The Invisible War

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening.

Great to be with you this morning.

Hey, if we haven't met yet, my name's Ryan.

We're thrilled to have you here.

Hey, uh, we're continuing in our series Supernatural, and today we have a guest speaker, which I'm really excited about, a dear friend of Awakening and of mine.

Uh he actually served on staff uh nine years ago here.

Steve Sacone is with us.

Yes, we are very very excited.

Some people still know you, Steve.

There you go, you're still known.

Um Steve, oh man, I had this all set, and now I can't.

There we go.

I didn't bring my glasses up, so I can't read unless I get it bigger.

Steve Sacone is the vice president of the SEU Ministry Network at Southeastern University.

He is a pioneer in the field of leadership development and life transformation in the local church.

He's written several books, including Relational Intelligence Made for More Protege and talking about God.

And what's fun is not only did he write a book called Protege, he started the Protege program here at Awakening 12 years ago.

So so grateful, Steve.

Thank you for being here.

Would you give a warm awakening?

Well to Steve Tacomb.

Well, hey, good morning, everybody.

Great to see you all.

Great to, for me at least, feel like I'm at home.

I know some of you, probably most of you not, but uh 12 years ago, roughly, I served here.

Uh, one of the most beautiful things about the awakening community is yes, I got to serve here as a pastor on staff, but me and my family were also served uh by this church, by this community, and it's such a core value of who you are.

And it goes back to Ryan, who's a lifelong friend and such an amazing spiritual leader.

Uh, him and Jenny are um people we really admire, my wife and I, Sherry, and uh they've they've built this community.

And I was here more in the earlier years, some of you were there too, or even before me.

Um, but they have put so many countless hours of dedicated service, many of us unseen uh investment in people, and so I just admire you, Ryan, Jenny, wherever you are, you as well, and uh your whole family.

So good to be here.

And um, we're gonna dive in.

We're in a series, supernatural, as you know.

Uh we're gonna lock in on one verse really today and just sort of like unpack it and dig deeper into it.

So let me start by asking you a question.

Uh many of you, maybe all of you, have uh accidentally or maybe intentionally overheard someone else's conversation, right?

You've been like walking by someone's office and you slowed your pace down, right?

Because you heard something interesting going on, and you know, you just decide to slow down, or maybe you're in the grocery store cereal aisle, and you heard this argument happening five feet away, and suddenly you were fascinated by cereal, right?

Some of you are looking so innocent, but this is me, at least.

And uh sometimes it's human curiosity, and other times it's uh moments when you really care about that conversation, and so you're listening in.

So this happened to me just a few days ago, actually.

I was walking downstairs in my own house, and I overheard my wife Sherry and my 17-year-old son Hudson having this conversation that was a little bit out of the ordinary, and and I promise I wasn't spying, although you probably are judging me right now, I don't know.

But um, but I but I just stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and and apparently Hudson had been watching this YouTube stream, and he had heard this comment that really sparked a fire in him, really got him fired up.

So somebody made a comment in this like debate comment area, and it went along the lines of something like this Christianity only exists because there's been centuries of lies.

And that sparked a fire in him, and he began to bring it to Sherry and talk about it, and and they were going.

So I just stopped there and I just listened, and it was kind of fascinating, if you want my honest opinion.

And there I was, and there were these accusations that Hudson was bringing up.

These people are accusing and they're not accurate, and they're making you know insulting comments, and there's hostility there, and he was just kind of explaining the whole thing, and and Sherry was listening very intently, and then at a certain point in the conversation, she gently gave this interjection and she said something to the effect, Hudson, I hear you, totally get what you're saying.

I know these comments can be upsetting, but before we go any further, I want us both to remember something.

And here's what she said our battle is not against flesh and blood.

Our battle's not against flesh and blood.

He said, those comments from people, she said, those comments are coming from people, but really our battle isn't against those people.

It's against the darkness behind those words.

And this whole tone of the conversation kind of shifted with Hudson and Sherry, and he kind of came down like kind of mad and frustrated and started shifting to where he was becoming more hopeful.

And he sort of heard and it took what she was saying in that moment instead of focusing so much on the people, they began to have this conversation about Christ.

So I'm standing there on the stairs, and one of my thoughts was this.

I said, that's exactly what discernment sounds like.

It's exactly what discernment sounds like.

It's not making a problem smaller, it's seeing it more clearly.

And Hudson, he's 17 and he's stepping real close into adulthood, and like every young adult today, some of you are in that season of life, he's entering this world that often feels confusing.

