Welcome to the Further Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and in our episode today, I want to give you five facts about spiritual warfare because it's really easy to fall into one of two ditches. Either we oversensationalize spiritual warfare, and people think there's a demon under every rock, and it kept your car engine from starting this morning, the demons are in the traffic, the demons made you late for work. That's not necessarily spiritual warfare. Or we over-rationalize spiritual warfare. And we don't think things are demonic, and they actually are. You get the picture that the devil is often laughing as us in more Western Christian cultures have a habit of rationalizing everything. It's like, yeah, that's not demonic. They're just crazy or this or no, you know. And we really need to understand there is a battle raging in the heavenlies. And so we don't want to oversensationalize. We also don't want to over-rationalize. So let's talk through this. Let me give you five facts and hopefully these educate you or stir your heart and sharpen you in some areas maybe you've already heard taught before, but need a little refresher. Number one, the battlefield is real and it involves the human mind. I really want you to get spiritual warfare framed up properly. It's not this, you know, shouting match and throwing olive oil everywhere and haunted houses and late-night exorcism live streams and all of that. In scripture, the front line is your mind. That's the front line of spiritual war, your thoughts, your convictions, and your worldview. I have said this ad nauseum, I'll say it again and I'll say it till I die. Spiritual warfare is a battle for the mind because the way that you think will influence what you believe. And what you believe will influence how you live. That's your actions. So you start here, you start in the head, you'll get to the hands. So why wouldn't the enemy go for that? Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 10, 5. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing that raises itself up or raised up against the knowledge of God. So there are ideologies raised up against the knowledge of God, and this is what Satan is using to infiltrate and attack and assault Christians. And he says, and we are taking every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ. That's really the point. He says, we've got to take every thought captive. We've got to bring it into obedience to Christ. And so demons will deceive, they'll try to infiltrate worldviews and the mind. They accuse the brethren, Revelation 12, 10, and they distract Christians and try to keep the minds of unbelievers blinded, like 2 Corinthians 4.4 says. And that's his work. The devil's best work. Try to shape how you think because what you think will determine how you live. Now, I want to talk a little bit about the mind and kind of think about mental health and some of that in this regard. The Bible doesn't deny complex suffering. I think oftentimes people will call things that are spiritual warfare and demonic mental health, or they'll call things that are not mental health, mental health. And what it does is it really mutes the conversation for people that genuinely wrestle with things or perhaps should take a deeper look at what like genuinely the health of their mind, the brain is an organ. But we often call everything just mental health today. And look, the Bible doesn't deny complex suffering when it comes to someone's mind. Okay, there are people whose mental faculties are challenged in great ways. But the Bible does say your mental and spiritual response is where victories are won. And so we want to guard this. We want to guard it. We don't want to excuse things that we could actually deal with through the power of scripture and deal with through the truth. It's just, well, I struggle with mental health. No, you're disobedient. Or, well, I think I just struggle with mental health. No, you're rebellious. Or it's just mental health. No, you're excusing yourself, and now you're muting the real conversation that should be had. And the precious people who are struggling with their mental faculties, they actually need ministry in a unique way. And they do struggle, and there's no excuse for sin, mind you. But nowadays people call every crime, well, mental health. And people murder people, mental health. People do drugs, mental health. And we want to make sure we're viewing this a biblical way. The mind is a place where we want to wage war. Are there some cases where people genuinely struggle with mental health issues? Of course. But so much of today's society has taken that phrase, turned it into sort of a buzzphrase, a buzzword, and now people are losing the battle in the mind, making excuses for it when all along they're called to win it. How do you win it? You saturate your mind with scripture. You, according to Romans 12, 1 and 2, you present yourself as a living and holy sacrifice. This is your spiritual service of worship. It's reasonable, it's what we do as Christians. And you are not conformed to this world, but you are transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your mind. It's a spiritual issue. So often, so much more often than we want to admit. And so fill your home with scripture. Fill your home with worship and prayer and the word of God. Saturate your life. Filter your media through scripture. Guard your eyes, guard your relationships, guard your ears and what you hear. Control what you listen to. Careful what you digest through music. Why? It's all shaping how you live because