The Eric Metaxas Show - George Washingtons Battle on Long Island and the Eventual Crossing of the Delaware

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Eric continues his Super Centennial series. George Washington suffers one of his worst defeats at the hands of the British, however with some questionable tactics by enemy, Washington is able to escape and re-group, leading to one of the most important nights in American history, Dec 25th 1776. 

Welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show. We'll get you from point A to point B. But if you're looking for point C, well, buddy, you're on your own. But if you'll wait right here in just about two minutes, the bus to point C will be coming right by. And now here's your Ralph Cramden of the airways, Eric Mattaxas. Folks, welcome to the program. It is the time for me to give you an update, a super centennial

update. In case he didn't know, the 250th anniversary of America will be next year. I remember the bicentennial, the 200th. I was a kid. And it was such a huge, amazing celebration. So to think that this is the 250th, the word for the 250th is semi-quincentennial. No one is going to say it. Nobody is going to remember it. So I have come up with a term, which I hope catches on, because I think you need a term. Tri-centennial, bicentennial, those are good terms. Semi-Quincentennial, not a good term. And the 150th is sesquicentennial.

No, not a good term. The 250th, here's my term. We should call it the super centennial. America is celebrating its super centennial next year, 2026, 250 years. And so, as you may know, I'm working on a book on the American Revolution. And I am actually next week, or no, well, yeah, I think this Sunday I'm going to be filming something for the White House.

They're producing a number of videos for the 250th. And they've asked me, since I'm writing this book on the Revolution, to speak in this video about the Battle of Long Island, which is the Battle of Brooklyn, which happened August 27th, 1776. and then also to speak about what happened five months later, the crossing of the Delaware, the Battle of Trenton, this triumphant moment. So I've been working on those chapters in my book, and there's so much there. Oh, my goodness.

And so the question is where to start? Well, I think I've spoken about the Battle of Long Island, the Battle of Brooklyn on the program. But what happens following that, Just so you know. So this is August 27th, 1776. Washington's, he has no clue how to defend New York. New York is basically indefensible.

New York is surrounded by water. It is, you know, an archipelago. It is just everywhere you go, there's water, water, water, water, water. Whether you're on the Brooklyn side, whether you're on Manhattan, whether you're on Staten Island, wherever you are, water, water, water, water. Now, if you're going up against the greatest Navy the world has ever seen, you've got problems. And General Howe and his brother, Admiral Howe, they have 400 ships. There's no way to do this.

You're defending the indefensible. So, nonetheless, Mayor, General Washington deputizes Charles Lee initially, General Lee, and Israel Putnam to create fortifications all over the place. So they create fortifications at the base of New York, which was where the city was, and the bottom part of Manhattan, to create fortifications all through Brooklyn everywhere. You know, they're hoping they can lure the British into another battle of Bunker Hill, so they're going to attack us and we're going to mow them down. Of course, that doesn't happen. General Howe outflanks the American forces on Long Island, which is the base of Long Island. which is Brooklyn, routes them, and they make a miraculous escape across the East River.

Now, when I say miraculous, I mean genuinely miraculous where God is involved. At least that's my take on it. But we don't need to get into that right now. But that is the most extraordinary thing that you have, General Washington's forces are utterly routed, about 9,000 men are trapped in Brooklyn. There is a, there are a mile and a half from the British lines. Now, General Howe, everybody wonders, why didn't General Howell tell his officers to finish the job, to go after the Americans, and to finish the job to get them to surrender?

The war would have been over then. August 27th or maybe August 28th. But it would have been over. There's little doubt about that. But why didn't how do it? How didn't do it because of the battle of Bunker Hill? He had been there. He had led the troops.

He had seen them mowed down. He'd walked through the blood and the gore and the nightmare and said, I don't want that again. There's no need. There's no need. We've got them trapped. We're going to win. That's not a question.

So why do I need to send? British troops into this maw of death. I will not. And so they surround them and he decides to lay a siege. And so his British troops start to dig trenches toward the American lines. They're going to lay in a siege, just like what happened in Yorktown in 1781, except at that point, Washington was the one laying the siege on Cornwallis. But they thought there's no need for us to go in and get mowed down. We're just kind of, we've got them trapped. It's over. we've got our ships in able to come up the East River and to trap them on the water side and the East River.

So they're done. Long story short, it didn't go that way. A storm comes up. It prevents the ships from sailing up the East River. The Washington basically says at the sometime on the 28th, or was the 29th, the 29th. We need to talk about retreat, but he says we need to retreat if possible.

