Now Gen - Week 2 Discussion - Praying for the Next Generation

What does it look like to pray for the next generation? And not just pray, but enter into a spiritual battle for them. This week we break down what it means to intercede on behalf of the next generation and really battle and pray for them! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Welcome to Navigate, a podcast discussion from Tower Life Center, where we talk about how to navigate life, living as a follower of Jesus in a fallen and ever-changing world. Let's join the discussion.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

Good morning, everyone. Hello. Hello. We are back.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

We are back.

SPEAKER_05 0:36

We're missing in three-force capacity. Three-force.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Yeah, we're missing our fourth.

SPEAKER_05 0:41

That's okay.

unknown 0:42

All right.

SPEAKER_05 0:43

Because he's probably on a bus.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

Or you think they're there? Van, not a bus.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

The van.

SPEAKER_05 0:50

They're in a van of some kind headed somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Ohio.

SPEAKER_05 0:53

Yeah. The youth are off to camp this week.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Three vans, a truck, and a trailer load of stuff. Stuff that smells a lot better today than it will come back.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

Then it will come back. I wondered whose uh cars all of those were in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

The leaders.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

Leaders and high school students. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:14

Yeah. Well, they're at camp this week, so Brad's not with us, but uh that really is the framework for the discussion that we're gonna have today. Um, as we spend this month in our series uh that we have called uh now gen or next gen with the word now over the word next, because we're spending our time having this discussion of how do we prepare, how do we develop and disciple the next gen so that as they continue to grow and phase into being engaged in community, the engaged in the world we live in, that they are rooted in uh their love for Jesus, the Word of God, right? And we want to make sure that we're not waiting until they're adults to try to figure out what do we do with them.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:57

Right, but that we're investing in them.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

And so this is gonna be a helping build the foundation.

SPEAKER_05 2:03

Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is gonna be a discussion, a four-week discussion, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:07

And this week was actually part two. Brad did part one last week, and then uh this week was part two, and then we we'll have two more parts uh to kind of cover the whole series of July. So that's yeah, that's where we're going and and what we're discussing. Last week, just for a just for a short, uh, just for a short little recap of week one, Brad's topic was protecting the next gen. And so I thought he did a great job of outlining what are they up against, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

Phenomenal.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

What and I think the thing that I thought was really that he did really well and was really impactful for me was that he was able to outline, man, what are some of the challenges they have, right? But not then like how do we just in our own control and in our own power, like the challenge might be social media or screens or what are the tactics that the enemy uses? Yeah, yeah. His his his point was in let's make sure that we're not just saying, hey, well, let's limit screen time, although that's probably necessary. His point was let's disciple them better.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Yeah, let's let's get to the heart, let's leopard the heart.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

Yes, yeah, it was much more of a Christ-centered approach to um protecting them than it was a defense mechanism approach.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

Yeah, more proactive rather than reactive.

SPEAKER_05 3:29

For sure, yeah, for sure. And so I loved that framework that he put in place um and kind of just outlined, man, we've got a really awesome generation that's coming. We have a really awesome opportunity to be a part of stewarding them and discipling them, but we have to step into that.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Right.

SPEAKER_05 3:48

Because they have the world that they are being raised in is a challenging world. Right. I said it yesterday that man, that's not new since struggles, it's new access to the things that would cause us to stumble, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:02

Like I think it's really cool when our generation can look at this next generation, the now generation, and realize like, oh, y'all aren't just kids. Like, yes, you are kids, but y'all aren't just kids. You're growing up to be adults, and like I can learn just as much from you as you can learn from me. And as I am helping you in your sin struggles, it's probably also gonna bring some conviction to my heart and it's gonna help me heal from some areas of sin struggle that I might have.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

You know, I just think it's such a sharpening um relationship. And I think oftentimes our generation can get stuck in that limiting mindset of I'm just gonna surround myself with people that are my age that can sharpen me. But it's like, man, when I start having conversations with the younger generation, it actually sharpens me too.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

So I think it's just learning to get out of those limiting mindsets and being a little bit more open to engage in relationship with these kids so that we can walk with them in their discipleship journey.

SPEAKER_05 5:03

Yeah, you know, in our discussion of what would this whole series even look like, we always every summer want to do this thing where we talk about the generation, the next generation, right? We we want to try to touch that every summer at least uh because it's a great time to be like while the world slows down for so many of us during summer, we got vacations, it might not feel slower, but it's just a different pace. Days are longer, all of that.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 5:30

Like the only world that I know that doesn't slow down is youth ministry, right? Right. And even children's ministry.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

It you know, like peaks and exceeds that peak.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

It's just different, right? Like during the school year, it's like youth ministry is how do we support them in their school in their sporting events, how do we show up for these areas, how do we do this? But during the summer, it's like we get you for a whole week, right? Like for our kids' ministry, we're opening up new classrooms, we're having new teachers hop in, like all this type of stuff to be it's just different, right? So every summer we want to do something like this, but at the same time, as we were discussing this, we're like, man, how cool would it be just to begin to shift this mindset of kind of what Amanda was saying of well, if you're not my age and you're not in the same season I'm in, then I don't really care to spend time with you.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

We don't mean that mean, it's just we are so busy. Yeah, yeah. Every person is so busy, it's like, okay, what in my little free time, I just want to do it with friends. Yeah. I'm not against you having friends, I'm not against you having a community group of people who are in the same life as you life season as you. My point would be that like we should become a church, and not just we at Tower Life Center, but we at um the church at large should become a church of multi-generational discipleship. Yeah. Right? Like, why would we not have 70-year-olds who are grandparents and and rocking that season of life investing in 45 or 50 year olds who are becoming empty nesters? And like, what does that look like? And I don't my kids are about ready to start getting married, and that's a yeah, weird season. And then why wouldn't those people be investing in the people who are like becoming parents? Or I've got a 13-year-old who's about ready to go to high school, and he is weird.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

And I got a daughter who's 15, and man, she the hormones are raging. Yeah, every day's a different person.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Zach knows a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_05 7:19

Yeah, you know, like why wouldn't and then why wouldn't those people be like, hey, I remember what it was like to have two toddlers.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

That was hard.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Right.

SPEAKER_05 7:27

So let me and then you have the people who have two toddlers who are like, hey, newlyweds, let me encourage you. Yeah. And then newly, like, why wouldn't we do that as a church?

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Well, I think the simple answer is none of us think we have time.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

Right.

unknown 7:39

Right.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

So we don't think we have the capacity to do it. But Titus 2 tells us that that's actually the way that God designed it. Of course. And so we need to grasp onto that and dive into that more and more over time as a church.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

And I think the benefit is once you have a group like that, you can see how much better it is for you. Like the once a month guys that get together for breakfast, you know. Right. Like, is it totally spiritually filled? Not always, but it's a good time to get together and tell stories and hey, this is what I'm going through. And this is how's this going?

