Episode 949: Stranger Things | Part 1

Well, let's jump into our new series about the stranger things that are out there. You know, the paranormal has become kind of a buzz word and things that are really popular in our culture day. Oh, yeah, we'll be in second, first John today, by the way, first John in Ephesians 6. And paranormal just means alongside the normal, but I want to use a different word. In fact, one that scripture would really be more descriptive of it. And that's the word supernatural, which means above the natural. And I believe it is in human nature to try to come up with explanations for the inexplicable. We know that there's more to this life than what we can see here, touch, taste, or smell. There's this other world that seems to impinge on our own. There are things that happen that we can't always explain. Now, you should know that God affirms the existence of this alternate reality. He tells us in his word how we can relate to it, how it relates to us. That's what I'm going to talk about today. Now some always put the supernatural into the category of superstitious, but I believe when you do that, you kind of get better your head in the sand a little bit and deny the reality of what's going on. John stopped the great theologian. One of my favorites said, "The devil is at his wildest when he succeeds in persuading people that he doesn't exist." You think that's the truth of it. Whatever your disbelief might be this morning, I'm just going to ask that you suspend your disbelief for the rest of this message so that we might really dive in to what the Bible says. We do have an enemy and that enemy is powerful, yet that enemy is limited. We have to know that. You see, he is not. The devil is not the opposite and equal of God. That's actually a pagan philosophy called Taoism. You see, God is different than the devil. God can be everywhere, but Satan cannot. What adds to the illusion that Satan can be everywhere is the fact that demons exist all over the world. In fact, I believe if you are a follower of Jesus, you probably have encountered the demonic at one point in your life or another. We have to be prepared for those encounters, don't we? One of my favorite signs was seeing at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. That said, "An untrained soldier is just a target." What I want for you, as your pastor who does care for you, I do want you to be prepared so that you won't be attacked in ways that you are not ready for. Demons, they are looking for easy targets. Those who don't understand that life is a battlefield, we don't understand what we are up against sometimes. Those who don't know how to stand against it. You see, their Christian life is not a playground. It's a battlefield, isn't it? What that means is that we are more than sons, saints, servants or stewards. We are also soldiers, aren't we? Some of us don't like that imagery. The imagery of soldiers. Because we know what happens in war. Some of us don't like that. But the Bible is informing us about our daily existence, that we are in a battle, that there are victims and victors, that there are allies and there are enemies. There are offensive and defensive measures. So let's dive right into the outline. And our big caution is, listen, don't give the devil too much credit. I've shared a few times the very first Christian book that I ever read when I became a Christian was the screw tape letters by C.S. Lewis. It's a fictional account of these demons and how this uncle is training his nephew, Wormwood, is the nephew's name on how to attack and how to defeat those Christians down there. So C.S. Lewis describes this a little bit. He says, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils." One is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both error. So the truth is, is that that's where we are on the spectrum. That most of us either completely ignore this supernatural realm or we completely obsess over it. When the Bible tells us about the source of our problems, there's not just one source, but there are actually three that I want to touch on in this part of the outline. The first is the world, the world system. As a Wyatt and Wyatt read a moment ago from 1 John 2, I want to read the next part of that passage where it says, "Don't love the world's ways. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father." Practically everything that goes on in the world, wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important, has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. So we live in that world, don't we? We live in a world system whose values are absolutely counter to God's values. So did the devil have a hand in creating this world system? Well yes, but he had a willing accomplice in each and every one of us. I love Chuck's window. I'll always love just preaching. And he said this about this world system. He said the world system is committed to at least four major objectives, fortune, fame, power and pleasure. And I think he's exactly right about that. So one of the reasons we feel this constant pull in the wrong direction is the environment that we're immersed in each and every day. The next challenge is the flesh. I want to read from the message, it's paraphrase, but I just think it captures Ephesians 5 in such a unique way. It says, "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, astinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless graphs for happiness, trinket gods, magic show religion, paranoid loneliness, cutthroat competition, all consuming yet never satisfied once, abriddled temper and imponence to love or to be loved, divided homes and divided lives, small-minded and lopsided pursuits, the vicious habit of the personalizing everyone into arrival, uncontrollable addictions, ugly parodies of community, and almost tongue and cheek," he says, "I could go on." See many of our problems are doing it yourself job, aren't they? Even if there wasn't a devil, we are our own worst enemy. So let's look at the third and final one, and that is the devil and his minions. Now this Ephesians chapter 6 is another one of our texts today. Now this chapter deals with the armor of God, some of you are familiar with the armor of God, and we're going to talk about that next week. So it will be in that context, but this week let's go ahead and read the opposite part of that or what the armor of God is battling against. He says in verse 11, "Put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the devil throws your way." This is no afternoon athletic contest that will walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps a life or death fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels. What I have learned in my own walk with the Lord is that the devil does his best work after we have fallen. See the devil knows that he can't get unconscious control of you. In other words, he can't literally possess you as a Christian. So he does the next best thing. He gets you to keep God from having full control over you. And how does he do that? Well again, in the context of after you fallen, he does that because after you fallen, what do you tend to do? You cut yourself off from your community. In other words, your life group, your Sunday school class, your Bible study, and then to cut yourself off from God himself. You stop reading your Bible. You stop spending time and prayer. And that's where the devil does his best work. In fact, what is the devil? He's called the accuser. That's the very definition of the word devil. The word the devil means those, the one who throws accusations and so what happens? When you mess up, he wants you to believe that you've done a permanent job. If he can mess with your assurance, and that's why you'll hear me. If you've been here for any length of time, you'll hear me stress the assurance that no one can take you out of God's hand. The reason I stress assurance is because if he can mess with your assurance, in other words, challenge that, make you doubt your assurance that you are a child of God, then you'll take yourself out of the game. Again, you'll take yourself out of church and community and all those things and away from God. And then he's got you on the sideline. He's got you right where he wants you. So those are the three elements of the battle that we're dealing with. Next, we need to know some things about our enemies. We look at number two in our outlines. And let's look at what scripture says about exactly what demons do. We see four things. They promote false teaching. They're associated with idolatry. They create division among God's people. They aid Satan in his war against God. And all of these things work to depose the kingdom of God. And Paul tells us that their favorite disguise is an angel of what? Light. Yes, 2 Corinthians 11, 14. We tend to think of the demonic as the guy with the horns and a pitchfork, but that's Dante. That's not Bible, is it? The demonic comes as your best friend. He comes to you in the best light possible. [BLANK_AUDIO] to convince you that he's looking out for your best interest. That's exactly how he presented himself with Adam and Eve. He convinced them, "God is trying to withhold something good from you." And if you believe that lie, that God is trying to withhold something good from you, then everything else is easy. See the phrase sometimes translated "demon possession" is from a word that means demonize. It means a demon type of passivity. So rather than getting caught up in the possession part, think of it as a spectrum that a demon can influence you. A demon can irritate you. A demon can even tempt you, but there's also a level of control that can happen as a result of those things. But you should also know that there's no example in the Bible whatsoever where a Christian can be possessed or overtaken by a demon. In fact, that was one of the most common questions I received in Africa when we were serving as missionaries there. And I would say this, places like Africa, we tend to maybe judge a little bit and say, "You know, they see a demon behind every bush." You know, they're dealing with witch doctors. And I can't tell you how odd it was for me to counsel couples because one believed that the other had gone to the witch doctor and put magic food in their bowl and had changed their attitude. You know, we tend to look down on that and say, "Well, how silly is that?" But as Westerners don't, we create the opposite error in just believing that there's no demon there whatsoever. And so we have to be very careful. Jesus even prayed to the Father that He would keep us from the evil one. But the comfort of Scripture is this. Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world. Your body doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the Lord. So let's talk about this next principle, oppression and the demonic. They really go hand in hand. And we see that throughout Scripture. And back to 1 John in chapter 3, we see for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. That word destroys the Greek word "lu-ao" and it means to lose, to dissolve, to sever, to demolish. So that tells us what Jesus came to do. He came to set the cap to free. When Peter was preaching to Cornelius, do you remember Cornelius? He was the head of the Roman guards and he said this, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him." So he did two things. Cornelius is proclaiming Jesus did two things. He did good things and he set people free who have been oppressed by the devil. Now another book in the Bible that talks a lot about this topic is the gospel of Mark. He speaks about the demonic more than any of the other gospels. And every time you read about a demon in the gospel of Mark, you find oppression. And every time you read about oppression, you find a demon. And in one place, Jesus approaches the Getterine Demoniac and the demons cry out. And this is Mark chapter 5. What do you want with me, Jesus? Son of the most high God? And God's name don't torture me. Now you can't help but notice that the demons immediately recognize who Jesus is because they call him by his divine title. And this is amazing because at this point in the gospel of Mark, even his own disciples don't know that yet. So they even ask in the chapter before, who is this that even the wind and the seas obey Him? See the disciples are clueless at this point. So why did the demons ask Jesus not to torture them? By the way, that's ironic, isn't it? Because that's exactly what they came to do to this man. Torture him. Jesus don't do to us what we're trying to do to this man, right? But they ask this because they know their ultimate fate to be cast into the abyss in the final judgment. Now let's talk about the condition of the demoniac. He spiritually and physically in chains. And Mark's language is very descriptive. He lives among the tombs. He's so strong that he's a threat to others. He mutilates his own body. He's naked as an animal, which makes him unfit for society. What's interesting is in the Talmud, it describes the four characteristics of madness in exactly the same way. Walking abroad at night, spending the night on a grave, tearing ones close and destroying what one was given. This man demonstrated all those characteristics according to Dr. Lane. So according to society, he's just crazy. He's a mad man. But Jesus then demands to know his name and his response is so fascinating. Verse 9, "My name is Legion for we are many." So the demon, please, don't send us away. And then what happens in the story? Jesus expels the demons into a herd of 2,000 pigs. Now a lot of people when they hear that story, you get real sympathetic for the pigs at this point. And I've been asked a few times why Jesus would destroy someone's livelihood. But remember this, Jesus didn't send the demons into the pigs to destroy the pigs. He permitted them to go there and the demons destroyed the pigs. As Thomas Aquinas said many, many, many years ago, but that the swine we're driven into the sea was no work of the divine, but was the work of the devils. So the work of the demonic is to what? To destroy God's created order. And according to John, the devil's mission is what? To kill, to steal, and what? Destroy exactly. But there's something more important than just this man's deliverance. In this next section, I just love how Scripture ties everything together and gives you these parallels, "Devil's ham," right? So on one level, this is a story about a man who gets set free from the demonic, but there's a whole different level there. There's something much greater going on. And like we said before, in Mark, whenever you see the demonic, you see oppression and vice versa. Now the Bible never explicitly addresses the origin of Satan. We don't have to know everything by the way, do we? But we don't know exactly the origin of Satan, but the main passages that people tend to use to explain how the devil became the devil are actually about two earthly kings. The first one is the King of Tyre and Ezekiel 28. The other is the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14. So even though both of those passages are talking about real kings in history, there's this undeniable parallel that happened in heaven when Satan and his demons rebelled in some type of coup against God. And you see in the Bible this constant correlation between these powerful rulers and nations and demonic evil. Now I know that's a stretch for some of you. How can a king, pastor, how can a king or a president be like the devil? I know it's a stretch. Just hang with me. It's a theory. Often times, don't we see heads of state whose behavior mirrors the ultimate rebellion like what happened in heaven? So it is possible that as human beings, we don't always elect Messiah's, do we? That we might even, from time to time, elect Antichrist, people who work in opposition to God's values. And so when the Bible talks about an evil spirit, there's an acknowledgement of an evil power at work in the world that often does its work through the government, through these systems of oppression and corruption. I'm so grateful for those of you who are involved on those levels and remind us to vote and to pray and all those things that God calls us to do. The demons