In Christ - Raised and Seated

In Raised and Seated, part of the In Christ series, Tyler Lynde opens Ephesians 1:15–23 and invites you to trade frantic self-management for a truer posture in Jesus. Tyler traces Paul’s breathtaking sweep: God raised Christ, God seated Him at the Father’s right hand, and God gave Him as head over all things to the Church. From that foundation, Tyler shows how union with Christ reshapes identity and daily practice: if Jesus is raised and reigning, then in Him we can stand, sit, and serve from a different center.

Walking through Paul’s prayer, Tyler urges us to keep asking God for a fresh work of the Spirit—wisdom, revelation, enlightened hearts, real hope, responsiveness to God’s call, a true sense of our rich inheritance, lived experience of God’s power, and a clearer vision of Christ Himself. These are not abstract ideals but a framework for formation. When the same Spirit who raised Jesus dwells in us, repentance becomes possible, courage begins to grow, and hope stops sounding like wishful thinking.

Tyler speaks honestly about anxiety, depression, and the weariness many carry. Without dismissing medical or situational factors, he calls us to anchor our perspective in Christ’s supremacy. Diagnoses, divisions, and threats have names; Jesus’ name is higher. Believing this doesn’t minimize pain—it aligns our hearts with reality and steadies our speech, posture, and prayers.

The message centers on resurrection and enthronement. Jesus rose never to die again; that matters because the Spirit who raised Him lives in believers (Romans 8:11). Jesus is seated far above every rule, authority, power, and dominion (Ephesians 1; Philippians 2), and all things are under His feet. In Him, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places—a present spiritual reality that fuels humble confidence. From this seat we approach the throne of grace, make braver choices, and carry a quieter peace into noisy spaces.

Tyler also emphasizes that Jesus is head of the Church, His living body—not a brand or product but an organism joined to its Lord. Joined to Christ, we manifest His fullness through ordinary faithfulness: mutual care, honest correction, generous service, and resilient love that make the gospel visible. If you’re tired of living like you’re losing when Jesus already won, this message will help you realign your mindset, renew your habits, and remember your place in His story. Watch and share with someone who needs courage today.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Theme: Ephesians 1
• 2:39 Why Our Identity Shapes Our Peace
• 4:16 Eight Prayer Points For Clarity
• 6:25 From Prayer To Preach-Prayer
• 9:16 Our Inheritance In Christ
• 12:20 Resurrection Power Explained
• 15:25 Above Every Rule And Name
• 18:05 Living Like We Believe
• 20:34 Seated With Christ: Union Reality
• 23:06 Jesus The Head Of The Church
• 26:15 Filled To Display Christ’s Fullness
• 29:00 Renewed Minds And Everyday Witness
• 43:56 Closing Exhortation And Worship