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Great.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

You know, we've got guys that are I'm probably the youngest there, I would guess.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

If it's the one that I've been to a while back. The oldest is pushing a hundred and two.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Oh, yeah. Like it's which there's so much value in that. There really is. It's so sweet and so special.

SPEAKER_05 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:31

And so we want to be multi-generational, which is the point of saying, hey, we want to invest in generations below and ahead. But ideally, if we've done things as well as we can over generations, then the we care for the generation ahead while we disciple the generation behind.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

Right. Right. That would be the the optimistic model. And so this series is all about how do we disciple the next gen. And so Brad talked about protecting them, right? We got to make sure that we protect them by discipling them. Right. And I think the way that I kind of summarized what Brad said was to protect the next generation from the ways of the world is to disciple them in the ways of Jesus, the word of God, and the following of the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit. Right. If we would disciple just if that was our goal, every person who comes in, adult or child, but let's think of children and next gen, right? If our goal is just how do we teach you to live like Jesus, to be loved by and love God, and then to obey the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

Those are our only three things.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Right.

SPEAKER_05 9:38

And if you do that, then you're going to want to pray. You're going to want to read the Bible. You're going to want to be a good friend. You're going to want to obey your parents.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:44

Yep.

unknown 9:45

Right?

SPEAKER_04 9:45

For sure, for sure. And I think that the the older generations, so all those generations that you mentioned that are not now gen. I think it is a challenge for all of us to get out of that limiting mindset of thinking of kids as just kids. Like, you know, when we look at a church and we think of kids' ministry and helping in a kid's ministry, like serving on a Sunday morning, it's like, ugh, I don't want to do that. But it's like, wow, we are literally able to sit and lay the groundwork with these parents. We're able to partner with these parents and love on these kids. Like, I think if we all switched from that limit limiting mindset of like they're just kids to like, we are we are all on mission together.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

And this is what we're called to, I think that would really make a big difference, you know?

SPEAKER_05 10:33

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

But we have to challenge ourselves in that.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

Yeah, we have to be willing to rally around that call. Right. Right. And so we said, listen, from if if our goal is to disciple them in the ways of Jesus, the word of God or the love of God, right? And then following the spirit of God, if if that's our goal, then there's a lot of things that we can do based off of what Brad said, right? And many of us, because we all like control and we like to fix things, we we typecast that as a as a male thing, but at the end of the day, women like control and things fixed too.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:09

Right. We all like that.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

We just like to have somebody that can fix it for us our way.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Yeah. You like to tell someone how to fix it.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

Yeah. Um you fix this for me, but make sure you do it this way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

And so beside the point. We all like that.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

So we hear what Brad says that we need to protect him, and our natural instinct is well, let's have more conversations and let's limit screen time. And let me know what friends you're hanging out with and what did they say and where are you going? And let me know when you think about that. Like, none of that is bad. In fact, I think all of that is good. And I also think all of that is, as I said yesterday, is secondary.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:49

There's a primary thing I think we all can do for the next gen, whether we're parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, whether we don't have children yet, whether we are empty nesters, whether we are unmarried or married, right? Like wherever we're at, we can all do this for the next gen. There's something that is primary that we need to do. And the primary way that we can protect the next gen is by praying for the next gen.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:15

Every one of us can pray for them. And I'm not talking like I said it yesterday. I'm not talking about like praying like, God, help my kids listen because they're driving me crazy.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Right.

SPEAKER_05 12:26

Or God, help help the neighbor kids stop being so whatever.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

It's not praying for them to ease your life.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

Yes. Yes, it's not praying for yourself about other kids.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Right. It's not self um promoting self-motified. Yes. It's not motivated by self.

SPEAKER_05 12:43

Right. So then we asked the question, when was and I just said, hey, let's be honest, when was the last time that you prayed for the next generation? Like really prayed for him. Yeah. In fact, I reframed my question and said, when was the last time that you went into spiritual battle for the next generation?

SPEAKER_04 13:03

Right.

SPEAKER_05 13:04

Because we're not talking about this like prayer of self-motivated prayer of how does it ease my life or make my life better, as Amanda said, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:11

Make my kids better.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

We're talking about like intercessory prayer.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:14

And if you've never heard of intercessory prayer, the best way I know how to define it is talking to God on behalf of someone else. Right? Like I'm gonna go talk to you, God, on behalf of this person, not about them. I'm talking to you for them.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

Yeah. Thanks for that definition.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

You're welcome. You're welcome. And that's like the best way I know how to define what we would call Christianese language says intercessory. But really, it's just saying. Yes. Really it's saying, God, I'm coming to you. On the Bible says that the Holy Spirit even intercedes on our behalf.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

Right.

SPEAKER_05 13:48

Right. So like the Spirit of God intercedes to God the Father on our behalf, right? And so we are now can through the Holy Spirit and partnering with the Holy Spirit. Yes, we now get to go and intercede or approach the Father in prayer on behalf of the next generation.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Which is so special.

SPEAKER_05 14:06

Super cool.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

So special and so neat being able to enter into that and understand the depth of that.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

It's it's really powerful.

SPEAKER_05 14:14

And we framed it as wit into spiritual battle because I think that we need to begin to see it as that. Like as this level of almost, we're not we're not in a spiritual battle with God. We're going to God because we're in a spiritual battle. Yeah, we live in one. Our way to fight the spiritual battle is to communicate to God. Right. And I I said as we were kind of preparing this, thinking of praying for the next generation, this concept of spiritual battle, is as I was preparing, I couldn't, I couldn't kind of shake the Ephesians 6 language. So Paul writes this letter to the church in Ephesus, and he has five chapters, ends it in chapter six, right? But the first five are all instructions. And then in chapter six, verse 10 through 12, he says this. He says a final word. So the way he's going to either, whether he you're you would call it a summary, whether you would call it a conclusion, it's like, hey, this is a final thing to pay attention. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. And we read that because I need us to see that we're in a spiritual battle.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:34

It's not just a battle, it's a spiritual battle.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

We don't get to ignore that anymore.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

Well, I mean, we shouldn't. We can ignore it all we want. It's still there.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

You're bringing awareness to it, right? Saying that it's it's really hard to ignore it when you've been made aware of something.

SPEAKER_05 15:49

Yes. And many of us might even feel the battle aspect. But the question is, are we willing to understand that it's a spiritual battle?

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Right.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

Right? Because we it sounds a little maybe intimidating to be like, well, we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers of the dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places, right? Like that kind of sounds intense.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

Right. It could bring fear or it could help you understand that you're you're literally standing in a stance of victory, fighting with the authority of Christ that He has placed inside of you.

