Our Walk in Victory

Well, good morning again. Listen, I get to say today I did it. Okay. Um, several months ago, I told you I had this goal in mind. I had bucket list idea that I was going to climb the Manitou Incline. And last Friday, I did it. Okay. So, yeah, I need a little bit of celebration here. Now, I I want you to know this that if some of you came to me and said, "Pastor, you're such a good leader and I would like to do it. Could you go with me? My answer is no. Absolutely not. I wouldn't do it. Okay. No way. Like I checked it off the box. Let me tell you the best part of the Manitou Incline. My favorite part, not getting up and all the excitement leading up to it. Not like passing people and encouraging them on the way up and on the way down. My favorite part of the man to incline was the last step. Okay, the last step. There was nothing enjoyable about it. I didn't love it. but to know that I finished it in that last step. And you know what? Maybe you've been done I've done something in life before. Maybe not the man who incline, but you've been in that season of life or you've accomplished something and you say you look back going the best part was when you finished it when it's over with. Well, we have been studying this whole entire summer the book of Ephesians and it's been a great study as Paul has talked not only the church of Ephesus but he's really talked to us, the church of South Sub Church just about what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to have a relationship with him. In the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians, we looked at our wealth that we have in Christ that we don't have to work for the relationship. Jesus did it all. And in him doing it all, he gave us so much. But then the last three chapters of the book of Ephesians, here's what we've been looking at. Because of all that Jesus has done for us, then our response is to walk with him and for him. And it's been a great study. But here's the deal. We're almost to the end of it. In fact, the scriptures we're going to look at today, we have this week and next week. But Paul begins by saying, "Finally." It's almost like he's been writing this long letter to the church and he gets to the end. He goes, "And finally." And so, if you've got your Bibles, look with me at Ephesians chapter 6. If you don't have your Bible, it's in your hand out there. We'll have it up here on the screen. But as Paul kind of finishes up the book, this is what he says. And finally, chapter 6, verse 10. Now, here's the difference. When I got to the top step of the Manitou Incline, I was like, "And finally," and I knew it was all downhill from there. Okay, but here's the deal. When Paul gets this last few verses of the ch of the book of Ephesians, and he says, "Finally," we think he's going to take a big breath and just kind of say, "And goodbye, and I'll see you soon." But here's what happens. Paul actually takes a big breath because he's got a lot further to go with us. When he says finally, he is not reaching out to give us a big hug. He goes, "This letter is done and I love you and give you this big hug." He's really saying finally, and he's about to go into this this passage that he says, "Don't just give you a hug." He goes, "You need to go to put on your helmet." He's not just doing a benediction to his letter. He's really doing some marching orders in there. He is about to step into this passage of scripture that we call spiritual battle, spiritual warfare. And as he's signing off on this letter, he's going, "I've given you all these things that you need to think about. I've given you all these things that you need to work on and do in your life, but if you're going to get there, you've got to be ready for the spiritual battles in your life." Now, I wish we had time in a service like this that not in a room like this. I I wish this service was sitting in my living room and that we could go around the room and we could ask the question, "So, what kind of spiritual battle are you going through?" Now, don't panic. we're not going to ask in this room, but I imagine if we asked that question, there would be hands go up all over this auditorium of different spiritual battles that you find yourself in. For some of you that I've walked with you in the last several months that you're going through grief and grief is not something that you just get over last week and you're okay this week, but there's this ongoing just battle of just getting through that grief of losing a loved one. Others in this room, I know you've lost jobs recently and you're worried about your financial future. And there is that spiritual battle of not just what job am I going to take? What job should I take, but the spiritual battle of just going are my finances going to be okay? There's a spiritual battle that many face over anxiety and depression. There there's a spiritual battle that we face of just life changing. This is that season where kids are going back to school and some kids are going off to school and the dynamics that take place within that family. And so we're faced with spiritual battles every single day. And so when Paul writes, finally, if you're here today and you're going through some kind of spiritual battle, maybe one the people around you know about or maybe only one that you know about, you've come to the right place at the right