Welcome to I Dare You a series through the book of Daniel with Skip Heitzig.
Would you turn in your Bibles to Daniel, chapter 4 this morning. It's great to see your, well, somewhat smiling faces, some of you. Some of you need prayer, obviously. [laughter] Let's do that.
Father, we come before you and surrender ourselves to you and the work of your Spirit. We believe, Lord, that you have communicated to mankind through the pages of your Word, some of it being history, other parts poetry, other parts prophecy, other parts narrative, but you have given it all to us to teach, to instruct, to encourage, that we might grow.
So a great part of our worship, Father, is devoting ourselves to the instruction of the teaching of the Bible. We are so grateful, Lord, that we have it, and we're so grateful that your Spirit works in it and speaks to us about your will and your plan. In that plan, Father, we are confident, we take our rest and hope in you, and we pray that you will instruct and inspire today, in Jesus' name, amen.
It's often said that "truth is stranger than fiction," and chapter 4 of the book of Daniel is a good example of that. It is really one of the weirdest episodes in all of the Bible. It is the state of the union message from King Nebuchadnezzar to all of the people under his authority and domain. The State of the Union is an American tradition, goes all the way back to our Constitution where in Article II it says the president of the United States shall from time to time inform Congress of the state of the union. So it's been a tradition since our first president, George Washington.
The average length of the State of the Union message in American history is 5,000 words. George Washington gave the shortest of all; 833 words. Harry Truman gave the longest in 1946; 25,000 words. Nebuchadnezzar's State of the Union in chapter 4 is around 1,200 words of a man who encountered God, and what he writes about this episode in his life; it is monumental.
Can you imagine a president of the United States getting on national television in front of the Congress giving a State of the Union message and beginning something like this: "Distinguished members of Congress, citizens of the United States, and people of the world, God has spoken to me."
A silence would fall over that room. The White House staff would be scrambling of what to do next. "What is he going to say? This is unusual. This is unlikely." And then he would say something like, "The God of heaven has gotten a hold of me and shown me his plan, not only for the world, but for my life." Everybody would be going, "Uh, oh."
Essentially in chapter 4 of Daniel that's what we have, the state of the union as seen by Nebuchadnezzar after God has gotten a hold of his life. It is a remarkable section with a remarkable story about a king who makes a remarkable statement.
A little bit of history: Twenty five to thirty years have passed between chapter 3 of Daniel and chapter 4 where we begin. So this means since there was a gap of sixteen years between chapter 2 and 3 that it's been forty five years since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon received that first dream and the interpretation from Daniel about successive world governing empires.
Now somebody in reading through the book of Daniel might say, "Doesn't this king cop a clue? I mean, God has spoken to him dramatically in a dream in chapter 2. In chapter 3 there was this miraculous deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed Nego from the fiery furnace. Why is he even not believing at this point? Why is this all necessary?"
Well, if you were to follow Nebuchadnezzar's journey so far, spiritual journey, he was challenged, he was moved, and he was impressed by the episodes in chapters 2 and 3. But you can be challenged and yet not changed. You can be moved and yet not motivated. You can be impressed and yet not pressed to do anything about it.
We used to call these Alka Seltzer Christians. They bubble up really quickly, but they fizzle out as quickly. Nebuchadnezzar gets all excited in chapter 2, but he quickly forgets about it. And in chapter 3, evidently, he has forgotten the lessons that God was trying to get a hold of him with.
Like the old saying: "You can put a pig in a parlor and it will not change the pig, but it will certainly change the parlor." Up until now Nebuchadnezzar hasn't really been changed. I say, "until now," remarkably he is. And it is such a remarkable story and long one that we're going to cut it in two; part of chapter 4 we look at this week, part of chapter 4 next week.
The great lessons we learn in the words ahead of us are simply that God can get a hold of anyone and utterly change him or her, even a politician. I know that's hard for some of you to believe, but it can happen.
Number two, it shows us our role and responsibility as believers to the authorities around us, and the challenge will be for us to submit. So we're going to look beginning at verse 1 down to verse 18 at a remarkable section, a remarkable story, and a remarkable statement.
Verse 1, "Nebuchadnezzar the king, To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in the all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to declare the science and wonders that the Most High God worked for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace."
It's a remarkable section because it's the only portion of Scripture written by a pagan king, or at least a one time pagan king. It's in the first person: I, me, my, this is what I saw, this is what I experienced. It is the king's personal account where he deals with "the Most High God," he says in this verse. The episode that we read this week and next week is an episode that rattled King Nebuchadnezzar to the core of his being.
