Three Enemies: Stand Firm
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here uh grab a Bible and go to Matthew chapter 6 we are finishing up our series three enemies today um we have been taking some time to consider that as Christians as those who are trying to follow Jesus and be uh conformed to his image that we have enemies that are at work against us to keep us from doing that and the the three enemies that we've talked about are the World the Flesh and the devil that the Bible is going to tell us that all three of these in different forms and different Fashions and in different ways are at work against us.
Our hope in this series is to try to help develop a radar for these enemies that we would be aware of them we would be looking for them we would begin to notice where they're at work in our lives it's it's like when you went to buy a vehicle and you found one that you were like this is this is one I'm going to I'm going to drive and as soon as you got it you realized you started seeing them everywhere you're like everybody's driving a black Saturn what the heck.
But you started noticing them all the time because you now had found one and saw it on the road and now you see it everywhere and that's kind of what we're hoping is that we would begin to have some sort of uh awareness of these enemies so that we might not be caught unaware or offguard but that we might be able to respond to them so here's what we've said I'm going to we're going to take a minute we're going to get to Matthew 6.
But but we're going to uh catch ourselves up a little bit on what we've been talking about so we said we have three enemies and they work this way together deceitful ideas that play to disordered Desires normalized in a sinful Society so that Satan lies one of the primary ways that he works is that he lies he puts deceitful ideas out there and that he's working against God's truth because all truth is God's truth and all truth ultimately is going to lead us to Christ as we find what is real in the world we're going to be led to God's glory his creation and the work of.
Jesus so the enemy is anywhere but home he's trying to work us anywhere uh but Jesus he's lying and that we have disorder desires that you and I want to sin that there's part of us that wants to pursue sin and so we want to believe some of these lies and the problem with lies that we believe is that we think they're true you the thing about blind spots is that you can't see them and so sometimes you're like no that's not a lie that's true and it's like right.
But you believe it but it's not true and so the enem is lying there's part of us that wants to believe it and then it gets normalized in a sinful society that collectively were surrounded by other Sinners who also believe lies it's a little bit like uh when you're running late for class and you're hustling and then you see someone else who's in that class and y'all laugh and immediately slow down because now you're not late by yourself you got a teammate and it changes the whole thing and that's the way this gets normalized in a sinle society is that we we.
Look around and go well they're doing that and they're doing that and I'm not treating my money the way that person treats their money and I'm not treating my spouse the way they treat their spouse so I'm doing okay and we normalize sinful patterns that's the way the enemy works and so what we've said is we've spent a lot of time talking about the way these enemies work what they do how they show up and then we've given some responses some practices uh in a way that we would respond against these things and our hope.
Today is to spend more time time on the practices to be a little more practical today so here's what we've said we' said we've got deceitful ideas disordered Desires in a sinle society and so as we've talked about this we said we have deceitful ideas which means that we need truth and then we said okay so if we need to fight against deceitful ideas and we need truth then we need to read the Bible specifically the way we talked about was that we need to live in the Bible you need to know your Bible you need to know what's there it needs to be uh familiar to you.
And so that we want to be people who read our Bibles know our Bibles memorize our Bibles this is honestly this series is a little bit odd for us we're still studying the Scriptures but most of the time as a Church we just work straight through a book of the Bible because we want to know our Bibles and as soon as this week's over next week we pick up with another book of the Bible we're just going to work through it.
Because we want to be people who know and believe our Bibles we want to fight the lies with truth we have disordered desires and we want to respond with faith trusting that Jesus really is better than everything else that he really is better than the thing that I'm wanting and so that we would be people who confess and repent practice self-control follow the lord in obedience so that we would be people who know our Bibles and that respond with self-control and obedience and confession and repentance that we would practice these things that have been a part of the Church forever.
And then we said we live in a sinful Society we need a counterculture we need to be particularly here what we've said is join a community group belong to a people who are trying to follow Jesus together that you need good peer pressure you need people who uh believe that you should be reading the Bible and following Jesus and expect that from you so if the enemy works this way deceitful ideas uh show the whole sentence deceitful ideas that play to disordered desires that are normalized in a sinful Society what we want is biblical truth that leads to Faith that is normalized in a.
Jesus loving Community that's what we want biblical truth that leads us to to respond in faith that's normalized in a Jesus loving Community now if you've been here for a while if it's your first day we're glad you're here welcome also I'm running through a whole bunch of stuff we've been talking about for a long time and I'm going really fast you're like what is going on a recap of like five weeks just so that we're all tracking but if you've been here a.