it's shaping how you think. And you should use Philippians 4, 8, and 9 as a guide. Philippians 4, 8 and 9 says, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, anything excellent, anything praiseworthy, that which is of good repute, all of that, that's what you should dwell on. And so if it's not that, don't let it set up shop in your mind, because the mind is the control center to your thinking. You guard your eyes, you guard your ears, because what you listen to will shape how you live. You guard your heart. And the heart and the mind are connected. So Philippians 4, 8 and 9, a great passage to use as your thought grid. And if it's not true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy, don't let it set up shop in your mind. The mind is a battleground. And so let's be militant about it. Fact number two about spiritual warfare Satan's top strategies are deception, division, and distraction. And they often look normal. That's his goal. Normalize those three Ds. Strategy number one, deception. Let's just break this down. Demons pedal doctrines of demons that sound really spiritual, but they sidestep repentance and holiness. Think counterfeit gospels. God wants you happy, not holy. Grace just means, oh, you're free, no obedience. Follow your heart and all of this stuff. They're not usually, you know, shouted like obvious deceptions. They're softly suggested. And that's what deception is. It's like a Trojan horse. Strategy number two, division. If he can't deceive people with lies, he's going to try to divide people who are united in the truth. And so, what are some ways that the devil will try to divide? John MacArthur said gossip is the devil's radio. Scripture says the whisper separates close friends. You think about Proverbs 16, 28. Is there somebody in my life whispering to me and trying to separate me out? Uh division and something that the demons in that orbit are trying to do. Is it the devil? No, he's not omnipresent. We've already learned that in our studies here on the podcast. If you've been listening at Shepherd's House to my series on spiritual warfare, you know this as well. But he will deploy his demons to divide the church. And the devil, the devil loves when churches bleed from the tongue, when the issue is what we say, because a house divided cannot stand. And so watch out for that strategy of division. Strategy number three, distraction. If he can't deceive you with lies, if he can't divide you because you're really strong in your resolve and your theological understanding of gossip and slander and division and relationships, and you fight for unity, well, strategy number three is going to be distraction. If the devil can't make you bad, he'll just try to keep you busy. Okay? That's just the reality. And Jesus warned in the parable of the sower in Luke 8.14 that the worries and riches and cares of this world, the pleasures of it, could choke people out. And many good things that become the ultimate things become the end of things for us. So you've got to watch out for division. You've got to watch out for deception. You also got to watch out for distraction. Do not allow the good things to become the ultimate things. Now, what's some practical wisdom on how to uh combat these? So for deception, you need discernment. For deception, you need discernment. Or as John MacArthur always used to say, discernment. Disernment. He used to say mature and discernment. That's two of the things I miss greatly about hearing him talk. Deception requires discernment. Be a Berean. Acts 17, 11. If a teaching minimizes sin, if it maximizes self, if it's chameleon theology, it's always massaging itself and representing itself and adjusting itself to sort of fit in and blend in. Yeah, it's you got to discern that a mile away. Don't follow it. Don't believe it. For division, we need direct talk. So to combat deception, you need discernment. To combat division, you need direct talk. Shoot people straight. Look, don't receive gossip. Proverbs 26, 20, for lack of wood, the fire goes out. You can't come to me and gossip. I won't hear it. I'll shut you down, or I'll shut you off, or I'll rebuke you. Either way, hopefully that gets worked out. And now somebody's like, ah, sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Friendships and relationships can continue in health. Then it'll become this toxic thing, just on and on and on. But division requires direct talk. You mess with the unity of the bride and you're asking for it. If you repent and you're humble, great. What do we do? Matthew 18, 15. You go to the person. If you won't do that or you're not going to do it right, then take your gossip and get out of here. Otherwise, deal with it properly and then forgive, reconcile, and move on. That's just the reality. Division is one of Satan's key strategies because he's hoping people don't deal with it the right way. And then what do we do with distraction? Ah, we design limits. Okay. Distraction requires designing limits. Take scripture and use it to create boundaries in your life. How much money are we going to spend or not spend? How much money are we going to give? How much money are we going to save? How many things are we going to buy and not buy? How often will we buy them? How many vacations will I take? How many vacations will I not take? Will I go to entertainment venues every day, every night? How much will I golf? How many places will I frequent that are just filled with alcohol? How many times are we going to go to Vegas? What are we going to do? Like what hotels do we? All the distractions. You just design