Battlefield Prayers

Over the last little bit, I've heard a lot of commentary that suggests that there's a war going on for the soul of our nation. And to some degree, I believe that that is absolutely true. I mean, in a roughly, as I'm looking at it and the heaviness that we're feeling as a nation, in a roughly 12-week time frame, from mid-June to mid-September, we have witnessed not what I'll call tragedies, I'll call them atrocities. I mean, whether we are seeing in front of our faces a 23-year-old Ukrainian young lady on a train in Charlotte being murdered or whether we're seeing kids that are in a worship service in their school year at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Two of those kids killed, 18 of them, 18 injured, 15 of those were children. It just weighs heavy. And then we see the politically and ideologically motivated assassinations. I mean, on June 14th in the early morning, a gunman premeditatedly stalked and killed Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at their home. They left behind two adult children. On that same morning, that same gunman ended up stalking another politician in the area, State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, and they were shot by the same man. They survived, those two, but only after receiving 17 bullet wounds. These weren't as public and we didn't see them as much. And then we're face to face on September 10th when we watched the egregious assassination of Charlie Kirk at a college campus in Utah in a highly visible act that was seen by everyone, everywhere, all the time. This is not about our particular arguments about politics, whether that's Democratic or Republican or any of those kinds of things, these are evil acts. And I'll be honest with you, they affected me. The cumulative nature, and specifically in seeing what happened with Charlie Kirk on that college campus, it affected me and I was far more disturbed than I actually thought. It's not because I followed him, I didn't, to be honest with you. I knew who he was. But I was just deeply disturbed and I started evaluating why I felt the way that I felt. By the way, it's just a really wise thing emotionally for you to evaluate why you feel sometimes the strong feelings that you feel. CS Lewis did that and wrote an entire book on it called "Surprised by Joy" when he was walking through the cancer that his wife was facing and ultimately dying from. And he reflected on why he was feeling the things that he was feeling. And I was doing the same and I was asking myself the question, is it because my heart breaks in sadness for some of these people and for Charlie Kirk, and some of them so young and seeing this happen and their futures being taken from them? Yes, of course, I'm deeply saddened by that. What about maybe the fact that it's just evil and heinous and you're looking at those things? Absolutely, that's disturbing on a number of different levels. But I'll tell you what I actually came to, because I have seen a lot of tragedy in a lot of young men and women, I have actually seen evil face to face a lot of times. It doesn't mean I'm desensitized to it, but it's not the first time that I've seen that. But you know what really happened is I realized that I personalized this much more than I thought because I do what I do. And I've got friends who do what they do, who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've got friends who are public theologians who are engaging the public square. I've got friends who are on college campuses ministering and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in those spaces, which I have done as well. It just became very, very close to home. I had the privilege this week of talking to about 20 men and women who are ministering on the campus of the University at Buffalo and trying to encourage them and calling them to courage in the midst of this time. These evil atrocities that we have witnessed affect us all. And I would suggest to you that when people say there's a war going on for the soul of our nation, I can understand where that's coming from, but I want to remind you that the war is much bigger and deeper than that even. And that's why during this week, God actually turned the channel for me in terms of what I was going to preach to what I'm now going to preach. I'm still going to stay in the context of our series, but I was scheduled to preach a different passage of scripture and instead I'm going a different direction this morning in what I believe is the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And as we've been learning and praying prayers for the church, specifically as we've seen in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we still have yet another call to prayer in that very letter. The first couple of messages in this series that I did and that we did were in the Book of Ephesians and we're still going to be there. We're gonna be all the way in Ephesians 6 in just a moment, but before we get to where I'm gonna concentrate our time, I want to remind you how Paul is orienting his readers about what he's about to teach them related to prayer because he wants them to understand the climate in which they are praying. Here's what it says in Ephesians 6, beginning in verse number 10. "Finally, be strong in," what? Are you with me here? "Finally, be strong in," who?

- [Congregation] The Lord.

