The Dark Side | Pastor Chris Kouba

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

I do want to take this opportunity to welcome all of the men and the women that are joining us at all the correctional facilities across Texas and beyond through our Pando app and those that are joining us online.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate the fact that we've got folks we can connect with that way.

The moment that you stepped out of your house, it was on.

You might not have realized it.

But right when you walked outside, it started.

If you were to look on your right, it was there.

If you were to look out in front of you, it was there.

If you were to look behind you, the step you just took, it was there.

All night long, while you were sleeping, millions and millions and millions of them were unleashed into every city, every neighborhood, every street, and every backyard.

Just waiting for you to get up.

Of course, I'm talking about allergies in Houston, Texas.

I mean, you felt it, right?

You got up today and you like it's like, what in the world?

Like, you kind of knew it was coming.

I mean, you you have the little film of yellow dust that comes on all of our cars that's kind of a reminder of, like, hey, it's about to get really hard to breathe here.

And then you you wake up today, it's supposed to be, you know, nice, and then guess what?

Many of you have probably felt like I have most of the day where you're struggling to figure out how to breathe.

Maybe you've got red puffy eyes, maybe you've got a red nose, maybe you've got congestion, maybe you've got drainage, maybe you've got stuff in your throat, whatever it may be.

Your body is doing everything that it can to fight visibly an unseen battle all around.

That's what's crazy, is even though we knew it was coming, we never saw it happen.

But there was this fight going all along, trying to make sure that you cannot breathe outside.

And while your body has been attempting to fight it with everything that it has, it's still a battle that feels overwhelming each and every day.

This morning we're continuing in our sermon series called Invisible, and we're looking at the unseen world.

We've talked so far about heaven and we've talked about hell.

Last week we talked about angels, and today I want to talk to you about the forces that are all around us that also mobilized last night, that also got into place, that also were ready to attack the moment you woke up.

And that is the idea of Satan and demons.

And what I want you to know is that in the same way, that there are millions and millions of cells that have been released into the air, trying to keep you from being able to breathe, in the very same way, there are an untold number of things in the background trying to discourage you, trying to distract you, trying to make you think that you're a disappointment, trying to do anything possible, then for you to actually learn and know who he and who they are, because knowledge in this situation is power.

The way I want to approach this message today is I want us to consider who we're dealing with.

Next week, Dave Kinney is going to come and he's gonna close up the series by talking about spiritual warfare, and he's gonna talk to us about kind of the how of fighting and the how of battle.

And this, in many ways, what we're doing is we're just trying to figure out who the characters are.

We're trying to figure out who is in the midst of this battle.

And so today, what I want to kind of answer from God's word is who is Satan?

What does he do?

Who works for him?

And what do we need to know and be prepared when it comes to fighting against him?

Ephesians chapter 6, let's begin reading in verse 10.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

It says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

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 the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Do you believe this?

Or do you believe there's an actual devil?

Many people tend to go to one of two extremes.

They either believe the devil is in everything, he does everything, he's the cause of anything bad that happens in our lives.

And there's no question about it.

The devil does things that cause harm to us, but we must not give the devil credit for just consequences of our own actions.

Because here's the reality: some of you may be saying, you know, I'm not able to get up and spend time with the Lord.

That's just the devil.

He's keeping me from doing it.

No, it's your Netflix binging last night.

That's what's keeping you from doing it.

Devil don't have anything to do with that.

I mean, we're in debt.

I don't know how to get out of this debt.

The devil, he's put us in debt.

No, you spend more money than you make, that's called debt.

That's how that works.

Folks, we gotta make sure that we don't blame the devil for consequences of our natural actions.

But we also must not go the other extreme where basically we don't blame the devil for anything.

We kind of ignore the devil.

We minimize the devil.

We act like the devil's not even real.

C.S.

Lewis, in his book, The Screwtape Letters, which is the story of a fictional story of a junior demon named Wormwood who is seeking advice from his uncle Screwtape.

