Video Transcript: Defeating Demons, Part 2

Revelation 12 speaks of a child being born of a dragon, a seven headed dragon, representing Satan wanting to destroy that child but failing and instead the child triumphing and of the dragon and his angels being defeated. And the key to that was the birth and triumph of this child. And therefore, when we speak of Jesus disarming the rulers and authorities and triumphing over them, we're talking about a major reason why Christmas happened. We also hinted from the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of Aslan, the great lion who not only gave his life as a substitute to save somebody, but also in doing so destroyed the evil power that had controlled the land. And that was a picture again of Jesus, the great lion of the tribe of Judah, as the scripture calls him triumphing over his enemies. 

Now, we looked at that in overview last week, and this week, we want to dig into a little bit more of the detail of defeating demons. First of all, I want to look at what are some of the major demon weapons to understand just a little bit more of Satan that his strategies and schemes. Then secondly, how did Jesus turn these very weapons against the devil? He disarmed the devil, and even turned his own weapons against him. And then thirdly, how can we defeat demons now that Jesus has defeated them. So first of all, what are some demon weapons? Well, right at the top of the list, you just say well sin, doing bad things, rebelling against God, committing evil is one of Satan's main weapons. He wants to get you to sin. And the way he does that is through temptation. Through making sin look like it makes sense. Through making sin seem attractive. You see it already in Genesis chapter three, the very first temptation where he wants them to think that that fruit is going to make good things happen. And that's how temptation works. Satan will try to take bad things, rebellion against God, and make it seem like it's the very key to your being happy. 

A second thing very closely related that is that he's a liar. And satan and his demons are always trying to get you away from the truth of things to get you away from reality, and to get you into a world of lies and falsehood. Satan, for instance, will tell you that God is not trustworthy, that God does not have your best interests at heart, that you could flourish more if you don't listen to God. Again, take the Garden of Eden. He said, Well, God's just saying that not to eat that fruit because he knows that if you do, that fruit will make you like gods. And so he lies. He tempts and he tells lies. Jesus said, The devil has been a liar from the beginning. He's a liar, and the father of lies. And one very important thing that satan will do again and again and again is to try to get you away from God's truth. To get you away from thinking along the lines of God's Word and who God is and the way he is, and to fool you into buying into other ideas that contradict God's word. 

Third is guilt. And Satan will use those first two things to lie to you and to get you to sin and make you feel like that's the key to being happy. But once he gets you to do it, he may try to keep you feeling happy for a while that will keep sinning. But he also may just turn things right around at the moment he's got you to do that bad thing that was the key to making you feel good and be happy. He will say see what you did. And he will slam you with guilt and accusation. The name Satan even means accuser, and Satan and his demons specialize in this. They specialize in accusation against you and just heaping guilt on you so that you think there's absolutely no way out. Nobody could ever be right with God. Again, no way that you could ever be forgiven because you're bad, you've done bad and you're a mess. And so satan sometimes will use guilt against you in that way. They'll also use accusation in a somewhat different way. He will put accusations in your mind against other people and he will make you think the worst of them. Your wife does something and you can't just see it in the best possible light or she's not having a very good day. So she was always that way and she's just out to get me and she's out to wreck my life. 

Or you have run in with somebody else. And at first it was just kind of a minor thing. It's not a big deal, but then you get to thinking about it. Oh man, I wonder what they were really up to. Yeah, that's probably Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's it. I know that's it. And that is not just a natural human thing, although our own sinfulness can take us that direction too. But it can be this guilt and accusation of Satan getting you to think the worst about yourself but also to think the absolute worst about others and their intentions. And sometimes if you actually talk it out with that person, you'll find out that they had some thoughts about you, that really hadn't entered your mind. And, these accusations you say, well, where'd that come from? 

Now, another method that Satan has demons use is shame. Or another word for that is degradation. Degrade you to make you feel like you are worthless, like you don't amount to anything like you'll never accomplish anything worthwhile, and to just run you down. Where people are doing the devil's work when they call each other ugly, when they call each other stupid. When they say the worst things about each other. When kids are mean to each other and knocking each other really what you're doing then is the devil's work, because shaming somebody else. Trying to grind them down or make them seem stupid or worthless or rotten. That's the work of the devil. And so doing that work is the work of the devil and at the same time being shamed or rating where you stand based on what other people say about you, that's what Satan wants. He wants you to just be scared to death of being embarrassed. And so he wants you to always worry what are others going to think of me? 