- Yes. And in whose mighty power? His mighty power. "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." See, Paul tells us that there's a war going on for the souls of humanity and that there are dark, satanic, demonic forces in the unseen realms that are waging this war. Listen to me, friends, this isn't just true of our nation, it's true for every nation. This battle is bigger than our nation, it is a battle for the souls of humanity. You see, the unseen enemy that the Bible calls the Satan. By the way, did you know that it has that article in front of it? The Satan. It's not because his name from birth was Satan, like mine is Jerry or yours is Cordy, right? It's not that. It's that he's called the Satan because the word means adversary. He is the adversary of our souls and he is after the souls of humanity. Here's why. People are made in the image of God and the enemy hates God. That's why. Do you think Satan cares if you're Democrat or Republican? Do you think he cares if you're Black or white or brown? Do you think that Satan cares if you're rich or poor or middle class? Listen, Satan is delighted to use anyone for his evil purposes of destruction and confusion and lies. If you are a willing party, he's willing to use you, he doesn't care about the labels. So the Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians, and us by extension, that we're on a battleground and we better gear up. He tells us to armor up with the spiritual weapons of truth and righteousness and the gospel of peace and faith and the salvation that God provides in Christ and the word of God that he refers to as the sword of the Spirit. And then not as an afterthought, Paul tells us about another weapon, prayer. Maybe some of you have seen the movie "The Avengers". How many of you've seen some of The Avengers stuff? Raise your hand. Yeah, you probably. I mean, it's like one of the most watched movie series in the history of movies. And at the very end, the "Avengers: End Game", there's a battle going on, right? And it's the forces of good, all of the superheroes, The Avengers, and they're facing off with Thanos and all of his minions and all that, it's evil, it's good versus evil, right? And it's not going good for the good guys. Thanos has a warship that's hanging over the battlefield and it's like lasering up everybody and it's just not going well until The Avengers get some air support. Captain Marvel shows up, helps to blow up Thanos's ship and the tide starts to turn in the battle. Now, why do I tell you that? Not as a silly illustration, but as a reminder because Paul is reminding us that prayer is our air support in the battle that we are in. We're not calling on a fictional Captain Marvel to help us, we're calling on the true and real God of the universe and we do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's why when Paul gets toward the end in Ephesians 6, we see his instruction related to prayer. Here's what it says, beginning of verse 18, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." See, Paul's giving us some very clear instruction here about prayer. And it's really threefold, and I want us to just look at the threefold nature of what Paul is instructing us about prayer here. Here's the first truth. Pray in the Spirit. This is what Paul says, "Pray in the Spirit." Look at what it says in beginning of verse number 18, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions." Now, this phrase, "Pray in the Spirit," there's only really one other clear use of this phrase in the New Testament and that's in Jude 20-21. Remember Jude only has one chapter, so those are the verses, okay? There's also in 1 Corinthians 14:15, maybe or maybe not a similar usage, right? That's a little harder to... But the one that's clear is in Jude 20 and 21. But if we look at those comparably, what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? Well, let me start this way. I can tell you what it doesn't mean. What it doesn't mean to pray in the Spirit is that it's some mysterious password-encrypted puzzle that only a few people get access to that can only be solved with a special decoder ring. That's not what this is. Paul would not write such a thing, he doesn't have time for that kind of foolishness. And truthfully, that would sound more like the heresy of gnosticism than it would Christian faith. I can also tell you that what it's not is it's not praying in the flesh because he says, "Pray in the Spirit." The flesh is not just a word to describe kind of our physical skin, it's the condition of our humanness. Praying according to the flesh comes easy, friends, it's about human ability and it's about human personality and it's about human energy. Instead of the Spirit initiating and carrying our prayer and making our prayer in conformity with the will and way of God, we desire to create the agenda of our praying that in some way can glorify or satisfy our flesh. In other words, praying in the flesh is trying to use human means to overcome human problems while veiling it in something that we call prayer. You know what I'm talking about. Superficial, outward-showing, legalistic type of praying. I mean, it's those people who they're like, you know what? I feel a little tongue-tied when I pray, so I've taken a speech class, or you just try to overcompensate by tossing out a word salad with too many words in it as if prayer in the Spirit were about mere words. Or you feel like, you know what? I just pray too short, so now I'm gonna use a timer to build up the length of my prayers as if praying in the Spirit was about length. Or you feel a dryness in your prayer, so you raise your voice and you sweat and you go in with a ton of emotion as if prayer in the Spirit was about volume or energy or how you feel. Praying in the Spirit is the opposite of praying in the flesh, it's the opposite of that. So, what does that look like? Well, praying in the Spirit means this, if we look at both what Jude says and what Paul is saying here, to pray in the Spirit is to pray empowered by the Spirit in accordance with the way and the will of God, that's what praying in the Spirit is. And look again how Paul links prayer and the word of God together when he is talking about our armor. In fact, if you look at kind of verse 17 into the beginning of verse 18, here's what it says, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions." The