In this sermon, the speaker discusses the different views people have regarding miracles and the supernatural. He starts by sharing a story about two brothers from Arkansas who have never been to the city and are amazed by the things they see there. He then compares the perspective of pagan people in the ancient world who believed miracles were the work of gods and needed to be worshipped, to the perspective of the average North American church today, which tends to explain miracles through natural principles. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the spiritual realm and the power of God in our lives, and encourages the audience to have a biblical worldview rather than sitting on the fence. He concludes by inviting the audience to explore the subject further and to praise and worship God.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. We're pleased tonight to have Dean Hostetler with us. Dean comes to us from Goshen, Indiana area. He's been ordained by the Mennonite Church for Deliverance Ministries. And Dean, I'd like to have you come and we'll have a word of prayer. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your presence among us. Father God, we look to you as the Almighty One. You are the one in charge. You are sovereign. Father, we see our smallness and yet we see how that you have brought us close to you. And tonight as our hearts and our souls and our spirits are gathered together here, we ask, Father, that you would speak spirit to spirit so that we might be able to be hearers of your word, true hearers deep within. We ask that you might minister to and through our brother as he shares the truths that you would have him share with us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. In Jesus' name. Crucified. Died. Buried. Risen and living again. Ascended and seated in glory. Empowering his church to serve the risen Lord on earth. The subject matter that we want to look at in this particular series of meetings takes two different forms. One to expose the powers of darkness. The works of Satan and its host. The second to glorify the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I am not particularly interested in the works of darkness. What I am interested in is the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over them. I am aware that this is a subject that has not had very much treatment in the Christian church. It has suffered tremendous neglect. Everett Ferguson in a book titled The Demonology of the Early Christian World makes this statement on page 129. The most noticeable mark of the early church up to the year A.D. 200 was the church's ability to deal with the spirit world in the Roman Empire. A mark most noticeably absent from the contemporary church. I trust in our time together that we will be able to unfold the subject a bit more so we can comprehend what is going on in the world out around us and that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we can set free the captives whom Satan has bound. I invite your attention as a point of departure this evening to several different scriptures. The first in the book of Job, chapter 38, verse 4. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Verse 6. On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone? Who enclosed the sea with doors? Verse 12. Have you ever commanded the morning? Verse 16. Have you entered into the springs of the sea? 19. Where is the way of the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place? 22. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Have you seen the storehouses of the hail? Or the east wind scattered on the earth? You go throughout this chapter and the succeeding chapters of the book of Job, you find God asking 80 scientific questions of Job. God is a God of science. Job couldn't answer a single one. Modern science, with all its sophistication, can answer eight of those 80 questions today. We have barely scratched the surface of learning the greatness and the majesty and the grandeur of God's creation. Let us go a bit further. John, chapter 4, verse 24. God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Galatians, chapter 3. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. The Spirit expressly says that in the latter days doctrines of demons would be taught. Things that are heretical, anti-scripture. Let's turn now to Acts 14. I read these scriptures expressly to help us see that God is spirit. God is also scientific. That there is a spirit world. The story in Acts 14 centers itself on the work of Paul and Barnabas. Verse 8. At Lystrae there was sitting a certain man without strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. Who, when he had fixed his gaze upon him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, Stand up right on your feet. He leaped up and began to walk. The multitude saw what Paul had done. They raised their voice, saying in the Lyconian language, The gods have come to us like men. They have come down among us. They began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, the temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. When the apostles and Barnabas heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men with the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you in order that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. And in generations gone by has permitted all the nations to go their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you grain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. And even saying these things, they with difficulty restrained the crowds from offering sacrifices to them. Now let's take a look at that passage. There are three views in this passage. The first view is the view of a pagan people, the Iconians. They said a miracle has taken place. The gods have come to us in human form. Sacrifices are necessary because the gods need to be worshipped. Now let's move the same passage into the average North American church. An