So truth gets questioned and morality shifts, and everyone seems like in our day has a platform of one kind or another, or an opinion, or it seems like sometimes everybody's so angry.

And then it struck me in that moment as well, as I started to think about it, it's that Hudson isn't the only one living in that world.

So are we.

And some of you have been walking with Christ for decades, and others perhaps two or three days or weeks.

Yet every one of us wake up every day and we're immersed in the same battlefield.

It's why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6 points out these remarkable insights really into the world, the invisible world, the unseen world, or as the series says, the supernatural world that exists.

So he says in verse 12 of chapter 6, he says, For our struggle, familiar words here, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and spiritual forces of evil.

And I love that verse.

It's embedded into chapter 6 of Ephesians, which I know you guys as a community are going to spend a month in.

But this particular verse spotlights three essential truths that I want to draw out today and talk with you about that every Jesus follower ought to embrace, ought to remember, ought to carry with them if they want to live the life that God designed them to live.

And here's the first one.

The first one is really simple.

Recognize the battle.

One of Satan's favorite lies is convincing Christ's followers like you and me that we're living in some kind of playground instead of a battlefield.

But here's the truth.

If you don't realize there's a battle, you'll never prepare for one.

So the Christian life, it's not difficult, you know this.

It's not difficult because God's abandoned you or us.

It's difficult because we have an enemy.

And Paul, in this verse, he doesn't say if you struggle, he assumes struggle.

Following Jesus has always required courage for centuries and centuries.

It required courage back in Moses' day for David, for Esther, these men and women of the Bible, these heroes, so to speak, that we know, and then jump to the New Testament, you have Peter and Paul and countless others.

It required courage, and it requires courage for us today to live out our faith, to follow Jesus.

And here's the truth about the battle that we're in.

Battles aren't won by accident, they're won through preparation.

So you know this.

No general wakes up one morning on the brink of war and says, well, let's just wing it and see what happens.

No, of course not, right?

They have a strategy, they have a plan, they know where they're going and what they're gonna do before the first shot is fired.

And while every everyday lives are obviously aren't in military context per se, or military campaigns, there are places and spaces in your life and in mine that you better have a strategy for, or you're gonna be defeated.

Now, to underscore my point, I'll make a confession before you that maybe you can relate to.

If you want to confess it later, you can too.

But there's certain stores that I go to, and this store requires for me to have a battle plan, even pretty much when I get to the parking lot, and I'm speaking of the store called Costco.

You can relate, some of you, right?

So Sherry, my wife, will text me and she'll say, Hey, I have a list of five things.

Can you pick these things up on the way home?

Clear mission, simple objective, no problem, five things, I'll be in and out, right?

Well, I enter into Costco, 47 minutes later, I'm wandering through the warehouse under some kind of retail trance, I think.

And I'm in there getting milk and eggs and toothpaste, or so I thought, and all of a sudden my cart is filled with like a 48-count of beef jerky that I think is going to be the best jerky I've ever had.

And, you know, I got an industrial-sized bottle of mayonnaise that'll last me like a decade, I think.

And then, you know, you go down the frozen food aisle and I've just sampled a few things, so you know, throw those in, throw that in, throw, you know,$472 later, you know, with a kayak on my cart and on my car, here I am.

But I get to my car, and I sometimes think, what did I do in there?

Why did I get all these things?

You know?

And uh it's like this gravitational pull.

So that's my store.

Sherry has a store too.

Her weakness, I don't really like when she goes.

I kind of fear it a little bit if you're honest.

She goes to IKEA.

And I mean, I love the Swedish meatballs, bring home as many bags as you want, but when you bring home a box and there's a bookcase in it, it's like my Saturday is done, right?

So I take out the box and you know, build this thing, and you know, it's Swedish furniture, and they get the instructions, right?

Which, you know, I know dudes, we don't like to read instructions, but even if you do, it's like there's no words on them.

It's like little caveman figures, you know, that you have to figure out.

And I pretty much always get to the end of it, and it's like, why is that shelf have holes on this side?

It's supposed to be on the other side, and there's seven screws left over.

I'm like, I don't know what happened, but I'm not too good at this.

Maybe that's just me, but um, but here we are.

And and here's my point.

If I don't walk into Costco with a plan, Costco makes one for me.

And if we walk into IKEA without a strategy, what we'll do is we'll end up spending six hours befuddled to why there are 17 screws left over and a shell turn backwards.

And life works the same way.