sword of the Spirit and pray in the Spirit. Paul tells us that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God and then immediately tells us to pray in the Spirit. Is there any good reason to separate these ideas? No, not according to the context, there's not. The best platform on which to stand in prayer is God's own word, that's the best platform. As we've said many times over and what we're trying to teach in this series, if you wanna make sure your prayers are Spirit-led, make them scripture-fed. And when are we to pray in the Spirit? "On all occasions," Paul says, "with all kinds of prayers and requests." When he says that, he's saying all kinds of prayers means everything generally, and then all kinds of requests, he means everything specifically. If we're being exhorted by the Apostle Paul to pray all the time about everything, then we should heed it because Paul is giving us battle instructions about how we need to be communicating with central command, our air support, God the Holy Spirit. So we pray in the Spirit, but secondly, Paul teaches us that we keep on praying for the church, right? We pray in the Spirit, but we keep on praying for the church. Take again a look at verse number 18. He says, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." Isn't this interesting? That he's talking here, he says, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. And with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." Do you see the urgency in what Paul is communicating here? Like all and ways, everything that he's saying here, it's communicating an immediacy and an urgency. And what's he saying? Pray for the church. Pray for the Lord's people. Pray for God's people and keep on praying. Toward what end? Well, I think it can be both general and specific praying, obviously he's already taught us that, but I think Paul isn't talking here in context about praying for a grocery list of needs. My uncle's got a broken toe, pray for him. My cat needs a new home, pray for me. My phone quit working, pray for me. Now listen, all of these matter to God if they matter to you because you matter to God. Did you hear that? But Paul is giving battlefield instructions here. I think the kind of praying that Paul has in mind is that we pray for God's people to stand in the day of evil. I mean, that's what he said in verse number 13, take a look at it. "Therefore put on the full armor God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." You see, this is the kind of praying he's talking about when we're praying for the Lord's people, because too many, even too many that claim the name of Jesus, when faced with trial or difficulty or spiritual assault, end up fading, faltering, or shrinking back in retreat. And Paul counsels us to pray for one another that we might stand. I mean, you guys know, one of my sons plays baseball for a living and he got hurt and the entire month of June he was out. And he had a shoulder injury, and I was like, oh man. It was interesting, he ended up rehabbing, coming back, finishing the season. But one of my friends who was a professional ball player actually texted me 'cause he was keeping track of Tanner and what he's doing in pro baseball and all that stuff, and he texted me and he said, he said, "Man, here's the deal." Because when Tanner came back, he just said, "Here's the deal." He said, "Pro baseball's like a game of survivor. Last man standing gets a shot. Last one standing gets an opportunity." Sometimes, listen to me, sometimes the standing is the victory, sometimes the standing is the victory. After the enemy fires every flaming arrow at you and afterward you can stand with your faith and your integrity and your testimony intact, that's the victory on that day. We all wanna progress and take new ground in our faith, but sometimes in battle, the intensity is so high that the victory for that day or that season is just to stand, that's the victory. Pray for the Lord's people toward that end. Pray for any of them, pray for all of them, pray all the time. It doesn't mean when he's talking about praying all the time or when he writes about it in another place when he says, "Pray without ceasing," he doesn't mean that you're always on your knees and that your eyes are always closed 'cause that would be difficult when you're driving to work. He's saying in every season, in every space, in every place, in every opportunity, this is an opportunity to be a person of prayer. Invite God into everything that you're doing. Ask God, inquire of God in everything that you're doing. Pray for the Lord's people, any of them, all of them, all the time, that they would stand in the day of evil. But let me show you a third truth here that Paul gives to us. Not only does he teach us to pray in the Spirit and to keep on praying for the church, but he says, "Pray for gospel courage." Pray for what I'm calling gospel courage. Look with me in verse 19 and 20. Paul says, "Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it," what does it say? "Fearlessly, as I should." Some of your translations might say boldly in that. This is interesting 'cause as Paul's finishing up his writing to the Ephesians before he closes with some final greetings and those types of things, it's kind of a willingly vulnerable moment where what Paul does is he opens his heart to the Lord's people so that they can pray for him. What was he afraid of that he felt like he needed to ask the Lord's people for their prayer on his behalf? I can tell you that he wasn't afraid of being a captive because he didn't ask them to pray for his release from captivity here. He wasn't afraid of the conditions that he was in because he didn't ask them to pray for a more comfortable bed or better or more nutritious food. What Paul was afraid of is that he would not preach the gospel fearlessly, that's what he was afraid of. Boldly, with courage, and with clarity. You know the word there in the Greek language that's translated fearlessly or boldly means to speak freely, unhindered. You might even say it this way, it's free speech, it's literally what the word translates. And because Paul is asking them to pray in the Spirit, he's trusting that when they pray for boldness for him, that it will be a Spirit-given, watch this, a Spirit-given boldness and courage, not some bluster or