time because Paul is going to give us just some words that I think will not only be encouraging, they will be empowering also. So he says that word finally, but he doesn't stop there. He goes on to say more. And as he says more, he's going to give us four what I call priorities in our life that we need as we enter into spiritual battle. If you're taking notes, you can write this in your first fill in the blank there. The first just priority that we need to have in our life is that if we're going to win the spiritual battles around us, we need to be ready and able to stand firm in God's strength. You can write that in there. Stand firm in God's strength. Here, here's what he says in Ephesians chapter 6:10. He says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." If anybody knew what it meant to stay strong in the Lord, it was the Apostle Paul. As he's written this whole letter to the church of Ephesus, the one that we've been studying all summer long, he is writing it from a jail cell. Paul has been in prison for two years waiting to be moved. He had no idea what his future held. He he had no idea that if he'd eventually get to take his his trial to Rome and be released as a freed man or he would face his own execution for two years in this jail cell, but really more of a house arrest. He was guarded and chained to a soldier 24 hours a day. Can you imagine that? That 24 hours a day, every time you look up, every time you look over, there's somebody that you're chained to. No matter what you're doing, that individual is right there. And not only are they chained to you, you have no idea if you'll ever be released. But yet Paul is writing these words to the church of Ephesus. And he encourages them and encourages us to stand firm in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Do you remember back in the early 2000s there was a campaign called Live Strong? Do you remember that one by Lance Armstrong, the cyclist? And it was the yellow wristbands that everybody wore and they had the words imprinted on their live strong. It was like an $80 million fundraising campaign that he was going through cancer and he was just saying live strong and it was for cancer research and it took off like everybody regardless of your age had these yellow bands on that said live strong and the campaign was so successful until do you remember what happened? Mr. live strong. Lance Armstrong was caught cheating in his tour of France and drugging himself and taking drugs, steroids to do better. And all of a sudden, this idea, this man is standing up going, "Live strong, live strong, live strong." It we found out that he was so relying on his own strength and he wasn't near as strong as we said he was in what we thought he was. When Paul is writing this and he's saying live strong, he is definitely not saying live strong because I'm living strong. He's saying live strong because your strength is not in yourself. Your strength is in God. That everything you think of, everything that you do should be coming from the strength of God and not of your own self. You see, as we think about the spiritual battles that we face every single day of our life, our power does not come from our muscle, but our power comes from from God's strength, from not relying on ourself, but from relying on him. And every day I talk to people around me, you probably do too, at home, at work, wherever you go, and they just feel like they're losing the battle. Most of the times when people feel like they're losing the battle, it's because when they look in the mirror, the only person they're relying on is the one that they see in the mirror. But what Paul is telling us, if we're going to stand strong and we're going to win the spiritual battles of life, that we must rely on God's strength in our life. He said in the Lord and his strength. He was not saying try harder. He was saying you have something greater than yourself. You have the living power of Jesus inside of you. You remember as we've studied the book of Ephesians, there was a phrase that he used back in chapter 1 or chapter 2. And he said to live by the power of the resurrection. The thing that we need to remind ourself every single day is the power that we have is the same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave. I don't know about you, but I couldn't even begin to measure how much power that took. And the Apostle Paul says this, God has equipped every one of us with that same power in our life that we need to stand strong in him. So, let me ask you a question. In whatever battle you're facing in life, and this is not the moment that we kind of compare battles going, "Well, my battle's a lot bigger than yours, so let's let's kind of discount yours." No. If it's your battle, it's a real battle. So whatever battle that you're facing in life, my question is this. Whose power are you leaning on? Are you relying on your own self or are you relying on the strength of God? The strength in him, the power of the resurrection. But I said as Paul began talking this whole passage, he gives us four priorities that we have to think about if we're going to win the battle. That's the first one. Here's the second priority he gives us. The second priority is this. this is that if you're filling in the blanks, we must be willing and ready and enabling to suit up with God's armor. We must be