Screwtape is a senior-level demon, has a bit more experience in tempting humans and causing them to rebel against God.

So, in one letter that Screwtape is writing to his nephew Wormwood, he's answering the question as to whether or not Wormwood should reveal himself to the person that he is tempting or remain hidden or invisible.

Screwtape answers like this.

If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights.

And persuade him that since he cannot believe in that old textbook method of confusing them, he therefore cannot believe in you.

Yet the existence of Satan is a basic elementary principle in Scripture.

The question is, where'd he come from?

Ezekiel chapter 28, verses 12 through 15, it reads like this Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre.

Ezekiel 28:12–15

Tyre is where modern-day Lebanon is located.

And say to him, Thus says the Lord God, you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings.

On the day that you were created, they were prepared.

Most scholars believe that something shifts right here.

That you start off with having a word given to the king of Tyre of that day, and then it shifts to talking about something way deeper.

We believe this is the beginning of the description of Satan.

Verse 14, you were anointed, an anointed guardian cherub.

If you remember the word cherub is a word we introduced to you last week, which basically means an angel.

I placed you, you were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created.

Here's the key.

Till unrighteousness was found in you.

What we see is the devil is being presented as a created being who's a beautiful being.

But at some point he rebelled.

We find more details about this in Isaiah chapter 14, which speaks of what happened in verse 12.

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention

How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn.

How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low.

You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high.

That is a declaration of treason.

Instead of worshiping the one true God, he said, I want to be God.

I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.

All created beings were made and designed to give glory and honor to their creator.

What we see here is a situation to where Satan decides he doesn't want to give glory and honor to God because he wants people to give glory and honor to him.

Verse 15.

This is when Satan, filled with pride, rebels against God, and God bans him from his presence.

And we learn later that he took a third of the angels with him who started to serve and to follow Satan.

This tells us, first of all, what his agenda is.

It's to lead you away from knowing, from praising, from worshiping, from learning from, and from being near the one true God.

That's what he's all about.

We can learn a lot about Satan from his various names that he goes by.

The same way we learn a lot about God.

I want to give you some of those names.

First of all, let's look at the name I've just mentioned, Satan.

The very word literally means adversary or accuser.

1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful.

1 Peter 5:8

Your adversary.

The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

From the very get-go, he's just against God, and he wants you to be against God too.

He's called the devil.

The word devil literally means he is prone to slander.

Anything God values, he hates.

Anything that is holy, he perverts.

You can't dance with the devil and come out clean.

We have this idea in our minds, though, that we want to make sure we can live in both places.

Like I want to follow after God, but I want to also kind of come over here and play with the world.

And what he's trying to show us is this they don't mix.

It's not how it works.

He's called Lucifer, which means son of the morning.

What this shows is that he makes temptation look good and attractive, but just like with a fish, it always has a hook that you can't see.

And sin will take you further than you ever thought possible, and it will keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay.

It reads, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

What this shows us is from the very get-go, and it's the same way that he's going to do it to you.

He is crafty, he is deceitful, and this is what he's going to do when he tries to trip you up.

He's called the Elzebub, which means Lord of the Flies.

Matthew 10, 25 and Luke 11, 15 both reference this.

Most Jews understood this idea of Lord of the flies to mean God of filth.

Meaning if something is perverted, demeaning, or just dirty, he owns it.

He's called the tempter in Matthew 4, verse 3, which reads, And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

Matthew 4:3

This is what the tempter does.

He tries to get you to fail.

He tries to get you to fall.

He tries to entice you to trip up.

He is the ruler of this world, according to John chapter 12, verse 31, which reads, Now is the judgment of this world.

John 12:31

Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

He's the advocate and the representative of the world and its systems.

He's all about worldly power.

He's all about worldly gain.

He's all about self-promotion.

His strategies have not changed.

He's a deceiver, a liar, a cheat, and he doesn't play fair.

We got to be careful though that we don't overstate his power.