And I would say that any authentic contact with God must eventually be demonstrated in the life of the person who's made contact. It has to change you somehow; it has to somehow humble you. Find a proud person who claims to know God, and you have found a liar.
When Isaiah the prophet encountered God, he said, "Woe is me, I am undone!" When Peter understood that Jesus was who he understood him to be, he said, "Depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man." He saw himself in the light of who Jesus was and it changed him.
Like the old saying: "If your religion hasn't changed you, maybe it's time for you to change your religion." We have, in effect, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon changing his religion from that polytheism that he knew, to believing in the true God; that's how I see it. And this is his testimony, his personal encounter. Few things are more powerful than your own verbal, personal testimony of how God has worked in your life, your spiritual journey.
I'll never forget going to one of my high school reunions, and I think it was the first one, and letting people know that I was a Christian, and seeing the shock written on their faces. "You're kidding!" they said. And then I watched even better when I said, "And I'm a pastor."
But I got the shock of my life when I saw one guy I recognized from my senior high school class—John Booth, football player, partier, Mr. Popular, cynic—come run to me with a smile on his . . . I've never seen him smile. I've seen him grunt. But he smiled, put his arms around me, and said, "God bless you. I'm a Christian too!" I thought, "No way!" [laughter]
Is there somebody that you consider hopeless or beyond reach? Somebody that you wish were with you today and you think, "You know what? I don't think it will ever happen." Don't you think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed Nego might have thought that about Nebuchadnezzar? Hebrews, chapter 7, tells us, "He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to him by Christ." Or as Spurgeon put it, "He is able to save to the guttermost," pull people right out of gutter.
Also this is a remarkable portion of Scripture because Nebuchadnezzar is the only person in the Bible with the condition that will be described in the verses that we're about to read. He exhibits a form of insanity, a psychic, not a psychic, a psychotic disorder known as insania zoanthropica a.k.a. boanthropy or zoanthropy, where a person believes himself or herself to be an ox, or a wolf, some animal form.
In fact, not only does the Bible record this, but there are two places in secular history: One by Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian who quotes a Babylonian historian by the name of Berossus citing that Nebuchadnezzar had this malady. The other by a Greek historian, 268 BC, by the name of Abydenus who mentions that this occurred historically where Nebuchadnezzar—his life is reduced to that of an animal for a period of years.
Also, look at verse 3 once again. Nebuchadnezzar says, "How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, his dominion is from generation to generation." Now, there's going to be more of this praise toward the end of this chapter. This is the only psalm of praise written by a Gentile king.
There are portions of the Bible written by a Gentile. Luke was a Gentile, gave us the gospel of Luke, the book of Acts. But these come from the lips of a pagan king who acknowledges the God of heaven. And his words sound more like King David than King Nebuchadnezzar; written probably eight years after the episode occurred. He is now recovered, he is sane, and he sits down to write this.
God got a hold of Nebuchadnezzar in the nick of time. According to history he was toward his latter years of his reign; the older age had set in. Babylon was now flourishing. He had made his dreams come true. The kingdom was at peace. He was flourishing in his house. He was at rest. He had it made, but God got a hold of his life in the nick of time. Doesn't God do that, the nick of time? The thief on the cross, the nick of time.
I met a man several years ago from Japan, his name is Mike Kohama. Interesting story. He was a pastor in Tokyo, but in early years he was a kamikaze pilot for the Japanese air force. Now obviously he didn't fly his mission because I met him. His mother was a Christian, a devout believer who prayed for her son every day, but Mike hardened his heart against the Lord.
Two weeks before he was to fly his kamikaze suicide mission the war ended, put him in sort of a depression, a tailspin. He went on a search, and weeks later he gave his life to Jesus Christ, and he says, "in the nick of time." And now or after that—he's in heaven now—but he served for many years as a pastor in Tokyo. A remarkable section.
Let's look at verse 4 and see this story, how remarkable it is. "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, flourishing in my palace." The word flourishing means "to grow green," that's important with the story that will be unfolded. "I saw a dream which made me afraid," terrified would be a better translation, "and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.
"Therefore I issued a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, soothsayers came in, and I told them the dream; but they did not make known to me its interpretation."
Sound familiar? Sound a lot like chapter 2, an episode forty five years prior to this? "But at last Daniel came before me (his name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god; in him is the Spirit of the Holy God), and I told him the dream before him, saying." He calls Daniel "Belteshazzar" because at that time in his life, in his testimony, he was polytheistic. But he says, "In him is the Spirit of the [living] God."