apparent miracle has taken place. We need to investigate this thing. Very likely there are natural principles at work that we do not as yet understand. When we get a little better educated, we'll be able to figure it out. In any case, miracles don't happen today. Now let's look at it from a New Testament point of view. It's a miracle. People are God's instruments to do his work in the world. It's Christian ministry pointing people to the Lord Jesus Christ. God is to be praised and worshipped. Now which column do you find yourself in this evening? What is your world view? I have found an immense amount of people attempting to ride the fence right here in the middle. If we do, if we sit on the fence, we do not have a biblical world view. Sooner or later you will get an outline of some of the things that I have to say with this particular overhead. This overhead was first developed by Dr. Timothy Warner. The point is that there are three realms. The problem is that far too much of the Christian church sees the world put together like this. There is the realm up here of the supernatural, the realm of religion, the place where God is. Then down here is the natural realm, the realm of science, the realm of people and things. And in between is literally nothing. And the two seldom, if ever, interact or come together. The Bible, however, does not speak in those kind of dimensions. The Bible speaks like this. There is a biblical portrayal of God who is supreme. Down here is the realm of man and things. In between is the realm of demons and angels, both the good and the fallen. Now this particular chart we will come back to perhaps several times. We seem to have forgotten that angels are ministering spirits given for the service of the saints. The angelic hosts are perhaps the most unemployed workforce in the universe simply because Christians give them nothing to do. Verse Corinthians 6 points out that the day is coming when the likes of you and I are going to stand in judgment on angels. It says that in that many words. Hebrews 1.14, as the outline points out, the holy angels are given for the service of the saints. When was the last time you gave angels something to do? You see, man is created a little lower than the angels, the Bible says so. But in redemption from his fallen state, he stands higher. Because the text says in 1 Corinthians 6 that the day is coming when we stand in judgment on them. The reason for that is that redeemed man, according to Ephesians 1 and 2 and Colossians 2, is seated with Christ in heavenly places, far above the principalities and powers of this world. Far too often we find people admitting that they are standing underneath Satan and his hosts. The Bible does not say that. The Bible says that the saints are seated above, far above. We need to appropriate our position. We will come back to that later. Why is this so difficult for us to grasp? The reason is that biblical truth stands on its own two feet, all by itself. At each end of the truth, I have put what is labeled a theological box. All of us have one. At this end of the truth, notice it is partly in the truth and partly outside, is a North American worldview which consists of science, reason, material goods. You can't prove something in a test tube. It doesn't exist. Now I'll show you the fallacy of that in a great big hurry. John, does your wife love you? Would you please prove it scientifically? Therefore it's not true. Well, you say you're a stupid fool. And you're right. It's not an issue that you can prove scientifically. It's a different realm. Let's go to the other side. Again, the theological box. This time an African worldview. An African sees a spirit in yonder big tree. There's one in that rock over yonder. There's one each or more to each of those hills out here. The spirit governs those hills. Therefore the African is an animist. That word means that there is soul force in every object. An allied word is pantheism. Therefore the African is a spiritist. Now, illustration. Envision a curb in the road here with a chuck hole in it. The bus comes around the corner and runs into the chuck hole and blows out a tire and upsets. The North American looks at that and says, Repair the chuck hole. Have good tires. You don't have this problem. No African would say that. The African's approach to the problem would be, Who put a curse on that bus? Now, I didn't say the African was right. I simply said he's looking at the truth from the other end of the spectrum. We look at it this way and he looks at it that way. The truth is in the middle. Let's amplify it a bit more. Luke chapter 13. Here you have the story of a woman with a curved spine. She can't get up. Jesus looks at that and says, Whom Satan hath bound these eighteen years. He deals with the demon power behind it and the woman's okay. John chapter 20. Thomas says, I need to put my fingers in the wounds of the Lord's hand. My hand in his side. Otherwise I won't believe. Thomas would have made a good North American. I'd have proved. Now, how does it come about that we have such divergent views of what's going on in the world? Again, the biblical data. This Bible that all of us can read. And we're looking at it from the standpoint of gleaning the truth. I would want to fault no one this evening who reads God's word that they are dishonest. We are interested in understanding what God has to say. Isn't that correct? Would you agree with me? Of course. The problem is that none of us can come at the truth directly. We have in our way a filter which is the culture that we grew up with. All of us have a culture of some kind or other. The African has a culture. The North American has a culture. The people in this community have a particular culture. It's the way we have grown up. In the process of looking at the truth, it has to come through this filter of our culture. And in the process, a piece gets lost. We don't comprehend it properly. We have another filter which is our