Transcript

Tyler Lynde: 0:02

Alright, are you guys ready for the Word of God this morning? I know I am. Yeah, so let's turn to Ephesians chapter 1. We're gonna be starting at verse 15 in just a minute. We are in a sermon series right now called In Christ, and it's all about the book of Ephesians. And we're this year we're studying the first three chapters, which help us to uh understand more clearly our identity in Christ. It's only when we understand our identity in Christ that we can then fulfill our purpose in Christ, and we'll be talking about that in the coming year in the last three chapters of Ephesians. And the t the title of today's message is In Christ, Raised and Seated. In Christ, raised and seated. So let's read the word of God together. Ephesians 1, 15 through 23. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every other name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the word of God that is rich. And Lord, we thank you that you have given us this word to encourage us, to instruct us, to comfort us, to correct us. Father, to give us all the things that we need to be able to live this life the way that you've designed for us to live. And so we ask that you would help us to have open minds and open ears and open hearts to receive from you what you want to say to us. And Lord, we pray that the Word of God would be fruitful, that it would produce the type of fruit in each of us that you desire for it to produce. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. How many of you are sick and tired of being sick and tired? Anybody? Anybody just over being anxious about everything? Is there anyone that could do with a little bit less distress and depression in your life? Can we just be real with each other this morning? These are the kinds of things that we feel oftentimes more than occasionally. We understand that there are sometimes physiological reasons for these things to occur, but there are other times when the reason that we're experiencing these things is because we are either not, we don't understand the truth from Scripture, or we're not applying the truth from Scripture to our lives. And so today, my hope is that God will use the words of this passage in Ephesians 1 to remind us of some important things that we can more fully embrace in our lives so that we can walk lives that are more free from anxiety and depression, sickness and disease and trouble and all of those things that uh are difficult, right? Now we understand that in this world we will have trouble, we will have tribulation. So I'm not saying that we won't have anything like that's that's happening, but how many of you know when we know that God is in charge and we know that we're serving him and following him and he's watching over us, then we can be okay even in the midst of our struggle, right? So that's my hope for us this morning. And last week, Mark did a great job of opening this portion up. And it's really a prayer that Paul is praying over the Ephesian church, right? And you remember there were eight things that he gave us that we could pray for our people. I want to encourage you also, and I found myself this week praying these things for myself as well. We need this on a continual basis, and also those around us, our family members, workmates, people that are in school with us, strangers, everybody needs these things to occur in their lives in order for them to understand more clearly who Jesus is and what he's done for them, right? So let's just quickly look over the eight things that he recommended to us that we pray, pulling them from Paul's prayer in that first chapter of Ephesians. First, that for God to work on the level of the spirit, second, for wisdom, third, pray for revelation. How about for hope? Hope's a big one. To hear the calling of the Lord. Remember, we believe that God is the one by his spirit that does the calling and brings people to the point of understanding their need for salvation. Six, to see the incredible riches of our inheritance as believers. We're going to focus on that more in just a minute. Seven, to experience the power of God. And eight, to see Christ as he truly is. How many of you in your own lives have experienced all eight of those? Not a lot of hands going up. Hopefully, we all have at different times in different ways, right? And in ever-increasing measure. That is that is what God intends for us as followers of Jesus Christ. It's a helpful way, again, just to kind of build a framework around your prayer life. And I uh have I use a tool called Prayer Mate, which is just a prayer app. And you're able to kind of type in your own prayers in that, and it will pull that pull them up each day or every other day so that you don't forget to pray over those things. And so I popped these into my um algorithm, talking about a positive algorithm. And so prayer mate has been presenting me with these eight prayer things, uh prayer points, and I've I've really enjoyed this week tapping into that. So just want to encourage you to continue that. So as we pick up today, Paul moves into preach praying. You guys know what preach praying is? Have you ever experienced that? Praying is talking to God about something, about others, and preach praying is talking to others about God. So there's sort of a flip-flop that happens. I experienced this as a teenager many times when I heard my mother praying. She would start praying rather relatively quietly over on her side of the house, but depending on my brother and I's uh particular mode of operation at the time, in other words, our level of sin or temptation to sin, she would find her way over into the kitchen and finally into