While and you read that you go wait a second that's what y'all say all the time yeah that's what the Church has been doing forever y'all this is from the book of Acts this is Acts 2:42 it's the Church has just been the Holy Spirit has just gone to work and it says this and they that's the new Christians devoted themselves to the apostles teaching what's the apostles teaching that's the word that's turns into eventually becomes the gospels and the letters and it's it's the teaching of the Old Testament in Light of Christ.
So they devoted themselves to the word they devoted themselves to the Bible and being devoted to it meant they practiced it that these were people who had just repented and were now practicing what it meant to follow Jesus they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellow Fellowship what's that that's each other the other people who are following and practicing and following Jesus and some of you were like I like my Bible but I don't like people yeah but your Bible that you say you like is going to tell you that you have to love those people it thankfully tells them to love you too and you need to belong you need to be.
A part of following Jesus together you're like well people are difficult yeah and you're being a little difficult in this conversation if I'm being honest welcome to the club you need to belong you need to participate in what it's like to belong to people we need to walk this out together and then it says to the breaking of bread and the prayers the breaking of bread would have been sharing meals in homes it also would have been the intentional meals gathered around communion this idea of Jesus's broken body.
For us this was a Gospel people that shared life together and the prayers and so that's what we're talking about today practices and prayer because that's where I had you turn in Matthew 6 we're going to look at a prayer and we're going to see that as we've talked through these enemies that we ought to be mindful of them on a regular basis in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid one of the Best Westerns ever Butch and Sundance are hired to defend somebody who's going to pick up payroll he runs a mining company he's got to go pick up payroll got to return it and he needs protection.
When he has all this money so they he they're going with him to go pick up the payroll and they're riding down the mountain and Butch and Sundance are back there behind him talking and Sundance says I'm telling you they're hiding in the trees and Butch says no no no they're behind the Rocks sudden he says no it's the trees he says no it's the Rocks they said well you watch the trees I'll watch the Rocks finally the the guy who's hired him stops and turns around and says morons I got morons on my team which I heard my dad quote to me like a thousand times in my life whenever me and my brothers.
Were doing something stupid this just came out of his mouth I got morons on my team and then he says they ain't going to rob us going down the mountain cuz we ain't got no money going down the mountain they're going to rob us when we're coming back up the mountain and they're morons because they were looking for enemies that weren't there I would like to submit to you that we might be morons of a different fashion we are not looking.
For enemies that are there that we're Trucking along not being aware of these enemies at play in our lives and I want you to see as we look at the model prayer that Jesus teaches that he's aware of them and he intends for us to be aware of them in our normal everyday life as we follow him that we ought to be Christians who are mindful of our enemies as we seek to follow Jesus so we're going to talk this morning about practices and prayer let's pray pray.
And then we'll jump into Matthew 6 Lord we ask for your help we pray that you would uh multiply the effectiveness and helpfulness of us studying this together that we would be people who are aware and watchful of our enemies but not fearful that we would be people who understand the victory in you but then get to apply it and live it out as we practice what it looks like to follow you and Lord we specifically today ask that you'd help us to wrap our minds around this more personally in the situations that we're facing and to learn to pray as you've taught in.
Jesus name amen so what Jesus teaches in the model prayer is not a magic formula of something to repeat it is not a mantra to say over and over again it is a model he specifically says right before this don't just say empty phrases but he gives them a way to pray that would teach us how to pray and if you're learning how to pray it's an excellent pattern to follow so I'm going to read it all the way through.
Then we'll go through it in pieces he says pray then like this this is Matthew 6 starting in verse 9 we're going to go through verse 13 pray then like this Our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil so go back to verse n he says this is how you ought to pray and he starts with our.
Father in heaven Hallowed be your name both acknowledging the connection that we have to God that he's our father that he loves us that he cherishes us that he cares for us that we can approach him and that he's holy that he ought to be honored revered and respected and then he says your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven that we are to be mindful that he's the king of all things and that we want his kingdom to advance and we want more people to follow.
Jesus and we want his will to be done in the world around us and and in US many of our prayers should be let your will be done in me that I might look the way I'm supposed to and that the the relationships I'm in and the world I'm in might look more and more like heaven as we follow you and he says give us this day our daily bread that we might pray about the needs we have and be aware of the provision that he provides daily to be thankful.