Satan is an omnipresent, meaning he's not everywhere all the time like God is.

He has to seek to roam to go find targets.

Satan is an omniscient where he knows everything.

He can observe and he can watch the things that we've done in the past, but he has no idea what we're going to do in the future.

He is not omnipotent, meaning he does not have unlimited power.

The devil has great power.

He is super smart.

He is patient and he is personal.

But make no mistake about it, he is on a leash that God has put him on.

But while Satan himself is limited, it seems like he's got a lot more power.

Because he has demons who have joined him on his mission.

These demons are also fallen angels who have joined along with Satan's rebellion.

Jude 6 says, And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, yes, kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

In the Bible, it almost seems like there's like a hierarchy structure in Satan's army.

He's the one that's in charge, and then it almost seems like there's like levels of demons along the way.

We don't necessarily know exactly what that looks like, but what we do know is that these demons have great power.

It's important that we make a distinction here.

Between demon possession and demon oppression, those are two different things.

Demon possession is when a demon indwells a person's body and literally takes over their personality.

It leaves the person with no control over the demon and usually presents itself in very destructive behavior either to the individual or to others.

If you're a believer in Jesus, the Bible says that you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God, which means you cannot be demon-possessed.

But all of us have the potential to be demon-oppressed.

Demons are not responsible for every sin or psychological disorder.

However, they will exploit our spiritual weaknesses, tempting us to make choices against God's plan for our lives.

We shouldn't blame demons for everything that happens to us, but we should recognize that demons will use the material that we give them and they'll work with it.

And some of us have been giving them a lot of material to work with.

Meaning, if you've got a particular sin that you may find yourself a little more susceptible to, don't be surprised if a demon comes along and tempts you with that exact thing.

They don't play fair.

He's specific and he's personal, meaning the way he trips me up may be a way totally different than the way he's gonna go after you.

It's not a one-size-fit-all approach.

How should we handle Satan and demons?

You hear about this, it can be kind of scary, kind of spooky.

But here's what you gotta know.

We know how he operates.

We know what they're gonna do.

Uh my daughter a couple of weeks ago was playing in a powder puff football game.

Uh the cheerleaders are putting it on, and so therefore seniors against the juniors, and um, so into the game, and the uh seniors are are are there playing and they're they're on the offense, and uh you can tell there's this one girl that's like she's clearly she's she's really good.

I mean, you can just kind of tell she's the one that kind of gets the ball most of the time, and she's she's a pretty good player on the team.

And so you you notice they they line up after a couple plays into the game, and you notice that this girl's on the other side.

She's over there on the receiver spot.

She's usually been in the in the in the tailback spot.

And so you notice that what happens is they they hike the ball and they hand it off to another running back, and then that running back starts running over on this side.

All the defense begins to follow along, and kind of all the movement of the play moves over here.

And then sure enough, that one girl that usually is over there at the tailback position is kind of just standing there and she waits, and then she goes and she goes and gets the ball from the from the tailback, and she gets it, and boom, she's going on the outside for a reverse, and she's going down the side.

I mean, it was like a huge gain.

It was awesome.

The seniors are confident, they're thinking they're gonna just blow this team out.

I mean, it's just like they've they've pulled off this amazing play, and it's gonna all of a sudden just open up the floodgates.

Sure enough, a couple of plays later, you know what they do?

That girl who's usually at the running back position, she lined up over there.

The coach on the other team starts yelling, reverse, reverse, reverse, and all of a sudden tells the girls, stay home, they're gonna hand it to her.

They go back, they hand off the hike the ball, they hand it to the running back, running back runs over here, hands it to that girl, they were waiting on her.

They had her right away.

It wasn't like they didn't run the same play, the difference was they knew what to expect.

And when you know what to expect, it's a lot harder for you to get burned again because you know what's coming your way.

Let me just tell you something.

I'm about to walk you through.

Satan hadn't updated his strategies ever.

It's the same thing.