And so he gets the Marblehead regiment. This is John Glover's regiment. Now Marblehead is on the coast in Massachusetts, north shore of Boston. These were seasoned fishermen and sailors, and they row the troops across the East River, the mile wide East River, all through the night.

At dawn, we got big problems because there are many that are still stranded. A fog comes in that is utterly opaque. This is one of the miracles of history. It may as well have been midnight because the British could see absolutely nothing and the Americans are able to get every last man across. And it really was an unbelievable retreat.

Now, I'm giving you the, the quick version of it. But what happens after this, of course, is more disasters. The British don't really move very quickly. At some point, the Americans are still on Manhattan. And this is where you start to see the limits of George Washington. He's indecisive. He's not perfect.

But he's the man God chose. And I see this as a lesson to all of us that it's not about who's the best. It's about who does God choose? God sees the heart and God chooses Washington to be the leader despite his inabilities.

And this is the 10 minute segment? This is the opening segment? Yeah, sorry. For a second, I was like to think of it. So basically, Washington is he

he decides to listen to General Nathaniel Green, who advises, let's keep Fort Washington. This is at the northern part of Manhattan. If you ever see the George Washington Bridge, the part of the George Washington Bridge that is touching Manhattan, that's about where Fort Washington was. It was a high point in northern Manhattan. And I think that Washington decides to keep 5,000 men there to hold the fort. And the question is why it didn't make any sense. But he listens to Nathaniel Green. Of course, it's his fault. He didn't need to listen to Green, but he's like, okay, he goes across the Hudson and from the palisades, from the Jersey side with his telescope, he sees a nightmare. He sees the British take Fort Washington, in many cases, murder the men as they're surrendering, not accept them as prisoners. It's so wicked. It's so wicked. It's. so sick. And there's a moment where it says Washington wept. His officer said he wept like a child. He wept like a child to watch what he knew he was responsible for. It's just, it's, it's such a chilling moment. All right. We'll leave it there. We'll be right back. A major retail chain just canceled a massive order leaving my pillow with an overstock of the classic my pillows. And this is your gain because for a limited time, my pillow is offering their intense. entire classic collection at true wholesale prices.

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Don't wait. Head to MyPillow.com today or call 800-9783057. Now don't forget to use promo code Eric to grab your standard My Pillow for only 1798 only while supplies last. Folks, welcome back. I continue talking about the American Revolution. I'm working on a book about the American Revolution, and I'm right now writing about that part that happens at the end of 1776 the year. I mentioned about the Battle of Long Island,

this horrible route that happens on August 27, 1776, but genuinely miraculously, Washington's army is able to retreat across the East River. It makes no sense. It makes no sense that General Howe didn't order them to be crushed when they had the opportunity. Or I shouldn't say it makes no sense. It makes very little sense. He has his excuses. But what makes no sense is that Admiral is that General Howe does not order the ships to come up the East River to trap Washington's army on the Brooklyn side.

He doesn't do that. And there's, I believe, a Captain Collier of one. of those ships who doesn't understand what we are we can come up now and we can trap the army for some reason general howe does not do that and it kind of makes no sense and so suddenly then the storm comes so now even if he calls the ships they can't sail up because it's a nor'easter so if you look at a map the the winds coming from the northeast down they're pushing the ships away they cannot come up the east river because it's a southeasterly direction So they're stuck for two days.

Meanwhile, Washington's army is able to escape. So what happens? I was mentioning, so now they're in Washington. Sorry, they're in, it's called Washington Heights because it's named after George Washington. But they are on Manhattan Island. And again, long story short, the, a number of ships come up. It's not until September 14th. They attack at Kipps Bay, which is down by like 30.

third on the East River. It's a whole complicated story. But the bottom line is eventually Washington chooses to take the advice of Nathaniel Green to take a stand, or at least to have a number of probably about 5,000 troops, I think, if I remember, to be in what was called Fort Washington. They would name the forts after the generals. So Fort Washington was the fort. up on the northern part of Long Island, right about where today the George Washington Bridge comes over to Manhattan, right on that hill was Fort Washington. So they decide to keep troops there. Washington goes across the Hudson with a number of other troops. And through his spyglass, he watches the horror of what happens. It's hard to even write about.

but the Hessians and the British take Fort Washington. They kill so many Americans. And Washington, and this is kind of the point here, George Washington is on. He is, I mean, I just drove down from Connecticut yesterday and past the very spot where I look across the Hudson. If you're coming down the West Side Highway, and you look across just before you get to the George Washington Bridge up there,

and you look across to the palisades, those cliffs. George Washington was there with his spyglass looking across. And I mentioned this. The forces are routed at Fort Washington. And he's watching this from across the Hudson River through his spyglass. And his aides said that he wept like a child. And I just want to be clear. that Washington, he knew he was responsible for these deaths and the agony of watching men being killed as a result of his failure.

