Ephesians Week 12

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the Upper Peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our Ephesians series where we break down Paul's letter to Ephesus.

Good morning.

Glad you guys are here.

Beautiful fall day.

Hey, would you welcome everyone that's gonna be watching us online?

Just a few minutes screaming all over the place.

I'm always kind of tickled and excited and a little fearful when I do travel in other states, and people are like, man, I'm so glad I'm so glad to meet you, Pastor Mark.

I watch you online.

It kind of blows me away a little bit.

Just the outward reach that we have across the United States.

God's doing something powerful at Northiron.

And so this morning I want to talk about some spiritual warfare that I think is important for us to understand.

And so I want you to grab your Bibles and I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

If you need a Bible, raise your hand.

We'll have someone hand you a Bible since it's free to you.

You can take it home, you can leave it in your seat, or you can give it away.

One of the aspects of what Paul is trying to instruct here is the importance of not just living in a physical world or a mental world or a social world, but you understand that you live in a spiritual world.

And that has implications in your life as a follower of Jesus.

And so he begins to teach us at the end here, kind of like last instructions you need to understand for the Ephesian church, that Paul at this time is in uh in prison in Rome and he's writing to the Ephesians about 60 to 62 AD.

We believe, we're we're not really sure, but we believe that Paul is beheaded by Nero, the emperor, by 67.

And Paul knows his time is short.

And so he's spending every moment to instruct all these churches that are springing up all over Turkey in the Middle East, and God's doing something powerful, but he's giving them last in instructions.

Have you ever seen the movie Gettysburg?

It uh it's about the Civil War, and it really kind of hones in on something that happens uh in the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most damaging battles during the Civil War.

Over 51,000 men uh died during this battle.

It's really crucial to the not the end of the Civil War, but it was definitely the turning point uh for the North in the Civil War.

And there's a really kind of unknown area totally to the to the left of really the battle that's taking on.

There's a there's a kind of a large, maybe medium-sized hill.

It's called Tabletop Hill.

And they sent a now famous general at the time, he wasn't really, uh sorry, colonel at the time, Joshua Chamberlain, and he took the men of Maine, this regiment, the men of Maine, to the top of this hill, and they told the colonel, this hill cannot, at any cost, this hill cannot be taken by the South, because if it's taken by the South, this battle is over.

They'll come and flank us, we'll all be in trouble.

And they told Joshua, you have to hold this hill.

And during the battle after wave and wave, now the South knew this also, and so they just sent their uh the men of Alabama, if you will, that regiment, just pounding that hill, pounding that hill, wave after wave after wave, to the point where the men of Maine, the North, literally ran out of ammunition.

They ran out of black powder and they ran out of balls.

And the colonel could see that his men were beginning to club the men that were advancing on the hill.

It became hand-to-hand combat.

And so he simply yelled out a last trans uh uh last instructions to his men.

Very simply, he said, bayonets and charge.

And the men took their guns, fixed bayonets, and ran down that hill into the fray of the Southern Army that they were facing.

Now, of course, Alabama didn't know that this was going to happen, and so it broke ranks, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of that regiment surrendered.

It really turned the tide of that Gettysburg, horrific Gettysburg battle, and and it's important because last instructions are important.

Joshua said this after the battle, and I think it relates to what's going on in Christianity and discipleship.

In great deeds, something resides.

There's a residue.

On great battlefields, something stays.

And this is what Paul is trying to show the Ephesus church.

That there is a transmission that takes place in Christianity, where you come into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, your eyes and your minds are open, and you understand, man, I'm in I'm in a battle for my life, and I have to hold this ground because of this incredible gift I was given.

And not only do I have to hold this ground, listen, I have to advance the agenda of God, the mission of God.

There is a transmission that takes place between disciples and disciplers.

This is what Paul is saying.

That I'm I'm not gonna be here very much longer.

And you as a church, you as believers, though you've just met Jesus, you need to be discipled and you need to understand what kind of stand you need to take in this incredible battle and this spirituality that that's going on.

Paul's not just introduced, kind of like as a side note or a side quest at the end of Ephesians about spiritual warfare.

He's talking about it the whole time.

It's all about spiritual warfare.

And these are my last instructions.

Now very thankful for Aaron, Pastor Aaron last week, that kind of laid down this idea because oftentimes people take spiritualism or mysticism or talks about demons to a level where they they they don't they they make it the main focus in their life.

Listen, this is not the main focus of your life.