willing and able and take action in suiting up in God's armor. You see, God doesn't look at us and hey, be strong, rely on me, and just leave you on your own. He goes, "No, I want you to be strong and rely on me." But in relying on me, he gives us what the Bible refers to as spiritual armor. And he says, "Here, put this on." And what happens is people begin to prioritize and going, "God, help me with my battles." And we lean on God, but we never take advantage of what he's given us to lean on. And what Paul does next there, and let me just read it for you in 11 through1 17, he says this, "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all of them to stand. He said went on to say stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. And then in verse 16, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the work of God. And so, right there in those few verses, he outlines there's six different pieces of the armor that we need to put on. Let me just quickly just point these out to you. The first one, he says, the belt of truth. You got to put the belt of truth on. Here's what the belt of truth is. It holds everything together. God's truth found in scripture holds everything together even when everything around you is falling apart. You see what happens? The world comes in and wants to tell us lies. And we begin leaning on the world's wisdom, but the world's wisdom is not always God's truth. And so what we have to be willing is saying, "God, I'm going to trust in your word. I'm going to trust in what you have to say, and that's what I'm going to hang on to." When we began this study of Ephesians in the very beginning of the summer, we made ready for everybody those little Ephesians, just the book of Ephesians that you could take home. And we've been printing and and been producing a devotional every week over the scriptures that we're preaching. Do you know why we did that? Not because you needed something else to do. Not because more knowledge helps you win, but more intimacy helps you know the truth of God. And the whole idea all summer long as we've studied the book of Ephesians, as we've done the devotions every week together, and as we've come together on Sundays and we've talked about it together, it is so we can know God's word, which is to know truth. And knowing God's word, when things around us begin to fall apart, we can hang on to God's truth. And it's what holds everything together. So he said the belt of truth. Here's the second piece of the armor. He said the breastplate of righteousness. And here's what the breastplate of the breastplate of righteousness does. It guards your heart. The breastplate plate guards your heart. You see, you and I aren't protected by our goodness. We are guarded by Christ's righteousness that shuts down the shame and the guilt and the accusations from the enemy. Somehow there's this mind, there's this idea that we have that once we receive Jesus as our savior, it's like, okay, he gave it to me. I didn't deserve it. He gave it to me freely, but now that he gave it to me freely, I got to be really good to keep it. And that's an absolutely just life in the pit of hell. That there's nothing that we did to earn God's salvation and there's nothing that we can do to keep God's salvation. Our goodness is not what protects us. It's his righteousness. And righteousness is really just a big fancy theological word just means God's grace in our lives. He did it all for us. Remember we were studying in the very beginning Ephesians. The Bible says this in the chapter one that God adopted us as sons and daughters of his. He sealed us with the Holy Spirit. That was all his doing. His righteousness, his goodness, his grace. That is what protects us when shame and guilt and all these lies from the enemy come our way. It is his righteousness that protects us. The breastplate of righteousness. Here's the third piece. The shoes of the gospel. And here's what the shoes of the gospel does. It keeps you moving forward. Peace from the gospel gives you the traction to keep going even when life is unstable. The fourth piece, the shield of faith. The shield of faith, it blocks the lies of life. You see, faith isn't just a belief. Faith is trusting in God even when he and the world doesn't make sense. Faith is trusting in God when the things around you doesn't make sense and even when God doesn't make sense. Now, let me see if I can clarify that. God is never a God of disorder. God is never a god of confusion. But many times his ways aren't our ways. And so there are times in our life that God is leading us down a path that we don't understand. He's leading us down a path that we can't see clearly. And so we want to throw up our hands and going, "God, whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you know what you're doing?" Understand this. God sees down the path a lot further than you and I ever will. And so when our path of life doesn't make sense, when God doesn't seem to make sense to you, God is in control. And so when he's in control, he gives us the faith, the faith to trust in him even when it doesn't make sense to us. Here's the next one, the fifth one. The Bible says this, that God in our armor of God that we need to put on as we trust him, our helmet of salvation, it protects our mind. The helmet of salvation allows you to think clearly and reject fear and confusion.