So, what I want to go ahead and tell you right now, go ahead and start yelling at reverse, reverse, reverse.

I'm telling you what's coming.

So that you can be in position and you can be ready to fight.

First one is found in John chapter 8, verse 44.

John 8:44

It says, You are of your father, the devil.

And your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character.

For he is a liar and the father of lies.

His strategy, first one is this deception.

Deception.

You gotta hear me.

Satan and his demons.

They're liars.

Part of what we're seeing in our larger culture right now is two plus two has always equaled four, and now we're being told it doesn't anymore.

And here's the problem.

We start acting like this.

Well, I but I but I feel this way.

Your feelings are not true.

This is why we see Jesus.

When he was in the wilderness with Satan himself for 40 days, what does he do?

He quotes the truth.

The reason why we say the Bible speaks here at United City is because the enemy is going to want to try to distort and to change what has always been true to try to make you feel a certain way.

And what I am telling you right now is he's a liar.

He will tell you things that are just flat out not true.

He's not going to make an announcement and say, I just want you to everybody I'm telling you a lie.

No.

Instead, he is going to come as an agent of light.

It's going to look really good.

It's going to look real shiny.

It's going to look real attractive.

But we must be people who do not stray from this.

Let the Bible speak loud.

Reverse.

Reverse.

Reverse.

We know he's coming.

He's going to lie.

Don't fall for it.

Let me tell you the second thing that he does is he's going to come at us with temptation.

He's going to come at us with temptation.

Think about Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

What you see is the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.

And it says that the serpent comes up to Eve and he doesn't say, Hey, you should eat of this fruit from this tree.

No, what does he say?

Did God really say that you can't do that?

You see, temptation isn't usually obvious that it's temptation.

Temptation comes as a way to try to entice you with something that looks good, questioning whether what God said is still true.

Which is why so often, students, specifically seniors, when you go to college, you need to have those convictions long decided before you're having to make a decision in the moment.

You make a decision in the moment, the enemy is going to make it look as good as it ever has.

He might even show you people who are experiencing short-term pleasure thinking that this is going to be worth it when all along they're not showing you the long-term toil.

So what we see is so often the enemy will come alongside and it'll begin to entice us with things that aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves, but they become things that enslave us.

Let's talk about a few of them.

How about your phone?

I love my phone just like you love your phone.

But for some of us, our phones have become things that we are enslaved to instead of things that have meant to give us freedom.

How about relationships?

Just because you think that you like it, and just because it feels good, and just because it doesn't mean it's good for you, doesn't mean it's what God has for you.

We've got to protect and we gotta guard our relationships.

We gotta, if you're married, you gotta protect and you gotta guard, you gotta nurture, you gotta pour into that marriage, you don't even seem to exist.

Because then guess what?

You're gonna get that one random text message, it's gonna hit different.

And it's gonna feel good, it's gonna look good, it's gonna well, you don't want to want it.

That's not what God has for you.

How about distractions?

I don't know about you, but whenever I go sit down and try to go read God's word, and whenever I try to go sit down and spend some time with Him, I think about the 14,000 emails that I have to respond to, I think about all this to-do list, and it's like on and on and on.

I've got to get those things away from me because I can't handle it.

And ultimately, I want to be pure and I want to be before the Lord in every single way.

How about substances?

Let me just tell you that the casualness by which we treat alcohol in this area is disgusting.

I'm not saying it's wrong to drink, but it's a wrong to drink as much as most of you do.

And I think it's a temptation of the enemy to just basically allow ourselves to be comfortable with something and act like it's no big deal instead of recognizing look, there's warnings about this.

And the idea that somehow we're gonna just parent in such a way that just basically fosters generational baggage of this, to me, is something I just think the enemy has gotten way too far down in our heads, and we need to get out of it and start reliving holy lives.

Revelation chapter 2, verse 10 gives us our third one.

Revelation 2:10

Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

The third strategy and tactic that he so often uses is that of accusation.

It's that of accusation.

He will straight up make false claims about you.