bravado or what I call performative courage. He's asking for Spirit-given courage. See, too often in our day we've traded true Spirit-given courage and boldness for a performative courage in our day. Social media plays into performative courage. Here's what I mean. It's a false bravery that lacks deep inner conviction or it's keyboard courage that actually doesn't have any real skin in the game. People that tell you what you should be doing who don't have any intent of suffering and dying for the people of Jesus, that's performance, that's not Spirit-given courage, that's not given by the Holy Spirit. And it can happen to us all, including pastors. They're pastors and they're my people and I love them. I'm not about pounding on pastors, I love them. I live to encourage them. I live to try and strengthen them. I understand how difficult the job is. But there are pastors in light of the Charlie Kirk assassination who've used their platforms to try and call out pastors everywhere that they better do such and such on Sunday. You better blame X, Y, and Z on Sunday. First of all, quick question, who are you? You're not the head of Jesus' church. You do what God leads you to do in your context. And this happens every time a national event occurs, every time. By the way, it happens in churches all the time too. I was on the phone with a friend of mine from a different state who was getting absurd pressure from his congregation to do certain things that he knew that he shouldn't do. And he asked me, "What would you do?" And I said, "You can't do it, you can't do it." You've got to have the courage to say no to your people because it's not good for them. What they're wanting you to do, it's not good for them. And you have to have the courage to be able to do that. It's too often, see, it's performative in nature. That's courage of the flesh, we want the courage of the Spirit because the courage of the flesh is essentially pharisaical. Do you remember what the Pharisees did? Do you remember the critique of Jesus with the Pharisees? The predominant critique of Jesus with the Pharisees was this, "You put burdens on people that I haven't put and you don't lift a finger to help them." And when you've got pastors using their platforms to try and call out every pastor in America who doesn't know the context of all of their local churches and how this has affected all of the people in those places, that's pharisaical in its essence, because what it's doing, it's putting burdens on pastors that aren't commands from God. It's pharisaical in nature, and pastors have to have a Spirit-given courage to resist that. Paul is not praying for the courage to yell at Caesar. Paul's not praying for the courage to stick it to his captors and his persecutor. Paul isn't asking for courage to get revenge. Paul is asking them to pray that he would have the courage to open his mouth and speak the good news about Jesus to anyone and everyone that God gives him opportunity to do that with. He's asking for the courage to share the gospel and witness to Jesus, and do you know why? Because Paul knew that Jesus had rescued him. Paul would write elsewhere, "Here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm the worst, but for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe and receive eternal life." This is what Paul knew. Paul knew that Jesus had rescued his life. Jesus, the one who knew our need as sinners and who, watch this, who put skin in the game literally by leaving glory, leaving the privileges of heaven, and coming to put on skin of a human being in order to identify with us and to save us. Jesus who knew his mission was to die for us, but he dealt with the struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane in his humanity and he prayed, "Father, may this cup pass from me," but instead he courageously followed those words with "Yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus who was perfectly sinless, yet was dragged before Pontius Pilate to stand accused of things that he was innocent of. Jesus, who like a sheep before his shearers, is silent, he did not open his mouth to defend himself. Jesus who went to a cruel and violent death on a cross so that through his sacrifice we could be forgiven and have an opportunity to be reconciled to God. Watch this, friends. Jesus kept his mouth closed in defense of himself so that ultimately we might open our mouths to declare what he's done in our defense. Paul knew this. Paul knew this and that's why he prayed this prayer, for courage to open his mouth and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need the same Spirit-given courage, because listen to me, performative courage will not work in the day of persecution. Spirit-given courage because we're in a battle, we're in a real one. Persecution is not coming, it's here, it's real. And while Paul asked for prayer, for courage to share the good news of Jesus, he would later exhort young Timothy in the same way. Do you remember what he said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1? He said this, "For this reason, Timothy, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands." Watch this. "For the Spirit that God gave us does not make us timid," or fearful, "but gives us power, love, and self-discipline," or a sound mind. "So don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner. Rather join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." You know what? Maybe Timothy was a little more on the timid side and that's why Paul had to say what he said. Some of you may be thinking as well, I feel like I'm a little bit on the timid side as well. And you may think to yourself, I feel like I've only got the courage of a mouse. That's okay, that's okay, listen to me, I'm gonna remind you of something. You may feel like a mouse, but you've got a lion on your side. And we need to remember that the empowerment of the Spirit of God does things in our hearts and our lives that we are not capable of in our own flesh and our own humanity. Sometimes the lion will speak on our behalf. That's why Paul says, "Would you pray that God would give me the words?" If we're resting on our own power, that's a dangerous place to be and that will fail us. But God expects that we will be people of courage in our witness of Jesus. Not bluster, not false bravado, not performative fleshly courage, but