If we don't enter each day with really God's battle plan, the world will have one waiting for us.

Culture has a plan for your marriage, social media has a plan for your attention, advertisers have a plan for your money, and the enemy, Satan, has a plan for your mind.

Nobody drifts into holiness.

We drift toward comfort and convenience, we drift toward distraction, and yet when we center ourselves and understand what it means to follow Jesus, what we know is that it's never accidental and must always be intentional.

Every single day.

Really every moment, you could say.

Why?

Because we're in a battle.

And if we don't walk into life with God's strategy, prepared for the moment, prepared for the battle, culture will gladly provide a strategy for us.

You don't accidentally drift toward Jesus, you intentionally pursue Him every day.

Why?

Because we're in a battle.

And once we recognize that, that's an important thing that we recognize, that we acknowledge, that we say, okay, there's a battle going on.

We're in a battlefield, it's an unseen world, it's an invisible world, but it's real.

And then the next question becomes who are we actually fighting?

And what is he like?

So here's the second essential truth.

We must recognize not only that there's a battle, but we must recognize the enemy.

And what Paul says in this verse is very significant for our journey ahead.

He says, our struggle, and we all feel that struggle, it's not against flesh and blood, it's not against human beings, it's not against people.

And that truth changes how we live and how we view the world, how we approach life.

Because the people frustrating you, as it was happening in the story I told you with Hudson, the people frustrating you, they're not your real enemy.

The friend who betrays you, not your enemy.

The friend or family member who disappoints you, not your enemy.

The politician, the activist, the atheist, the person making cruel comments online to you or about someone else, they're ultimately not our enemy.

In fact, there are people who are image bearers of God just like you and me.

There are people who are loved by God just like you and me.

There are people also that are captives needing rescue.

Who is our enemy?

Our enemy is the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan.

And Satan, if he can't destroy the church, what he'll do is he'll settle for distracting us.

It reminds me that one of Satan's greatest strategies, greatest really victories, isn't getting Christians to stop fighting, it's getting them to fight the wrong people.

Because if he can get Christians to fight people instead of darkness, he will win without firing a shot.

Instead of fighting the wrong people or perhaps even retreating from battle altogether, maybe our mantra ought to be fight darkness and love people.

Fight darkness, love people.

And maybe we should carry that with us.

Now, this raises an important question.

If people are not our enemy, then how does our enemy actually attack us?

Right?

What are his schemes?

I love the text of Ephesians 6.

I always have, and and one of the words used in there is the devil's schemes.

Those are real too.

They're part of his strategy.

And because Satan doesn't show up in a red suit and a pitchfork, we know this, because nobody would follow him if he did.

His greatest weapon has really never been intimidation, it's been deception.

It's deception.

And he's out to get us and use that against us.

From the very beginning, go back all the way to the Garden of Eden in Genesis.

He didn't overpower Eve.

What did he do?

He deceived her.

He didn't force Adam to sin.

What did he do?

He simply twisted God's word just enough to make a lie sound believable.

This is how he works.

And thousands of years later, his strategy hasn't changed.

Jesus, in fact, called him in John 8.44 the father of lies.

He still mixes truth with error.

He still disguises darkness with light.

If Satan showed up looking like what we sort of imagined Satan to look like, deception wouldn't work.

He succeeds in your life and mine sometimes because he disguises himself, which must make us alert and prepared and urgently decide and be determined that we're going to take this on, this battle on in a whole different way.

And this is why Jesus gave, I think, some sobering words to us, some some warning, and I think it's incredibly relevant to us today in our culture that you're in and I'm in.

Jesus warned that deception would become increasingly subtle in some of the people around you.

He said in Matthew 7, beware of false prophets who might live on social media.

He didn't say that part, but beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Notice he didn't simply warn us about wolves.

He said they're they're wolves in sheep's clothing.

Ravenous wolves, out to get you, right?

You feel that in what he's saying.

And think about that.

What he's saying is the danger wasn't or isn't obviously evil.

It can kind of look familiar, it can even sound spiritual.

Scripture can even be quoted, it can appear trustworthy.

Think about Jesus being tempted by the enemy in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

And the enemy rarely announces himself.

If ever, he what?

He disguises himself.

That's why discernment is essential.

And discernment, it's not suspicion, it's not becoming cynical.

Discernment is spiritual clarity.

It's spiritual clarity.

It's learning to recognize what is genuine, and you know genuine so well that the counterfeits around you become obvious.

So if you think about a superb bank teller, let's just say, for illustration's sake, you don't become an expert by studying counterfeit bills all day.