The gospel is the main focus of your life, but to walk away and act like demons aren't real and and they're not engaging in your life is is also a mistake.

That the that the prince of this world is a demon, and he is he is leading the world as he sees fit.

Now you reside in this world, it's going to affect you on so many levels.

And you need to understand that that there is an enemy against you in every aspect of your life.

Well, Pastor Mark, how do you know there's demons?

Well, number one, Jesus said there were demons.

And I would think he would know.

He doesn't even say it as much as he just engages.

He's constantly, I heard a scholar say it this way that every step that Jesus was taking here on earth was territory he was reclaiming from the spiritual world that Adam gave over to Satan when he sinned.

Everyone he healed, every word he spoken was the territory taking that Adam had just handed over to Satan when he sinned and made Satan ruler of this world.

Secondly, you can't look at the world and not recognize evil in the world.

It's evident, it's everywhere.

It's simply overwhelming.

And I get it, that's why people kind of check out uh, you know, Lindsay Clancy murders her three children.

There's nothing more demonic than that, everyone.

So I I I think there's these these indicators, and it's physically, spiritually played out right in front of us.

Even your pastor, myself, I have cast out multiple demons, demons from multiple people.

What Satan is is interested in, listen, what Satan's interested, or what he's after, is not your recognition, it's your destruction.

And so if he can hide himself in all things that we just think is normal, we grow up, we grow up in this world, don't we?

We experience, we just think this is normal.

No, it's it's upside down.

There's nothing, nothing natural here.

We get a glimpse of the natural spiritual world that God created for us and the beauty of it, but most of it is screwed up, everyone.

It's turned upside down, it's twisted, it's backwards.

And he touches every aspect of this life we live.

Tony Campolo, who's an author, and he, for some of you, he, I'm not even sure if he's alive.

He might be dead.

But he says this, and I love how he communicates this.

He's an evangelist and author.

He's the one speaking of Satan.

He's the one appearing in the movies, telling us that romantic love and sexual pleasure are the keys to fulfillment.

He's the one behind the economic systems that teach us that money is the key to success and happiness.

Satan's the one who sits in the psychologist's chair offering ultimate hope apart from God.

He's the one he works in and through governments that coddle people into thinking that government help is the answer.

He's the one teaching from our very pulpits that life is about you, that God wants to make you rich, that hell is not real, and that standards of the Bible are for a different time and place.

And again, at the end of chapter six, Paul introducing the spiritual armor.

You need to understand.

He covers this in all of the spiritual battle is in every chapter of Ephesians.

This is what Pastor Aaron talked about last week.

In giving the spiritual armor, Paul is not introducing some new theme he hasn't covered yet in Ephesians.

Now, I want to give you some foundational things, and we're going to talk about two military stances that Paul lays out for us and what that means for us and how we stand and how we advance the gospel.

Those two things are really, really important.

And it has lasting effect in everything we touch.

All people.

I heard a pastor say the other day, listen, listen, this is important that 50% of discipleship in your life is just relational.

Hanging out with each other, sharing what God's doing in your life, and then sharing the truth of God that's built on his word.

We'll talk about that in a moment.

But let me give you a couple things and I'll kind of walk through this because this is important for you to understand theologically.

That that each that the gospel is the power of God in your life and the way God reverses the residue or the corruption of sin and repels the power of Satan from you.

Now kind of hang on to that, but the gospel and the power of gospel keeps the corruption out of your life.

And you need the gospel to infiltrate every aspect of your life.

You hear me say kind of things like every decision is a gospel decision.

Well, how does that happen, Pastor Mark?

It's when the gospel is deeply rooted in every aspect of your life.

That's the power of God in your life.

And it holds back the corruption and the demonic influence of sin in your life.

It's like a force field for all you Star Wars freaks out there.

It's the WD-40 in your life.

Keeps you squeaky clean.

All right, I'll say it this way.

I got a bunch of statements, but I'm hoping I this resonates with you and you understand.

The way we keep the corrupting influence of the enemy out of our lives is by establishing every part of our life.

You need to know that you have compartments in your life, right?

Your job, your marriage, your work, your relationships, your children, all those things, right?

So the way we keep the corrupting influence of sin of the enemy out of our lives is by establishing every part of your life.

This is a disciple process.

Every part of your life, your hopes, your dreams, your failures, your worries, our fears, our relationships, our pleasures, our disappointments on the gospel.

You need to look out at the world with gospel, gospel eyes.