For it but expectant on it and dependent on him and this also means that this is a normal daily prayer that he expects this to be a regular way that we pray and then he says this and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil y'all that's our three enemies he says that we're supposed to ask for forgiveness of sins our debt to him is sin other places will say forgive us our trespasses or forgive us our sins as we forgiven those who've sinned against us that's what that is that we would repent of sin we be aware that we're Sinners.
Lead us not into temptation we're to be aware that there's a world around us both filled with people that tempt us and situations that tempt us that are calling us into sin that we'd be mindful of that and Deliver Us from Evil some of the versions will say evil one or have an as they say this can be translated evil one it's this personification of evil it's Satan it's the enemy that we would be delivered from the enemy that Jesus says your normal daily way to pray is to be mindful of your three enemies I I have found in my relationships with people and talking with people that a lot of times we're aware of.
Some of these some of you may not pray like this at all ever about any of them a lot of us are aware of some of them so that you're may be aware that you're a sinner you like I'm messing everything up and I'm I'm the one who causes so much trouble and I'm the reason everything's wrong and you might might be able to clearly sometimes see your sin some of you that one doesn't show up on your radar at all you're great everyone else around you is the worst.
If they would just listen to you when you talk their problems would be solved and it's like hey yeah you might want to start praying that you could see your sin and that you would be forgiven and that you'd be forgiving that you'd see your sin some people notice Temptation you're aware of it you see patterns and situations that you get in that cause you problems you talk to parents sometimes they see this one for their kids my kids great but they just they've been hanging out with a badg crowd my precious little perfect little gold-hearted angel just hanging out with some bad people it's like I think they're like.
Second in command to that team like I yeah there's some Temptation yeah you need to be aware of it but it's not the only thing there are other things as well but some of us are completely blind to this you don't you you maybe know that you're a sinner but you don't think at all about patterns and systems that you have set up and things that tempt you some of you do most of your sinning after 10 p.m. go to sleep some of you need to.
Look and realize hey I I hang out with a bunch of morons and I act like a kiss some new friends change some of your patterns change some of your habits be aware of some of the Temptations around you some of us are mindful that we have an enemy you'll talk to some people sometimes that are aware that there's an enemy they'll be mindful of that a lot of us aren't a lot of us because we're westerners Americans we maybe have a place.
For the enemy because the Bible says it but no real functional process for how we would think about that or pray about that and so it's like yeah the devil exists and he does things but there's no he doesn't lie to me and there's no way that I'd be have to be worried about that there are some people who overthink it I've talked to people before and they're like yeah Satan was in my toaster what was he how why what maybe you just need a new toaster like I don't even know how you're processing through this.
But for most of us we're not thinking about that at all we're not watchful and sober minded as Peter says that we would look out for an enemy who wouldn't want us to follow Jesus wouldn't want us to have joy wouldn't want us to raise our kids to love Jesus wouldn't want us to read our Bibles wouldn't want us to fight through for what is good would actively try to keep us from belonging to people and repenting of sin that we have an actual enemy and we're blind to that.
Jesus says no this is how we ought to pray this is what normal should look like and what's beautiful about this one of my favorite things that I find so encouraging about it is we just get to pray like that all the time we don't have to be investigators all the time figuring out exactly which one it is we just get to be aware that all of those enemies are usually at work in most situations they're all there helping if you'd say this is 100% me it's like maybe I mean you're a sinner you're 100% involved.
But I would say enem is probably at work I'd say there's probably some the world at work if you say no this is 100% the world like if if I wasn't tempted at all I'd never SE a yeah but you were there and you sin so I would think you're involved the enemies involved like they're all involved there was a movie I watched when I was probably 11 I maybe watched this I don't know 450 times it's the movie major pain.
So that maybe tells you a little bit about my my life growing up in the movie major pain uh it's a it's a guy who is like a very good military leader person killed a lot of folks at the beginning of the movie he gets told that he there's nobody left to kill and he's got to go run an ROTC program with children he actually looks at him and says there's got to be somebody needs some killing they say no you got to go run this.
For children at one point one of the kids comes to him in the middle of the night scared says there's a bad man in his closet there's a monster in the closet he walks over and says that closet he says yes he pulls his gun out and just shoots into the closet pow pow pow pow pow pow pow puts his gun up looks at the little kid and says if he's still in there he ain't happy and that's the way I feel about this a little bit we we got three closets we got three enemies we don't have to open them all up all the time and figure out exactly what's going on we can.
Trust the work of the spirit to help us see some of that but we also get to just shoot into every closet we get to say Lord please forgive me I know I'm a sinner I know I'm wrong I know specifically I sinned here forgive me of that but I also know that I don't always think about things right so help me help me turn from my sin help me run from my sin please forgive me help me to be gracious.