No, you become an expert because you spend thousands of hours handling genuine currency.

In other words, the more familiar you become with the real thing, the easier it is to recognize the fate.

Why is that important?

Well, the same thing is true spiritually.

We don't become discerning by obsessing over every false teacher or every conspiracy or every strange doctrine or every controversial podcast or post.

No, we become discerning by becoming deeply familiar with Jesus.

His word, his heart, his voice, his character.

Because when you know the genuine, the counterfeit begins to stand out all by itself.

And it reminds me of kind of an embarrassing story that I'll just go ahead and tell you up here, you know?

And I was a brand new youth pastor, and I desperately wanted the students that I was, you know, ministering to or trying to serve.

I wanted them to know I was authentic.

I wanted to make a connection with them.

So I'm working with teenagers, and maybe there's a few teenagers in the room, but teenagers have this like almost supernatural ability to discern what's fake, right?

From a million miles, from a mile away, really, or a million miles away.

And so I had this idea, and before you judge me, you've had a good idea before, right?

And it didn't turn out the way that you wanted, right?

Are you with me?

Okay, thank you.

Give me some grace here.

So I'm preaching, I'm a young youth pastor, I'm giving a talk to my students, and I decide this brilliant idea I had that I was gonna break out into I have no rhythm but a full-blown MC Hammer dance with the song You Can't Touch This Plane.

I didn't have the parachute pants on, but I was full-blown dance mode.

In fact, there's a video on YouTube if you want to dig in and try to find it, and I actually trip over the speaker as I go into the you know, full-blown, uncoordinated, unrhythmic MC Hammer dance.

There I was.

So I'm preaching, I go into this dance, and you know, the students are looking at me with like terror, basically.

It's like imagine the emoji with the big eyes like looking, like, what is this guy doing?

Can we run?

Can we go?

No, there's not excitement, there's not admiration, there's there's nothing, you know, it's like other than this pure embarrassment.

And then to make it worse, some of you may remember this, some of you don't, but they had these cameras back in the day, you could say, they're called flip minos.

You guys remember these?

Yeah, they're the coolest things when they came out, like pre-iPhone, right?

Not everyone didn't have a camera everywhere in those days, but so they started filming me, and this is why this is on YouTube these days, I guess.

They wanted to like record and preserve for future generations all the humiliation that existed in that moment.

But here, here, here, here we go.

And uh I thought about showing it, but I was like, uh-uh.

They're gonna have to find it themselves and work for it.

But it was one of those stories that never living lived, let me live down.

But oddly enough, it ended up bonding us together in a whole different way and for a whole different reason than I wanted, but there we were.

And here's the thing, and here's my point.

One thing I learned that day, or am reminded of even when I tell this story, is that authenticity isn't something you manufacture, it's something people recognize.

Something people recognize.

In other words, you don't convince people that you're genuine with a performance, right?

Eventually, who you really are emerges.

It always comes out eventually.

And it's exactly why, back to the words of Jesus, why Jesus warned us about wolves in sheep's clothing.

Because again, false teachers often look convincing.

They sound persuasive, they quote scripture, they may even have enormous platforms, but eventually, the fruit reveals the roots.

Character reveals the truth.

And time exposes what performance tries to hide.

So in the very next verse, Jesus says, You will recognize them by their fruit.

And he gives this insight.

Not by their charisma, not by their confidence, not by their follower count, by their fruit.

So back to Jesus.

We must know Jesus well.

So well that when something counterfeit comes along, your spirit immediately knows.

That doesn't sound like, that doesn't feel like, that isn't my shepherd.

Not the one I know, not the voice I know, not the heart I know.

And so as we travel through life in our journey, we can remember that and hold on to that and use that to help inform what we're discerning that's right in front of us.

What's being disguised or what's trying to deceive you.

And as we travel through this journey, again, we don't fight people, we fight darkness.

We don't hate on people, we pray for people.

The Bible even says we pray for our enemies.

We don't become cynical, we become discerning.

Because when you recognize the genuine, deception loses its power.

You want to know how to overcome the enemy?

Live close to Jesus.

Live familiar with Jesus.

Get to know Jesus.

He's the real thing.

And when you recognize that, that deception that's coming at you, that disguise that's coming at you will lose its power.

Fight darkness, love people.

So we recognize the battle, right?

There is a battlefield, we're living in that battle.

We acknowledge it.

Then we recognize the enemy, the who, and what he's trying to do, and some of his strategies.