A fifth thing is force or another way of saying that maybe is bondage or control, domination. He wants to run things. He wants to get you in the grip of habits that you can't break and he wants to control your life. Now sometimes throughout history that has taken the force of what's actually called demonization or demon possession, where somebody has almost zero control of their own spirit and some other spirit is living in them and directing their life and messing them up. And that can happen. But it can also take a somewhat different form where the devil has a big hand in what we today call addictions. When we find ourselves having a habit that we want to break. It can be partly our own sinful nature and our flesh but it can also be aided by the power of the evil one. An addiction to overeating and gluttony, an addiction to pornography, an addiction to losing your temper. You just have these ranges where something a little sets you off and you don't know where the world that comes from. It may come from your own sinful nature, but it may be fueled and added onto by the power of evil one. And there are many other examples that I could give. But the fact is very many of the things that hold us and grip us in bad habits or to prevent us from good habits. 

You ever notice how hard it is to read the Bible for five minutes, and how you can fritter away three hours looking I don't know what it is you look at, it might be news, it might be a program, it might be a ballgame, it might be this, it might be that, it might be anything else. But you think you're really busy, or you're just super busy, and your family is super busy, super duper deluxe busy. Except if he really took a tally, you're probably wasting four or five hours every day. And you can't find four or five minutes for the habit of reading the word of God. Now you can just kick yourself and well maybe you do need to kick in the tail once a while. But you also might need to realize that it's not just you that there is somebody who not only tries to get you locked into bad habits but locked out of good ones. And he's always going to be opposing you and trying to dominate the way you use your time and the way you focus your mind. 

And the sixth, it speaks of in Hebrews to have him who holds the power of death that is the devil and the way he holds people into slavery by the fear of death. Just the fact of death that causes so many of us to tremble and the fact that although the Lord has supreme control over life and death, the Bible also connects Satan in some ways with one who is has this deathly power. So those are some demon weapons. And it's very important when we think of Jesus victory to take seriously the power of Satan, the power of his demons and the strength of their weapons because it's very hard to appreciate the great salvation you have if you don't know what you're saved from. And these are some of the weapons that Satan brings against the people of God and against people who don't yet belong to God. 

Now, look at Jesus and what he went through on the cross and you will see Satan's weapons and the weapons of the demons at work. The greatest sin in the history of the world was the crucifixion of the Son of God. Nobody deserved less and yet he was treated that way. What a horrible sin. And when it comes to lies, accusing witnesses were brought against Jesus just telling one lie after another after another about him. None of the mud would really stick but they decided to kill him anyway. Jesus was accused of being guilty about the two worst things that there can be, when it comes to the world of faith and religion. The number one sin is blasphemy of speaking against God or degrading God and Jesus was sentenced to death by the religious leaders for blasphemy. The worst crime you can commit against a nation is treason, and he was condemned by the Romans for being a rebel against Caesar. Now both charges were false, but the guilt was claimed to be upon him. That's what He's accused of. The shame. Jesus was mocked and beaten and spit on and stripped naked and dangled up in the air for everybody to laugh at. The domination. Well, he was seized, he was bound, He was nailed. You can't get much more under something else's control than that. And then he died. So you have these weapons of Satan being displayed with full power at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

And when you read the story of Jesus death, you may be tempted to feel some pity for Jesus to think, oh, this poor, helpless victim and the terrible things that were done to him by the weapons of Satan at the cross. Well, some of you are fans of the TV show 24 which recently ended and you probably more than once seen poor Jack Bauer as a captive, you know, with his hands up and being held at gunpoint or by somebody else's weapon. And when you see Jack in this condition, do you think yourself oh, that poor victim he let himself be caught? Now if you know the show, you know that if if he's in this condition, somebody else is about to be in very tough condition, because he has this way of turning other people's weapons against them. Now Jesus did much the same thing and we're gonna look at how did Jesus turn these weapons of the demons against them and parade them out at the point of their own weapons. You know, Jack Bauer has this way of you've got him and and he's a helpless victim one moment and you're probably looking down your own gun barrel the next moment because that's how the show goes. 