The last couple of weeks, my son who was living in Texas, his family moved to South Carolina to take a new job. And within four four months of moving his entire family to South Carolina, that job went belly up and he no longer had a job. So, you can imagine a 30-year-old boy, 30-year-old boy, he's my son, so he'll always be a boy, right? A 30-year-old young man moved his family, his wife, his two girls, sold their house, moved everything to start this new job. Now, thank goodness God saw down the road. God was already putting together a job over here before this job ever ended up. And when those two came together, he could see clearly the path. But yet, I was, as I was talking to him one day, I said, "Are you excited about your new job?" and my 30-year-old young man of a son who will still always be a young son boy to me. He goes, "Dad, I'm nervous." I'm going, "You're nervous. God like gave you this amazing job better than the job that you left before you took the next job. God gave you this better job. How can you be nervous? How can you be anxious?" And he goes, "I'm just kind of fearful." His feeling is normal, right? Have you ever known in your life exactly what's going to take place? That God was in control, but you still had that fear. I'm I'm thinking about college students that are going off to college right now. They've met their roommate. They've got their comforter and all their decorations for their dorm room all picked out. They've got their class schedule. They may even have a bank account full of money because of all the graduation gifts they've they've received. But there is this fear of the unknown. That fear of the unknown happens in our life in the season of grief. The fear of the unknown happens in our life in the season of relational conflict. That fear of the unknown happens in our life in the season of job change or or career change. And it's normal. Yet in another letter that Paul wrote to young Timothy, he reminds us God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of strength, courage, and sound mind. As I was talking to my son on the phone or actually texting him, I just got Jordan, I I don't have words to fix it, but here's God's word for your life. God has not given you a spirit of fear or timidity, but he's given you a spirit of strength and courage and sound mind. That is the helmet of salvation because Jesus adopted him into his life, into his family. No one adopts anybody and says, "Okay, you're in the family now. Go take care of things on your own." It is because of our relationship through our salvation that we get to place this helmet of salvation on our head. And it gives to gives allows us to have clear thinking. Not our thinking but God's thinking. And the last piece of the armor, the sword of the spirit. The sword of the spirit is given to us by God because it strikes back. All the other pieces of the armor are defensive. They're the things that we pull out when things are coming our way. But the sword of the spirit is the one offensive weapon, the one offensive piece of the gear that God gives us. And it's so we can strike back. Scripture lets you fight back using it to cut through. Now listen to this. Using scripture to cut through the noise of your life. And I use that word noise because when Satan comes in, he will fill our mind with so much stuff. And sometimes he fills it with sin. But sometimes he just fills it with noise. But whether it's noise or sin, both of them block out the voice of God. And so we can pull out the sword of the spirit. We can pull out scripture and we can fight back the noise of our life by being on the offensive. You know what the greatest noise I think God puts in our life today? The noise of social media. Why do most people go to social media? Not to check up on somebody or find out about an event. Most people will scroll mindlessly through social media because it numbs them of the stress and the pressures of the day. And we become so numbed and feeling good because we're not feeling the pressures that we can no longer hear the voice of God because we're so numb by the noise. How much better would we be? You pull out the phone and you turn to something of scripture. Now, I'm not saying that every time you pull out your phone, you ought to just be reading scripture. That would be great, but let's not push it too far, right? But let's choose something spiritual rather than just something noisy. Let's use the sword of the spirit to take offense and be on the offensive side. Because the idea and the reason that we're talking about this this this equipment, this gear, this armor of God is because you and I face spiritual battles every single day of our lives. And if we want to win those spiritual battles, we must take the priorities and make the priorities an everyday occurrence in our life. So we stand firm in God that that that we we take the first priority. That first priority is simply that we stand firm in God's truth and his strength. The second one is we suit up with the armor of God. Let me give you this the third and the fourth one. The third one is this one. We stay fueled with the spirit-led prayer. If we're going to win the battles, we must stay fueled through spirit-led prayer. Can you imagine? I'm talking about the armor of God up here. And I'm bringing that mannequin up here. And as I talk about the different pieces of of the armor, I put on the helmet of salvation on this mannequin. I put on the sword of the spirit and bring out the sword of the spirit. I got the breastplate of righteousness. I've got the belt of truth. And so by the time I finish talking about these different this the armor of God, I've got a fully dressed armor or fully dressed mannequin that's just has all the armor on. And you're kind of looking at going, "Wow, look at that. That's a great visual, man. That that that that mannequin looks exactly what scripture is talking