Good morning everybody. I sound pretty important,'t. Well it is great to be here. You guys every

time I'm back you guys have grown so much all four services have been like this one. A lot of folks in here. How many, by the way, have never heard me preach here before? Raise your hands if you would.

I'm going to use some of my old jokes then and that's all I wanted to know.

A lot of new people here.

It is really great to be here and I'm so proud of Pastor Robert, the elders, the

pastors, the staff and leadership here.

What a phenomenal work is going on at Gateway Church.

Pastor Robert has been preaching a sermon series called Elevate,

breaking through to new levels in life.

He took the last four weeks talking about faith.

I want to begin this morning by talking about family,

elevating yourself in the area of family and breaking through to new levels in your family life,

marriage, family, and all those areas.

And this message this morning actually relates to any area of your life and it's called

living among lions. I want to talk from a text in First Peter where Peter talks

about Satan being like a roaring lion.

And I want to talk about spiritual warfare this morning.

If you have your Bibles, if you'll turn to 1st Peter, chapter 5,

and that's where we will begin from.

Peter, obviously obviously he was the preeminent

apostle in the church and he had had experience with the devil. You remember

Jesus said that Satan demanded permission to sift Peter like wheat and that

...