Well, when it comes to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says He disarmed the rulers and the authorities. He took the worst sin in the history of the world and turned it against Satan. He took all those weapons we've just been talking about and he turned them against satan. And we'll go into a little more detail about how He disarmed them and then turn their weapons right against them. He also put them to open shame says the text. He put them to open shame. Now some of you will recognize this picture of Saddam Hussein holding a gun and there were a lot of similar pictures of Saddam Hussein that were displayed around the nation of Iraq. Images of his power, of his youth and vigor and his power to control things. Now, after Saddam Hussein was caught in the war in Iraq some other images were broadcast. Now, did we really need to see somebody looking into his mouth to see how his teeth were? Or him looking like an old messy haired grey man. There was a reason why those images were broadcast. They were broadcast to embarrass him in the eyes of the people and to make him look old and weak and powerless. There was a reason for it, because this man had been a fearful force in that nation for decades. Now, without weighing in on anything about the Iraq War, I'm just saying that when you put former dominant enemies to public shame, it gives those were dominated by them, a sense of I don't think this guy is quite so dangerous anymore, at least not to me. And when the Bible says that Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Christ at the cross, it's doing so, so that we're not just intimidated and overpowered by Satan anymore. That we realize a great victory has been won and Satan has in fact been embarrassed. 

Now, how did Jesus do this? I want to look at how Jesus dissed the demons in these six different respects. First of all, Satan's weapon of sin and temptation. How did Jesus handle Satan? Well, even before the cross when Satan promised to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, if only Jesus would bow down, worship him, Satan is basically saying, here's a shortcut. And Jesus resists him. Later on Jesus’ friend, Peter says to Jesus, when Jesus is talking about the cross and resurrection that are upcoming, Peter says, This will never happen to you, Lord, and Jesus says, Get behind Me, Satan, because Jesus knows that this is the voice of temptation. When Jesus is coming close to the time of his death. He says, Well, what shall I say Father, save me from this hour? But I know for this very reason that I came into the world, and when he was sweating, blood in Gethsamane, even there, he said, not my will but Yours be done. He was dealing with Satan's most powerful temptations not to follow God's plan for him, and he was going through with those plans of God His Father anyway. Jesus disproved Satan the liar. Jesus said, that when you believe in me, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And he disproved that Satan's lies about on the one hand us being okay and not needing a savior or the opposite lie that were beyond saving, were so horrible. And he also just showed that his way of truth is the only way. 

He dismissed Satan, the accuser. We spoke last week of how, if you have a crime boss and a bunch of crooked cops who work for that crime boss, they might use the real law of the legitimate authorities against their own victims. They've got their own junkies or dealers who are working for them or maybe they've got illegal immigrants they smuggled in and they say you got to go along with us. You have to go along with us because if you don't, we're turning you over to the authorities. Now they’re are worst law breakers themselves, but they still use the law against others where they can and Jesus handles Satan by dismissing his accusations. He took all of our sins and nailed them to the cross. The Bible says that he dismissed the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands and this he set aside nailing it to the cross. So at the cross, Jesus took all of those false accusations against himself. But even more God took all of the accusations against us the right ones and put all our sins on Jesus and then nailed them to the cross and left them there. It's so important to understand that your sins are nailed to the cross and that you bear them no more. When Satan comes against you and accuses you, you can agree with him at one level. You can say yeah, I did that, and that was wrong. But that's one more thing that's been nailed to the cross and it doesn't stand against me anymore. When you're dealing with other people and you're having accusing thoughts about them or you're refusing to forgive them. You say, Well, I know they've got their faults too. But it's not mine to judge. It is God's to judge and God has nailed their sins to that cross. And so Jesus made that happen and dismissed Satan, the accuser.