have a role in that system. Now here are two passages that talk about that. One is in Daniel chapter 10. But the Prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia. So he's talking about Michael, the archangel, and Daniel's talking about the demonic opposition that delayed his mission. And then back to Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms. So when the Bible talks about demonic opposition, it always uses the language of the empire of governments, even telling us that evil spirits extend to entire nations. Satan uses all of these things. Can you think of anything that divides us more? So let's look at the demonic deliverance and the parallels with Rome. And this is the devil's hand part. The first thing is that the name of the demon was what? Legion. Now, Legion represented the power of Rome. This is their greatest oppressor politically. It was the Roman Legion who kept Israel under their control by fear and intimidation. Secondly, the word heard is exactly the same word to describe a company of Legionnaires. Then you have the word permission. The permission in this passage is the same word that means to dismiss the troops. And the number of pigs was exactly the same number as the number of soldiers in a Legion 2000. Now remember, Jewish people, this is part we forget, Jewish people don't eat pigs, right? So there are way too many parallels for this to be just a coincidence. This author reminds us pigs are an independent bunch. They tend to scatter when frightened rather than stampede. There is no longer herd of pigs, but an army marching together. Now, I'm no pig psychologist, but I actually was around pigs growing up a little bit. My grandmother had pigs, and she also worked at the school cafeteria, and she would charge her grandchildren, me being one of them to haul the bucket of slop from the elementary school and to feed those pigs. So I've been around them enough to know pigs don't move in unison. I can tell you that much right now. So we know that in the decapolis in Jesus' day, there was a Roman legion that was stationed there, not just any legion, legion 10, and they were well known. I'll tell you how well known they were in history. They destroyed the monastery at Kumron. If that word sounds familiar to you, that's why they hid the scrolls and jars in the caves by the Dead Sea, and they were discovered. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1948. One of the greatest archaeological discoveries that confirms the Bible, right? But when the temple was destroyed in AD, that was also legion 10. When Masada was besieged in AD 71, also legion 10. Historian R.W. Davis tells us that the Roman legion soldiers would get one pound of meat every day, and guess what kind it was. Well, it was pig, of course. So most likely, and this is a theory, but I believe it's got enough behind it, the theory is this, that we look at legion 10. This was their food supply that Jesus destroyed, so that he could release the oppressed. No wonder the people asked Jesus to leave after this miracle. But wasn't this a good thing to heal this man? Can't you think of a few neighbors that you would love to be healed from demonic oppression? Sure. Don't look at him, just think about him. But they say to Jesus, "Leave." Why? Because they're scared to death. That Rome is going to find out. And not just that, legion 10 also had a mascot, and guess what their mascot was. The pig, exactly, and there's a coin to prove it, right there. Two pigs, one upside down, one right side up. One last thing. This picture of marching into the sea would have reminded those listeners of the story of another event in the Bible. In fact, can you think of another event in the Bible where soldiers are marching into the sea? Well, of course, it's an Exodus. Well, remember the sea is the place where God destroys empires. When Pharaoh's army chased God's people into the sea, he drowned them there. So everyone hearing this story would think of another evil government in Pharaoh. So the two meanings are so powerful, yes. It's about a man who is delivered from demonic oppression, but it's also about this oppressive system called Rome in this legion that kept them in fear. So he's reminding us that the whole thing is so much bigger than we could ever imagine, and yet he gives us victory even over those things. So here are the keys to victory. As a wrap up this morning, let's look at the keys to victory number three. And read 2 Corinthians chapter 10, it is true that I am an ordinary weak human being, but I don't use human plans and methods to win my battle, says Paul. So remember, it's not about how strong you are, it's not about how smart you are, and how many articles you read online, it's about understanding the power of Jesus working in your life. So the very first key to victory is fully submitting to Christ. Ephesians 6, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Jesus is Lord, and every person will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, even the demons will bow, that he has conquered them, and guess what, he is the one that's on our side. Spiritual warfare always begins with spiritual welfare, isn't that true? Because the devil will exploit the areas we neglect. So when people come to me with their struggles, pastor, I'm struggling, my finances, my question is this, and not to make you feel bad, but to help you. If you're struggling in your finances, have