SPEAKER_05 16:25

Which is interesting that you said standing, and then you said stance, because the next verse, Paul would go on and say, Stand your ground.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:33

Put on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news, so you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

And he says, listen, you're in this battle. It's a spiritual battle. This is how you stand firm.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:56

And I said yesterday, I don't blame you, even you, the listener, if you're sitting here thinking, what in the world does this have to do with talking to God on behalf of someone else? Right. But what I think the first thing we have to understand is if we're in a spiritual battle, we need to have our spiritual armor on so that we can go to battle in an effective way.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:13

Right. Like we need to make sure this feels a little bit, it's not a perfect analogy, but this feels a little bit like when you're on a plane and they tell you, hey, in case of an emergency, the mask you're gonna drop down, put yours on before you try to put on anybody else's.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

Right. It's a little bit of like, hey, before you do it, we're about ready to talk about, put your mask on. Get the oxygen situated so that you can actually be helpful.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Yeah. I just think about the um visionary part of this. And it's like if you're not holding up your shield of faith, all those fiery arrows are coming at you. You have nothing to defend.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

And then in fact, like as a parent, if you're standing there passive without holding up your shield of faith, where are those arrows gonna go? I mean, we're sitting passively allowing these arrows to just come and well, how long can you how long can you battle getting hit by arrows?

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Right. Right? Like that's a great it's a great imagery to think of when you say it that way of like if I'm not willing to put on the body armor of righteousness and the shield of faith, the one arrow takes me out.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

So I then we wonder like why we've got this just mess and chaos, and it's like, oh, I need to pick up my shield.

SPEAKER_05 18:22

Yeah, for sure. Like you don't have to be a martyr for your children, yeah, or a martyr for the kids in your church, or you're a martyr for your grandchildren, or your nieces and nephews, or yeah, the people who you've the kids who the next generation who you feel special connection with or responsibility as a as a church family member before.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Like I just imagine everyone in the church, like think about all of us as adults, like think about a big circle of everybody in the church holding up their shield of faith, and then you've got all the kids on the inside of that circle. Like they're so much more equipped when they have all of us standing around them with the shield of faith. And it's like no arrows are coming past us. Like we stand in the authority of Christ here at this church, and hopefully as a nation, we get there too. But we we stand in the authority of Christ, and those arrows can't they can't harm us, they can't harm our children.

SPEAKER_05 19:08

Well, we do the best we can to protect them and to train them because in your imagery that you're talking about, if we're all in a circle and they're inside and we're protecting them with our body arm and our shield and all of that, then they also get to see the generations ahead of them living out what God has called us to.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

Yes, absolutely. Right.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

It's not just only to protect them from those specific arrows that are coming because this would tell us that the arrows aren't coming for them, they're coming for you.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Which ties together what Brad talked about last week. Like you have to practice. Kids are watching what we do. Yeah. If you're on your phone all the time, they're gonna want to be on their phone all the time.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

If you're practicing putting on the sh, you know, reading your Bible, doing what it takes, yes, then they're gonna model that.

SPEAKER_05 19:51

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, yep. And so while putting them on the inner circle to protect them, they also get to see you stopping the arrows that are coming at you or them or whatever. Like they they get to see that, right? And so he says, Listen, put on all of the armor so that you can stand firm.

SPEAKER_04 20:06

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

And then the very next verse, this will be verse 18. He says, Now pray in the spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Right. Like, if you want to go into spiritual battle on behalf of other people because we're called to, he we need to make sure that we're armored up, we need to make sure we're doing those things so that we can stand firm, so that we can, while standing firm, pray at all times. Right. And I get it. It's like, how do I pray at all times? I've got to talk to the kids, I've got to take the kids' places, and don't be so literal that you're like, sorry, kids can't talk to you. I'm praying. Yeah.

unknown 20:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:49

Right? But like we need to be praying at all times on every occasion.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Like, give me eyes to see what you see. And when you have eyes to see what he sees, it's a natural given that you're going to be praying throughout the day and interceding on behalf of the things that break God's heart or the things that he sees and he's he's watching, um, he's looking for.

SPEAKER_05 21:14

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And so we have to get to this place where we're willing to kind of say, hey, you know what? Maybe if this is what we're called to for the next generation praying for them, we have to understand, you know what, maybe Brad was right. That the battle for the next generation is not just cultural. It's spiritual. Right? And I said yesterday I can be the first one who would do this. I could be the first one to mislabel it, misrepresent it, misidentify it, call it a cultural battle. Because I think our culture and our culture is not biblical.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Right. But the problem isn't with the culture. Culture will tell you you're in a cultural battle or against cultural.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Say that ten times back.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah, no kidding, none kid. That came out right.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

We understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

Yeah, yeah. Culture, like parts of culture, will villainize other parts of culture. Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

Well, and that's again the enemy's tactic.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

To try to get us focused on the wrong thing. And it's like, man, if we can shift our focus to him rather than all these other distractions, then we can actually we have a fair shot at fighting.

SPEAKER_05 22:26

Yeah. Because we have to know who what the battle is actually against. And so I need you to lock in for just a second, listener, and hear what I'm about to say. And I'm going to read it two times for you. We put it on screen yesterday. It was a lot of words, but I think it was really helpful for us to know. At least it was helpful for me as I was preparing. The battle is not against ideologies, suicidal ideations, gender dysmorphia, or sexual identities. It's not against TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, or other social media. It's not against pornography, lust, or pictures that disappear on Snapchat. It's not against depression, anxiety, or loneliness. It is against an enemy who uses those things as strategies to kill, steal, and destroy the ident the identity, life, joy, and purpose that God created and designed for each young person.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 23:18

Let me say it one more time. I know that's a lot, but I need you to hear me. The battle is not against ideologies or culture, right? Suicidal ideations, gender dysmorphia, or sexual identities. The battle is not against TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, or other social media. It's not against pornography, lust, or pictures that disappear on Snapchat. It's not against depression, anxiety, or loneliness. It is against an enemy who uses all of those things as his strategy to kill, steal, and destroy the identity, the life, the joy, and the purpose that God created and designed for each young person. Think about that. How often do we employ our own strategies to fight against the strategies of the enemy, thinking that those aren't strategies, they're just the enemy.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

Right? We employ our own things to be like, well, if we could just figure out how to eliminate TikTok.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_05 24:21

If I could just figure out how to get my kid not watching porn. If I could just figure out how to stop them from that addiction, if I could just figure out behavior modification. Yes. And we think that would be the solution. That would be the answer. Right. And I'm not saying that you don't want your kid to stop watching porn, stop being addicted, stop spending 14 hours a day on TikTok. Right. I'm not saying we don't want, like, of course we want that fruit to be not those. Right. But the the challenge is if we think that those things are the enemy, we're fighting the wrong thing. We have to begin to fight the battle that Paul outlined in Ephesians 6. Understanding that the strategy of the devil, the strategy of the ruler of the unseen world, right? The strategy of all of that is in our culture today, pictures that disappear in seconds. A screen that you can hold in your hand and give you all the entertainment you could ever want.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Every dopamine hit.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 25:24

Yep. Like those are his strategies. They're not the enemy.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

Right.