the living room. And my brother and I hiding out in our bedrooms that were just adjacent to the living room. And as she prayed, she would pray things like, Oh Lord, don't let my son settle for counterfeit women. This is her word. She would say, Don't let him settle for any floozies, okay? For young people, you may not know what a floozy is. It's uh it's it's a flozy is a young lady that you don't want your son to end up end up with. It's so anyway, I am so grateful that my mom preach prayed uh because it was really important to me, and I am so grateful that as part partially because of her prayers, I am married to Amy Lind, and we've been married for 32 years. So grateful. Amen. Thank you, mom. So uh I don't know if you've ever engaged in preach praying. Some of you preach pray when you're uh praying over the food. I just want to say for all those relatives out there that have been wanting to say this for a long time, that's not the time to have intercessory prayer or to preach pray. That's the time to pray over the food and and let's see. And then we can talk during the meal. Afterwards, we can have a whole prayer session later. We can even fast, but just not right. Don't don't just don't do that right before the meal. Anyway, I digress. Okay. Um, so Paul, uh as is his way, seems to be overwhelmed by the goodness of God. He's overwhelmed, as we see Paul often being, by the goodness of God. And so he's expressing it like the words, he just can't stop the words. They're just coming out of him, they're just flowing out of him like a river. Uh, it's like he's freestyle rapping in a way, he's just letting it all come out. And we know that he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, right? So he's in he's expressing in glowing terms the pathway to the incredible riches of our inheritance as believers. Did you know that we as believers, that God has set aside for us an inheritance that is beyond compare, that is better than anything this world has to offer by far. He has set those things aside for us and he has provided them for us. And we'll find out in just a few minutes that we don't have to wait until the sweet by and by to begin to live inside of that inheritance. Does that make sense? That's what the scripture teaches us. In verse 19, he uses the phrase according to, according to, in order to express the fact that Christ's followers are also beneficiaries based on that which God did in Christ Jesus. In other words, in Christ, we are positionally, our position is that we are co-heirs with him in that which he has been given by our heavenly father. Did you hear what I just said? We are co-heirs with Jesus in that which he's been given by his heavenly father and by our heavenly father. That sounds too good to be true, right? Hello? It's the gospel. It's actually, it actually means the good news. This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We didn't earn it, we don't deserve it, but he gives it. What's the next part of that song? Anyway. He gives it anyway. I was gonna say willingly or joyfully. We experience some of this amazing reality now, and we know that one day we will experience it fully. So let's talk about this. What is the inheritance that we're talking about here that Paul is bringing up in this Ephesians 1 passage? It starts out, I believe, by the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. Remember his words here, the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Now I feel it's necessary, even though I would I would hope that most of us understand or know this story, but we know that Jesus went to the cross and in so doing took upon himself the sins of the world, and he was crucified, he was nailed to the cross. And we know that the wrath of God was poured out upon him, and for the first time in all of eternity, there was a separation, a relationship between Father and Son. And Jesus cried out, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. And then in the end, he said, It is finished. So the work of redemption or salvation was completed, but there was something else that needed to occur. There was something else that he had promised and that had been prophesied in the Old Testament. And what was that? He was laid in a borrowed tomb. I don't know how many of you have been to Israel, but I've been to Israel and I've been to the garden where they suspect that Jesus may have been laid in a borrowed tomb. And I walked inside of that tomb, and there was one thing that was very obvious to me. He wasn't there. Jesus was not there because on the third day, guess what? He rose again. He rose again by the power of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. You see, God proved his unstoppable might when he raised Jesus from the dead, proving that he had defeated death, hell, and the grave. When are those things defeated? They were defeated at that point in time. Now we're going to experience, like I said, levels of understanding this experience as we move on. According to the scriptures, the resurrection of Christ was the first such event in human history. And you might say, Well, haven't you read your Bible, Tyler? There were other resurrections. I think of Lazarus. Remember, Jesus said, Lazarus, come out of that their grave. I'm sorry, that was the that's the Kentucky version, but Lazarus, come forth, come forth. And what did what happened? Lazarus came out. Right? But how many of you know that Lazarus died again? He passed again from this life into the next. All others died after they had been resurrected, except for Jesus. Jesus was the first to rise in the power of everlasting life. Alive, alive forevermore. My Jesus is alive, alive forevermore. Now, that's good news just in itself. I feel like I'm doing an infomercial this morning, but wait, there's more. Because Jesus lives, we can live. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we can be raised from the dead. Because Jesus is alive, we can experience the life of God. The Bible says it like this: the same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in all believers. That's amazing. Paul expresses this concept in the book of 1 Corinthians very well. Let's look at chapter 15, verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. We were born dead in our sins and trespasses, children of Adam, and yet when Jesus Christ came and he rose from the dead, how many of you know now we have the ability to be raised from the dead as well, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a gift from God. Colossians 2 says it like this: having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you, say that's me. Okay. There's a delayed response this morning. That's okay, don't worry about it. This is being translated as we're going. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. My friends, this is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus lives, we live also. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of all believers in Jesus Christ. True believers. He lives inside of us. Is there anything too difficult for God? That's a good answer. Let's confess that tomorrow as well, right? And Tuesday and Wednesday. God raised Jesus from the dead, first of all, but how many of you know he also seated Jesus at his right hand? It says in Ephesians 1, again, he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Now we can probably relate to the phrase right hand man or right hand person, right? What does that mean typically? That means somebody who's trusted, who has shown themselves faithful, somebody who understands all of the processes, all of the systems. If point A person wasn't able to perform for whatever reason, point B person could step in and do most of everything that point A person could do. Does that make sense, right? So we think of things in that terms. There was a time in my life and ministry, a couple times in my life and ministry when I got to play this role. And I'm telling you, I enjoyed it so much. It was an amazing gift that God gave to me to be able to serve others in that way. But how many of you know what God did for Jesus is far superior to that concept? Following Jesus' resurrection and ascension, God seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. If you think of the throne room of heaven, where God is, the seat that's very closest to him at his right hand was prepared for Jesus Christ. And when Jesus entered into heaven after having defeated death, hell, and the grave, he was seated in the place of highest honor at the right place, the right hand of his heavenly Father. What does the right hand of God signify? It signifies a place of privilege and distinction. It says that he was seated far above, far above, a place of privilege, a place of distinction. There's only one Jesus. Please don't let the world convince you of anything other than that. There's only one Jesus. And our Heavenly Father made sure to let all of eternity know what he thinks of his Son, Jesus Christ. He seated him at his right hand. Philippians 2 says it beautifully. And being found in human form, he humbled himself. Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name. I added other in there, but every name. Do we believe that? I don't know. Do we act like we believe it? Do we think like we believe it? Do we speak like we believe it? Do we live like we believe it? I feel like the man who brought his son to the disciples and they couldn't cast the demon out of him. He brought him to Jesus, and Jesus basically said, Do you believe? And the man said, Lord, I believe. And then he paused for a minute, I think, and said, Help my unbelief. That's a beautiful prayer to pray. God makes us at that point of need, doesn't he? He put all things under Jesus' feet. It's interesting that delineation of rules, all rule, all authority, all power, and all dominion, anything that can be named within the spiritual realm, Jesus has been given power and authority over. Go back to Philippians 2 and finish that portion up in chapter in verses 10 and 11. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Every tongue, every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus has been made King of the universe. He is King of kings and Lord of Lords. And he rules and reigns, and his rule and reign will never end. He will rule and reign forever and ever and ever. How many of you are glad that there will be a day? And here's the problem that we live. We live in this world where Satan isn't yet convinced that he's been defeated. He still, somewhere in his twisted mind, thinks that there's some possibility that he might still be able to win. And so he does everything within his power to try to mess with the world, with the world system. He's the God of this world system. He tries to do everything he can to dissuade people away from Jesus Christ, to keep them away from truth, to deceive them, to cause them to get involved in all kinds of controversial thinking and and uh I almost said conspiracy theories, but I didn't I didn't mean to go there. But he he wants to distract them in any way that he possibly can. Why? So that we won't live as if these things are true. I'm here to tell you that your Bible and my Bible tells us that there will be a day when Satan himself will have to acknowledge the defeat. He will have to own his defeat, and he will bow his knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and he, along with everyone in all of creation, will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, our Father. And then he will be cast into the lake of fire. Because he's not confessing those things as a believer in the sense that we have the ability to do in this world. Right? He's a defeated foe. So let's start living. Can I start living? I'm asking myself. Can I start living differently? Can I start thinking differently? Can I start believing differently, speaking differently, walking differently? Is there any name that's greater than the name of Jesus? Depression is a name, but how many of you know the name of Jesus is higher than depression? Anxiety and fear and worry and strife and division, sickness and disease and all of those things have names. But how many of you know the name of Jesus is greater than any other name? And if we as believers can get a hold of this reality and believe it and change the way that we think, our lives here on earth could be a lot better than what they are right now. And I'm not just talking about our experience, like things instantly improving from an experience standpoint, but how many of you know a perspective? Our perspective can change considerably if we really believe that Jesus has already won the war. You see, our Father God has put all things under the feet of Jesus Christ his son. He uses them as a footstool. Now, that's great news, and we could just stop there. But again, there's more. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. What? This is radical. This is revolutionary. This kind of thinking is hard to wrap our minds around. And I'm not going to get into this in detail because in a couple of weeks, in Ephesians 2, there's an entire passage about what it means to be seated with Christ in heavenly places. And so I don't want to steal the thunder of whoever it is that's going to be sharing that message. But I'll just give you a little taste. Suffice it to say, to sit in heavenly places is more than a figure of speech, like a term of endearment or something that we look to as like a fanciful thought. It's more than that. It is a spiritual reality for believers. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. And why is that? Because of our union with Christ. Remember, Christ is in us and we are in Christ. We are in union with him. And so the things that he enjoys, the things that he experiences, we have the ability in and through him to experience those same things and to know those same things. We reap the benefits of his position of divine authority. We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who gives us the victory. Almost feel like this is the first time we're hearing this. It's not, is it? I hope. Neil and I okay? Are we on track with the Word of God here? Okay, I'm just making sure. We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. Our spiritual seat in the heavenly realms is a position of high honor, much like being seated at the VIP table. You ever had an experience like that in your life when you got called up to a table that you didn't expect to ever get to? Being able to talk to certain people that you didn't ever think that you'd be able to talk to. This is what this is like. We've been called up to that. We have been given the royal privilege of being enthroned with the Son. And one day, one day, we will partake of his glory. We will be glorified as he is glorified. Now make no mistake, there's only one Jesus. We're not a bunch of little Jesuses, not saying that. There's only a need for one, right? But he, in his goodness and in his kindness, wants to share with us what he's been given. What a loving Savior. What a kind Jesus. If we will let the spiritual truth sink in, it will change the way we think and live. It should give us the inspiration to serve God from a place of confidence. Not arrogance, but confidence. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence, with boldness. Because we've been granted entrance by Jesus Christ in the price that he paid. And we get to experience the benefits of the inheritance that he fought and died for. Even here in this life. Even now. See, God raised Jesus from the dead, he seated him at his right hand, and God made Jesus the head of the church. Here he goes. Pastor Tyler talking about the church again. Kind of over the church talk. Well, you got to deal with the Holy Spirit, with Paul, and with Jesus with the book of Ephesians. Like it or not, the book of Ephesians reiterates over and over and over again the reason why God developed the church in the way that he did. It says again in Ephesians 1 that he gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body. God made Jesus the head of the church. We are a part of his body. Can you wrap your mind around that? Make no mistake, Christ is the head of the church. It's not the Pope, it's not a denominational leader, it's not some pastor that. You see on TV, it's not a podcast host, it's not anywhere of the elders here at Trinity. And you can say amen. I'm saying amen to that. God made Jesus the head of his church. It is Jesus. He isn't just the head of the church, but he's also in charge of everything in the universe. One of the hardest questions that God ever asked me was, who's in charge? Because somewhere down deep on the inside of me, if I was to be completely honest, I wanted to say, you and me, Jesus, you and me, Jesus. I wanted to slap that bumper sticker on my car that says Jesus is my co-pilot. Because I have some really good ideas on how God should do things. Anyone here suffer with that same issue? I don't know what that would be called, but I get what is it?