He will plant things that aren't true, he will attack you physically, he will attack you mentally, he will come after your family, he will try to discredit you and falsely accuse you, and he won't play fair.

If you remember, in June of last year, we launched three services primarily because we needed to take away a big, massive chunk of the worship center while we built the stadium seating, and then we we kind of reconfigured it and did the same thing.

And our thought all along was that at the end of the process, we would move back to two services.

That was kind of what we were thinking we would do.

We're gaining more seating, it was going to be great.

Uh, but what we discovered was that we actually grew in the midst of the construction process.

And while we technically could go to two services, we basically would need to move back to three services in just a few months with the rate that we were growing.

So we decided to kind of just keep the process going.

And so I remember when we launched the three services, I called a bunch of buddies and kind of asked them about the whole thing and asked them what I needed to know.

And they're like, man, you just need to be prepared, it's gonna catch up to you.

And in my mind, I thought, okay, they're older, not as good a shape.

I'm okay, you know.

Coming up on a year is a lot.

I'm realizing what they meant when they talked about that.

Now, I I don't like thinking about that, I don't like you know, referencing that, but I mean it's just kind of like it's just kind of been sort of a reality.

And God has had his hand on our church.

God's really had his hand on our church in 2025, these first basically almost six months.

Like it's been unbelievable to see how he's moved in our midst.

Uh and for the last six months, I have had a really, really hard time going to sleep on Saturday nights.

This sounds really weird.

I have zero issues sleeping the rest of the week.

I have zero issues going to sleep on a normal basis, I have no problem falling asleep, I got no problem staying asleep, none of those types of things.

But the last six months, it has been a situation to where when I go to bed, I it takes me a while to fall asleep, and then it also then, if I wake up, it really makes it difficult for me to go back to sleep.

And right after the fast is when I really, really started feeling it.

To where I would come to the church in the morning, and I was already exhausted before the day started.

Like completely done.

And I, of course, I'm kind of analyzing it, just gutting through it, just whatever, we're good to go, figure it out.

What am I eating?

I'm kind of evaluating, I'm doing all the things that I can control, and it doesn't seem to get better and change and improve.

And then I've started kind of thinking, like, maybe there's something to this.

Saturday nights are the only reason I'm having issues.

It's causing me to walk into the services that I'm supposed to be preaching God's word, feeling like I'm already kind of like halfway there just because of my physical situation.

What is going on here?

And I started to feel convicted that I should ask our prayer team to pray for me about this issue.

And honestly, it felt dumb.

It felt weak.

It felt silly.

Are you serious?

I'm gonna ask our prayer team, who's got a lot of other things they could probably think through to pray for.

Can you pray that I would get some sleep on Saturday nights?

And I felt like the Lord was like, You gonna do this with me or not?

And it became more about me being humble enough to ask for prayer for sleep than I think it did for the actual sleep.

You see, I think too often the enemy comes against us and he pushes the button, not the obvious big one that everyone wants to see that everyone can see, but the one behind the scene that's the most important to you.

He just messes with you.

And what I found in the midst of opening up to a team and saying, Hey, would you pray for me?

is that it invites the Spirit of God to begin to minister to me when I'm in a weak place so that I know, not that I didn't think this before, but I literally can't do this without him.

Is it possible that the enemy is coming up against you and God isn't wanting to remove it, he's wanting to use it.

God is desiring for you to admit your weakness, to acknowledge your shortcomings, to be mindful of the fact that apart from me, you can do a lot.

No, no, no, no.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

But if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

I had the worst night of sleep I've had in months last night.

I don't think there's any question whatsoever.

It has everything to do with the fact that I'm telling you this exact thing.

I don't tell you any of that for sympathy.

That's the last thing I'm looking for.

I tell you that to say this for some of you who are walking through some challenges.

It's okay.

It's okay to cry out to the Lord and say, Would you help?

It's okay for you to recognize that there is an enemy who wants nothing more than to discourage you.