tradition. Those of you that are German-speaking, Deatning! The way we have been told things are. The way we need to believe. And that colors the picture some more. And we lose some more pieces. Then comes our training and our personal prejudice. I remember oh so well as a young child. My mother was a spiritual leader in the house. She used to assign parts of chapters of the Bible for us to memorize. And one day she assigned a portion of the 8th of Luke to me. And I read about the Gadarene and the demons. And I said to mother, what are demons? Are there some now? What do they do? Oh she said that was in Jesus' day, not now. I grew up with that kind of an understanding. My training colored the picture tremendously for me. And came the time when I had to unlearn a lot of what I was taught. Now mother was not dishonest. She was attempting to convey to us children the way she understood things. You see the filters through which the truth had come had screened out a lot of reality. At the end over here, after we're finished with the filters, that's what you and I get. And remember, no one has been dishonest. It's just what happens. Therefore, we will live what we believe, not what we profess. In times of crisis is when that shows up. Death, sickness, accident. You will live what you believe, not what you profess. I will do the same. So much for world view. Which is essential to understanding the world of spirit. For those of you that are interested, I would suggest to you the reading of books like Communicating Christ in Animistic Cultures by Van Ryn. The World of Spirit by Scott Maurier. Timothy Warner's book, Spiritual Warfare, is another one. Mennonite Brethren Fellow by the name of Richard Gaiman has written one titled Traditional African Religion in Biblical Perspective. Those books will give you a good understanding of the spirit world. Now I am aware that there are tremendous difficulties connected with communicating this kind of material. And I'm a good deal reminded of the story I heard about the two brothers in the hills of Arkansas. These two brothers had never in their lifetime been to the city. And they got to talking with each other and decided it's about the time in life where we ought to go see what the city is like. So they walked up to the train station and they bought tickets and they got on. They weren't much more than seated until a man came through the coach who was selling apples and oranges and bananas and popcorn and candy, etc. Now these two brothers had never seen bananas before. And the one inquired, what are those yellow things you've got there? Those are bananas. Well give us each one. And the one brother peeled his, took off a bite, and the train plunged into a tunnel. And he says to his brother, you didn't eat off of yours yet, did you? No, why? Well don't you dare. If you do, you'll go sock blind. Now the truth and their comprehension of it was miles apart. I hope we don't have quite that much difficulty. Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10. In verse 14, Paul says to the Corinthians, And remember, Paul is addressing the letter to the saints that be at Corinth. The address this evening is to the saints here in southeastern Iowa. Keep that in mind. Paul says, flee from idolatry. Then he moves on down a little further. Look at the nation Israel, verse 18. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? Emphatically, no. The idol is nothing. But look what he says next. I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to God. And I don't want you to become sharers in demons. You can't drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Are we? Paul is saying three things. There are practices that seem harmless on the surface. But they're dangerous. Involvement with the powers of darkness that are behind the idol contaminates your life. And demonic involvements break fellowship with the Lord. Now, keep those principles in mind as we work through these days. The picture that our poets painted of Satan is theologically false. They painted him as wearing a red suit. Peaked ears. Peaked nose. Horns. Hooves for feet. Tail. Carrying a pitchfork to jab people. Now, if he showed up out here in the foyer like that, I guarantee you there'd be a wholesale exodus from the building. Far too dangerous a place to be. Alas, he does not show up like that. The Bible pictures him in two ways. 2 Corinthians 11, 14. As an angel of light to deceive. And 1 Peter 5, 8. As a roaring lion to devour. And he's both of those. And he'll use whichever tactics best serve his purposes at a given time and place. The Bible speaks of this issue of idolatry more than 500 times in over 1,200 verses. There's more space given to that particular sin than any other sin. And generally speaking, less attention paid to that one than any other thing in the Bible. We are going to use three words that are basically interchangeable. Witchcraft, sorcery, occultism. They're synonyms. And the works of sorcery, the works of Satan, are basically counterfeits of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I used to think that there was one gift of the Holy Spirit that Satan could not counterfeit, love. Until the day came when I met up with the love demon. I changed my mind in a hurry on that one. Let's turn to our Bibles for a brief survey of what the Bible has to say. First of all, let's turn to Exodus chapter 7, verse 9. When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Work a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh. Thus they did, just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They, the magicians of Egypt, did the same thing with their secret arts. Each threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staff. You see, the sorcerers could duplicate the acts of God through Moses and Aaron. Let's move on. Chapter 8, this time verse 6. Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. The magicians did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Again, they duplicate the works of God. Let's go a little further. Verse 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become knots throughout all the land of Egypt. They did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth. There were knots on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became knots through all the land of Egypt. And the magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth knots, but they could not. There was a point beyond which they couldn't go. God will not be mocked. He is still God, even though there is power in witchcraft, in sorcery, in the works of darkness that are manipulated by Satan. God is supreme. He's here. God is there. Keep that in mind. He's a puny little fellow, defeated at Calvary's cross. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 27. As for a man or woman, there is a medium or spirit just among them. They shall be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones. Their blood guiltiness is upon them. Verse 6, same chapter. As for the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to play the harlot after them, I'll set my face against that person and cut them off from among his people. Involvement in the sins of sorcery cut Israel off from the sacrificial system. Furthermore, you were caught in it. The penalty was death by stoning. Now that's pretty severe, but that's what God had said. I think most of us are familiar with the story of Achan when they took the city of Jericho. The orders from God were, destroy everything except Rahab the harlot. You'll find a scarlet cord in the window to mark the place. Achan saw some nice clothes, some silver and some gold in the rubble. I'll take that home and put it in my tent. I've got use for it a little later. Nobody will know the difference. The next thing on the scene, Israel went up to battle the city of Ai and found that they were rendered powerless because of the sin of Achan. He had touched that which had the curse of God on it. Now if that kind of thing rendered the whole nation powerless, what will the sins of sorcery in the church do to the church? Do they enhance its power? Or do they deaden it? Which? These are the kind of things that we're going to look at. And I want to warn you, I didn't come here to win a popularity contest. I may step on some of your toes, or on your parents' toes, or your grandparents'. If I do, sorry. But the truth can stand on its own feet. In 1 Samuel 28, you have the story of the seance. I do not attend seances. But I have counseled with many people who have. During a seance, he knows his speech, his mannerisms, his lifestyle, knows everything about him. Appears and impersonates that person. That's what the medium in 1 Samuel 28 expected to have happen. God took the whole business out of her hands. And she brought up Samuel as King Saul had requested. The medium screams and cries out. She's not expecting that kind of thing at all. Now, why did Saul go down there? He'd been told not to. He had disobeyed the voice of the Lord in 1 Samuel 15. He went and brought King Agag back alive. He'd been told to destroy him. Bring back nothing. He brought back the best of the sheep and the oxen for sacrifices. Samuel came on the scene and said, What means this lowing of the sheep and the oxen? All the people did it. He tried to shift the responsibility. Samuel says to him, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And I can give you plenty of examples from the scope of life about the reality of that. When people are in rebellion, that's ready-made ground for spirit activity of an evil sort. As a result of Saul disobeying the expressed voice of the Lord and for seeing the medium, 1 Chronicles 10.13, Saul died a suicide. In the past 25 years, I have investigated all the suicides that I came across in the Amish and the Mennonite house. Granted, I've missed some. But all the ones I found had sorcery, either in the person's own life or the near ancestry. Does it tell us anything? Tomorrow night I will explain the term sorcery more thoroughly. Now let us go back to the book of Deuteronomy. This time, chapter 18. When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. That's verse 9. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, practices witchcraft, interprets omens, or is sorcerous, one who casts a spell, a medium, a spiritist, one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. Because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For those nations which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so. Now here are four headings under which all forms of sorcery fit. The first is child sacrifice. In the days of Israel, they had a big stone god, the god of Moloch, the people around them. That thing was hollow, and they built a fire in it. Then they threw babies in and burned them, sacrificing the children to the idol. Now, we don't do that today. We sacrifice them to the god of abortion. Very similar practice. The next thing that's mentioned in this chapter is divination, the discovery of things hidden and secret by the aid of the spirit world. I'll amplify that more tomorrow evening. The third thing is the casting of spells, magic. I am not referring to getting golf balls out of your nose or handkerchiefs out of your sleeves. I'm referring to the kind of magic that has demon power behind it. And there's plenty of it around. The fourth thing, spiritism, direct communication with the spirit world. And there are cross-combinations of these things. A Ouija board, for example, is a combination between spiritism and fortune-telling. Fortune-telling is a part of the heading of divination. In 2 Chronicles 33, you find King Manasseh practicing every one of these prohibited things in Deuteronomy 18. Israel was forever getting mixed up with the Baal gods and the sins of sorcery that went with it. The prophets would thunder at it. Israel did very little repenting. Moses had said to them in Deuteronomy 28, and we'll look