SPEAKER_05 25:28

Yep. So we have to begin to say, hey, if we are going to engage in a spiritual battle, we need to engage in a spiritual battle the right way, fighting the right enemy. We said that this way, if the battle for the next generation is spiritual, which we just made the case that it is, then the greatest weapon we have in that battle is prayer. It's not the only weapon, it's just the greatest one, the best one, the primary one. Right. And so we have to be alert against all of those strategies. Like, please hear me. It is wise to know what's on your kids' phone. It's wise to know who they're hanging out with. It's wise to make decisions for them that they don't have the prefrontal cortex in their brain developed to make. Right? Like, don't hear me say, well, just let your kids do whatever and you only pray. I'm just saying the enemy is one that we fight through prayer.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:20

But it said be alert.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:23

And pray.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

Right. And I think too, as parents, it's our job, it's our responsibility to make sure that we are always elevating God's voice over culture's voice, over the enemy's voice. And how do we do that? It's by speaking life, it's by speaking God's identity over our children. It's by reminding them where they find their joy. It's about reminding them that life is only found through Christ and Christ alone. And I think it's constantly reminding our children through prayer together, through Bible reading together, through devotional reading together. Um, I think it's just constantly having that at the forefront and teaching them that as a foundational um rule of life.

SPEAKER_05 27:03

For sure. I completely agree. I completely agree with that. And I I want you to hear parents that, as Brad said, you have the right to parent your children.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:13

Right. Like they might tell you that you don't, but they're the children, you're the parent. You have the right to parent them.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:18

Right. And to Amanda's point, then in parenting them, you that you can give them a model of what it looks like to spiritually walk these things out by engaging them with you in that. I'm not saying that you shouldn't parent your kids or you shouldn't put boundaries around the things that they do, the people they hang out with, curfews, whatever, right? Like that's not what I'm saying. All I'm saying is that if you only do that and you never engage in prayer, you are only fighting against the strategies of the enemy and not the enemy himself.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Right.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

Right. So we have to understand that our greatest primary and first weapon we must go to is prayer, because also in that, you're as parents, we are, or as grandparents or as church family, whoever, right? We are submitting ourselves under the power of God and the wisdom of God to say, God, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to lead through this. I don't know how to have this conversation. In fact, I don't want to.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:11

But I need you to cultivate that desire in me. Right. And so you might be sitting here saying, But Kyle, like that sounds a little scary. I don't like this whole world of spiritual battles and prayer and all of that is a little uncomfortable to me. I'd rather live in the world where none of that exists. Well, that's not an option. We can pretend that it doesn't, but it still exists, right? And so I said, There's I need to tell you three truths, and then I'll give you one choice. The battle's real, the battle is spiritual, and you're being attacked. Those things are true whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Right? Like they're true. Yeah. The battle's real and it's spiritual, and you're being attacked. You can feel the attack. Yep. Right. Nobody doesn't think they're being attacked. We just think that we're being attacked by the left or the right. We think we're being attacked by the news. We think we're being attacked by somebody overseas. We think we're being attacked by the person on Facebook. We think we're being attacked by the teachers or the coach who doesn't give our kid the playing time. We think we're being attacked by the youth pastor or the church or the whoever, right? We just no.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:19

It's a spiritual battle.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Not a battle of flesh and blood, but you are being attacked.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:23

Now here's your choice. Am I going to engage in the battle God's way? You don't even have a choice of if you're going to engage in it.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

I was going to say, are you going to be passive or are you going to engage?

SPEAKER_05 29:36

Yeah. Well, even if you say I'm passive, you're still engaging. Right. Like your choice is not even do I choose to engage. Your choice is how am I going to engage?

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:46

That like you have to understand that even if you're like, well, I'm just not going to engage, that's not possible. You're engaged. You're engaged in the battle. The question is, who are you fighting? What are you fighting? Right? So am I going to do it God's way? And so we talked about prayer being God's way. And we said, okay, look, if I'm supposed to pray for the next generation, if I'm going to engage in the battle God's way, how would I even do that? This is new information to me. Intercessory prayer, never heard that before, maybe never done it before, but have heard it, right? How would I pray to God on behalf of someone else? Well, I said, I think we can't put the armor of God on them. We can only put it on ourselves, but we certainly can pray that they would put the armor of God on. Right? I think that's a great place to begin to uh just say how we would pray. And so what we did yesterday as we ended was we walked through each of the six pieces of the armor of God that Paul outlined. We said what they were, we gave just a main one or two sentence prayer, and then we walked through some scriptures. And so if you are listening and you are at home and you're at a place where maybe you weren't here Sunday or you were and you got your notes, however you want to do it, we're gonna go through all of that again one more time, uh, so that then you have this as a resource to come back to. Right. So the first thing that Paul outlined in Ephesians chapter six was put on the belt of truth.

unknown 31:07

Right.

SPEAKER_05 31:07

And we said the main prayer that we would have within the concept of the belt of truth would be, Lord, anchor the next generation in your truth while they live in a world full of lies. Right? If nothing else, we just want to be like, God, would you would you anchor them in your truth? Because the world they live in is full of lies, it's full of deception, it's full of deceit, it's full of uh counterfeits, right? And we said, here's some scriptures that we could pray over them. Is John 17, 17, as Jesus, while he was on earth, so the Son prayed to the Father, God, he said, make them, so them would be his disciples. He says, Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. What if we just pray John 17, 17 over the next generation? Make them holy, which means set them apart, right? So set them apart from the world that they're in. How? How would we do that? Well, by the truth of God. They would, if they were taught his word, they would be taught truth because his word is truth. Psalm 119, 160 says the very essence of the words that God speaks is truth. Where in uh comparison, John chapter 8, verse 44 would say that the devil has always hated truth. There's no truth in him. When he lies, it's consistent with his character because he is a liar and he's the father of lies. So, man, we would pray for that these kids, the next generation, would begin to discern between the truth of God and the lies of the devil or the world. Right? That would be, and we say, Well, how do we do that? Well, John 16, 13, Jesus has again talked about the Holy Spirit, and he calls them the Spirit of truth. The spirit of truth will guide us in all truth. Think about that. What if we had a generation of kids who put on the belt of truth, and the belt of truth looked like I have the discernment to tell what's true from God and what's alive from the world? I've been made holy, set apart by the word of God, and I have the spirit of God living inside me to guide me in all truth and the things that are nuanced in the world.

SPEAKER_04 33:22

Yeah. Imagine how powerful that would be.

SPEAKER_05 33:24

Yeah. What if we had adults who did that?