Satan, and those under his employ, were mocking Jesus at the cross and laughing at him and saying that he can't even save himself and they were laughing at him and thinking that they were putting him to shame. But who was really put to shame in the end? Nowadays do we say yeah, that Jesus he was sure an embarrassing guy and now I admire that Pontius Pilate, and you know, Caiaphas that the high priest who arranged for Jesus death now, wasn't he an admirable character. Boy, I hope my kids grow up to be like him. You know, when you think of the human powers that were arrayed against Jesus, and you know, now Pontius Pilate always gets that line in the Apostles Creed. You know, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. It's a shame for Pilate. It's a shame for Caiaphas forever to be included in those stories. And it's a shame for Satan and his demons because the cross unmasked the real nature of evil. The number one best religious system in the world, killed the son of God when he showed up. The number one best legal system in the world, the Roman system, how did they handle God when he really showed up? They wanted Him dead too. 

What does that say about human religious efforts and human government as the solution to all our problems? It says what it says in First Corinthians chapter two. Bible says, None of the rulers of this age understood God's wisdom because if they had they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of Glory. They wouldn't have crucified Him. And the fact is that the crucifixion has served as an embarrassment, all of our efforts to make ourselves right with God or to reorder society by our own governmental efforts because Jesus has disgraced all the mockery that was brought against him and instead of the mockery is against all these systems that claim that they can save us without God. Jesus displaced Satan the ruler. He broke the grip of control that Satan has. No addiction has to control your life because Jesus has displaced Satan. He’s knocked him off his throne. He took his own crucifixion and used it to defeat Satan. And when he rose from the dead, He disarmed Satan the killer and Satan found himself looking right down his own gun barrel. Satan wields the power of death. And Jesus used the worst sin in the world and the most horrible death in the world to defeat Satan, and to shame him and to break his grip. 

Now, Jesus Himself said, when he was speaking of Satan as a bully, he said when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one who’s stronger than he attacks him, it overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. The very same thing that talks about here we're talking about in Colossians two verse 15, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities. Jesus had said in advance when you've got a big, strong, well armed bully, you need somebody to come along and conquer him out and take his weapons and strip them down and then take away everything he's got. And that's why I'm here. I'm here to beat up on Satan. I'm here to break the grip of the bully that nobody else has been able to break and to take his weapons away from Him. 

Jesus had some other things to say about Satan, and many other things. We'll highlight just a few from recent readings from the book of John, Jesus said The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jesus came to get us away from that bullying thief, and bring us life abundant life. And shortly before Jesus went to the cross, he said, Now is the judgement of this world. Now, will the ruler of this world be cast out. So He disarmed the rulers and authorities, he put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. We've seen Satan's weapons. We've seen how Jesus turned those weapons against Satan. 

And now we need to see how we can participate in that victory and defeat demons. And there are two basic elements to that. One is be on the right side. Make sure you side with Jesus and don't side with a loser. You know, if you had known that Saddam Hussein was in custody, but he wasn't looking too chipper, and that he was likely to get sentenced to death soon would you jump on his bandwagon? I mean, there were still activities and rebellions, but none of it was anybody thinking that Saddam was gonna be running that show anymore because his power was broken. And it's very important then that we side with Jesus in part because it's the right side but also in part because it's the winning side, and then live in his victory. 

Now, one thing this means is that if you're not currently in a relationship with Jesus, you have you have only one other description that fits you. You're child of the devil, okay. This is not nice, gentle, open minded pluralism like we have around us today where all religions are equally sufficient and all lead to God. Some of the comments you may have heard from one of the actors in the latest Narnia movies, and well you know, Aslan could represent Christ but it could represent Muhammad or the Buddha or you know, some other major religious leader as well. Not. You know, it wasn't a Muslim wrote that anyway. But my point here is, it says that if you don't belong Jesus, if you don't put your faith in Jesus, if you don't listen to him, guess who your papa is. You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. First John three the first epistle of John says, Whoever makes the practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sitting from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 

And so if you think that you can move along just fine without Jesus, you've got your life pretty well figured out. You're gonna live your own way. There's only one word for you. You are a deluded dunce, because everybody serves somebody. And if it's not God, it will be the devil. Everybody's got a supernatural father of sorts. And if your father is not the Father in heaven, the only other alternative is the father of lies. And so you need to side with Jesus and not the devil because there are only two possibilities. John 17 Jesus is praying for his own people and he says they are not of this world just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, he says his father, but that you keep them from the evil one. And then again, First John, chapter five, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. That doesn't mean you never sin again. But it does mean that you don't go into a lifestyle of sin as a as a pattern of which you never repent. It means that you are constantly fighting sin, instead of just going with that flow of sin. 