about." And we get the mannequin fully dressed, we kind of look back at the mannequin again. And we look back at it again. The third time we look at the mannequin and you're going, "But it's just standing there." Yeah. Watch this, church. Simply having the armor of God on does not make you have power. The mannequin fully dressed has all the armor on it, but the man the mannequin can't do anything just having the armor. That's where the third piece, the prayer comes in. that we live a life, that we engage in a life with spirit-led prayer. In fact, here's what Paul said in verse 18. He says as he talked about spirit-led prayer, he says, "Pray at all times in the spirit with all prayers and supplication." The problem is this. We often treat prayer as a pregame pep talk, but Paul puts prayer at the center of the battle. our pregame pregame prep talk. Dear Jesus, I'm waking up before I get out of bed. Would you just please help us have a good day and bless us, make everything good. Amen. And we head into our day and we leave that prayer at the bedside. Now, we're trusting in the God we talk to. We're trusting in the God that we pray to, but yet that prayer was just kind of a go team, and we left the go team there and never took the go team into the battle. And really what Paul is is advocating here, it's not something that we do before the fight. It's actually the prayer is how we fight. So we put the armor on. We're standing firm in God's strength, but we actually slept in step into the fight through the spirit-led prayer. And Paul takes that that phrase, the spirit-led prayer, and he gives us really like three breakdowns of it that I think will help us understand it better. Because I'll be honest with you, when I hear the phrase spirit-led prayer, it kind of makes me going, "And what is that?" Like, I know what prayer is, but what does it mean to be spirit-led in your prayer? Here's the breakdown of it. First, first of all, he says this, that in our spirit-led prayer that we should pray at all times. Now, it doesn't mean non-stop talking. It doesn't mean the next time you pull up at a red light, your mouth ought to be moving. Somebody looks over going, "Nobody's in the car. Who they talking to?" It doesn't mean as you're walking down the road, you got to be praying. It doesn't mean while you're at work, you're praying all the time. It's not this non-stop talking. But here's what it means to pray at all times. It's an unbroken awareness and dependent on God throughout the day. You see, what happens? We wake up in the morning, we pray, "God blesses our day," and we leave God in the prayer at at the bed. And then we start walking through the day. And many times we leave our armor back at home, and we're not relying on God all day. But spirit-led prayer says this, that I just have an awareness of God's presence in my life, no matter what's happening, no matter when it is throughout the day. Now, it's not something you just turn on and turn off. There is a discipline to it. Like I remember when Denise and I first started dating, like I hadn't dated anybody for a long time. And so having this girlfriend and we're dating, I'm like, "Woo!" And I'm thinking about her, right? And so every once in a while I would just text her or call her going, "I'm thinking about you." But I had this other love in my life when I was 24 years old and it was called basketball. Like I love getting my guy friends and we'd go play basketball every single night. And so there was times that Denise would look at me going, "Are you thinking about me?" And over the bouncing of the ball, I'm going, "Oh yeah, I forgot about you." Yeah. Hey, how are you doing? And so there had to be some shifting of priorities to say she becomes my first thought and not whatever hobby or friendships I'm in. Are you with me? Now watch this church. I'm not confessing my marital dating sins. She's trained me. I'm a lot better than that now. But in our lives, there is a spiritual training that we need to do to begin refocusing us and saying, "God, I want you to be my first foremost thought throughout the day." That's what Paul's talking about when he says this, that we pray at all times. And then in the spirit, in the spirit means this means aligning your heart with the will and work of God, not just listing off our needs. We fall into temptation. It's less it's less about throwing up wish lists and more about sinking our heart with the will of God. See, praying in the spirit says, "Okay, God, what do you want?" Praying in the spirit says, "God, how do you see this situation?" Praying in the spirit says, "Jesus, how do I love this person the way you want me to love this person?" Praying in the spirit takes away my wish list and puts on in place, God, what's your will for this situation? And we can pray with great power when we pray that way because here's the deal. Now we're praying the heart of God. That's what it means to pray in the spirit. And then Paul concludes with this that we pray at all times in the spirit. And then he said this with prayer and supplication. It's not about polished perfect sounding prayers. It's about real honest conversations with God. Conversations that talks about your your frustrations. It talks about your your concerns. It talks about your anxieties. God wants you to bring those to him. But when you're bringing those fully to him in a real conversation and then he says, "Well, here's my will over here." He's not looking down at you going, "Well, here's my will over here. You need to get your stuff together." He's going, "Bring your anxiety, bring your frustrations, bring your concerns, bring your worries, and let's line them up with my will." And when you and I learn to activate prayer like that, there will be a pray a power in us, the power of the resurrection that will line up that allows us to move through and overcome spiritual battles in our life that we face. And