And if that's true, the opposite is also true.

The opposite is true.

Whatever part is not saturated in the gospel is open to demonic activity in your life.

And this is where it gets difficult for us.

Now it's interesting that we find cases where people are demon-possessed in God's word.

We see Jesus comes in, he casts them out.

Like I stated, I've I've I've experienced this multiple times in my own pastoral leadership.

It's a real thing.

But you need to understand the difference between demon possession and demon oppression.

When the Spirit of God, Jesus, resides within you, you cannot be demon-possessed.

And by the way, you need to understand that this word, demon-possessed, is not even in God's word.

What the the real word is translated, it means demonized.

But unless you surrender every portion of your life, every compartment of your life to him, you can't have full protection.

You need to understand if there's a section in your life that you haven't surrendered, that you just like to visit every once in a while, that Satan can come in and have influence in your life.

When you sin, you open up a doorway or a window into the demonic world.

Paul mentions that in Ephesians, that Satan will use unresolved anger to influence you.

That Satan used Peter's fear for Peter to betray Jesus.

That we find that Satan uses King David's pride to be disobedient to God.

Well, Pastor Mark, whatever happened to Will, the devil made me do it.

He doesn't.

It's already in your spirit.

Now he blows that up, don't get me wrong, but he's not the initiator, but you are.

You've invited him into your life.

This has happens all the time, everyone, where I'm not demon-possessed because Jesus resides in me, but I've allowed Satan to demonize certain areas of my life.

I just can't get over this one thing, Pastor Mark.

It just keeps on plaguing me, plaguing me.

Man, you just keeping the door open.

Shut the door.

Stop inviting Satan.

Jesus gives us a really incredible picture in Luke chapter 11, I believe it's verse 21, speaking about a strong man in a house, saying that if you have a strong man in your house, a big buff dude, and he's controlling the house, he's talking about our bodies, our spirit, and he's controlling what's going on in the house.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

The only way to get the big man out, the only way to get the stronger man out of the house that's controlling everything is to get a stronger man.

And this is what Jesus is saying.

I'm the strong man.

I'll come out and I will kick Satan's hind end.

I think we all under maybe understand that, but a lot of times we don't kick Satan out in our life.

Do you guys understand what repentance means?

It means walking away, going a different direction.

That was your past life.

Stop opening windows into it.

Some of you need to clean out your house.

Some of you, Jesus, uh Satan may not be hanging out in the living room, but he's in the backyard barbecuing.

Barbecuing, good old ribeye of regret.

And you just go out there and have a little ribeye with Satan.

And then you come back in.

I do that on purpose, right?

I say off-collared things so you remember.

You don't remember anything I say unless I mess up somehow.

Or I say something offensive.

You need to understand this.

This pulls people out of you have the power to close these areas in your life.

Stop returning to those sins in your life.

Close the door.

Allow Jesus to reside in all compartments of your life.

No longer be demonized.

Some of you are dealing with the same sin that you dealt with when you're 14.

Because you just leave the door cracked a little bit.

Here's a gospel foundation, and we'll talk about that.

Jesus can kick Satan's ass.

There it is.

I wanted to say it that way.

He that is in me is greater than the world.

Because I say it that way.

You need to understand because you're you're in the midst of your maybe your addictions or your marriage falling apart or or your children dying, like all the horrors of the world.

And you need to understand that Jesus is greater than anything you can experience here.

Jesus is stronger than anything that Satan can drum up.

Jesus can forgive your past.

Sometimes it's amazing that that that is even possible.

Do you know the way I know you don't believe that?

It's because you ask for forgiveness for the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Like Jesus isn't strong enough to pay for that with his blood.

So again and again and again, like it's done, everyone.

You don't have to strive anymore.

And Jesus is the future.

He wins in the end.

And so no matter what you're going through in this life, the circumstances, the hate and the damage and all things, you can be confident that your joy comes from him because you know whatever I go through, he's in charge.

I said to a pastor this weekend, I said, Man, as long as you're God's man, no one can touch you.

No one can touch you.

So Paul lays out two very important things that I think are important.

We find these in Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

He says, I want you to be in verse 10, be strong in the Lord.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute, and in the strength of his might, and put on the whole armor of God that you may be able.

Able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

I want to talk about being strong in the Lord.

What does that mean?

And being able to stand against the schemes of Satan.

Here's our first kind of military stance that we have.

You need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

No, this is counterintuitive to how the world speaks to you.