We know that everyone has been born and God does not keep on sinning but he who was born of God protects him. In other words, Jesus, on Christmas was born of God and born as Mary and this one born of God into the world protects those who belong to him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So, there you have it from the other perspective, one is telling people that if you're not a Jesus, then you are not the devil and born with him. But if you are of Jesus, then you're not just of this world anymore. You're not just of Satan, but you're born of God, and the one who was supremely born of God, the Son of God Himself is the one who protects you. And so the only conclusion you can come to those kinds of verses is side with Jesus, not the devil. It's an urgent call to conversion for those who don't yet know Christ as Savior and Lord. And when you do that you need to live in his victory. And that's a big part of what the book of Colossians is written for, to help people to live in his victory and not get fooled by satan or dragged down by Satan. 

Earlier we read from chapter one verses 13 and 14 that God delivered us from a domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. And in today's text, He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So there are these kinds of declarations of victory in this letter. Victory that God accomplishes. And now in light of the victory that God accomplishes in Jesus, what do you do? Well, one is don't let anyone delude you with plausible arguments. Don't let anybody trick you, fool you, lie to you. That's what it's saying in chapter two, verse four. Don't let anyone take you captive. Chapter two verse eight. Don't let anyone pass judgement on you. Don't let the accuser get out you. Don't let anyone disqualify you or rule you out. Those kinds of statements that Paul makes aren't just kind of random stuff thrown into a nice little letter. They are the declarations of how you and I ought to conduct ourselves in light of Jesus victory. If Jesus has given us the victory, then don't let anything drag us away from that victory. 

Here's a slide from an earlier sermon on that text. See that no one takes you captive according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according to Christ. And we saw that that phrasing there spoke of people being dragged off into slavery as the spoils or captives of war. And Paul is saying now, Jesus has come, he has defeated those enemy troops. And you will be crazy to go running after a bunch of defeated troops and say, Please take me with you, drag me along, making your slave. Why the world would you want to do that? If Jesus has defeated the powers and the elemental spirits, then see to it that nobody takes you captive. And so here are six things about living in Jesus victory in line with the earlier things we've seen. Jesus disregarded satan the tempter and so take what Jesus did as belonging to you. Remember the whole theme of Christ in you the hope of glory, and of you being in Christ? What happens to Jesus happens to you and so you live in him. You live in Jesus holiness, Jesus is holy and His Holy Spirit lives in you and more and more, seek that holiness that only God can give. And also happiness because realize Jesus is the key to your joy and look for your joy in him because you will fall more and more to temptation if you're not satisfied, if you're unhappy, if you're grumpy about what God is doing for you, you start looking for alternatives. If you learn to focus and be thankful, and to enjoy and to delight in God, then temptations lose a great deal of their power. This is one reason among many others why a daily time with the Lord, to pay attention to him and to count his benefits is so important. Because when you're happy in Jesus that you're able to trust and obey. When you're grumpy in Jesus, you're gonna fall for temptations with great frequency. 

Jesus disproved Satan, the liar. So live in Jesus truth and guidance. Here again is one of the reasons why it's so important that every day you'd be spending some time in God's truth. Why every week, you listen to God's truth proclaimed in the church. And why every day when you're making decisions, you know that it's a matter of knowing the scriptures, but also that you've got a lot of decisions to make, and you bring those to the Lord. Dear Savior Jesus by the Holy Spirit guide me because I know Satan's gonna try to get me to do something dense. He's gonna be lying to me all day every day. He's gonna be trying to get me away from the truth. I want to live in your truth and in your guidance. 