And then there's something else that's important for us to do.

And it's this number three, remain in the fight.

Remain in the fight.

So one of my favorite movies growing up, some of you maybe can relate to this.

Others of you are like, what movie is that?

But one of my favorite movies was Rocky.

I loved all the Rocky movies, right?

Some of them came out later.

There was a bunch of them early on.

And I know that ages me a little bit, but when I was a kid, me and my brothers, we loved this song that was part of Rocky.

We loved Rocky.

And so there were days where we'd be kind of dragging low energy, maybe lazy around the house, and my dad wanted to like, you know, get the energy going, or he wanted to do a project with us.

And so he'd have to kind of figure that out with three boys who were like laying on the couch doing nothing.

And so he'd walk over to this enormous wooden record console that took about 25% of the living room, you know, kind of size.

Right?

And he'd drop the needle on this song and he'd turn the volume way up.

You know the song, right?

Eye of the Tiger.

If you don't know it, I think it's about to play.

And you're gonna get pumped up.

You want to stand up and start shadow boxing?

Because that's what we would do.

When my dad would start playing it, he'd crank it up, and we'd all be running and jumping and training, throwing punches.

Aren't you inspired?

I'll just pray and we can leave, you know?

But but we were pretending we were training for this heavyweight fight as kids.

You know, five minutes earlier, we couldn't even clean our rooms, right?

Five minutes later, we were like, bring on Normandy, kind of thing.

Why do people love Rocky?

Why do I love Rocky still today?

Because Rocky never quit.

He got knocked down and he'd get back up.

He'd get knocked down again and he'd get back up, again and again and again.

He would get back up.

People still love Rocky because perseverance inspires us.

And there's something deep inside the human heart that admires someone who refuses to stay down.

I love that.

I'm inspired by people that I know that have lived that way.

It's exactly why Paul in Ephesians 6 says some of what he says.

He says, Be strong in the Lord in verse 10.

And then he says, why?

So that you can stand against the devil's schemes.

Find your strength in God, right?

You don't do it on your own.

You do it in the strength of God.

You do it because you're connected to Jesus, and he is our strength.

And then if you jump down to verse 13, after he says, stand against the devil's schemes, he says, put on the full armor of God, which you're going to be talking more about in the coming next couple weeks.

But then he says, so that, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand, he uses the word again, to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand.

In other words, stand against the enemy, stand your ground, and stand again.

Paul never says you're not going to get knocked down.

We will, we'll get knocked down, you've been knocked down, you'll get knocked down again.

What he does say though is that when you do get knocked down, stand up.

Get back on your feet and keep standing.

As much as you have to stand, keep standing.

And I know probably some of you came in today and you feel exhausted or perhaps spiritually tired.

Maybe you're stumbling through some of life's struggles, or maybe you keep praying and you're not getting an answer, or at least an answer that you would like to see.

It hasn't come yet.

And maybe others of you you keep trusting, but you keep hurting, or you keep believing, and you're wondering, man, am I really making any difference?

And you wonder and you doubt and you fear.

But may I remind all of us, myself included, that we're not fighting for victory, we're fighting from victory.

That Jesus already defeated sin.

Jesus already defeated death.

Jesus already defeated our adversary, Satan.

And while it appeared that the cross initially was defeat, we all know the resurrection revealed.

It was victory all along.

So when you fall, what do you do?

You stand back up.

When you're discouraged, what do you do?

You stand in his strength.

When you're tired, you stand.

When the culture shifts, when the lies get louder or harder, you stand.

Because your king is still on the throne.

And he is victorious.

And ultimately he will be one day like we've never seen before.

What do you do?

You fight darkness and you love people.

What do you do?

You remain in the fight.

There's an old saying that goes like this it's always darkest before the dawn.

It's always darkest before the dawn.

Perhaps that's exactly where some of you find yourself today.

Maybe your future feels uncertain.

I've been there.

Maybe your health has you afraid.

I've been there too.

Maybe your marriage feels dark, or there's obstacles in your family that seem unsurmountable.

Perhaps you've been fighting a battle that no one even knows, and you're in that now.

Or maybe like Hudson, you're simply looking at this world and you're wondering, how do I faithfully follow Jesus in a culture that feels increasingly confusing?

Ephesians 6 doesn't give a promise to us that the battle will disappear.

Paul is trying to prepare us for what is inevitable, that we must face the battle.

We must face the battle, in fact, daily.

And he's reminding us to recognize that there's a battle.

