalts Christ. That God providentially orchestrated that Scripture not show any hint of blame or guilt in him. You know, guys, people expect a Christian to have integrity, don't they? You say you're a Christian at work. People, they expect something of that. Al Mohler said this, once we state our convictions, we will be expected to live them out in public and in private. The conviction comes first, but then the character is a product of those convictions. That's what integrity is. Integrity is the things that we profess we believe in these settings. When we go into work or when we're off alone in private this week, we live that consistently with that. Consistently with what we say we believe here. That's what integrity is. And I can tell you, your coworkers could care less if you have integrity when you show up here. They only care if you have integrity when you show up at your job tomorrow. That's the only place that it matters to the watching world. Someone told me recently, I mean, this is the state, y'all know this better than I do, many of you being in these environments, but like, someone said that they went up to their boss the other day and was asking, I guess their boss was trying to hire somebody new for a position. They're asking him, have you found anybody? And the boss is like, well, I mean, we have qualified people, like we have people that have the credentials for it, but we can't find anybody that has the character. That's terrible. I heard a story once about two men, um, they were standing in a line at a, uh, a work cafeteria. And there was a few people, a few people in front of them was a man that they were considering for a, for a job. And they said, Hey, you know, so-and-so's up there. What do you think about him? He's got their credentials. He seems to be a good worker. We've seen a move up in the company. What do you think about him? And the other man was like, well, this, this position requires a high level of trust. Do you trust him? And then about that time, the guy pays for his food, but not his drink, and goes over and gets a drink without paying for it. And they go, there's your answer. If he can't be trusted with the little things, how can we trust him with bigger things? Let's look at Daniel's integrity here. Chapter 5, he's got a new boss. King Belt-Shazar, notice that's not King Nebuchadnezzar, this is a new king, this is his son. And look, a side note here, it says it's his son, there's actually a lot of scholars for a lot of years said this wasn't actually his son. This is kind of a background detail that people try to use to discredit Christianity. Actually, the other night, me and my son, Noah, my oldest son, we were watching a documentary on the Babylonian Empire and the hanging gardens of Babylon. It was really interesting. And one of the things they brought out in this documentary was the cuneiform tablets. This is the ancient script that the Babylonians used, and only a few people know how to read this, but they found them back in the early 19th century, and they actually found evidence that King Beltshazzar was a king, and that this was his father. And so that whole argument that people had about this was disproven a number of years ago. And that's actually something to keep in mind, that many times the arguments people have against Christianity, archaeological arguments, historical arguments, are just because of a lack of historical findings. And then once those things are found, those arguments go away. But the Bible clearly says right here, King Beltshazzar is the son of King Nebuchadnezzar. And we have affirmation historically that that's true. So let's look at verse 13. It says, Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king answered and said to Daniel, you are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah. Pretty derogatory way to speak to him. Whom the king, my father, brought from Judah. I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods that is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you." So he's hearing about his competency. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and to make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give the interpretation and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you will be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and you shall be the third ruler of the kingdom.' Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation." So we see something of Daniel's heart here. He says, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another, but I'll do the job without all of that. He doesn't care about the promotion. He doesn't care about the massive wealth that would come from doing this particular work. And here's the question I want to ask. How is he so free from what enslaves almost everyone in our country? How is he? And I would say it's because he doesn't idolize work or what work can provide him. So most people, it's like either they don't care about their job, therefore they don't do a good job at it, or they care so much about their job that they end up idolizing it. And guys, when work becomes a God, it will demand that you make sacrifices to it. Namely, your family, your church, probably your relationship with the Lord at times, because that's what idols do. That's what gods do. They demand sacrifices. And many of you know this is true. There's so many jobs that they demand this of you. You worship this or your God, but you can't do both. And Daniel was free. He's free from that. He was not enslaved to his work. But for many people, work is their functional God. It's where they find their fulfillment and their satisfaction, or try to. It's their identity. Their self-worth and value and success as a person is tied to