They would say the opposite.

They would say, man, you are strong in this thing.

Maybe your ability or your talent.

And you're strong in this thing, you don't need God so much.

Or let me say it this way: you can't be strong in yourself and be strong in God.

And some of you look to the future and the nervousness of the future and you think, I gotta be strong in finances because I don't want to be weak in this area, or you're looking for your skills and ability.

I need to be strong in my skills and ability.

And I can go on and on and on about our fears, and I'm not saying we should just be lazy sitting on our hind ends doing nothing in our lives.

That's not my point.

But oftentimes, listen, every miracle in God's word started with a problem.

And if you have a concern or an issue or a problem, you're poised for a miracle in your life because Jesus will come in and change your life with his power.

So there's a chance that you probably feel strong right now in an area, and that's probably where you're the weakest.

Wherever you're strong, chances are it's actually where you're the weakest.

And you need to understand that, have that clarity.

I love how Paul keeps on using Abraham in this, for instance, where God comes in and lays an incredible uh prophecy and dream uh and promise to Abraham that that out of your family all of these nations will come and be blessed because of you.

And here's a 90-year-old man who can't get it uh together enough to be able to have kids.

He couldn't take enough vitamins.

I don't know if you ever seen a 90-year-old, but they're never on two in two bathtubs looking over a mountain range on some kind of commercial.

I'll let that resonate a little bit for you.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not over 50, probably.

I don't know.

I did not plan to be that offensive today.

That that was free.

That wasn't even that wasn't even my notes.

But here's Adam.

Here's Adam! I'm sorry, Abraham, who who who's weak.

Even our righteousness starts out this way, doesn't it?

Where there's nothing we can we can bring.

The righteousness we receive is a gift.

We can't be righteous enough.

We need to put our our our trust in the strength of God, not in ourselves.

And this is what being strong means.

Being strong in the Lord.

Where God, I'm I'm gonna walk into an area of my life that I think you want me to walk into.

I am not prepared.

I mean, I'm trying, Lord, trying to be organized.

I'll tell you right now, us moving into Marquette, there's just no way that I can control every aspect.

Even this morning, we were, we were, we were, we were not stressed, but trying to get things settled, some missing holes, different things like that.

Like you can you can worry about that, or you can just trust God and Lord, I'm I'm gonna hear your voice and I'm gonna move forward, I'm gonna take a step of faith, and I need you to come in.

If you don't come in, this whole thing's gonna be a mess.

Secondly, you need to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Now, this is super important, and this is where uh that the armor takes place in your life.

So I want I want you to pick up these pieces of armor, and I want this armor on you because you need every aspect of every compartment of your body and life covered in the gospel and the armor of God.

We've already established that.

So the importance of taking up the belt of truth in a in a world that is confused by what that actually even means to us.

The belt of truth is so important because we're always trying to determine what's right.

And when you walk into your school or your office building or down the street and you encounter different opinions, oftentimes instead of causing trouble, or or or we even though we we know the truth and we know God's word, we don't want to upset people around us.

And so we kind of just kind of sit back and not engage in that person that just happened the other day.

I was going to get some coffee and I saw someone there that at the coffee shop that I know, and he just he he knows I I have a a new granddaughter, and so he was talking to me about he, I don't believe him to be a follower of Jesus.

And I um he just started speaking all these things over my family, Pastor Mark.

Man, you need to give your your um, he knows I'm a pastor, but he he said, um, you need to give your your daughter-in-law a break.

I said, Okay.

Um and and and you need to get, you need to bring in a nanny, you need to uh take that child and put her in preschool.

He gave me a whole list of things because he said, hey, my wife went crazy and divorced me because I didn't do the right things.

And I said, man, I I appreciate you care enough for me to be able uh to say these things, but I said, I'm pretty sure we have a handle on it.

And I I had this moment where I thought, I just want to get my coffee and go home.

And so I was like, Mark, just be nice.

This is the selfish part of me.

Like I get tired after a while.

Like, it's every time I turn around the corner, I gotta preach the gospel and correct people.

Every time I walk into a building where someone's virtually singling, uh singling, single, signaling.

I know what I'm talking about.

I can't say it.

Do I gotta combat every piece of mistress?

Because silence is agreement.

And the only way now you can do it kindly.

I didn't have to take the battle axe of the gospel and beat this person down.

Hey, this is why this is why I don't have to worry about these things.

This is why I don't have to worry about my grand my my granddaughter being in danger.