I went through a stretch in February.

I was scared to go to bed because I knew I'd wake up.

And I know what you're thinking, like, well, just snap out of it.

I was trying.

I'm over here looking at myself, being like, what's wrong with you?

Like, just come on.

I'm not telling anybody about it.

Like, I don't want to say anything about it, but but in my mind, I'm just I'm wanting to snap out of it, and and I and I felt like I can't.

I say that to you just to say this.

I want you to know that I think God uses the trials even if he doesn't remove them.

And so some of you are walking through a lot bigger stuff than not being able to sleep on Saturday night.

And my plea to you is for you to yell, reverse! Reverse, reverse, because you know it's coming.

And not be defeated by it and not be discouraged by it, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Look at what James chapter 4 says for our the fourth one.

James 4 · chapter mention

It says, What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?

You desire and do not have, so you murder.

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

Here's what the enemy wants to do.

If he can't take you down on the first three, then here's what he would love to be able to do.

He would love to cause division.

He wants you to come to church and treat it like a country club or to treat it like a cruise ship, or you're going to be handed a comment card on the way out, and you get to write the things you liked and the things you didn't.

Because he knows that the most difficult thing that he could possibly ever come against is a unified church.

The gates of hell will not prevail against my church.

So if he can't fight against the church, he just wants to make the church people not fight as much with the church and start fighting each other in the church.

And what I believe God is calling us to do is to wake up and to realize that he desires to use us, not because we're anything special.

We will be long and gone, and God can do continue his work in a big, big way.

But for this season, such a time as this, God is desiring to use his people in looking to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

And what he wants to see is it is it gonna be us?

Is it gonna be us?

He desires to use us, but it's gonna cause us to be united in mission.

Everyone, every day, crossing every divide to live united in Christ.

Dave next week is gonna talk about the how.

He's gonna talk about the fight.

It's gonna be great.

Let me just give you a little teaser, though.

James chapter 4, verses 7 and 8 says this submit yourselves, therefore, to God.

James 4:7

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

This does not mean that everything's gonna be perfect.

This does not mean that everything's gonna immediately improve.

This does not mean that you're not gonna have challenges.

In fact, the Bible is super clear, it says, in this world you will have trouble.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

So this doesn't mean that all those challenges are gonna go away, but it does mean that all those challenges don't have to win.

For some of you, what you need to do is you need to draw near to the Lord, knowing the promises that he will draw near to you.

Colossians chapter 2, verses 13 through 15, it says, And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

Colossians 2:13–15

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them in open shame, triumphing over them in him.

Do you know Jesus?

Do you have a relationship with him?

There's no reason for you to be fearful of the enemy, there's no reason for you to be fearful of the devil, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Is he in you?

He can be today.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes all across this room?

If you've never experienced a relationship with Jesus, would you just pray the simple prayer with me right where you are?

Dear God, I believe in you.

I believe that you died on the cross for me.

That you rose from the dead, and right?

Yeah.

I receive you.

Would you forgive me?

Cleanse me.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Would you look up here if you just prayed that prayer with me?

What I'm gonna ask you to do is we got folks at the bottom of these steps.

We got folks in the front of the church.

I'm gonna ask that you step out from where you are and come forward.

We want to talk with you, we want to pray with you, we want to celebrate with you.

Maybe you're nervous to do so, grab the person next to you.

I promise you, they'll be more than happy to go with you.

Others of you need to come and join United City Church.

We're gonna be a church that's gonna respect the enemy, but we're not gonna bow down to the enemy.

We're gonna recognize his tactics and then we're gonna walk with confidence.

God's calling you to be a part of a church like that.

Would you lead the way today?

Others of you need to come and be baptized.

That's your next step of obedience.

Come and let us talk with you about that.

Schedule your baptism.

Others need prayer.

God is calling you to do business with him.

Don't wait.

You come.

Father, I pray you take these moments of invitation and lead people with boldness and courage to respond to you.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espignol at 1 o'clock.