SPEAKER_04 33:26

Right. That's what I was gonna say. It would have to start with some adult.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

But I don't even think it has to start with adults. With all of us. It it has to start with somebody who's willing to make a choice. That's it. Whether it's an adult, a husband, a wife, a grandparent, a kid. No.

SPEAKER_04 33:45

Somebody that's willing to stand up for truth. Okay, that's a lie.

SPEAKER_05 33:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

This is true.

SPEAKER_05 33:49

Our full lie. Our four-year-old can't make that decision today. We can pray that one day she will make that decision.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

There are some in the Bible, there are some times where she's like, hey, something might be happening. Well, that that's not kind.

SPEAKER_05 34:02

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

Correct. That's not a fruit of the spirit. Of course, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 34:06

She's she's learning. She can make some of them. Yes. But Zach's daughters.

SPEAKER_04 34:09

Right.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

What, 13 and 15? 13 and 15. 12 and 15. They can they they can make that.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Right.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

Like they can make that decision.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:20

They can they can make that choice today. Yeah. To say, father, help me discern between what's true and what's a lie. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 34:26

Now we have 70-year-olds listening to this. We have 50 year olds. We have 25-year-olds. We have 16-year-olds. All over. Married, unmarried, grandparents, empty nesters, and the throes of raising young kids, all over. Every one of you can make that choice.

unknown 34:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

You gotta read. Right.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

How do you know what the truth is without reading? 100%.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

How do you grow your discernment? You gotta read.

SPEAKER_05 34:55

100%. Yep. And then you have to learn to rely on what did I read and what is the spirit of God speaking to me? And you might say, Well, how would I even know? Yeah. Well, you have to begin to get familiar over time with his voice. And it's easier to know the word of, or we it's easier to know the voice of God through the spirit of God if we know the word of God. Because the spirit of God will never contradict the word of God. So we have to begin to put things into our mind that allow us to um that allow us to grow in our discernment of it.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

And well, practice really helps with that too. So you can know the word, you can start hearing his voice, but if you do nothing with it, it's not going to continue to grow your discernment. You have to actually walk it out. You have to actually yield to the convictions. You have to actually be transformed as you read the word and you start making different decisions.

SPEAKER_05 35:48

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And so we have to pray that it put on the belt of truth. Then the next one is the body armor or the breastplate of righteousness, right? Depending on your translation, it's going to either call it body armor or breastplate. But it's it's the literally the armor that serves as like your new outer. It's not skin, obviously, it's armor, but it's it's the shin guards, it's the breastplate, it's the arm guards, it's all the things you would think of if you were to put on body armor, right?

SPEAKER_04 36:17

And the protect those arrows from getting to the innermost organs.

SPEAKER_05 36:21

Right. It's what happens if the shield of faith misses it.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

Right.

SPEAKER_05 36:23

Because the shield of faith is to stop the fiery arrows, but not every arrow is going to hit a shield of faith. Right. So how do I make sure I've got the body armor on to back that up? Yep. Right. And it says the body armor of righteousness. So the main prayer we would pray is, Lord, guard their hearts and form Christ-like character. And I loved just as we kind of went through this, um, I love how the Lord just kind of outlined this almost like an order of events. Right? Proverbs 423, above all else, guard your heart, the word of God says. So, man, God would would you help them to guard their heart of what goes in?

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Yeah. God, would you would you help them with what they're watching, what they're listening to.

SPEAKER_05 37:02

Exactly. What friends they're choosing, what conversations they're having.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

Yeah. Or aren't having or aren't hearing.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

So guard their heart. Put some protection around it, right? And then Psalm 51, 10 would say, create a clean heart in me. So now that it's guarded, let's do some house cleaning.

SPEAKER_04 37:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:21

Let's clean out some of the bad.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

Yeah. Pull out the muck.

SPEAKER_05 37:24

Yep. Let's let's get rid of the bad thought processes. Let's get bit rid of the bad beliefs. Let's get rid of the addiction. Let's get rid of the things that have been placed in our hearts, right? So we're going to guard it. What?

SPEAKER_04 37:36

I was just going to say coping mechanisms. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 37:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 37:38

Other things, unhealthy coping mechanisms.

SPEAKER_05 37:40

Yeah. So guard it, clean it, right? And then as it's being cleaned and guarded, then Jesus would have said in Matthew 6.33, now seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously. Right? Remember the body armor of righteousness, which means right standing, which is Christ-like character. So as I have my heart's guarded, as it's cleaned, now I can begin to seek the better things, the kingdom of God, than the than the coping mechanisms, as Amanda said, or the sin struggles, or the belief systems, or whatever has been put into my heart. That was just junk. Right. So now I can seek these other things that will help me to live righteously. And we're like, okay, heart guarded, heart cleaned, seeking God's kingdom and living righteously, I'll probably never struggle again. Well, as my dad would say, everybody who that's true for, stand on your head and spank your feet. Right? Like, of course you're not going to never sin again. Yeah. Of course it's still going to be a struggle. Which is why Timothy, one of the best early church leaders there's ever been. Paul, who is his mentor, writes to him and says, Hey Tim, run from anything that stimulates your youthful lust. Instead, pursue righteous living, which we just talked about faithfulness, love, and peace. I love how that first sentence. Run. But then I I even loved the this concept of from anything that stimulates your youthful lust. So what's the things that were your youthful lust? What's the things that were in your heart that you had to clean out? What's the things you let in? And then he said, anything that would even stimulate that.

SPEAKER_04 39:15

Yeah. Run from it. Don't flirt with it. Don't tiptoe around it. Don't stick one foot in and see how how far you can get. Like, run.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Like, I think of like, I mean, there's a million examples you could use. The two that come to my head, one is really practical with like pornography, and one's like smoking, right? Like, let's say, let's use smoking. You're like, hey, you know what? Like, in my youthful, my youthful lust, I just love to smoke. Right? We we smoked, we did drugs, we drank, we partied, we did all of it.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

Well, so he would say run, he's not saying only run from weed, only run from liquor, only run from parties at 2 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 39:54

It's the music you were listening to that led you to the times that you were smoking. Like, don't even turn it on.

SPEAKER_05 40:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

Delete it from your playlist.

unknown 40:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

You know?

SPEAKER_05 40:02

Exactly. What stimulates it?

SPEAKER_04 40:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:06

What stimulates it?

SPEAKER_04 40:07

The friends that you were hanging around when you were doing all that. Like, there's so many.

SPEAKER_05 40:12

Yeah, I just die laughing of like what's going through my head of like for me. Of like, like, think about like when I I was not following Jesus and I did was a part of the party scene. I'm like, you know what? I probably shouldn't go to Taco Bell at 1 a.m. anymore. Even if I'm sober. Right? Like, even now that I'm not engaging in that, I'm like, well, going to Taco Bell 1 a.m. would stimulate that. What music did I listen to? What games did we play? You can do those games without alcohol involved.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

But yet it stimulates something.