It must have just ripped his heart out. And that was like the low point, except it continues to be bad. So this is through the fall of, I don't remember exactly what date that was. Maybe that was like around November 1st. I'm not remembering now. But when this happens, basically Washington begins his retreat through the jerseys, his retreat from Fort Lee, New Jersey. That's on the other side of the George Washington Bridge.

Today it's called Fort Lee, New Jersey. It's a city. But it was named after General Charles. Lee, who was the second in command under Washington, and there was a fort that's on the Washington, I'm sorry, on the Jersey side of what today where the Washington Bridge is, they were chased from there by Cornwallis, and they took this long retreat through, this would be from November 20th onward, south through New Jersey. Now, the goal, of course, Washington's goal was to retreat and retreat and retreat to keep the British occupied, but never to fully engage,

because he knows in a regular engagement, we're going to get killed. Our army is down to nothing. I mean, he was down to like 3,000 men and they were not trained as the British were trained. He also kept waiting and waiting and waiting for Charles Lee, General Charles Lee, who was up in, I think it was Poughkeepsie, White Plains. He was kind of hanging out up there with something like 6,000 men. Washington keeps writing to him and saying, are you going to join me? Come on.

Come on, I need you. I need you. But Washington, and this is interesting to see how leaders grow, he was the commander in chief, but he was overly deferential to Charles Lee. Charles Lee was his second in command, but he was overly deferential. So he did not harshly order. him to come. He kind of left it a little bit in Charles Lee's hands to discern do I feel like I should come or not. But he's more and more urgent in his letters. And Charles Lee dithers and dithers and

kind of really what it boils down to. And this is part of, I mean, this is the joy of writing this book is to get into these stories. But Charles Lee knew in many ways, hey, I'm a better general than Washington. Maybe I'll let Washington fail, and Congress will put me in as the commander-in-chief of the armies. Why do I want to be associated with his failure? So I'm going to hang back.

So he hangs back. He gives all kinds of excuses. He's attacking Cornwallis' troops from the rear. You know, he's doing something. But the bottom line is he's being insubordinate. And Washington is, meanwhile, retreating through the jerseys. Every time he crosses a river, he's in Newark, the Raritan River.

Every time they're crossing a river as they're going southward toward the Pennsylvania border, the Pennsylvania border with New Jersey is the Delaware River. They're basically wanting to stay between Philadelphia and the Army. They want to protect Philadelphia because the Continental Congress is in Philadelphia. So that's Washington's general direction. he keeps asking for help from Charles Lee. Charles Lee doesn't help, doesn't help. Eventually, Washington gets down to the Delaware,

and this is not the famous crossing of the Delaware, that follows, but he eventually makes the retreat across the Delaware to Pennsylvania, to Pennsylvania. So he's now in Pennsylvania, and General Howe kind of decides, I guess it's around December 14th. You know what?

Maybe we'll go into winter quarters. Maybe we're done with our campaign, 1776. You know, it's been a decent year for us. We will crush them in the new year right now. And it was the habit of 18th century armies that, you know, they take the winter off. They're going to regroup. So General Howe is, he'll go back to Manhattan since New York was under the man to the British at that time. He'll take up with his mistress, Mrs. Loring. Of course, he was

married, but he had a mistress. Everybody knew about it. This gets to the larger picture of how openly immoral the British elites were. This was totally accepted. And Cornwallis will get on a ship. He's one of the rare British generals who actually loved his wife. He wants to go back to his wife in London for the winter. And this is when Washington makes his decision. And Washington says, I believe one bold stroke against the enemy will be a shot in the arm to the whole Continental Army. The people who are going to leave December 31st because their enlistments run out. Maybe they'll stay. We need to have a victory. And that's when he cooks up the brilliant plan to cross the Delaware back over under the cover of night, Christmas

night, to cross the Delaware on Christmas night. They crossed the Delaware over to the New Jersey side. They march nine miles through the dark to Trenton. They surprise the Hessians who never saw it coming. They have an amazing victory. There's much more to the story. but I'll tell you it's a beautiful story. It's a privilege that I have to write the story.