limits. You say, Costi, I just want to be careful. It could be legalistic. Great. Don't be a legalist about it. It's not saving your life or your salvation. It's just preserving your soul and guarding your heart. Okay. You're preserving what is holy. You're not going to go, you know, just throw yourself into any environment. Why? It can be a distraction. And it's very personal. That's another thing. With legalism, it's like, do all these things and you'll be saved and you'll earn it and stay saved. Get out of here with that. But I'm preserving my own holiness and my own sacred walk with the Lord in the sense that I want to be careful of how I'm wired. So if you're a person who struggles with greed, that's a distraction. Design limits for how you manage money and what you spend on and what you do. If you're a person that struggles with lust, then no, Vegas is not on your frequent flyer list. You're like, no, I don't want to see all this junk. If you're a person that struggles with pride, well, then don't be around a bunch of ego-stroking people. If you're a person that struggles with uh power mongering and narcissism and just like, oh, you know, you think you're the best and you're a hotshot, well, go hang around some people that don't sing your praises and quit being a hotshot. Like, whatever you are, design limits. Hang around with humble, lowly people if you're high and haughty. And if you're somebody who's depressed and you're always distracted by worries and anxieties and you wrestle with that, oh, get around some happy encouragers. Get around a Barnabas. That name, Barnabas. You remember Barnabas in the New Testament? Barnabas, son of encouragement. Get around some people who like to pick you up and encourage you and pour into you. Whatever it is. If you're an angry person, hang around people who are calm. If you're a passive guy, get around some firecracker type of dudes that are like, hey, let's go take the hill and live for Christ. What are you doing? And you're like, yeah, okay, all right, all right, let's do this. But distraction, you need to design limits. So don't always think of limit as barrier. You can think of limits as that which builds you as well. So take scripture, take prayer, and design your life accordingly. Your calendar. View it like appointments with God. Lord, how do you want me to steward my time? Non-negotiable. Fight against distraction. I spent the longest on that one because I think a lot of you know deception, you gotta have discernment, go to the word. Division, yeah, we ain't playing that game. Like, get out of here with that. I want to walk with the Lord, be holy, and I want to walk in unity. And if you don't want to, move on. But distraction, yeah, that one's sneaky. It's a constant battle, I think, more than the other two, once you start growing in the word. So let's take it to it, get after it, and design limits where you know personally you've got some struggle. Okay, fact number three about spiritual warfare. The enemy is dangerous, but he is divinely limited and he is defeated. Okay? The enemy's dangerous, but he's divinely limited and defeated. So what can't he do? Satan is not omnipresent, okay? Not everywhere. He is not omniscient, he doesn't read your mind. Only God alone knows the heart. He's not omnipotent. He operates on a leash. He's not all powerful, he needs permission. He has no ownership of believers. The Holy Spirit indwells you, demons do not. And he has no authority over Christ. At the cross, Jesus, the Bible says, disarmed the rulers and the authorities. According to Colossians 2.15, he disarmed rulers and authorities. So why does that matter? Why we need to talk through that when we're talking about spiritual warfare is because fear shrinks when you know the facts. Okay? You don't need to obsess over demons and take them over seriously, but you need to understand they are dangerous and you need to have your weapons ready to go. But you beat them by making much of Christ and understanding their limitations. You exalt him, you uh enact obedience, you walk closely with the Lord Jesus Christ, and pretty soon you realize, oh yeah, Satan is divinely limited. He is defeated. I'm walking in victory. It's not perfect, it's hard, but you know what? God is with me. If God is for me, who can be against me? And so that idea is vital to your theology of warfare. And so how do you live this out? Well, you just replace every fear with the facts, okay? When fear arises, you recite truths about God, truths about his attributes, truths about Satan's limitations. You pray like a son or daughter who actually belongs to God. Your identity is secure. Your father hears you, Hebrews 4.16 says. And so you're going to the Lord and you're walking in facts, not fears, and not feelings. So don't you listen to people who fearmonger and they gaslight you and they say all these things that make you superstitious, and now you're all worried about this, that, and the other. No, you just go back to the word of God, anchor yourself in objective truth, and it shuts up all of the devil's lies. Fact number four your two primary weapons are the word of God and prayer. And Satan will do anything to stop you from using them both. Let's break these down. Number one, the word of God. The word is called the sword. In Ephesians chapter 6. There towards the end of the passage, uh, from you know, verse 11, verse 10, really, you could start there and go all the way to 17 and then 18. We'll talk about prayer. But verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. You look at the sword of the spirit. That's