SPEAKER_04 40:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:42

Right. And so how do I run from the youthful?

SPEAKER_04 40:44

It stimulates that thought process. Even if you're not doing it, it's still you're reliving it.

SPEAKER_05 40:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 40:49

In your mind. And your mind is so powerful.

SPEAKER_05 40:51

And it's just a slippery slope.

SPEAKER_04 40:53

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 40:54

And I just love how he says, man, in the process of putting on the body armor of righteousness, run from all those things that stimulate the youthful less. Don't even mess with it. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

Reminds me of that meme, run. Or the like real. You guys know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_03 41:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

Run.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

That's Zach Nose. I have no idea what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 41:14

Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. This is funny.

SPEAKER_05 41:20

So we have the belt of truth. We have the body armor of righteousness. So we're praying that. Then we pray the shoes of the gospel of peace.

unknown 41:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 41:28

And the main prayer be meant, Lord, would you just help them walk conf confidently in wherever you would lead them? So the shoes, so we're gonna we're asking that they would walk where God leads, but peace and God, we hope them walk confidently in that. We hope they have peace in that.

unknown 41:46

Right?

SPEAKER_05 41:46

Isaiah 26, 3 says, Man, God will keep in perfect peace all who trust in him, all whose thoughts are fixed on him. Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7. I love this. Don't worry about anything, right? That's the opposite of peace. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, thank him for all he's done. Then in verse 7, you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and guard your minds as you live. Well, perfect. I was trying to figure out how to guard my heart in the first place. Yeah. Right? We just talked about that.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

Yeah, and I love how it says, tell God what you need and not anything else, and thank him for all he has done. How often do we tell God what we need, but not thank him for all that he has done? How often do we choose not to remember all the things that he has done?

SPEAKER_05 42:37

Yeah. I would be I would even wonder to that point, and I've never thought about this until you just said it, is how often do we even tell God what we need, or how often do we only tell him what we want? Right.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 42:50

Like God, I need wisdom, I need discernment.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

I need to hear your voice.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

So give me opportunities that will do that.

SPEAKER_05 42:59

But I want a jet ski.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

Well, yeah, I want I want things that are gonna please my fleshly desires. And it's just like, wow, he gives us an I mean he is a God of order, and he's saying, Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace. So oftentimes with like walking through a season, I don't have peace. Where are you, God? And it's like, well, have you done one, two, and three before that? You know?

SPEAKER_05 43:26

That's a great point.

SPEAKER_04 43:27

It's like a good reminder. Okay, so yes, you can tell God what you need, but then you also need to remember to be thankful and grateful and remember all that he's done.

SPEAKER_05 43:35

I think that's great. Uh and you've pointed out two different things that I think are important. Tell God what you need and thank him. Those two things are together.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:45

And then you have the order of events that says then. So the word and is important. Tell God what you need and thank him. Then the next important word is then. After you do that, you will experience peace.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:58

Probably not even while. Not before, certainly. So I just I thought that was super.

SPEAKER_04 44:05

And then that piece will guard your heart and mind as you live in Christ Jesus. Like there is an order of events in which it takes to to get to that point.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

So we need to follow the guidelines that He's given us.

SPEAKER_05 44:16

So what if we would pray that for the next generation?

SPEAKER_04 44:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:19

God help them to know that all who trust in you have that you keep them in perfect peace, that their thoughts can be fixed on you. Help them to understand that if they don't, if they want to live in the peace that surpasses all understanding, they need to lay down the worries. They need to come to you in prayer, tell you what they need, not what they want, what they need.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:38

Thank you for all that you've done. Because in the list of the things that they would thank you for, if if if we are being complete in our gratitude, we're going to have needs and wants covered in that.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Well, and as they're bringing their needs, you can pray for them to have a willing heart. Because we can pray all day for God to give us what we need, but if we don't have a willing heart to do the things He wants us to be doing, then it's all for naught.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

A hundred percent. You know, so much of so much of this is really like as they are walking through the shoe with the shoes of the gospel of peace, it's gonna go back to the body armor of righteousness.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:15

We just talked about, man, the peace will guard your heart. But to your point, like, man, pray that they're gonna be willing. Well, willing would be seeking the kingdom of God above all else. Well, that was for righteousness. Willing would be running from the things that stimulate your youthful lust. But instead, it says, and we didn't even get to this. Instead, Timothy, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and oh, peace. Right? So many of these things are intertwined together. Then we go on and we have the fourth thing would be the shield of faith. Right? We were talking about that already a lot, but the main prayer would be, Lord, strengthen their faith before and as life tests it. You know, yesterday we said, listen, you can't lock them in the room until they're 18, somehow strengthening their faith and then releasing them into the world in a man, hey, let me know how it goes. How about it?

SPEAKER_04 46:04

Yeah. Right, right.

SPEAKER_05 46:05

Right. So how do we strengthen their faith before it's tested, but also as it gets tested? Right. And it's understanding what faith is and what it's not, and the tests that come in life and what scripture says about them, because James chapter one, verse two would say, Hey, when you have troubles of any kind, consider an opportunity for great joy.

SPEAKER_03 46:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:28

Because listen, when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow because when your endurance is fully developed, you'll be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Another way to say perfect and complete, needing nothing is you will be made righteous. So if righteousness is a goal, I've got to have some faith. I've got to be able to withstand the test.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

Well, and I think here it's a good reminder that we have to have willing hearts to grow. And we can't cling to comfort. We can't cling to the securities that we think keep us safe. We have to be willing to grow in Christ.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:01

And understand that we don't know what's on the other side of that. We know it's good, but we don't we don't know the outcome.

SPEAKER_05 47:08

For sure. That's why that's why Peter wrote to your point that chapter one, verse six and seven, there's wonderful joy ahead. Even though you must endure many trials for a little while, these trials will show that your faith is genuine because your faith is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus is revealed to the whole world. Right? So there's this process that our faith has to go through. And I love this from Hebrews. This is just a it's just one that's even just so interesting to me, the language that the author of Hebrews would use is Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6. It's impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Right? So remember righteous living, because if we have righteous living and we're seeking the kingdom of God, then our rewards will look different than our rewards that look in our flesh.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:15

But I just love how interesting it is that it's impossible to please God if we don't have faith. So faith isn't just a defense mechanism, it's not just this thing that is exists to grow. It is both of those things.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:27

But it's also this thing that I'm gonna bring to the Lord so that I can please him.