then here's the last one. He says, "Stay watchful with enduring faith." In verse 18, he says it this way. To the end, keep alert with all perseverance. Keep alert. It's a military term. The military term means this. The guard that they put at watch night duty. He says like you don't be falling asleep. You got to stay alert. Make sure nothing comes our way. And that's what he's saying here in your own life there. You've got to be staying watchful with enduring faith. That you've got to be seeing what Satan's trying to do in these spiritual battles that you face. Satan's love to come up behind you and just attack you from the backside. So he says in your battles you have to stay alert at all times. And then he says this with all perseverance we need to remember that battles aren't marathon aren't sprints they're marathons. That our spiritual life is not get to the end and be done. It is just one step at a time. And that we live our spiritual life with great perseverance. In 1 Peter chapter 5:8, um, the Apostle Peter said the same thing Paul is saying, but he said it this way. Stay alert. Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And so, you got your armor on, you're standing firm, you're praying. But in that standing firm and praying, we need to understand that Satan is ready to attack us just like that. And so as Paul is finishing up his letter to the Ephesians, he's going, "Here's the deal. Before I sign off, before I say goodbye in this letter, here's what you got to realize. We are all in a battle. And it's a spiritual battle, not just against the people around us and the circumstances around us and the situations around us. It is a spiritual battle. Meaning there are cosmic forces. There are forces that we don't even see that is trying to take us out as followers of Jesus." So he says you have to have these four priorities in your life and these four priorities will allow you to win the spiritual battles. But then he closes as I wrap up this bit. I'm going to ask the band to come up here. This is how he closes as as as he writes this. He says this in verse 16 or verse 18. He says, "And making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak." It's interesting as he wraps up this part, this whole part about spiritual battle. He goes, "Pray for me." But he said this that we need to pray with great supplication for all the saints. Here's what I think is interesting. He changed the focus. He changed the focus not for ourselves, but he changed the focus for others. Like I don't know about you, but sometimes when I am in a spiritual battle, I'm just like it's me me all I'm worried about. Could you pray for me? Could you think about me? Could you could you remember me? And I'm wanting all of life to evolve around me because my spiritual battle is taking so much of my energy, so much of my my attention. And Paul's going, I want you to prioritize how to win the spiritual battle, but for just a moment, take your eyes off yourself and you pray for everyone else around you. And here's why I think he wrote this at the end of his letter. because he's trying to direct us to realize and understand that we're all under some kind of spiritual battle. And if all I'm doing is focusing on myself, I can't fight with and for those around me. And let's be honest, sometimes we're in a spiritual battle that it's real for our lives. But when you hear the story of somebody next to you, you're going, "Okay, God, they got it worse. They got it more difficult right now. And God's going to bring all your spiritual battles and he wants every single one of them. But sometimes it's healthy for us to view our life through the eyes of somebody else. Does that make sense that we offer prayers for everyone? And so this morning I I want us to end our service in a different way. If you're a guest here, we don't normally end it this way. So don't think we're kind of all crazy like this all the time. But maybe today as we think spiritual battles, yes, we learn through Paul how to stand firm. But maybe today our focus is not on our battle. It's on the person next to us's battle. That maybe today we can we would do well just going, "Okay, Jesus, here's mine. I'm gonna set it aside, but I'm just going to pray for the person next to me." And so here's how I want us to end today. If you're here today and you're going, Keith, I need the prayers of people around me. Honestly, I came here today and I feel like I feel like I'm going under. I feel like the battle I'm in is about to end because I'm about just to give up. Maybe that's because it's just a health situation you're in and you're just going, I I I can't keep going. Maybe it's not your health situation. Maybe it's someone you're care-taking for in their health situation. Maybe it's a job situation. Maybe it's a family crisis. But you're here today just going, "I need the prayers of the saints." And so, here's what I'd love to do to close. I just want us to pray for each other. If you're here today and you're going, Keith, I'm heavy. I'm in a spiritual battle. Would you just raise your hand? You're not going to have to say what it is, but just would you just raise your hand just so those around you can know they can pray specifically for you? Anybody here today? Roy, thank you. Yeah, thank you, Diane. Anybody else? Okay, on the back row. Thanks, Oscar. Anybody else? Can I just say this? Raising your hand and say, "I'm in a big spiritual battle." is not a sign of weakness. It's the beginning. Can I just raise your hand just so people can see? Would you raise those hands again just so those around you can just pray for you? All right. Now, I'm going ask you to do this, church. Would you just stand? We're going to pray for these people. And if they're around you, would you do me a favor? Would you just move closer to them and just put your hand on their shoulder just as a way to say, "I am praying for you.