And then you get to say Lord help me keep me far from Temptation I don't know exactly know all the ways that I'm in the middle of this and I'm trying to figure that out but help me guard me and then Lord I don't know where the enemies at work here but I know he's a liar and I know he hates me and I know he hates you and so for protect me deliver me from the work of the enemy here.
Let me not listen to him let me listen to your spirit and we just get to pray all three and we don't have to go well I don't know if that's involved or that just just normal prayer is all of them so here here's what we're going to do with the time we have left we're going to do two case studies for lack of a better way to put it we're going to take two topics and consider them and we're going to consider how the practices how the enemies would be at work how the practices and praying will help us fight against them.
So how's the enemy at work here how are the enemies at work here and how does following these practices and praying in this way help we're going to take two they may or may not perfectly apply to you but we're trying to walk through this thought process so that in the situations that you're facing in the struggle that you're facing you can see a little bit of okay I can see how this works together and I can see how we would pray.
So that's what we're going to do the first one we're going to talk about is sexual sin or sexual Temptation now we talk about this topic a good bit and part of the reason we do that is because our culture never shuts the heck up about it it's not like it's our favorite thing to talk about it's just that we're we're going to talk about it some when we gather together and then you're going to go hear a thousand messages on this topic during this week there are some things that we can just tell you the Bible says and nobody else is arguing we can teach you about David and what he did we don't.
Need to tell you that over and over again because nobody else is trying to tell you David did something different they don't care but when we tell you what the Bible says about this you're going to go out and every ad you watch and every show you watch is going to preach a different message and so we talk about this some so we're going to talk about this this morning so first how are the enemies working together well Satan's lying and he's put some things out there that are culturally accepted some of the lies are in order to be a full happy human you have to be sexually satisfied otherwise you're deficient as a person.
Uh sexual desire is just it's like an appetite it's like hunger you get hungry you eat you get thirsty you drink we have desires fulfill them this should just be something that just happen s it should be cheap and easy and free that's one of the lies then on the other side you have this is so supremely important to real genuine relationships in love it's the Bedrock of all healthy relationships and it's essential to existence cheap easy free essential to love and existence and fulfillment which both of those can't really be true that's not how stuff works it's either special or it's not it's either everywhere or it's like you.
But this is what's put out in front of us and then we have disordered desires so you have your own desires some of our desires aren't even physical or sexual they're I want to be liked I want this relationship to work I I want to be normal I want to participate in what life is supposed to be like so you not even really your own desires but just what the world told you you're supposed to chase after I want to have uh this relationship continue I want I want I want this to be special I want to be loved I want to be desired and we participate with our own disordered desires.
And then our culture co-signs all of this non-stop it leads to misery added into that is now the belief that these desires actually Define who you are whatever you feel here is actually essential to your soul so free easy like hunger also the core of your identity we hear those so much we hadn't even considered the fact that those can't coexist so how do the practices help us well if we're reading our Bibles we're going to see a few things one sexual immorality is sin sin is destructive.
So the idea that this will help you in some way be fulfilled complete help your relationship help your uh dating help your whatever make you feel happy make you feel full fix your identity no it can't because misplaced it's sin now we're told that it's not gross or evil it's a gift given to marriage it's a covenantal gift meaning that you're supposed to participate in it fully and Covenant you're saying all of me belongs to all of you and whether you know John Legend is playing in the background or not I don't know.
But that's what you're saying like I'm fully yours All of Me belongs to all of you it's a covenantal ceremony but if that's not true it's destructive this is where Paul says that you're you've got you're becoming one flesh that there's a union that's taking place and so it's meant to be something that only happens inside of a marriage so you're reading through this and you're starting to see the Bible's in forming a picture of something you know what else it says it's not essential to being a human Paul says I wish everybody were Lov like me didn't need this weren't burning with passion and could just focus on.
Jesus not have to get married and just be missionaries and get after it and tell people about Christ and not worried about what their husband wanted their wife wanted not be caught up in domestic duties and raising children that's what Paul says so it's not a essential to you existing and being healthy or happy so you're studying the word this is changing you you're waking up in the morning and reading your Bible we're supposed to live in the Bible so you're reading this at night before you go to bed you're writing verses down and putting them in your pocket and memorizing them you're listening to this as you go to work.