their career. And they're willing to make huge sacrifices of even things like church and family and their relationship with God at the altar of that God that is supreme in their life. And Daniel's free because work is not his God. God is his God. And he sees his work as a way to serve his God. And he's free. And we don't know, Daniel, but this man must have had joy because he could treat his work as work. Ephesians 6, 6, Paul says to employees, he calls them bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord, not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive back from the Lord. Colossians 3, 23 says, work heartedly as for the Lord, not for men. knowing that from the Lord you will receive an inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So if you work for money, for promotions, for the praise of man, for personal fulfillment, you know what you're going to get? Probably those things in some measure. You'll make the necessary sacrifices to get those things. But what you'll sacrifice in the process is future rewards. current holiness, Daniel was able to put the Lord as first priority. And you know what this also allowed him to do? It allowed him to take promotions or get demotions, and it didn't destroy him. This is an interesting thing that happens in Daniel's life. He's, as a young man, promoted really quickly. He works his way up very, very high in the organization, chapter two and chapter three. And then by chapter five, the king doesn't even know who he is. He's like, Daniel who? Who are you talking about? The queen has to tell him who Daniel is. He's clearly been demoted. Something has happened there where he's no longer up there. And then somewhere in between chapter four and five, or I'm sorry, at the end of chapter five, verse 29, he gets another promotion from King Beltshazzar at the end of our chapter, but then that doesn't even happen. Because God actually answers and fulfills what he said he would fulfill, and the Medes and the Persians take over the kingdom, and King Belshazzar is killed. So Daniel never gets the promotion. And it didn't crush him. And he could handle it because it wasn't his God. Guys, this is one of the things about work that's important to remember. I talked to a man who, he's not a member of this church, but he's pretty high up in the corporate world and he works in a different city. But he was telling me how he sees people all the time give like 30 years of their life, just give their life to their career, working 50, 60 hours a week. And they just sacrifice so much for their career. They move up high, they're very successful, and they have a retirement party for that person. And everybody's like, oh, you're so great. A day later, that person's replaced. Two weeks later, nobody even talks about him again. I mean, those who have wisdom here and gain wisdom, don't put too much into your job no matter how good of a job you have or how good the work is. It is not eternal. Many bosses will surround themselves with yes-men. The bosses in these kings in Babylon circled themselves like many CEOs or leaders with people who would just tell them yes. But what's interesting is in the moment of crisis in these kings' lives, they always went to Daniel. They always turned to Daniel. And why is that? Was it his competency? Yeah. Was it his integrity? Sure. But I think at the end of the day, it was that they know Daniel would tell them the truth, which is the third point. And guys, you say, where do I start? I want to have integrity in my work. Where do I start? Be a person who tells the truth no matter what. Tell the truth no matter what. That's what Daniel did. That's what Daniel did. Now obviously, with discretion, you don't work yourself up to the top of an ancient dictator close to the inner circle of a prideful dictator by being foolish and just saying every true thing that you think. You know, he knew when not to speak, clearly. But when it mattered, he knew how to speak truth. He knew when to speak truth. And he had learned this as a young man. He had committed to be a truth teller and built a reputation for it. You know, George Washington, he tells this famous story of how when he was young, he cut down a cherry tree, apparently in his yard or something, and his dad got onto him. And he said he made the decision to tell the truth. and to own up to what he did, regardless of the consequences. And he said later, once he was the president, that was so significant, because at that moment, I said, I'm going to tell the truth no matter what the consequences. And because he learned that from a young age, once the consequences became greater and the responsibility, he had built the discipline of telling the truth. And that's significant. Even scientifically, we know this is important from a scientific perspective, that the more you do something like telling the truth, even when the consequences could be very bad, that if you've built a pattern of doing this, even the neurological pathways in your brain, if you've built paths like, I tell the truth when I have to tell the truth, that it's easier to tell the truth. And if you build the habit of lying, it's very hard to tell the truth if you lie all the time. And even at the neurological level, we know that's true. And the reverse is possible. Celeste Bach, in her book called Lying, said, it's easy to tell a lie, but hard to tell only one. William James, in his classic book on principles of psychology, said, every small stroke or virtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar. And we may not want those scars, but the more you lie, the easier it will become to lie and the harder it will become to tell the truth. I was reading my Bible, providentially this morning, I'm in