the word of God, divinely inspired, from the Spirit of God, empowered by the Spirit of God, given to you to wield against the enemy. How did Jesus fight back when it came to temptation? He said, It is written, it is written, it is written over and over in Matthew chapter 4 when he's tested in the wilderness. And so now you look at spiritual warfare and the word of God, and you see scripture is not a coffee table accessory, it's a combat weapon. You're gonna pick it up and wield it. And you're gonna pierce the enemy's lies when you use it. The aim is not, you know, just collect a bunch of verses like souvenirs and kind of put them up all over my house and like I got the Bible everywhere. Okay, but you gotta use it. You gotta use the weapon, not just stare at these momentum. It's like having weapons on the wall, you know, those old antique guns, antique weaponry, antique military combat type of equipment. That's great to look at. But what do you need when the war is really on? Live ammunition, a gun that works, bullets in the chamber. And so, friend, scripture has to be used. And I want you using it. That's why Satan's gonna attack our time and our devotion to scripture so often. Because he knows that scripture is a combat weapon. He knows the Christian no longer collecting verses like souvenirs, but using them at the point of pressure is now dangerous to all of his schemes. And so he's going to come after your time in the Word. What are some barriers that Satan uses? Number one, you're too busy. Number two, boredom. Ah, you already know this verse. Come on, I know the Bible. Yeah, all right. Or just discouraging you. You know, you're not getting anything from this today. Why even go to the Bible? And so we push back on those barriers that he puts up in front of us by two things. Stay hungry and stay humble. Stay hungry, stay humble. You gotta remember that you need the word of God and how much you need it. It's the blood for your veins, it's the blood flowing through your body, spiritually speaking, oxygen to your lungs. It's the bread of life to your weary soul. And so you're staying hungry for it. And no matter how much you know or how much you've experienced, we're staying humble, knowing I'm never graduating from my need for the word of God. I always need the word of God. I always need the wisdom of God. I need to hear his voice, and so I become desperate for that food from the bread of life. You need the word of God if you're gonna combat Satan. Number two, prayer. You need prayer. It's our other primary weapon. And in Ephesians 6, verse 18, you won't see the list of the armor of God include prayer. But what does Paul follow it up with? He follows it up with with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view. So that, be on the alert. And with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, pray on my behalf. What does he pray for? Freedom from prison, no, boldness. I want utterance. So at the opening of my mouth I make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. Paul was all about boldness, and the prayers were tied to gospel effectiveness. And so you gotta understand that even though prayer is not technically part of the armor of God, it is the power source for it. Satan wants you self-reliant, prayerless, and hurried. God wants you dependent, prayerful, and steady. I was just preaching on prayer this past Sunday. That's really why I'm I'm kind of not always following my notes for the podcast. It's just all coming out of my heart. I just preaching last Sunday at Shepherd's House, the final message of our spiritual warfare series, I titled it, Prayer is Your Superpower. Because I want people to realize it really is a supernatural superpower that we need to lean into far more. So if you want 40 minutes worth of teaching on that, you can go to Shepherd's House website or on Instagram where my sermons are and just look at the most recent one. But I'll just summarize it this way. Here's the main takeaway: prayer is the key to walking in victory when it comes to spiritual warfare. Paul hinges our ability to stand firm, which is what he says in verse 10 and 11. Finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his mind, put on the full armor of God that you will be able to stand firm. So that verb, 18 is the how. And with prayer. Praying at all times in the spirit. You live out the armor of God or you enact it and you walk in it, you stand firm and do what Paul says to do by praying. And so when we say we're too busy to pray, oh, you're just saying I'm too busy to win. When you say I just have a hard time focusing on prayer, look, we don't have a focus problem. We have an affection problem because what our hearts love, our hands will do. And so we don't have a problem focusing on sports and watching movies for three hours. I don't have a problem focusing on three-foot puts when I'm golfing. I got a problem making them sometimes, but not focusing. We don't have a problem, you know, sitting there and watching Netflix for a couple hours, you know, watching this, that no, it's an affection problem. So we got to ask ourselves some big questions. Do I love him? Do I love talking with him? Do I love spending time with him in the word? Do I want to know him deeper? Do I want to go to him for wisdom? Do I want to go to him and be honest and confess? Or do I want to vent to other people? Look, prayer is intimate, time saturated with God. You're just with him. You're not gonna let anyone distract you. You're gonna put the phone on airplane mode. No one can touch it. It belongs to him. John Piper