There's all kinds of beautiful moments and pieces to it and characters that come in and out of the story. But it was the 26th of December, gigantic victory just before the end of the year 1776. That keeps hope alive. It's such a beautiful story. Such a beautiful story. Anyway, that's your super centennial segment or segments for the week. When we come back, who knows? But thanks for listening.

Hey, folks, every now and again, we do a couple of segments. We call it Ask Metaxus. A lot of you have written in. And by the way, I want to encourage you to write in. We are delighted to hear from you. This is, you know, radio listeners. A lot of you watch this on YouTube. by the way, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Please do that if you haven't done that. Eric Metaxus on YouTube. It's just my name, Eric Mataxis on YouTube. Subscribe to our channel because a lot of these interviews that I do and segments that I do, they're fun to watch. So anyway, but we do a lot of Ask Metaxus stuff. Sometimes we have segments called, you know, a listener writes, and sometimes I combine them because there's a question, but there's a lot of, it's a very, very long question and I want to read it. So I'm going to read one right now that has come in from Michelle. Michelle, if you're listening, I'm going to read what you wrote. Here we go. Ready, folks?

All right. Eric, I'm so thankful for your strength of conviction and your courage at this incredible time on planet Earth. I sent both my senior and assistant pastors your book letter to the American church because I've been disappointed that there's been no mention at church when pivotal things are happening in the world. No comment after Israel was attacked, not even lifting them up and praying for Israel. I was appalled. No comment at all after the assassination attempt on President Trump. I could go on and on, but you get my point. I relocated from Los Angeles, California to Charleston, South Carolina in 2021, retired 2022. I began attending a wonderful conservative Presbyterian Church here, but my pastor remains silent on big and or political issues,

and it truly bothers me. You say, get out, but I have listened to many sermons in my local area following those big and or political issues and events, and you know not a one of them had the gumption to stand up and plainly speak from the pulpit as to what had just taken place. My pastor actually said he would not speak on these things, but instead would preach only on Christ and his life, death, and resurrection. I need my church body for love and support. And the folks at my new church are absolutely lovely, friendly, godly, and committed, but I'm left feeling like I'm here on this earth now. What can I as a Christian do now to best serve the cause for Christ? Where am I to go when so many churches are mute?

I'd love your thoughts on this, Michelle. Wow. Well, I really have spoken about this a lot. You know, ladies and gentlemen, I can't tell you what to do. But a lot of you go to these kinds of churches. I don't know what to say, honestly. I don't know what to say. I do know that this is how you lose America. I do know that this is how Germany went to hell. I do know that. And so when people say I go to church, I guess I want to question you. what is it that maybe let me just say this maybe you need to be more challenging to your pastor maybe you need not to tithe to that church maybe you need to write a letter and say you know I'm going to tend but I cannot give God's money to you because I'm getting fed elsewhere on this issue I need a pastor who is going to tell me how to live in the times. I mean, imagine if you're in a, you're living in communist China and you go to some underground church. And the pastor says, well, we're not going to talk about anything that's

controversial. We're not going to tell you how to live out your faith in this hostile world or what to do. He'd say, what are you kidding? Like, we're being persecuted. You're not going to tell me, pastor what to do. If you're living in a place where Islamic radicals want to kill you and burn your church down and kill your family and your pastor says, well, I'm not called to talk about that. I'm just going to preach about Jesus. It's absurd. It's manifestly absurd. But that is what American pastors are doing. They think, and again, I've spoken about this so much, it's kind of pathetic, but they think they have a religious carve out. Like they don't. Imagine again, if If you are going to a church in 1860 and your pastor refuses to take a stand on the slavery issue,

do you understand you are complicit? Maybe you don't think that. You think that, oh, the pastor is doing it, but you're going to the church. You're maybe tithing God's money to a church that refuses to take a stand. Now, imagine that you read the scripture. It says, do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Jesus commands you. And you know that there are people that are enslaved that might because of your actions or the actions of your church be freed.

Slavery might be abolished, but you say, well, you know what? I'm not called to do unto those enslaved peoples as I would have others do. And that's not my calling. We're going to just preach the gospel in our church. My pastor doesn't talk about that. why is it so easy for you to condemn those people as not living out their faith? And yet you are yourself somehow a part of a system that says, well, we're doing church. We're doing some good stuff.