real Spirit-given courage in the face of hostility. In fact, over and over again, the writers of the New Testament give us this as an expectation. When the Book of Hebrews was written, it was written to struggling Christians of a Hebrew background, of a Jewish background. And listen to what the writer writes in Hebrews 10. He says, "Remember those earlier days after you'd received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution, at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You need to persevere so that when you've done the will of God, you'll receive what he has promised. For, 'In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.' And," he quotes again, "'But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.' But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved." There's an expectation, by the way, of the people of Jesus that they're not people who shrink back, but they're people who have the empowerment of the Spirit of God to be able to open their mouths and testify to Jesus. Do you know who some of the people are? Do you know the list of people that end up separated from God in the second death, in the bottomless pit that revelation talks to us about? Do you know the primary characteristic that's listed in that list? Listen to what it says in Revelation 21. "Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, they're the ones consigned to the fiery lake." They're the ones who've said, no, I don't stand for Jesus, no, I'm shrinking back, no, I'm fearful, and what they've done is they've exposed their unbelief. We're not those people. We've seen glimpses of persecution, but we've also seen faithful believers in the midst of it. I think back to 1999 and a young lady named Cassie Bernall, she was a student at Columbine High School in Colorado. And a young man came into their school, two young men came into their school, classmates, and they found her specifically and they asked her, "Do you believe in Jesus?" And she paused, and then this 17-year-old girl looked right in his face and said, "Yes, I believe," knowing that it would be the last words she ever said. And he killed her. But as Jesus used five loaves and two fish to feed 5,000 people, Jesus used one word from Cassie, yes, to feed the world the worth and the beauty of Jesus. That is Spirit-empowered courage. I think in 2015 on a beach in Libya when ISIS made a public video of 21 Christian men dressed in orange jumpsuits. Each of them had an ISIS soldier above their head with a knife to their throats and all of them were given the chance to recant their faith in Jesus and convert to Islam, and none of them would. And their last words before being beheaded were, either translated, oh, Lord Jesus, or Lord Jesus, help. That same year in 2015, our church, The Chapel, was firebombed. Many of you weren't here. Separately, they defaced with disgusting language and symbols the outside of our building as well. But our job is to remain and to testify to the gospel with the courage that the Spirit gives. We live on a battlefield, but as Paul reminded us, our struggle's not against flesh and blood, and that should clue you in that trying to fight with fleshly means will not be the answer. We need to appeal to our air support, the power of the Spirit of God, and be reminded that though the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms tried to rejoice in Jesus' defeat, they did not win. Paul tells us in Colossians, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." So, how should we pray? Well, here's what I'd like us to do on every campus, everywhere. I'm gonna put up four prayer prompts that are right out of the text and I want us to take a few moments and I want us to pray through those. Pray that we'd learn to pray in the Spirit in accordance with the word of God. I want you to pray that God's people at The Chapel will be able to stand in the face of hostility. I want you to pray that God's people in our nation will be able to stand and testify to Jesus. And I want you to pray that the Spirit will give you and me and all of God's people Spirit-given courage and boldness to testify to Jesus. We need to be reminded of those truths. Paul said, "For me to live as Christ and to die is gain." So in life and in death, we can trust Jesus and we can live with a Spirit-given boldness, because we're not a people who shrink back, we're a people who understand what our final destiny is, we know how the story ends. And even though this life is broken and messy and tormented and violent and atrocious sometimes, Jesus says, "In this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world." And so that's the confidence that we have. So if you're here and you've never put your faith and your trust in Jesus, boy, I wouldn't wanna walk through this life without him, the one who made us, the one who is the only one who can reconcile us to God. Jesus said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me." And if that's your need today, there'll be men and women that are coming down right now, they'll be standing down front. They would love to take a moment, pray with you about your need to know Jesus. And just don't be afraid to do that. You're among family, you're among friends, we love you. There's nothing you could do that's better than this. So if that's your need, I encourage you to take one of these men or women by the hand and just say, I want to entrust my life to Jesus. Or maybe you just need to take some more time to pray. You can remain in your seat if you want when we dismiss and take some more time to pray, or you can come and ask one of these folks to pray alongside of you. Father, thank you for the truth of your word and for the way that you speak through your people. Thank you for such a wonderful body that we get to participate in called The Chapel. Would you give us all of this, what we're praying for? Would you give us that by the power of your own Spirit? We do not lean on our own flesh, we don't lean on our own competencies, we need you, God, in every place and space that we are in to give us the boldness by your Spirit that's filled with the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. Lord, give us all of that in goodness so that we might show people the beauty of who Jesus is. Would you do that for your glory? I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.