Because we're firmly rooted in the gospel, and there's a covering in that because we put on the whole armor of God, he wants to take the truth out of your life, everyone.

And he wants to make giving the truth an inconvenience to you.

And some of you hold back because you don't want to cause any ripples in the systems, the demonic systems of the world.

Really, Satan has a couple of tra uh strategies.

He wants you to doubt God's word and he wants you to neglect God's word.

And again, in John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus says, I am the truth.

John 14:6

Paul reiterates that again in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

The truth is in a person, his name is Jesus.

You need the belt of truth firmly around your waist to hold up the very ideas that you walk around with and the mission of God and his redemption and forgiveness.

The gospel is important in your life.

It needs to infiltrate every aspect, compartment of your life.

Secondly, take up the breastplate of righteousness.

This really does two things.

This this fortifies the gospel in your life, it protects your vital organs.

It also you begin to think the way and care about the things that God cares about through the breastplate of righteousness.

Do you know in the Old Testament that the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation would come out because God is a God of justice, and sometimes he would use individuals who would pick up the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation and go out and administrate it, administrate justice in an injustice place.

We find in Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah says, Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no man to stand up for the affliction.

So he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head, and he went out and he administrated.

He brought forth justice in a world that is full of wounds and abuse and injustice.

And a part of you wearing the bright blight, just feeling the way that God feels when you see damage in the world, when you see sex trafficking going on, or or you see Muslims beheading Christians, or you see Lindsay Clancy murdering her three children.

It's just something that resides up inside of you.

A justice of God.

You need to understand that Jesus is returning, not as a savior, but a king of justice.

Because this world is so messed up that you're looking for opportunities.

Lord, I'm ready to speak your truth and speak your love to everyone that would listen to Lord today.

I'm looking for an opportunity to share your gospel in some way.

Lord, I'm ready.

I'm poised, I'm positioned.

Doesn't matter what kind of store I walk in, any kind of business room I walk in, give me, or coffee shop, Mark Broberg, give me the opportunity to declare your glory in who you are.

And above all else, take the shield of faith that stops the lies of Satan.

Lord, help me hold that shield of faith over my family, over my church, over my leadership.

Constantly, Satan is lying.

He's lying at your past matters, baby.

Your past matters.

Your marriage is going down.

You'll never walk again.

You'll never get a job.

Lies, lies, lies, lies.

This is why I've kind of hammered what Paul is hammering again and again in Ephesians when he talks about the length and the height and the breadth, the width, the depth of God's love for you.

It should bring this incredible confidence in your life.

I can withstand it all.

Which leads me to one of the most important ones, which is the helmet of salvation.

That I'm I'm covered.

That the gospel dominates my mind.

It dominates my my life.

And so I put on this helm of salvation, this helm of the gospel, and I just think differently.

I react differently.

Because it brings this confidence and fortification in my life.

So whatever Satan throws at me, I can just put my head down and move forward.

The world thinks we're crazy.

But they can't deny the power of God.

They just don't understand the advancement of his church and gospel and the word of God.

It's the only thing that survives this world.

Rome is gone.

Matter of fact, the only thing left from Rome is little Caesar's pizza.

And that's not even great pizza.

It's all gone.

His church.

This last two two Thursdays ago in the middle of the night.

Sometimes I get phone calls at two, three, four, five o'clock in the morning.

And um if you call me at two, three, four, five o'clock in the morning, and you're just wondering when church is starting.

This is why I don't hand out my phone my phone number, but um I'm I didn't mean to start this way in a funny way, it's a sad way.

Uh Pastor Herb Helso called me last Thursday at three o'clock in the morning.

And um he said very hysterical in a way.

Of course.

Um he said, my my twin boy Connor just died on a mountainside out in Alaska.

He was a he was a he was a uh a guide.

And Pastor Herb and Courtney were a part of our church for many years.

They pastored here.

They also are pastoring down in Lake City, Michigan.

And uh so I talked with Herb.

Um it was pretty rough.

Should be rough.

His boy was 18, everyone.

Twins.

Both boys weren't in the plane, just the one boy.

And as we had conversation with Herb over the next couple days, it was very evident from the moment that he experienced this, probably the greatest pain that you can experience.

It's like the apex of pain.

At the moment, he said something to me that he probably regrets, but in the moment of pain, I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this.

He said, This Jesus thing better be real.

I've been in a relationship with Herb for many, many years.

Doing incredible work.