Here's a thought: If this is a true conversion, just think, we're going to see Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon in heaven. That is such a crazy, awesome thought. That's the embracing mercy of God.
Now, look at verse 9, " 'Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation. These are the visions of my head while on my bed: I was looking, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong; its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. Its leaves were lovely.' "
Remember Nebuchadnezzar was flourishing or "growing green" in his palace. " 'Its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven.
" 'He cried aloud and said thus: "Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it, and the birds from its branches. Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from that of a man, let him be given the heart of a beast, and let seven times," ' " most would see that as seven years, " ' "pass over him." ' "
Forty five years prior to chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. This is now the second dream for this king. It says he was in his palace at rest, at ease. I sort of picture hands behind the head, feet up on a pillow, thinking, "Ah, this is the life! Man, I've got it made." And then he just sort of fell asleep and had one of those dreams. And when he woke up, even though the first dream was forty five years ago, he must have thought, "This is going to be a bad day isn't it?"
The dream he had forty five years ago was the dream of successive empires: head of gold, chest of silver, stomach and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay. This dream is different in that it shows the future of King Nebuchadnezzar personally, and God speaks to him through this dream. It rattles him.
I've never had a dream from the Lord, at least one that I'm conscious was from the Lord. I've had plenty of exciting dreams, but usually from a late night pizza with onions, something like that. But this is a dream from God. And I've known people who have had dreams. I know a woman who did not believe in Christ and she had a dream of Jesus one night. She got out of her bed, tears in her eyes, fell to her knees, committed her life to Christ, and she is still walking with the Lord to this day—very dramatic.
I've read the accounts of people in Africa and in the Middle East, especially Muslims, who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, hundreds of them, because of dreams.
The testimony of one man who goes by the name of Timothy was a young man from Egypt. He believed in the Sufi sect of Islam, a very mystical Islamic group. At age fourteen Timothy became an evangelist for this sect, went out to the streets, tried to win people to the Sufi belief system in Islam. But according to Timothy, it wasn't enough; his heart was empty. He wanted, what he said, "intimacy with God," and he was not getting that.
One night he went to sleep and he had a dream. He said, and I'm quoting, "One night Christ appeared to me and said in a tender and sweet voice, 'I love you.' I saw how obstinately I had resisted him all of these years, and said to him in tears, "I love you too. I know you. You are eternal, forever and ever,' " close quote. And young Timothy gave his life to Christ.
Now, when you read of a dream or you hear of a dream that somebody gets, it doesn't mean that person is more special or more spiritual. In fact, he could be the least spiritual, and God has to use strict, stringent means to get a hold of that person.
For example, Pharaoh in the Old Testament had a dream from God. Remember the seven cows that ate the seven fat cows? Laban in the book of Genesis, not a spiritual guy, got a dream from God. The Midianites saw a dream of a loaf of bread tumbling through their camp; a dream about Gideon who would be used by God to overthrow the Midianites. Pilate's wife, Pontius Pilate's wife had a dream about Jesus Christ and warned her husband, "Leave this man alone. I've had dreams about him, troubling dreams."
Look at verse 7, "The magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, soothsayers, came in." He calls in the Babylonian god squad, all the psychics, Miss Cleo and all of her gang. And you wonder why does he do this? I mean, they failed in chapter 2, why does he do it again? Can I just say we are creatures of habit. This is Babylonian protocol. This is what he's always done. This is what he does.
I think some of us are very similar to this. Probably if you were a worrier a year ago, you're a worrier today, unless God has done some dramatic thing in your life. If you struggled with greed and lust in the past, you probably still are; again, unless God has done a dramatic work in your life.
Finally, he calls Daniel in after these guys fail the test. Daniel comes in with the right answer. Why didn't he just call Daniel first? I don't know. Daniel could have been away on business and just showed back up in town, or, perhaps, he was afraid to call Daniel first. Maybe he remembered forty five years ago in chapter 2 when Daniel came in and it wasn't good news. "You, O king," he said, "are the head of gold. After you will arise a kingdom inferior to yours that will take over." So, you know, no news is good news as far as Daniel is concerned.
It's sort of like that today, the same reasons that other religions are tolerated and Christianity is not. Everybody likes sort of the spiritual thing, and let's have the coexist bumper sticker, and just transcendent love and peace, but we don't want the guy who comes in and says, "You need to repent of your sin."