said one of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time. I think you include social media. Media and a lot of these things, and we realize we need to limit screen time and up our prayer time. Finally, fact number five temptation is common, but escape is guaranteed and growth is possible. I'm rooting this fact in what we see in 1 Corinthians 10:13. One of my favorite passages, and it's pretty simple. It says, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God who is faithful will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape, also that you may be able to endure it. One of my favorite passages, memorized it in college and have used it ever since. And it's pretty simple. Spiritual warfare is going to involve a lot of temptation. The enemy is going to constantly circle the wagons on the big three, you know, 1 John 2, three core sins, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. All that. Pretty much under those is every categorical sin. And sometimes we think, you know, I'm tempted more than others. Nobody struggles like me. But that's wrong, biblically speaking. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, meaning everybody gets tempted. Okay? Every believer faces this. The devil wants you to think no one understands me. No one gets it like me. I can't tell people about my struggle because they won't understand. You know, I'm different. I'm like, I'm like the worst of the worst, you know, or I'm this, or I'm a pastor, or I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer, I'm an I'm a I'm a leader at my church. You know, people, I can't be honest about my sin. A woman one time told me, you know, we we could never work these things out at our church, our church. I mean, we just, you can't tell people this stuff, you know, they'll be, and it they're always afraid of dealing with things and being honest about things because they've been in church environments where you could never just be honest because, well, it was for them, you know, uh, no temptation is common to man. No, no, no one else experienced it. We're not supposed to sin like this. No, 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, we all sin, we all struggle. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. Not uncommon, but common. So I got news for you. You're not a special case. I'm not a special case. You're a normal case, so am I. And guess what? Escaping the temptation is normal too, because escaping is promised to every believer. That's why 1 Corinthians 10, 13 continues: God is faithful, and with the temptation, he'll provide a way of escape also that you may be able to endure it. Everybody can work it out, everybody can confess it, everybody can resist it, everybody can deal with sin. Sometimes it's like Joseph running away from the sin. Okay, Genesis 39, 12. Other times you're replacing something. So, like when Paul says in Philippians 4, 8, here's what you dwell on. What you're saying is, I'm not gonna empty my mind, I'm not gonna break bad habits. No, I'm gonna fill my mind with something else. I'm gonna replace the temptation, or I'm gonna fill my life with better habits. You know the old adage, you don't break habits, you replace them with good ones. That's just a reality when it comes to overcoming temptation. And then sometimes it's resisting it with scripture. In Matthew 4, it is written, it is written, it is written. But you're looking usually at all three and help from the church and strong influences, influences in your life, and confessing your sin and being honest about where you really are at with the Lord, and not worrying about, well, I've been in church a long time, Costi. I can't admit that. Yeah, you can. Well, I've, you know, we we're in leadership. You know, we're expected to, you know, the Bible's the Bible. Bible doesn't care if you're in leadership. Now you don't confess sin. Now you don't get honest with the Lord. Now you don't deal with things. You just kind of, well, that's I guess, you know, who knows? No, you get really honest about your sin. And look, that doesn't always need to be this huge thing where you're just like, hey, everybody, uh, I've been greedy this week. Like it's going to the Lord and confessing and getting honest with Him. Then it's taking action and having some people in your life that can speak the truth to you. One of the great ways to overcome temptation is to know and understand the anatomy of it. James verse, uh James 1, verses 13 to 15 speaks to this. James actually talks about how sin is able to give birth and what it breeds. He basically unpacks that desire, okay? Desire leads to deception. So you start desiring something, then you buy into the lie. And that deception, when you've bought the lie, leads to disobedience. And now you enact that. And what does that disobedience lead to without repentance? Death. And that's really what it is: it's desire, deception, disobedience, death. Desire leads to deception, deception to disobedience, disobedience to death. That's Satan's goal. So how do you combat this? You interrupt it early. You expose the desire, you replace the lies, you get help, and you walk by the Spirit of God, Galatians 5, 16, and you won't carry out the deeds of the flesh. And so, how do you live in submission to God, or how do you resist the devil and submit? Well, James is kind of clear in chapter 4, verses 7 to 10, he says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So, how do you do that? Well, you got to look at the word of God and obey it. You submit to the word of God. Well, Costi, I struggle with that. And