Jesus dismissed Satan the accuser. That's the third thing we've been talking about. And that means because he has done that if you're gonna live in victory didn't live by His grace, and by His acceptance. Don't be trying to earn more brownie points with God to get yourself accepted by God. God loved you while you were his enemy. Okay, just get that through your head. God loved you while you were his enemy. While you were a total sinner, Christ died for you. You're not going to be able to sin your way back out of his favor, in a sense. Because when he has set His love on you that love is an everlasting love. And so you live in that grace and in that forgiveness and when Satan comes with his accusations, you send Jesus to the door to meet him, and to banish him, because Christ is your righteousness, He is your acceptance, 

And again, then you live in grace in relation to other people. Think again, what I said about the accuser and the thoughts that come into your mind about what other people's motivations must be, and how bad they are and what they're up to, and so on and so forth. You don't need to figure all that out. Three fourths of its going to be coming from the accuser and his cronies anyway, and say, Hey, I live by grace, I got a lot wrong with me. And God accepts me. Why should I be so shocked if they've got something wrong with them? I accept them too on the very same basis that God accepts me because the cross of Jesus Christ has defeated Satan's accusations and there's level ground at the foot of that cross. 

And then fourth, Jesus disgraced Satan, the mocker. And because Jesus has disgraced Satan and his mocking, and his laughter at us, we can live in Jesus dignity and honor. When somebody else laughs at you, whether you're a kid or whether you're grown up, it's no fun to be mocked. But when you say Hey, I am a child of the King, I am a prince or princess in His Kingdom. The Son of God gave himself for me. God the Father loves me with everlasting love. Who cares what Satan thinks? It is God justifies who's he that condemns. It's God who declares me a kingdom and a priest to serve him. Who cares what anybody else says? And so you live in Jesus dignity and honor and you start treating other people that way too. You start seeing them either as already a son or a daughter of God or at least potentially becoming that. Somebody is so exalted that if you could see them now as they'll someday be tempted to worship them, you? You realize that mockery and and putting people down is Satan's work and you'll want to be part of that. You want to be part of Jesus work. 

When you're dealing with your temptation, whatever that temptation may be, whether it's a temptation to lust, or temptation to anger, or a temptation to be a chronic worrywart or whatever it is that you've been trapped into. You need to understand again, where the real power lies, and it is not in the power of your habit. And it is not in the power of those authorities that are against you, trying to dominate you. The power is in Jesus Christ. And when fear of death comes, and you understand that Jesus destroyed him holds the power of death the devil, and he gives freedom from that dread of death. Sure, there may be things about physical dying and certain fears that come with the unknown that may afflict you, but you do not need to fear death as a dark realm. Jesus said Whoever has faith and we will never see death. When the time of your dying comes, you will not see death, you will see angels you will see Christ. You won't see death. And that's because of what Jesus did when he came and lived among us and died on the cross and rose again in victory over death. 

And when all of this if you have to boil it down to a nutshell, one thing you need to do to live in Jesus victory to experience victory yourself is the everyday afresh. Every day you get up in the morning, you claim your position in Jesus Christ, and you say I am in Christ, and Christ is in me, and I belong to Him, and He is mine. And I want to communicate with him today. And I'm going to listen to him and I'm going to talk to him, and I'm going to take my position in Christ every day as a beloved child of the Father, as someone filled by the Holy Spirit. I am going to live and walk that way. And it's important to do that each day before I even bother with the powers of Satan or with the sins you're fighting against. 

Wake up and declare who you are in Christ, and speak to God about that and thank you for it, and declare your authority and your triumph over evil powers. If you speak the word of God and say in the name of Jesus Christ, I declare the authority of Jesus against all dark powers, and I command  those dark powers to leave me alone this day, and I call on God and His angels and the power of Jesus Christ to defend my family from those powers. And when you pray on behalf of others to be defended from those powers. It is very important that you realize the victory you have in Jesus. If you just got up and say another day, another morning, kind of muddle through it. You will not do all right. You need to know who you are. Who he is, who you are in Him, Jesus Christ and need to know your victory over the powers of evil one. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him and we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

Father, I pray that you will give each one of us a sense of Your Majesty, your power, your glory revealed in Jesus Christ. We thank you for the great wisdom displayed at the cross and the great power unleashed at the cross in defeating the powers of darkness. We pray, Father, that you will help us to rejoice in Jesus defend us, Lord from Satan, and the demons and their strategies. Help us to live in that victory. Again, we pray for those who have professed their faith this morning publicly. Give them all the pace stand in need of help them each day afresh, to take their position in Jesus Christ and claim their victory over the powers of the evil one, and help each of us here to do the same. We thank You, Father, for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord, and in his name we pray, Amen.