And so Daniel wasn't there, but finally he comes in. And look at verse 9, the king says, " 'Belteshazzar,' " that's Daniel's new Babylonian name, " 'chief of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God' " singular, " 'is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation.' "
You know, believers live in a fish bowl. We are constantly being observed and evaluated by unbelievers. Nebuchadnezzar had watched Daniel for years in his kingdom. He said, "I know that no secret troubles you." The word means baffles or literally, "reduces you to distress." "Daniel, I've watched your life, and I notice that nothing rattles you. You don't get stressed; nothing causes you to panic." Here's a man, Daniel, who's lived with his eyes upon God rather than on the circumstances, and unbelievers notice that. They're watching you.
Speaking about being watched, look at verse 13, " 'I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven.' " Now, this watcher is Nebuchadnezzar's word for an angel; interesting thought. You think what you did this morning was in secret? There's watchers. Lewis Sperry Chafer used to say, "Secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven," interesting thought. "Nobody saw me," well, there are watchers. There's a great cloud of witnesses. Nothing is hidden.
Now again, this is an angel in his dream. I, I have never seen an angel, at least that I'm aware of—only one, and I married her. I always like to say that. Aw! Gets me points every time I say that.
I do believe in angels. I know the Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 1, that they are sent by God to minister to those of us who are inheriting salvation. I know the Bible says that angels are active in our lives. I believe I've given a few of them ulcers, if that were possible, by the places I've gone, the skateboarding, and motorcycling, and things like that. "Oh, no, Skip is up again! Double up on him."
But the watcher from heaven comes down, and in this dream he is calling all of the shots as Nebuchadnezzar is watching. It's a remarkable section with a remarkable story, and the most remarkable is the statement made by King Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 17, " ' "This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know." ' "
Keep in mind Nebuchadnezzar is writing this to the whole world at that time. " ' "That the Most High rules in the kingdom of the men, gives it to whomever he will, and sets over it the lowest of men." This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. But you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in you.' "
What Nebuchadnezzar is essentially saying in verse 17 is, "The purpose of my episode, the purpose of this dream, and what happened to me as a result of this dream, the purpose of all of that was for you to hear this, what I now have to say." And what he says is, first of all: God rules in human affairs. Or as he puts it, notice, "The Most High rules in the kingdom of men." It's a key verse in chapter 4. It's a phrase mentioned three times in this chapter. "The Most High [God] rules in the kingdom of men."
Now, think about that. Think about what it means: God is absolutely independent, subject to no one, dependent on no one. In philosophical terms we would say God is the only noncontingent being in the universe. All other beings are contingent; they depend upon God for life sustenance. God is absolutely independent. The Most High rules in the kingdom of men.
According to Scripture, God does what he wants. Isaiah 46:10, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Look down at verse 35 of chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar continues. In verse 35 he writes, "He [God] does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can retrain his hand."
Now that doesn't mean that God is responsible for all of the sin that people commit, but that God permits the will of people to be executed within the restraints of the parameters of his sovereign control.
A. W. Tozer gives us this illustration: "An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool. Its destination has been determined by proper authorities. Nothing can change that. This is a faint picture of sovereignty. On board the liner are several scores of passengers. These people are not in chains, neither are their activities determined by decree.
"They are completely free to move about as they will. They eat, and they sleep, and they play, and they lounge about on the deck, they read, they talk, altogether as they please; but all the while the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined port. The ocean liner of God's sovereignty goes over the sea of human history and it moves unhindered toward the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose."
"God rules in the kingdom of men," says King Nebuchadnezzar. The second thing he'd want us to know is that God overrules in political affairs. Listen to this politician, verse 17, "The most high rules in the kingdom of men, he gives it to whomever he will, and sets over it the lowest of men." That's quite a statement.
That the tells me, number one, God has appointed human government; and number two, God often allows the worst people to rule: Pharaoh, not a great guy; Herod the Great, not a great guy; Antiochus Epiphanes, not a great guy; Nebuchadnezzar, he will admit it, not a great guy.
This does not mean that God approves of all of their actions, but that he reserves control of their appointment. So, don't get too excited if your guy or gal gets elected, because it says here he "sets over them the lowest of men." Enough said. [laughter]
I'll tell you what this means to us as Christians: it means that no matter what is the form of government, we have a responsibility—here's the hardest part of this message—to submit to human government, human authority. We are to be of all people model citizens, model citizens. The Christian, the model citizen. Why? Because we believe what we just read.