you submitted your finances to Christ? Pastor, I'm struggling in my relationships. Have you fully submitted your relationships to Christ? And you could go down the list of any struggle you might have, and think about this. If the real power that we have is spiritual in nature, and it is, and if there are evil influences over governments and people, then the very first thing a believer has to do when confronting those things is what? It's to pray, it's to listen for God's voice, it's to communicate with God, but you see, too many times, even Christians try to engage the enemy on the enemy's terms. We decide to fight fire with fire. But what did it say in Ephesians 6? Our battle is not with flesh and blood, and yet we make it about flesh and blood all the time, don't we? We attack the puppet rather than the puppet master. And when you do this, you will always lose. You have a power as a Christian in Christ Jesus that is greater than any power in the world. Let me say it again from Scripture. Graders, he that is in you, then he who is in the world. Let's go back to one of those historical things with Legion 10. At the southwestern edge of the Dead Sea, there's a mountain fortress called Masada. Some of you know the story of Masada. Others of you may not. But it's a plateaued type of mountain that rises 1,300 feet above the desert. And at the top of that mountain is an abandoned military fortress. It was there that Israel's fight with Rome was at its apex. Rome had crushed the rebellion. Rome had destroyed the temple, but they knew that there was a remnant that had escaped to the top of Masada. And because it's so high, there was no easy approach. And they were able to be there for several years. But Rome finally figured it out. And they built this long ramp that made it all the way to the top. And when they got to the top, finally, they discovered that there were 930 men, women, and children, all dead. Rather than being put in bondage to Rome, they took their own lives. And so this place is so important that even today, every modern day Jewish soldier is taken to the top of Masada for their swearing and ceremony. And with that history in their mind, they vow to never again let Israel be taken into bondage. And I think that's a lesson for us today as well. Because just like those 930 Israelites, we are called to lay down our lives. And I'm not talking about taking our lives, but dying to ourselves. We've talked a lot about faith and through the years. And I've shared the story of George Mueller a few times. So he ran this orphanage in the 1800s in England. And George Mueller never ever asked for anything. He simply prayed for everything. He prayed for the food for the orphans, the milk. He prayed for everything. He never asked for donations. And yet the orphanage always had what it needed because of prayer. And when he was asked about his key to victory, he said it was the day he died. And he bent down and he touched the ground and he said this, I died to George Mueller, to his opinions, to his preferences, to his tastes, to his will. I died to the world and to its approval. I died to its approval or blame of my brothers or friends. The greater Christ is living in you, the greater the victory you will have over the demonic. Next, and this is one that we may not think of. And that's why I want to share it with you, the necessity that we see in that story in Mark chapter five, the necessity of naming the demon in your life. See when God created a man and woman, what did He say? I give you authority and dominion over the earth. And then one of the ways we read about that in Genesis is when Adam has given the responsibility of naming all the animals. You see that's a powerful symbol in Scripture. When you name something, you have authority over it. And in this encounter with the demons, you notice how Jesus approaches in the demon's name Jesus. They say, you're the son of the most high. And we may read that as a compliment, but what it was was an attempt to get power over Jesus, but Jesus turns the table on them and insists on knowing their name, which was Legion. Now, with that principle in mind, how are the demons afflicting and oppressing people today? Or remember, whenever you find the demonic, you find oppression, and whenever you find oppression, you find the demonic. And demons are described in the Bible for what they take from us. Demons degrade human beings into something other than what God created them to be. So there's a demon of addiction, for example, isn't there? Addiction, what does it do? It slowly replaces everything that's good in your life. It takes health, it takes family and love and career and trust. And it turns it into disease, loneliness, debt and lies. Remember what's the enemy wanna do? To kill, steal, and destroy. So the price of our freedom is to name our addiction, to name our demon. That's when you stop denying it. That's when you stop hiding it, you name it. And right now, we read about this unmasking, and Hollywood and many other places in power. It's the demon of sexual immorality, and it's nothing new, is it? It's just that it's being uncovered and how do people get set free from that? Will you name it? Which means, can you confess it? When you deny it or pretend like it has no power over you, guess what happens? That's when it has the greatest power over you. And so you may not believe in any of this stuff, but I'll tell you