Because you've got to get this in your head and you're studying the Scriptures all the time and it's not all the stuff the Scriptures talk about but you keep running into these things that are helping you that are helping reframe and change you start realizing wait if the Bible says this and the Bible's true then that can't be true you start repenting you you gather with your group and you actually start confessing things to them start telling them what's going on you tell them the lies you've been believing you tell them the frustrations you've been feeling you tell them the sins and you get to confess not.
Because you've got to get all that out to get fixed but because Jesus is so good that when we bring these things to him he heals us he redeems that we've got to turn away from sin in a way that rescues us and so we're confessing not just to them but to Jesus we're walking out in Repentance what it means to follow Christ and then we have a group of people who start asking us questions we don't want to answer somebody in your group says.
Okay you want me to start texting you at 10: all right you want us to all start going on your dates and you never get to see this person alone again and you're like no and they're like well do you want to keep sinning and you're like No And it's like well I'm your new third wheel I really like putt putt we don't want you to to pursue sin we don't want things to fall apart for you so we're invested we're coming we want to be a part of this with you we're going to start praying.
For you and pleading for you and expecting that you would love Jesus more than you love this sin and so that's what starts happening and then you start praying asking for forgiveness specifically confessing to the Lord what's going on praying against patterns and temptations and understanding that there are situations you get yourself in asking the Lord to help and you start praying hey Lord I know that the enemy lies to me and I know that he doesn't want me to love you more than I love this and in the name of.
Jesus I want to listen to you not him so he doesn't get to mess with me he doesn't get to mess with my thoughts he doesn't get to claim parts of my soul I don't get if I don't belong to him I belong to you so Deliver Me From Evil and you start praying that regularly the second one I want to talk about as a case study is marriage again one of the reasons is that our culture does not help us here.
Because if you are married you have married a sinner they have too but it's way more obvious to you that they are but that's how it works it's difficult it hurts it's hard at sometimes extremely hard and the enemy lies if you were really supposed to be married it wouldn't be this difficult you've made a mistake divorce will fix this and it's actually your only route to happiness you can't live your whole life this way you're going to be miserable forever this is the only way to fix this they've changed they're not the person you married they'll never change.
Jesus can't fix this which often those Lies come in at the same time and they can't both be true that this person's changed but will never change if Jesus is going to stand over you and make you stay in this marriage then he's more like a prison Warden than a savior and do we really trust him should you really trust him is he really good which is as old as the garden we have disordered desires I'm so angry I'm so hurt I don't want to have to do all the work to fix this I don't think it's fixable I anything that cosign my desire to get out feels.
So true so good so helpful and we're surrounded by a world that makes divorce easy as easy as it can be it's it's extremely difficult you're supposed to be happy as defined by you at this moment and anything that stands in the way of that is the enemy should be removed so how do the practices help us and how is praying help us well for reading our Bibles we will first be confronted by how absolutely good Jesus is how kind and merciful helpful and forgiving how Sovereign and trustworthy that he loves us.
So much that he would come and die to make us his and that he hates sin and everything that tears us apart and that he loves us so that he's with us mercifully and graciously in the midst of this difficulty that he can be trusted we'll also see that marriage is a covenant not a contract and that it's based off of Christ's love for the Church which means that even in the middle of difficult marriages we can still display his goodness.
Because our world understands why you would stay in a good marriage and our world understands why you would leave a bad one Christians get to point to Jesus as we stay in by what is by all worldly standards bad and say I'm holding on to something that's more true I'm holding on to something that's more good and I'm TR trusting that Jesus can go to work here and I'm trusting that he's good enough for me in the middle of this difficulty and I'm trusting that he can work in this person's heart and I can stay and grow to be faithful.
So you begin to repent knowing that you're not 100% right in the situation and that even if you're the one who primarily has been sinned against that there are things where you need the Lord to work in your heart and how you're responding to that and anger and frustration and bitterness and is asking the Lord for help and mercy and Grace you're confessing but you're also asking for his work in you to be faithful and to trust him and love him more and you have your Church family around you every person in our Church.
When you come to them to talk about marriage difficulty should be heartbroken with you and should say stay in every person say you you need to you need to let's lament but let's keep fighting let's keep pressing in towards what is good because that's how the Church is meant to work now these may not have applied to you it might have applied too much to you but this is how we want to walk out what it looks like to follow Jesus we want to be people who practice these things things who are in our Bibles who live in them abide in them y'all my my group comes to my house I I host a community.