I'd like to know what good stuff you're doing because if it doesn't lead you to take action, if it's all this theological stuff, I don't really know, you know, what do you think God put us on this earth to do. I mean, if you can be silent in the face of all the evil that's happening, think of the suffering in the world. When you think of these kids that are being lied to about this trans nonsense, everywhere you look, there's lies, there's deception, there's confusion, and you say, well, it's not my job. It is your job. It is your job. You just don't want to do the job. I don't know. It's between you and the Lord, but I would tremble, honestly. We're at a time in the segment. We'll be right back with more Ask Mataxis.

Folks, welcome back. We're doing some Ask Metaxus stuff here because people have written in. But the questions are long. They're really, so it's not like I can go down the list too quickly. But I was just talking about, you know, we get this letter from Michelle. And people say, well, what can I do? None of the pastors in my area talk about it. I don't know exactly what you can do.

but I know you cannot be complicit. And I would say to a lot of people, we do all now have these things called computers where you can listen to people who do talk about this. It doesn't need to be local. I don't really think God is going to judge you if you're listening to somebody who's preaching in California like Jack Hibbs.

You know, to get fed is to get fed. You could be going to some dead Catholic church where there's like a nine-minute homily on nothing where the priest is political. liberal and he doesn't talk about this. You can get fed by listening to good sermons online. And I've had many guests on this program who are really wonderful. You can get fed that way. I would say at least do that. I want to get to another question here. But to those of you who care about this, God bless you folks, because the church, we really do have to wake up. And so many have woken up,

but there's so many that they act like this is somebody else's problem. And they are going to churches for whatever reason. They always have a good excuse, right? There's a good youth group or I like the worship or whatever. Like, all right, but, you know, we're in a war. This is serious. Okay, here's another question. Eric, in listening to your interview with Beatty Carmichael,

I was so stunned that he was describing how a demon can come into a Christian and control their body via pain and sickness. well we are filled with sealed by the holy spirit so how do you explain that definitely i understand that we backslide and we stumble so we need to recognize and admit that and repent but no one but nowhere does falling or stumbling remove god's seal of the holy spirit to then allow demons to come in all right is that biblical that we're sealed by the holy spirit is like it's a magic seal i don't i don't know it doesn't strike me as perfectly biblical. It sounds like we need to look at that.

But anyway, I'll continue. Nor do I see in scripture saying we have to go back and remember and repent of each and every individual sin against each and every individual. Now there's something that you said, Eric, that made me go, wow, when you said mass healings would bring about a huge revival, that's what I've been praying about for a long time, healings to bring about a huge revival. Rick. Okay, so, Rick. And Keith Jenta, weigh in if you feel like you want to. but I think a lot of the times Christians have misunderstandings of things. And so they'll say things like, nowhere does falling or stumbling remove God's seal of the Holy Spirit to then allow demons to come in.

And I just want to know, is that a biblical idea? Is that right? We're sealed by the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? I mean, I think that there are people that are assuming that there's like a seed. like I'm sealed by the Holy Spirit and that's it. And I think, well, what do you mean? We know that when you accept Jesus by faith, he comes to live inside us. Okay. So we are now saved. We know that we're saved. But what about this process of sanctification? What does that mean? I have heard many times

that in the history of the early church, anybody who got saved would then go through a process. of deliverance. Because the moment you are saved, I think that a lot of us bring baggage into the faith. And so God invites us on a journey that begins with our salvation. But the idea that you would not have, let's say, a wound that needs healing. So let's say inner healing, right? Let's say I was raped as a child. Let's say I had physical abuse by a parent that traumatized me, verbal, emotional abuse or whatever. There's all kinds of horrible ways that you can have a wounding, a psychic wounding, psychic in the sense of soul, a soul wound that needs healing. Now, I know people who the moment they get saved, they're instantly delivered of an addiction. I know other people who the moment they get

save they're not instantly delivered of the addiction. And so they then need to seek healing by the power of the Holy Spirit. But it's not an automatic thing. It doesn't happen to everybody the moment you accept Jesus. And so I guess I take issue with Rick's assumption that this is so clear in the scripture that once the Holy Spirit comes in, I'm done, because that that's not quite right. And so what my guest, Beatty Carmichael was talking about and my friend Ken Fish has talked about this, and I've seen it with my own eyes, that there are people that they believe in Jesus, but they haven't dealt with certain wounding, a certain baggage, where there can be an attachment. And so some people get very upset about this.