something, the devil and his demons believe. And they tremble and terror at the power of Christ that lives in you. But in order to enact that power, you have to have the courage to name your demon and have the courage to submit your life to the power of Christ. Christ's victory through the cross and his resurrection guarantees that the devil is defeated, but until Christ returns, he's still dangerous. There's still a battle to fight us. We go out of these doors. The doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona warns us something that maybe you've never thought of, rattlesnakes still bite after death. I never forget one of the first times I came to Lakeside for my office hours. We have a place, a staircase on the back there, and we go up the back. And I saw a baby rattlesnake right there on the pathway. And I thought, wow, maybe I chose the wrong church to pastor. I just didn't know what to think. I mean, I'm a wind point. It comes with a snake, especially rattlesnakes. But anyway, I still look in that same spot every day. Every day I look in that same spot in case he returns. But in this hospital, they discovered that they can bite because there's a story about a man in India. And he's making cobra soup. He ever had cobra soup. After he took a bite of that soup, that cobra bit him back and killed him. And this is what the article says. For venomous snakes, such as cobras and rattlesnakes, biting is one of the reflexes that can be activated in the brain even hours after the animal dies. This is what we're dealing with. That the devil has been called a serpent, and the devil was decapitated at the cross. This is the fulfillment of the promise of salvation that we read all the way back in Genesis 3.15. And it's been called the first gospel, the first prophecy. One day it says in Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman would rise up and crush the serpent's head. Yes, but that head can still bite. One day he'll be defeated forever, but today's not that day. Today there's a battle. And God says to us, "As his children, your mind." And Satan makes a counterclam. No, they're mine. So what makes the difference? What turns the tide and battle? It's knowing that Jesus is greater than anything in this world. He's greater than your past, he's greater than your biggest problem. You name it for what it is and claim the power of Christ in you. Let's stand together so we have our time of invitation. I'm so grateful you've shared this hour with me. And as I invite our pastors to join me at the front here in a moment, we're gonna sing this very last song. But before we sing this song, if you'll just allow me just a moment to share the gospel through this cross-liquid word gospel reminds us that God created us so that he can have a relationship with us. He wants to be with us. But he also knows that we have sin in our life. And just like with Adam and Eve, he can't be near sin. And so it creates a dilemma. It creates a problem because God's a holy God. And what the world has taught ever since then, every belief system outside of Christianity says, "Well, just do good things. "And if you do good things, it'll offset those sins "in your life." And surely God will take you if there's even isn't God. He'll take you back. But that creates a lot of anxiety 'cause it's not God's plan anyway. God's plan is perfect. God the Father sent God the Son to live a perfect life and to die on the cross for our sins. And he showed that that it was completed by saying the words it is finished on the cross. But he didn't stay on the cross. He was resurrected in the Bible calls his resurrection, the first fruits, which means this. We can join him in that resurrection. We can join him in heaven for an eternity if we'll do this one thing. God's invitation for us today is this, every single person who trusts in Christ's alone is promised or restored relationship with the Father and eternal life. And what's amazing about this, an invitation time is so supernatural to me that this invitation, and all this makes me want to say, let's remove our shoes like Moses, right? That this invitation time is so important because there's someone here listening right now that maybe you've not made that reservation. Maybe you haven't trusted him. And he's telling you, don't clean up your life first. He says, right now, in this moment, give your life to Jesus. And that miracle will take place in that instant. It will be supernatural. And that life will begin the moment you say yes to him and go unbroken into eternity. If you've never made that decision, come and share that with our pastors. And by the way, our pastors counted a privilege to pray for you for any other issue in your life as well. That's what we're called to do. And that's why we're thankful to be at Lakeside. So let me pray for us and we'll sing this last song. Father, thank you for your goodness and that you give us the good news, the gospel. Not just for our own lives, but that we might walk out of these doors, share it with a hurting and oppressed world. Father, help us to know the keys to victory in our spiritual battle. To fully submit to you and to name the demons that we struggle with, that we might confess those things and have victory. Father, thank you for today. Thank you that you planned today in eternity past so that lives can be changed. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. And let's sing together.