Jeremiah, and listen to what I read, Jeremiah 9, 5. Everyone deceives his neighbor. God's saying this to Jeremiah, to sinful Israel. Everyone deceives his neighbor and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They have conditioned their tongue to speak lies, which makes it much harder to tell the truth. Now, homet, see, Lick, a German pastor and theologian during Hitler's reign, he said, the avoidance of one small fib may be a stronger confession of faith than a whole Christian lengthy, forceful discussion. So truth-telling is a powerful evangelistic tool. And you know that. You know the world is full of people who lie. and the church should set itself apart as being known for our truth-telling. This should distinguish us as the people of God. Like I said to my four-year-old, I say to Judah, buddy, you know why we don't lie? Because the devil's a liar. That's how he speaks. But God only speaks truth. So we want to be like God and speak truth. That's the logic. This is essential to who we are in Christ. We are people who speak the truth. And one thing that stands out about Daniel is he's willing to do this on any level, especially the eternal level. You know, he's not just saying to his coworkers, hey, God loves you all. You know, he's perfectly fine with everything in your life. He says, no, God will judge for political injustices, for compromises that are sinful. I mean, he connects the political, the present political realities or the work realities with the judgment of God, regardless of the consequences that he faces. And he's not judging this king when he calls him out for his pride. He's telling him the truth when he says, humble yourself before the God who gives you breath. And that very night, it says in verse 30 that God's Word was confirmed as true, and Daniel spoke these words, and they were fulfilled, and that king died, because God doesn't lie. I want to end with saying something about truth and what truth can do. I was listening to a lecture from a philosopher that he's not a Christian, but he's very, very smart, and he likes to think about the Bible. So when you take even an unregenerate mind, and you get them thinking deep thoughts about the Bible, a lot of what they'll say will be very bad, but much of it will be very insightful. And this particular man was talking about truth. And he said the foundation for all truth is found in the book of Genesis. And listen to the insight that he gave. He said, the foundation for all truth-telling comes from Genesis, where God looks out at chaos and disorder, and He speaks logos, Word, into the disorder and chaos, and it creates order. And it does what it says, and it becomes beautiful. And then He looks at it and says, it is good. That's the foundation for all truth. And it's a brilliant insight. In the beginning, God opened His mouth. He spoke truth. He spoke logos into chaos. And the chaos turned to order. That's what truth does. Truth enters into chaos. It enters into disorder. And it fixes things. It orders things that are disordered. Even in our lives. Guys, I've sat with people this week who told me, this week, my life is out of order. Something is wrong. Something is out of place. And we put truth before them. And the Spirit of God, using logos, using truth, reordered, beautified. That's what truth does. It enters into chaos and it brings order and it brings beauty. And then God can look at that thing and say, it is good. And is that not what Jesus did? John chapter one says, the word, the logos came down and incarnated himself as a person that the truth, the eternal truth of God came down, put on human flesh, became a man, entered into the chaos of this world to do what? to bring order, to beautify, to fix, to restore. This is what the gospel is. So on a cosmic scale, that's what the kingdom of God means. That miracles, you know, when Jesus showed up and said the kingdom of God is at hand, what He's meaning is, look, a miracle, your body's all whacked out, your body's messed up, your leg doesn't work, and He makes it work. Demons are in a person. They're doing whatever the devil does. And then he casts out the demon and they're ordered. He brings the order out of chaos on a cosmic scale, but also on an individual scale. And guys, you need Him to do this for you this week, tomorrow, when you wake up, You need the truth. Because the devil is a liar. And he's going to come to you and tell you things that will seek to disorder your life and to bring chaos and destruction and death. And you've got to put your mind on this and let this truth reorder you at the heart level, at the mind level. And God does that for us. And He's gracious and good to do that to anyone who would humble themselves before His truth. Amen, church? Amen. Let's just pray and ask the Lord to do this for us. Father, Lord, we don't put confidence in ourselves to just be people of integrity. Lord, we want to be people of integrity. We want to be people who are upright and excellent at the work You've given us. But we know the ultimate point of this passage is not to just be moral. We know the ultimate point of this passage is that Your Son came down, and He took the disorder and the chaos of this world, and He embodied Logos. Father, we pray. You said, Jesus, that we should know the truth and the truth will set us free. And so, Father, I pray that the truth that is in Your Son would penetrate the chaotic places in our hearts and lives and realign them. And Lord, we pray that we could be a voice and a witness in our workplaces to speak truth where there is chaos, and to love where there is hate, and to be light where there is darkness. And we need You to help us. And so we pray these things for Your sake and in the name of Your Son. Amen.