unknown: 31:02

Delusion.

Tyler Lynde: 31:03

Delusion. That's the Bible word for what we're talking about here. It is delusion, right? To think that somehow, oh my goodness. The way we think sometimes is crazy. Crazy. We need to stop the crazy train, the crazy bus, right? And get off of it. He isn't just the head of the church is in charge of everything. He lives to represent believers and he governs the universe for believers' sake. The fact that this world hasn't imploded yet is a miracle. As many people that have their fingers close to those nuclear buttons that God has protected or preserved until the right time for things to be transformed and for God to make all things new again. It's a miracle. Let's look at Colossians 1. This is another one of Paul's run-on sentences, and I love it. It gives some greater detail into this. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the are you getting the point? And he is the head of the body of the church. This is Jesus, the head of the church. We can trust him. Christ is the head of all things in order to benefit the church. How many of you realize that we have a part to play in this whole equation? Even this passage that is talking about the preeminence of Christ and the fact that he is raised from the dead and that he is seated in heavenly places, it ends with declaring to the body of Christ the partnership that we have with Jesus. We are the body of Christ. Church is not an institution, it is an organism. It exists and functions only because of its vital relationship with the risen Lord. Any church that moves its foundation away from Jesus Christ will not last, will not survive. Because we are believers, we are in the church which is Christ's body, and he is the head of that body. That means that there is a living connection between us and Christ. We are connected to him. The life that he lives, we get to experience as well. Through the Spirit, we are united to him as the members of his body. This means that we share his resurrection, we share in his ascension, we share in his exaltation, and someday we will be united with him through glorification, when we will be made like him. This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what the Ephesian church was going to need to hold on to when they were going to face persecution and tribulation and turmoil and trouble. This is how they had to set their minds and set their wills and choose to believe. It was the only thing that was going to sustain them. To close, we are meant to display the fullness of Christ because we are being filled by Christ. We are meant to display the fullness of who Christ is because we are being filled by Christ. It says the fullness of Him who fills all in all. See, we have the privilege of manifesting Christ to the world. You and I and us together as the body of Christ, we have the privilege of showing the world who Jesus actually is. By the way we love each other, by the way we prefer one another, by the way we build one another up and encourage each other, by the way we confront each other in loving ways when we're we're uh going in the direction that we shouldn't go, by the way we support each other and help each other. We have the privilege of manifesting Christ to the world, but we can only do so if we continue, if Christ continually fills us with Himself and with His gifts of grace. I'll just finish with this thought. 2 Corinthians 5 tells us that we've been made new creatures, old things have passed away, and all things have become new. And so what is what does God say after that? Our job is we get to be ambassadors for Christ. We get to express to the world the inheritance of Christ that is living and expressing itself in us, in our lives, and through us, to a world that has no understanding of who Jesus really is. Our friends, you are the Bible, you are the only Bible today that some people are reading. Let's represent Christ the way that he deserves. Amen. Amen. If you want to just come and we'll we'll close with just a little song of worship, and I'm just gonna pray over us that the Lord would help us to live like we really believe this. I just want to encourage you. The gospel is not intended to be preached on Sunday morning. The gospel is something that you should preach to yourself, to your children, to your grandchildren, to your grandparents, to anyone anywhere who will listen, because it's the power of God to salvation. The power of God comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. What I proclaim to you this morning is a portion of the gospel. And I just want to encourage you, let's begin to think differently. Can we lift up our heads? Can we lift up our heads out of the clouds? Can we start focusing in again on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith? Can we stop getting so much in turmoil over what the news is saying or not saying? All those things, it's not that we don't need to be informed or or be relevant, but if it starts to affect the way that we live in relation to who Jesus is and what he's done for us and what he's doing in us and what he wants to do through us, that's a problem. So can we just take a few minutes this morning? And whatever you wherever you find yourself, and I know that in preparation for this, the Lord's been doing a number in my soul, my own heart. I'll just say at times I have felt fairly dull and a little bit hard in my heart. And I believe that God is attempt is desiring. We talk about, Kelly was talking earlier about God doing something. One of the things that I want, that I believe that God's going to do is He's going to revive the church. The world doesn't need revival in that sense. Do you know what I mean? The church is somebody that we need to be revived. We need to be reawakened. If there's a reawakened church and a live church, how many of you know the world is gonna see that and say, what is going on? What is different about them? How in the world do they have peace in the middle of that storm? Why is it that they treat their wives with such kindness? How is it that their children listen to them the first time that they say something to them? Why is it that their young men rush to open the door when somebody's trying to go into a place? There's something different, something unique, and obviously it's not just about manners, it's about a transformed heart. You know, the Bible speaks a lot about renewing our minds. We need to renew our minds by speaking, thinking, speaking, and believing the truth. If all of us would speak out the thoughts that we have on an ongoing basis, how would the people around us, what would the people around us think? What would we think even if we voiced our thoughts out loud? Wouldn't it be great if our thought life matched up with what we believe? This happens by meditating on the word of God. It happens by preaching the gospel to yourself, it happens by really believing that God's word is true. It happens by casting your care over on the Lord because he cares for you. It happens by getting up when we feel like sitting down or laying down. It happens by us asking and reaching out for prayer when the struggle seems too great for ourselves to handle. It happens in a million ways, in a million ways. So my hope is if I'm doing that, that each and every one of you will be doing the same. So would you just stand with me and let's just spend some time asking the Lord.