Psalm 62 verse 11 David writes, "God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: power belongs to God." Jesus Christ stood before Pontius Pilate an earthly ruler, Pontius Pilate who was going to lower the gavel and sentence Jesus to death. And Jesus said to him, "You would have no power at all against me, unless it had been given you from above." "God [my Father], has given you [Pontius Pilate] the authority to execute me for his eternal purpose of salvation as I go to the cross." It's quite a statement.
I want to conclude our study today, not in the book of Daniel, but in the book of Romans. If you quickly turn to Romans, chapter 13, we'll read a few verses and we'll end here. Romans, chapter 13, it's always good to read something in the Old Testament and have it amplified—if indeed it's there—in the New Testament. Romans 13, one of several places that has this same message.
Romans 13 verse 1, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities." Would that include your soul and my soul? I think "every soul" would sort of take care of that. "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.
"Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers."
Have you ever thought of the IRS as God's ministers? [laughter] "They are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing." Oh, don't they! "Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."
There is no civil government that exists apart from the authority of God. You say, "But what about cruel governments? What about unfair governments?" When Paul wrote Romans 13, you know who was in charge? Caesar Nero, the man who single handedly killed thousands and millions of Christians by his policies.
When David ran from King Saul a government official who wanted to kill him, rather than avenging him, David said, 1 Samuel 24, "Let the Lord judge between you and me, let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you." Wicked rulers are sometimes used by God to punish nations. God used Nebuchadnezzar the punish Judah, God's own people, according to Daniel, chapter 1.
Also, wicked rulers and wicked governments are sometimes used to purify God's people. The early church flourished under the persecution of the Roman government. A more modern example would be China. Listen to this: Hundreds of years of Western missionaries to China yielded about eight hundred thousand converts—was the best count. In the 1940s the government of China closed the doors to Western missionaries, they were ejected, pushed out.
The church had to go underground because of the persecution; many martyred because of their faith in Christ. It was illegal to be a Christian. It was illegal to have a Bible. The church went underground and, finally, when China began to open up again, we in the West were looking to see: "Are there any believers left?"
Only to discover there were now fifty- some estimates one hundred million believers, all who had grown up under the worst, not the best government. All of that to say a God fearing government is ideal but unnecessary for the effective spread of the gospel. No matter how bad things get, the gospel will never be hindered.
Now, is there ever a time to violate a government's rule and not to submit? Yup, hold on to your seat belt, we'll get to chapter 6 of Daniel, and Daniel will do exactly that. We've already seen one instance of that last chapter when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed Nego did not bow to the government authority. Pharaoh gave an order to kill all the Hebrew male children, two midwives disobeyed.
In Acts, chapter 4, there is a legal edict to not preach the gospel or teach anymore in the name of Jesus Christ, and the apostles say, "We must obey God rather than men." So, whenever a government commands us to do what God forbids, or whenever a government forbids us to do what God commands. We obey a higher law, and that is God's law.
So, to sum it all up, our relationship to the government, authority, human authority, is to respect it, to submit to it, to support it with taxes, to pray for it, and occasionally to disobey it—if and only if it violates God's law.
You know, we can start today just by obeying the speed limit when we leave here. "Gasp! I can't believe he said that. He offended me." [laughter] Or it's tax season, make sure you claim everything you need to legally and pay your fair share of taxes. And make sure you pray for the government even if you don't like your elected leaders, you pray for them every single week. It's part of being submissive. Of course, the first step—Nebuchadnezzar, I'm sure, would want me to say, "The first step is make sure your life is submitted and surrendered to God, the Most High God." Let's pray.
Our Father, as we close this section of Scripture for this week, we're impressed with two men. One is King Nebuchadnezzar himself who is rattled by a dream, and then by what happened in the years afterwards as it came to pass in his own life as his own mind went. Also the man Daniel who is seen to be somebody who was unrattled, not given to panic; at ease and calm in the worst of situations. And, Father, I pray that the lessons learned by these two by their own testimony and words would speak volumes to us in the way we live our lives in this world. As people are watching us, I pray that we would be surrendered to the Most High God.
And if anyone is here this morning who has not surrendered their life to Christ, they would say yes him before leaving this building. If you don't know the Lord, you can say to him right now: Lord, I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner and I ask you to forgive me. I believe your Son, Jesus, died on the cross and rose from the dead for me, and I turn from my sin and my past. I turn to you as my Lord and Savior. Help me to live for you, in Jesus' name, amen.