Their church is just thriving in Lake City.

Um, but I I'm also nervous when this kind of pain comes.

I said, I said, Herb, don't make this a monument.

This is just a moment of pain.

Don't make any great decisions.

Just dive into this, your grief, and dive into Jesus in the next couple days with your wife.

A couple days later, he called me and said, Mark, I need you to come down to the funeral.

That's why Pastor Aaron was preaching last week, one of the reasons.

So I went down and he and he said to me simply this he said, Mark, this is why it's just bananas to me.

He said, Mark, I just want you to come in and I want you to preach Jesus.

That's it.

I don't even care if we talk about Connor so much.

I love my boy, I want to honor it.

Of course we did.

Don't get me wrong on that.

But primarily we were pleading with people to make a spiritual decision, the most important decision of their whole lives.

So here I watch a pastor and his wife get up front and declare who Jesus is.

I got up and preached my best to declare who Jesus is, and he's the only, the only real choice in this life of damage.

I'm sure there were people there who looked at Pastor Herb and Pastor Courtney as crazy for the way that they brought glory to God.

But he's the only hope we have.

And the opportunity, they were ready with the gospel of peace to share the gospel in the most damaging time of their life, the most hurtful, grief-stricken time of their life.

Herb stood on the stage and closed out that service, pleading with people to make a decision for Jesus.

Insane to the world's standards.

This is the kind of fortification you need in your life.

Not only to make the stand and be strong in the Lord, but to advance his kingdom, putting on his full equipment, having every aspect of your life covered in the gospel so Satan cannot demonize certain areas of your life.

And lastly, the sword of the Spirit that cuts to the heart of truth, gives you the ability to speak truth and compassion and mercy and forgiveness to make a stance.

And I ask Pastor Noah, hey, just grab the scalpel, open me up, fidget with my heart a little bit, and we'll be okay.

Well, you laugh because that's insane, right?

I want whoever's using the scalpel to be fully confident in their knowledge of God's word.

So consume it, understand it.

There's power in here.

And of course, physical sickness, you know, spiritual sickness, in my opinion, is worse.

And yet we allow all kinds of people, kind of we open ourselves up to all kinds of teaching on the internet, everyone.

That's just pure foolishness.

Some of you waste so much of your time.

And most of you right now are thinking of other people.

Yeah, he's waiting.

You're not thinking about yourself right now.

Praying all times.

We'll talk a little bit about this more next week.

But I want you to just give you a prayer to pray.

Sometimes I don't give you enough practice.

Some of you are are just new to all this.

And I understand that.

I think it's beautiful.

It's great.

It's an adventure.

But I want to be able to give you the tools to be able to begin to pray, maybe learn how to pray out loud.

So I'm just giving you a short, simple prayer.

Maybe, maybe you can just begin to use this in your life every single day to kind of walk you through that.

I want to encourage you to get in God's Word, be here on Sunday, be in a small grandchild group, get your children.

Your children, you should know God's word, and your children should know God's word.

You should be preaching this stuff at home, everyone.

Father, there is nothing I can do today that would make you love me more.

Nothing I did yesterday that makes you love me less.

You are all I need for everlasting joy.

As you have been to me, I'm going to be to other people.

Everything the gospel tells me about your intentions are true, so I want you to bless me.

Give me your wisdom and your presence in my life as I carry your gospel with me.

People always ask me in the morning, Mark, how are you doing?

I said, I don't know.

Call me at nine.

It's a battle, everyone.

You gotta be fortified.

Because your enemy seeks to destroy you.

Father, Lord, right now you're moving in incredible ways.

And Antonogd and Lantz and Ishbaming, soon to be Marquette.

Lord, we know as we advance your gospel that there will be moments for Satan to come in and attack and weaken us, Lord, that we would be fortified.

There's this is beautiful, Lord, that you have directed us to talk about these things as we begin to move into Marquette with your gospel, Father.

Lord, that you would give us a protection, Father, an incredible spiritual protection across all of our campuses as we move your kingdom forward in your gospel.

And we ask all of this as we come, Father, with issues in our lives, Lord.

James, the brother Jesus says that if we have problems or issues or healing that we need in our lives, that we would come forward, and the elders of the church will lay hands on us and anoint us for oil.

So we're in obedience in that, Father.

We step into your presence, we step into your glory.

Lord, we want to drop our will.

We need heaven's will in our lives.

So we ask this in Jesus' holy and precious name, amen.