And here's how we're going to pray for these people.

Can I tell you what I just saw? My friend Debbie just moved to pray for somebody and Debbie lost her husband a couple of months ago. That's the body of Christ. Here's how we're going to pray. We're going to sing that song again that we ended with. And in this song it says, "Amen." Amen means so be it. That God, you're in control. God, it's really your battle. And so be it. God, we receive you. Let's pray this song together.

[Music]

be upon you and a thousand generations and your family, your children and their children and their children. May his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children. May his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children. May favor be upon you in a thousand generations and your family and your children and the children and bless you on earth. May his presence go before you and behind you and beside you, all around you and within you. He is with you. He's with you in the morning. In your cry, when you come and you're weeping and rejoicing. He's for you. He's for you. He's for you. He's for you. He's for you. He's for you. He's for you. He's for you.

me. [Music]

I'm me.

[Music]

And I

may be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children.

The children go before you and behind you and beside you, all around you and within you. He is with you. He is with you. [Music] And amen.

[Music] Amen.

Amen. Come on, we sing. Let it be so. And amen.

[Music] Amen.

Amen. [Music] Come on, sing it to him today. And amen.

Amen.

Amen. [Music]

Amen.

[Music] Amen.

Amen.

Father, that is our song today.

that when we say amen, Father, we are setting we are saying let it be so

that you would forgive hearts that you would restore lives. That you would heal. Father, you came to find what was broken, what was lost, what was far from you, Father, and you came to bring us home to you,

Father. Just a mention of the name Jesus. There is power in your name. There is hope. There is life. There is healing. There is forgiveness. There is love. There is acceptance. [Music] Lord, I pray for every single heart in this room. You know what they need.

Father, you know the heaviness. Father, you have heard their prayers. Father, you have seen the cries out to you. But Father, we pray and we receive and we believe that you do something special right now in every single heart.

Father, you are provider. You are healer. You are our redemption. You are our king, but even more than that, you are our friend.

Father, we say amen to everything you want to do. Father, we love you. We thank you. And now God's people said, "Amen."