SPEAKER_04 48:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:31

Because I have faith.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

Yeah, I think sorry, going back to the trials and going through the trials, I think too, it's it's our job as parents and people that are um called to disciple the next generation. It's our job to show them what it's like to suffer well. I think it's our job to show them what it looks like to fight from a stance of victory rather than victimhood. I think that it's our job to help them see that as they are going through trials, these trials suck. None of us like them, they're not fun, but we have to show them and exude joy, and we have to show them like, hey, this just means our endurance is growing. This just means like we have to flip those limiting perspectives.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

And you're gonna be met with decisions and fail, but don't give up.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

The other side.

SPEAKER_04 49:16

Right. Don't turn into a victim. Yeah, yeah. Keep going.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Repent, fix it, move on, yeah, and you make it a better. That's part of the growing.

SPEAKER_04 49:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:23

Like next time, next time a trial comes up, or the next time my kid has a trial, hey, I screwed up. Yeah, be open with them. Like, hey, I screwed that up.

SPEAKER_05 49:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:33

Yep. And I think you're both right. Trials are hard, and to use your word, Amanda, they suck. No.

SPEAKER_04 49:42

Am I allowed to say that? Sorry.

SPEAKER_05 49:43

Well, I just said it, so our four-year-old's not in the room, so maybe I can, but uh I think the thing I would say is I think the same things oftentimes. The chat the challenge that we have is if our whole goal in life is to be wholly set apart and to have righteous living, which can only come through trials that produce faith, that produce endurance, that produce right living, that set us apart so that we can have Christ-like character, then trials shouldn't suck.

SPEAKER_04 50:15

Yeah. It should be exciting. Like we we have to consider it joy in our minds. They should be exciting. We should consider it joy because we know we actually do know the verse consider it's more like Christ.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Yeah, James chapter one, verse two.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

Consider it all joy.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

All joy.

SPEAKER_04 50:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

We talked about that.

SPEAKER_04 50:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Whatever. That one series we're going through. Like it's all gonna be joy, no matter what.

SPEAKER_05 50:38

Right. But the reason is not just like, well, fine, the Bible says I have to have joy, so I'm gonna I know it sucks, but I'm gonna, but I'm gonna have joy.

SPEAKER_04 50:46

Right.

SPEAKER_05 50:47

No, I actually do have joy because this process will produce Christ-like character in me over time. And my goal is Christ-like character, not comfort.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:56

Now, I can sit here and say that today and not say that in the middle of a challenge that I would have in my own life. Right. But my point is our flesh hates trials and challenges. So yes, we would all three, if somebody said, Do we are trials good or do they suck? We would all three said they suck. That's our natural instinct.

SPEAKER_04 51:14

But the Bible tells us death and life are in the power of the tongue. So I should not have said, I'll self-correct here. I should not have said that they suck.

SPEAKER_05 51:21

But yes, my goal is not to correct you. My goal is to actually say, if we have the right mindset, yeah, we truly aren't just trying to argue ourselves out of them sucking.

SPEAKER_04 51:31

Right.

SPEAKER_05 51:32

We truly are like, oh, this I should have another opportunity. What am I supposed to learn through this? Yeah, and I should find joy in that.

SPEAKER_04 51:38

Yeah. And God, what are you teaching me?

SPEAKER_05 51:40

Because our goal is not to be perfect so that God has nothing to sanctify us out of. Our goal is to be perfect so that we can look more like God.

SPEAKER_04 51:48

To sanctify us into God.

SPEAKER_05 51:49

Yeah. Yes, he's going to sanctify us into his image. So I have to I have to consider that joy because how awesome would it be to look like God and to have Christ-like character?

SPEAKER_04 51:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:58

Well, I I don't have that today. I have some of it.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

Which then comes the humility piece. And we have to be humble as he's signifying it.

SPEAKER_00 52:07

I was trying to look for verse seven. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. What are you going to do during that trial? Are you going to give up? Yeah. Are you going to bury your head? Are you going to put your trust in God and work your way through it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:22

Are you going to surrender and put your trust in God? Are you going to keep striving and trying to do it on your own or give up?

SPEAKER_05 52:27

And humility is such a good word, Amanda, because it's like, how many of us like want to? Not that we don't want to be humble. We're afraid of what comes on the other side of humility of saying, hey, I don't have it all together. Hey, I didn't handle that situation well.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:46

Hey, I missed the mark there. Hey, I whatever. Right? It's like, well, what happens if I say that out loud?

SPEAKER_04 52:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:51

Well, I don't you're the only person that you're trying to fool.

SPEAKER_04 52:54

Yeah. God already knows.

SPEAKER_05 52:56

And so does your spouse, and so do your kids, and so does the people you work for and with. Like, no one is fooled by you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:03

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_05 53:04

At least not completely.

SPEAKER_04 53:06

No, there's almost like you're just lying to yourself.

SPEAKER_05 53:09

Some people may have secret secret sin that no one knows about, and you fooled people in that aspect. But just in this idea of like, well, I'm super Christ-like, and you know, I don't really have anything else to work on.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Right.

SPEAKER_05 53:18

Right. You're the only one being fooled by that. That's I think it's John would say it in first John. He said, if you are trying to claim you have no sin, you're just lying to yourself. And I love how direct that is. You're just lying to yourself. You're not lying to other people.

SPEAKER_04 53:32

Yeah. You're not being authentic with yourself.

SPEAKER_05 53:34

You're trying to, but they're not fooled. You're you're you're fooling yourself.

SPEAKER_04 53:37

Yeah. They know the truth. They see the truth. No. You just have to be authentic with yourself on that one.

unknown 53:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:42

Okay, helmet of salvation. Okay. This is the Lord, or the main prayer we would have is Lord, save them, Lord, secure them, Lord, remind them whose they are. Right. And there's two different groups of people. You're going to have kids in the next generation who don't yet know that Jesus and have a personal relationship with him, right? Who don't yet know that God the Father sent Jesus the Son to this earth to live perfectly, to die on a cross, to be raised three days later, to cover the price of their sins because he was perfect and we're sinful and broken and we need a savior, right? And so if we would, just as Romans 10 9 says, if we would confess him as Lord and Savior, believe in our heart, confess with our mouth that he's both Lord and Savior, that they can be saved. There are a group of people who don't know that truth. We need to pray that they would become to that they would come to know that. They would come into a genuine relationship with God, that they would both uh confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. We need to pray for that group of people a hundred percent. That is the beginning of the Great Commission. Jesus came, the Bible says, to seek and save those who are lost. Now we also need to pray that those who are found would continue to wear the helmet of salvation because through the helmet of salvation, we have identity in Christ. That they would understand who they are. You know, I love the mental image of the helmet of salvation. Because the helmet of salvation is now what protects the mind.

SPEAKER_03 55:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 55:17

It's it's no no no arrows of deceit, no arrows of doubt, no arrows of other identities, no arrows of other things.

SPEAKER_04 55:26

Just mere distraction.

SPEAKER_05 55:27

Can pierce.