So we ought not be surprised that hardship comes.

Is it caused by Satan?

Maybe.

Sometimes, maybe not.

I don't know.

But whether the answer is yes or no, there is a battle, and hardships will come and obstacles will come.

We're in this real battle, and yet God hasn't left us defenseless.

In fact, he's given us a great power that we can access, and his name is Jesus.

So we recognize the battle, then we recognize the enemy, and we must be careful not to waste our strength and energy fighting what we think is only flesh and blood.

Again, people aren't the enemy.

They're people who who Jesus really does love.

So what do we do?

We fight darkness.

We love people.

And we remain in the fight.

When we're discouraged, we stand.

When we're wounded, when we're tempted, we stand.

When we're tired, we stand.

Because here's what the enemy wants more than anything else.

He wants you to quit.

He wants you to get derailed.

He wants you to stop fighting.

He wants you to believe that your prayers don't matter, that your act of obedience doesn't matter, that your witness doesn't matter.

But awakening church, don't believe that lie.

Because every prayer does matter, and every conversation does matter.

And every time you serve someone else, and every time you overcome something, and every time you forgive, and every time you choose truth, and every time you love someone who's difficult to love, the kingdom of God quietly advances.

As I walked away from the conversation of me standing at the bottom of those steps that Cherry and Hudson were having, I remember thinking to myself, if my son could hold on to one verse his whole life, this would be a good one.

Because there's going to be more YouTube comments and debates, there's going to be more critics and more confusion, there's going to be more competing voices for his attention.

There'll be more moments that truth gets questioned.

And maybe where his faith gets mocked.

And when following Jesus isn't easy.

You've felt that before.

But if he can remember that his battle is not against flesh and blood, it will change the way he sees the world.

It will change the way he faces every conflict in his life.

And he'll know that people aren't the enemy.

That darkness is.

He'll know that truth is worth holding on to.

He'll be reminded that Christ has already won the victory.

And that's not just what I hope for Hudson.

It's honestly what I hope for you.

I think it's what God hopes for you as well.

Because every one of us, we're going to walk out these doors today, and we're going to face Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, and we're going to be in a battlefield, whether we know it or think it or aware of it or not.

And some of you walk into difficult workplaces every day, and others walk into a doctor's office and get something they didn't expect.

Others of you walk into classrooms or difficult home situations or you're in a season of uncertainty.

But here's the truth of what the scriptures give us and what Jesus promises us that we, none of us, that we don't have to do any of it alone.

We do it with Him, we do it with one another.

And let me remind all of us of this greater truth as well.

That we can put our hope in, and it's this, that the battle will end one day.

Yes, we're victorious, but the battle we're in one day will be no more.

There will be no more deception, there will be no more tears, there will be no more fears, there will be no more death or temptation, because Christ will return.

And the enemy will be defeated forever.

And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But until that day, hope must drive us.

Truth must anchor us.

And Christ must lead us.

And we must let Him.

So walk into tomorrow and recognize the battle.

Walk into tomorrow and recognize the enemy.

Don't live naive.

Walk into tomorrow determined to remain in the fight and to never quit.

Never forgetting that the one who called you into battle has already won the war.

His name is Jesus.

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding us today that our battle is not against flesh and blood.

In a world that often feels confusing, divided, and filled with darkness, help us to see people the way you see them.

As image bearers deeply loved by you and in need of your grace and transformation.

Lord Jesus, give us the eyes to recognize the real battle.

Give us hearts that are anchored in your truth and minds that are filled with discernment.

Help us to know your voice so well that we recognize what is true and reject what is counterfeit.

God, guard us from deception.

Guard us from distraction.

Guard us from becoming cynical.

And God instead fill us with wisdom, courage, and compassion.

Teach us to fight darkness while never forgetting to love the people around us.

May our words reflect your grace.

May our actions reflect your character.

May our lives, God, in this place reflect you, Jesus, and make you believable to the world around us.

Heavenly Father, for those of us here today who are weary from the battle, I pray you would breathe fresh strength into their hearts and lives.

Remind them that they don't fight alone, that they are not fighting for victory, that they are standing in the victory, Christ, that you have already won through your death and resurrection.

So, God, as we leave this place in a few moments, help us to walk into our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our schools with confidence.

Not because we are strong in and of ourselves, but because you are faithful and strong inside of us.

Let hope drive us, let truth anchor us, and let Christ lead us every step of the way.

We ask all this together in the powerful and victorious name of Jesus Christ and everybody in the house said amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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