at that in more depth at a later session, if you don't obey God's laws, you'll ultimately lose your nation. And that's what happened. Hosea 4.12, Ezekiel 21.21, Ezekiel 13.20-23 are references to the use of the divining rod. Let's move on to the New Testament. Matthew 8.16-17, Jesus connects some kinds of sicknesses with demon activity. If I had the time this evening, I would delineate some of that for you. Luke 4.18 refers to Isaiah 61 where Jesus says, Part of my commission is to release the captives from bondage. May I suggest to you that you take the Gospel of Mark, sit down and read it at one setting, a whole book. Take pencil and paper and put in columns what you see Jesus doing. When you get finished, look at your columns. One third of the content of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is dealing with the demonic world. Luke 8, Mark 5, the account of the Gadarene. If someone showed up in the community with the symptoms that that fellow did, he'd probably be sent off to the nearest mental hospital. I didn't say there is no such thing as mental illness. But dealing with the powers of darkness, the demonized people in this world has worked for the Church. In Luke 9.1, Luke 10.1-19, Jesus said to the disciples, Go to the world with the good news of the kingdom. Then he said two other things. One, heal the sick. Two, cast out the demons. And he wasn't referring to the medical profession. Am I then anti-hospital and doctor? No. They're a blessing to society. But that's not where we should have relegated everything as we have. In Acts 13.6-12, you have the account of Elymas, the sorcerer, withstanding the preaching of the Apostle Paul, who is attempting to preach Jesus to a government official. One of the hallmarks of people involved in the sins of sorcery is their anti-Gospel stance. Statements like, you can't know about assurance of salvation. You just hope so. That kind of stuff. Anti-Gospel. In Acts 16.16, you have the account of Paul and Silas meeting up with a girl who has a spirit of divination, it says. She was a fortune teller. Her owners gained a lot of money by her services. She went around and followed Paul and Silas, screaming and hollering, these men are the servants of the Most High God. They teach you the way of salvation. Did she tell the truth? Huh? Yeah, she did. Well, then what's wrong with it? Two things. One, she's a known fortune teller in the community. Second, she is disruptive. If Paul would have allowed that situation to continue, he would have been giving assent to fortune telling. He had to deal with it. As a result of dealing with that situation, Paul and Silas got thrown into jail. The Philippian jailer and his whole household found salvation. The whole city found out about the thing. When you attack the strongholds of the satanic in your community, it's one of the principal methods of evangelization. Not the only one, but a principal one. I was speaking in a church in northern Michigan some years ago. They told me about a young man, 18 years of age, who ran around barking like a dog. Couldn't read his Bible, couldn't pray. Sloppy, nasty, filthy, vicious, vile. After four wicked spirits were cast out of that man in Jesus' name, he turned into one of the most respectable young men you'd ever want to meet. You couldn't hardly find good enough clothes for him to wear. He began reading his Bible. He could pray. He no longer barked. He was a failure in school. He went to straight A overnight. The change in the man was so dramatic, attendance at that church doubled in the next six months. The whole community took note. Revelation 9.21 says that the judgment of God stands on all practices of sorcery. Revelation 18.23, that the day comes when all nations will be deceived by it. Jeanne Dixon had an office in Washington for a good many years. Who do you think were her principal clients? Remember reading in the newspaper that President Reagan's wife ordered his schedule by an astrologer in California? Remember reading that? What happens to a nation when they're involved with such stuff? In our hearing was read the passage from Ephesians 6 this evening. There is an eternal wrestling match. It's one-sided. Victory guaranteed. Get into it. I encourage you. Oh, you might get pinned occasionally. But the battle is the Lord's. Remember we looked at Leviticus 26. The penalty for involvement in the sins of sorcery was death by stoning. In the New Testament, Revelation 21.8 and 22.15, it's exclusion from the kingdom and residence in the lake of fire. Now, I didn't say that. The Bible says that. The sins of sorcery are based on three things. One, information. Two, preservation. When we're sick, we want help. We want help at any cost. The third thing is power. Never forget, God gave you a mind and reason, the ability to think. Don't ever depart those facilities. Use them. The occult realm cannot be researched scientifically. The minute you try to put scientific tests to it, it won't work. The wicked spirits have a very sadistic sense of humor. It's not provable scientifically. It is not absolutely accurate. Satan always makes his falsehood end with truth, because there's no truth in it. He's a deceiver. The hallmark of the Satanic is deception. It may look good on the surface, but it's rotten to the core. By the use of sorcery or witchcraft, you can touch the spirit world. And it is a means to power. Tomorrow night, Lord willing, we'll take a look at the forms that it takes in the society around us. Let us pray. Father, we thank you that Christ is victor, that on the cross he defeated all the power of the enemy. The Bible says that he disarmed them and made an open show of them publicly. We thank you, Lord, that our residence, our hope, is in Christ. Open our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear, our minds that we may think and reason, that we may declare the Lord Jesus Christ to be Lord and victor, and to remember that we're seated with him. So be it. Amen.