I, well, then get into a community of people that'll hold you accountable for it and press in on you and say, you need to obey God. You're you're sinful, or you're not, you're playing games here. You need to stay away from people who breed sexual temptation and gossip and slander and greed and lying and cheating and fraud and alcohol abuse and drug addiction and worldliness. Play offense against the sin by building relationships and establishing rhythms that make temptation weaker before it arrives. Obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee. You submit, and submission becomes the key to resistance. There's four S's that can help. First of all, some people, you need to sleep more. You need more rest. You need to get your body healthy. You need to sleep. Two, schedule. You need to reorder your life and your priorities. You're all over the map and you're struggling because your priorities are out of whack. Third, scripture. So sleep, schedule, scripture, and not necessarily in this order. Some means it's scripture first. I'm just saying them in this order, but scripture. Get the word of God. You're listening to the news, you're scrolling Twitter, X, you're just Instagram all day, doom scroll, you're listening to the wrong people, you're listening to podcasts that are polluting your mind, you're watching movies that are garbage, you're just music that's pumping it into your mind, and you're getting all moody and edgy or fiery or lustful. Get that stuff out of here and saturate your life with scripture. And then fourth, saints. So sleep, schedule, scripture, saints, the church. Where's the church in your life? The devil wants you isolated. He wants you on an island doing this. Well, I don't like people, you know. I love Jesus. Or, you know, I don't need to go to church. I am the church. Listen, all that is hot garbage. It's deception and lies from the enemy to isolate you from being around the body of Christ. Because what's the body of Christ gonna do? Square you up with the truth and sharpen you in the day of battle. And all of a sudden all the lies go and the truth comes in, and you're rescued from that, and the devil hates it. So, what better thing to do than isolate you? Get involved with the church, get saturated with scripture, get some rest, slow down and stop striving, and make your schedule centered on Christ, prioritizing that which is eternal, and then everything else flows from there. So, recap here spiritual warfare, five facts. The mind is a battlefield, renew it with the word. The enemy loves deception, division, distraction, so starve them with discernment, direct talk, and discipline. Satan is limited and defeated, Christ reigns, and your weapons are scripture and prayer, use them daily, and then temptation is common. Okay, you ain't special, neither am I, but escape is guaranteed. So pre-decide your exits, frame up your life in such a way that you walk with the Spirit every day. If this episode helped you, I'd encourage you to share it with a friend who needs hope today and needs some good, strong talk on an important topic. And if you've got a question or a story of God's victory in your life or how for the gospel has been serving you or helping you, send it our way. Drop us a comment, shoot us a DM, or send us an email. We would love to hear how this ministry is impacting your life. Also, I don't want to end this episode by praying for you. And so, if you will, we don't always do this, but I just feel led to pray for some of you who are going through a lot right now. You listen to the episode, and you know, the strong truth is piercing your heart. Let me just pray for you, okay? Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for rescuing us from the domain of darkness. And for those of us who are saved, for transferring us into the kingdom of light, I pray for my mind. I pray for the minds of my friends who are listening or watching this, that you would strengthen them in your word, that you'd send them the right people beyond this podcast. And certainly, if they go to our church, I'm their pastor, but if not, they need one. That you'd send those people to their life to counsel them, love them, disciple them, and walk with them. They would grow up in you and grow strong against the enemy's schemes. Protect us from deception, protect us from division, and protect us from distraction. Help us to enjoy the good things of life without those things becoming the greatest or ultimate things and pulling our eyes from gazing upon Christ. I pray that you continue to strengthen us in these days of great struggle with the culture. The enemy is encircling us constantly. Help us to remain rooted and walk in victory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. I really hope that this episode has been an encouragement to you. Uh, don't forget, as well, you can get more content on our YouTube channel or scroll the podcast on Apple or Spotify or follow us on social media. Last but not least, if you want to join our gospel patron community and help us with our end-of-year fundraising goal, we're 33% of the way towards our goal of raising $400,000 to continue to plan our content for the upcoming year and keep this ministry like a freight train, just rolling forward. Thank you so much for all of your support. If you want to give or partner with us this season or on a regular basis, you can go to forthegospel.org, click give. All the information is there. Thank you for the privilege of getting to serve you through this ministry. I'll be back with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.