SPEAKER_04 55:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:28

Because I've got my identity. I'm rooted as it's Colossians. I don't know if I wrote it down here. Yeah, Colossians chapter two, verse six and seven. Now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, right? That's the first prayer, the prayer for those who didn't know that. Now continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down deep in him, let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong and the truth you were taught, and you'll overflow with thankfulness. Right? So we begin to pray, God, save them, now secure them, and now remind them whose they are. Because as 2 Corinthians 5 17 says, anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, the old life is gone, the new life has begun, and the new life is one that is pursuing righteousness, Christ-like character. So we pray the helmet of salvation over them. Then the last one we had was the sword of the spirit. The main prayer would be, Lord, give them a love for your word. We pray they don't just memorize it, but are transformed by it. It's the same place we started, the belt of truth. And what do you pull out of your belt if in this you're gonna pull the sword out of the sword holder that's attached to the belt? How closely are those two things tied together? The belt is all about truth, but now we've got the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, the Bible says. The sword of the spirit or the word of God you pull out of the belt of truth because it's the primary source of truth that we have access to today. Right? And so, I mean, we don't just want them to memorize it. Every single one of us, myself included, has a verse or verses that we would probably know what they say, whether we know it memorized word for word or not. We know what it says, but we don't live it out.

SPEAKER_04 57:13

And isn't that the only offensive piece of the armor?

SPEAKER_05 57:16

It's yes, the only yes. Yeah. Yep. All the other ones are defensive things to like protect you. He gave us one offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit.

SPEAKER_03 57:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:26

Right? And so, man, what if we pray that they would develop a love for the word of God?

SPEAKER_03 57:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:31

So that it doesn't just isn't just memorized, but it's transform, transformed by that, right? Psalm 119, 11 says, I've hidden your word in my heart so that I don't sin. What if we begin as parents, as people who are in the church and supporting the next generation, as grandparents, as friends, as aunts, uncles, right? Like, what if we were beginning to place the word of God in the heart of the next generation so that as they grow and they memorize and are transformed by it, that they don't sin against God? How cool would that be? So we just pray those things over them, believing that as we pray those things over them, that they would um in due time, in the timing of the Lord, not in our timing, but in the timing of the Lord, they would begin to put on the armor of God for themselves because number one, they saw their the generations before them do it. Yeah. And number two, the generations before them prayed them into it. How cool would that be?

SPEAKER_04 58:31

So cool and so powerful.

SPEAKER_05 58:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:32

If we just all take that next step, if we all step into this calling of discipling the next generation together, and we just understand that it it truly does take all of us. And what a transformation. Wow, that's the right word too. Transformation that would be for our local community here. You know, we we can't fix the churches at large, but we are a part of this church.

SPEAKER_05 58:55

And and I would even say, to your point, keep drilling it back. Don't even try to change our church. Change your house.

SPEAKER_04 59:02

Right.

unknown 59:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 59:03

Change your family. It all starts small. Change your class, change your workplace.

SPEAKER_04 59:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:09

Change your nieces and nephews, change your neighborhood.

SPEAKER_04 59:13

Yeah.

unknown 59:14

Right.

SPEAKER_04 59:14

Change the your sphere of influence that God has placed you in. Change it.

SPEAKER_05 59:18

Work on that. And if we all change our sphere of influence, then our church by proxy changes, and then churches around us change.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 59:28

Because all we did was say, hey, we're gonna step in a spiritual battle.

SPEAKER_04 59:32

Let's go, church. We can do it.

SPEAKER_05 59:35

Okay. Let me pray for us. Unless you guys have anything else. No. Okay. I'm gonna pray for us and then we will get out of here. Father, thank you for today. Father, we love you. We're grateful for you. We thank you that you gave us a plan to fight, to stand strong against the tactics and the strategies of the enemy who's the devil. Father, help us to not mislabel, misrepresent, or misidentify who the real enemy is. Father, thank you that you gave us your authority and we you gave us your armor to fight that battle well, to stand strong. Lord, we pray right now for the next generation that they would begin to see the armor that you've called us all to put on. Lord, that those who don't have those pieces of armor put on yet, that they would be willing in your time and in your way put on the armor you've called them to. Father, we pray for a generation who knows your truth and can be anchored in it in a world full of lies. God, we pray that the next generation would have their hearts guarded and that they would have their hearts clean because they're pursuing righteousness. We pray, Lord, that they would begin to have the shield of faith to stop the arrows. We pray that they would have the shoes of peace. Lord, that in the middle of a world that's trying to cause anxiety, they would begin to know that the peace that surpasses all understanding comes from you. Father, we pray for the helmet of salvation. For those who don't know you, we pray that they come into relationship with you, that they would begin to know, Father, that you sent your son to die on the cross, to pay the price of their sin, not his own. So that any of us who would confess you as Lord and Savior and believe it in our hearts that you died and rose again three days later, Father, that they would begin to have a relationship with you, that the old person is gone and the new is here, that they have new life and new identity in you. Father, we pray that you save those who are lost, because that's the goal that you sent when you sent your son to this earth to seek and save. But Father, for those who are saved, we pray that you begin to secure them, that you remind them of their identity found in you. Lord, and at the end of the day, man, we would just pray that these kids would have the sword of the spirit, they would love your word, they don't just memorize it, they'd be transformed by it. Lord, we know your word is transformative. We know your word is alive and active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, as it says in Timothy, that it cuts through joint and marrow, it teaches us what is right and wrong. Father, so we pray that we and the next generation begin to hide that on the inside of our hearts so that it's cultivated in the way we live, the decisions we make, that we can begin to live it out because it's transforming us. Father, give them the discernment to know what's of you and what's not of you in this world. Father, we pray that when the devil begins to attack them because he will, that they can stand strong in who you've called them to be, how you've equipped them, Father, in the life you're calling them to live. Father, we pray that you raise a generation of people who are going to fight for your kingdom. Kingdom workers. Father, the next generation will be passionate about you. But Father, we pray right now that you leverage the generations above them, leverage their prayers, leverage their influence, leverage their investments. Father, for your kingdom, for the good of those who are coming up, for the next generation to be discipled, not into the ways of a church, not into the ways of this world, but into the ways of Jesus, the word of God, and the obedience to the Spirit of God. Father, we love you, we thank you. We're so grateful for the opportunity to partner with you on this. You don't have to use this, but you choose to. So thank you. Thank you for each person listening. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you give them practical steps and ways that they can begin to pray for the next generation and disciple the next generation that they have in their sphere of influence. And Father, if we all make an impact in our sphere, what can you do through that? We can't wait to see it. We love you in Jesus' name. Everyone said, Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, we love y'all. We will see you guys here next week. And I think we should have all of us, if Brad's able to make it back from camp and wake back up.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:54

Yes, that is true.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:55

From a long nap. From a long 48 hour nap.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

Yeah. Have a great week, guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:59

See ya. See ya.