Group every week I move my trash can from my pantry to a spot where it's easy for everybody to know where it is and then like a I walk into my P Pantry 37 times while my group is at the house holding trash I I kid you not I have carried my trash can set it down grabbed a piece of trash walked to my pantry because I know where it is and I live here this is where it is all the time that's the way we ought to be with our Bibles we ought to know where things are it ought to be.
Second nature for us to be able to walk and just be a part of what the Scripture says we ought to know it we ought to live and abide in the Bible that's what we're going for we want to be that kind of people we want to be people who are genuinely repenting who love Jesus and see that he's good he's calling us into hope that he loves us so much he would die for us so that he's trustworthy with everything and we ought to not trust ourselves.
So much and know that Lord there's stuff that's wrong with me and I need your help and I know that you're actually more trustworthy than I am because I'm not willing to put up with pain to pull me away from what's broken but you were willing to die to do it Lord I need your help and then we need our Church family you remember in middle school when two people if you went to a home school this may not have happened this way.
But if you're in public school uh two people said they were going to fight well usually it was one person that said something but there was like a runner you know uh middle schoolers aren't the best at communication until there's going to be a fight and then communication lines are crystal clear so somebody would go to one and say hey Mark said he's going to beat you up and they you look you know they say oh are you scared well I'm not scared all right you walk back Mark he said he ain't scared you back and forth Mark say there going to be two hits he going to hit you and you going to hit.
The ground you got a group of people around well uh you go back hey Mark he said why don't you go outside and practice falling down he'll be out in a minute and at the end of the day wherever it was playground behind the gym whatever there was a circle of middle schoolers and Mark and the other guy were inside the circle and you might think that this circle is just sinful and we you've made promises you've confessed you following Jesus don't don't get out of this you want to stay in you want to keep fighting you want to keep pressing towards what's good we're meant to gather around each other.
When you try to leave say no no no no no no no no no stay don't run after something stupid Jesus is so much better I know you can't see that right now but he's so much better don't don't go any don't go anywhere that's our hope that we would be people who believe biblical truth that leads to Faith that is normalized and Jesus Ling Community that's what we want and y'all we have three enemies but we have one savior who has defeated all of those enemies who has redeemed us from sin who judges and rules over the world that he has a kingdom that is coming and that his his will will be done.
On Earth as it is in heaven he will fully consummate this at some point it will fully belong to him and that we get to follow after him trusting him to go to work in us and go to work in our Church family and get to pursue after the work that he's already accomplished on the cross and getting to participate in it and so our hope is that we would stand firm in our one savior as we Face Off against three very real enemies that we need to be mindful of.
But not fearful of because we have a king let's pray Lord we need the work of your spirit we need your help Lord we thank you that there's forgiveness through the work of Christ this is not about us earning anything but it is about us getting to participate in the Glorious Redemption of Jesus to the praise of his glorious Grace Lord we're tempted tempted to believe lies tempted to pursue things that will harm us tempted to chase after things that will destroy our souls and lead us away from you tempted to believe in.
So many ways so many times that something else is better than you and we ask that you would lead us away from Temptation and help us to see how gloriously good you are and father we have an enemy who lies to us who tells us you don't really love us that this situation won't get better that we are broken and it'll never get fixed that that our Church family doesn't want us around that we're a burden that nobody cares about us that all these things things on repeat that this would satisfy me this will fill me up.
If I could just have this I'd be happy and we pray in the name of Jesus that you would shut his mouth you would strike him on the cheek and break the teeth of the enemy and that we would be people who would pray mindful of our enemies but oh so much more mindful of you our glorious King that our eyes will be set on you and that we would not fall prey to anything else we submit this to you in your grace and your sovereignty in.
Jesus name amen this morning we get to celebrate baptism baptism is a public profession of Faith it's a outward sign a representation of something that has already happened inwardly this is displayed in the way we go about baptism the person doesn't get in announce to you hey I used to be messed up but I'm fixing that now and then bathe themselves in front of you there's actually people who are in there with them representing the Church representing Christ they are baptized backwards.
Because they're buried in their sin buried with Christ y'all if they don't they're dead they were dead in their sin and they're buried with their sin if they don't come back up they actually die that's what it's representing so we bury them and then we raise them again washed and risen to New Life In Christ that when he was buried they were buried when when he died for their sin their sin died and they get to walk in newness of life.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus and they have a hope of Resurrection that is what baptism is proclaiming and we praise Christ for his salvation and we praise Christ for his hope and we praise him specifically for Two Souls today that get to join us in following Jesus in faith and baptism proclaiming that their hope is in Christ.