They go, no, no, no, I don't believe in that. But I only want to believe in what is real and true. And just because you don't like something or something seems to get confusing, I mean, I think I want to try to understand it. Now, Keith Jinta, I don't know if you have anything you want to say about this. Maybe you know a lot about this. I agree with you in that. And look, we know that the power of God, Father, son, Holy Spirit, far superior to any power of darkness. So, of course, yes, the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life is giving them a sense of authority and is giving them a sense of victory over this. But I've always thought of it more in terms of pure biblical theology that it's the blood of Jesus that protect us. That protect us. us from the possession, so to speak, of the enemy. So I saw one of the other questions that came in on your conversation with Beatty cited Paul and his thorn in the flesh. Now, people don't often

see that right there in the scripture, Paul says, a messenger from Satan. So it wasn't necessarily blurry eyes or some type of a affliction that he had. It was a demon. It was a, a messenger. I want to be clear, it's not possession. Yeah. But it is oppression, right? If the Holy Spirit lives inside you, this is clear, Satan cannot come and live inside you. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about oppression, which is different. We're going to have to carry this over into the next segment, but we're talking about oppression. It's not possession. It's not possession. It's not that once I accept Jesus, Satan can come and look. No, no. You are, yes, you know, to that extent, you are sealed from that. But there are woundings. There are psychic woundsings. There's trauma. There are places where you need to forgive. You need to pray. That's the process of sanctification. That's a lifelong process. That's a joy that begins the moment of our salvation. Okay. That's why Paul called it a thorn in the flesh. Correct. We'll be right back.

If you change your mind, Take a chance, I'm still free. Take a chance on me. Welcome back to we ask met taxes. And so Keith, you and I've been describing, been talking about this question sent in to us from Rick. Anything else that you want to say about that?

Well, right at the end of the segment there, we mentioned that Paul calls it a thorn. in the flesh. So that's more exterior. That's more penetrating. It's oppressing, like you said, but it's not possessing and dwelling on the inside. So that I think it's very clear that it's a messenger of Satan, but it also only made it as far as the flesh, his carnal nature. This is not possession like you're saying. Okay, I'm glad you pulled that out because I was not really tracking. That's exactly right. The flesh.

So yes, the enemy can attack us in our flesh, but it's not able to get at our spirit. Again, you know, I mean, this brings up the larger question or the larger issue that I've been thinking about a lot lately about how God wants us to be spiritually mature. And it doesn't end with, okay, I'm saved, now I'm done. And now we need discipleship. And I think that there are a lot of people that there's a lot of aspects to discipleship. But understanding spiritual warfare as a reality, there are a lot of Christians that kind of act like, nah, that's not, you know. And I think that is a reality. If you walk with God, there will be spiritual warfare.

And to ignore that is just silly. It's just foolish. This doesn't mean you need to do that. dedicate your life to it, but it's biblical, folks, to walk with God, we're in a spiritual war, we're in spiritual, we're in spiritual battles. And anybody who has walked seriously with God over time knows this. This is real, but God calls us to the battle. He prepares us to the battle, but he wants us to be aware. He wants us to know how to do spiritual warfare. Not the print that doesn't exist, but how to do it. And so one of the main things we can do, first, recognize it. And secondly,

praise the Lord. When you feel you're attacked, when you feel at a loss, one of the things you can do to make the demons tremble and flee is praise Jesus. Praise him in the midst of your difficulty. Just do it. Like you're going to do push-ups or you're going to exercise or you're You're going to eat right. You're going to, you just do it because the scripture says, when I praise the Lord, when I praise him, that is spiritual warfare. And that is real. That is very, very real.

And so I think that we want to be spiritually mature. Now, if you and I, because we went to St. Paul's and way back, you were there in the 70s, I was there in the 80s. This was normative. This was normative. People understood this. This is a reality. And not everybody's going to get it exactly right, but to pretend that, like, you know, that's kind of extra credit weird stuff. No, it's not. This is basic. You talk to anybody on the mission field. You talk to anybody in a country where there is demonic oppression, where you're persecuted for your Christian faith. You realize this is real. But God calls us to this. And I think part of what's happening right now in the American churches is that there are people waking up to this. And that,

that is a great thing, folks, to recognize the reality that when we're talking about, you know, transgender stuff, that's demonic. There's demonic stuff in our culture. And you cannot do anything about it unless you know who God is and what he calls us to do. And first of all, to know it for what it is, that there's all kinds of aspects to satanic oppression and influences. And if you kind of act like that stuff doesn't exist, there's no way. you can do anything about it. You're stuck. So, hey, we're out of time.

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