Stand: Equipped for the Battle
“The Strategy in Spiritual Warfare”
Ephesians 6:10-13 (CSB)
Key Truth: We fight from victory, not for victory, because the battle belongs to the Lord.
Main Question: What is God’s strategy for defeating the enemy’s plan so we can live in the victory that Christ provides?
1. We are to be intentional. (vs. 13a)
2. We are to be resistant. (vs.13b)
We are to be prepared. (vs. 13c)
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
How Our Emotions Distract Us From God
Every day we are on a battlefield, and our enemy uses every opportunity to try to weaken us or pull us off our path so that our focus is not on God. We have to be vigilant and stand firm. Our emotions can distract us from God and his path and purpose for our lives faster than a lot of things, because we often operate from our emotions. We live in the moment and if the moment is chaotic, traumatic, or shakes us in some way, we tend to get wrapped up in the emotions those moments provoke. Our emotions can cloud our judgement or cause us to spiral into anger, sadness, loneliness, depression, and many other feelings that can distract us and cause us to temporarily forget that our God is still in control and surprised by nothing.
How can we keep our emotions from distracting us from God?
With Thanksgiving - Especially On the Hard Days
It is hard to remember to be grateful on the days when our current circumstances feel so heavy. Anxiety can eat us up and steal our peace. The church in Philippi must have been struggling since Paul spoke about it here in Philippians 4. We can take these words to heart and know that they will apply in our lives as well, especially on hard days. Giving thanks may seem like the last thing we want to do, and we don’t have to give thanks for sad and tragic circumstances. But we can keep our focus on God by keeping our focus on who he is, no matter the circumstances.
Be honest with God when you pray – When we pray, it is just us and Him, in intimate communion with one another. We can focus on him and who he is in our lives. We can remember his faithfulness and the things he has already done. We can surrender to him with open hearts – every fear, worry, petition, heartache. He will take what we surrender and exchange it for his peace. We can keep that peace on the hard days by focusing on him and his truth.
Focus on His promises – The Bible is full of God’s promises. When you are overwhelmed tell yourself what his promises are and the truth that is in his word. We can fill our heads with his promises and truth, even about what we are going through. We can also play worship music to keep our mind on him. These truths and promises will fill our minds so that we can recall them easily when we are in the middle of a hard day.
Satan loves to whisper in our ear. It may be his greatest tactic against us because if he can make us doubt the truth of God’s word or the certainty of his promises, we will not be effective for God’s kingdom. He is the father of lies and he wants us to believe his lies about God and ourselves – that God is not good, that he can’t use us, or that we don’t even deserve his love so he couldn’t really love us. But when we know the truth, we have to tell ourselves when we don’t feel it. Sometimes on hard days it is difficult to feel the truth we know.
Focusing on difficult circumstances, the loss of loved ones, or how someone has hurt us will take our focus off God and his goodness. Our impossible circumstances can cause us anxiety because we are focusing on ourselves and our own impossible ability to fix them. When we get our focus back on Him where it belongs, and trust Him, we can find peace in our heart and strength to stand firm against the enemy’s tactics.
What does the Bible say?
Look up the attributes of God and memorize as many of them as you can and repeat them back to yourself when you need to re-focus on him.
Find a couple of scriptures about peace that you love and memorize so you can speak that truth back into your heart and mind when emotions derail you.
God understands the hard days and getting distracted by emotions, but he wants us to come to him. He wants to take our burdens and give us peace. And that never changes. He never changes. Our worlds change and the ground shifts all around us at times, but in him we can find everlasting peace.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 CSB
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
While we consider the options we have in life, it is easy to forget that a momentary decision can create a lifetime of impact. There are things that provoke us to make unhealthy decisions. These may not be bad in themselves but the choice we make in regard to them damages our lives.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” – 1 Peter 4:10
The Power of Examining Ourselves
As we heard from our guest speaker, Jay McSwain, this past Sunday, it is good to know how God made us. Understanding our personalities and giftings help us to understand ourselves and to know how we can serve best in the kingdom of God. Examining ourselves also should help us to be more aware of God and give him the glory and praise that he deserves.
This past Sunday Jay gave us five biblical principles to reinforce the importance of us looking inward in order to point our eyes outward and upward:
Examine Ourselves - Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test. 2 Corinthians 13:5 - It is biblical to know who God made us to be and how we can leverage our lives for his purpose for us and our work in the kingdom.
Fearfully and wonderfully made - I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. Psalm 139:14 - He made us all uniquely and wondrously.
Created for a purpose - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 – He created us each for our own individual purpose that only we can fulfill. He made us in a special way to be able to fulfill that purpose. That is part of our gifts given by the Holy Spirit.
We have to be careful when looking inward not to look too much at ourselves so that we don’t turn our focus outward and upward. We lose sight of the importance of looking inward if we get stuck there. The goal is to then be outward and upward focused – on others and God.
Give your life away - But how? - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. Matthew 16:25 – Giving ourselves away in service to God and others brings fulfillment and life when we do it all for his glory and not for ourselves.
God receives the praise - If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. I Peter 4:11 God deserves all the praise and glory for what he has done in our lives. His work in our lives is our story to others – pointing others to him so he gets all the glory.
Looking inward gives us a road map to how we can best serve others and glorify God with our lives. Walking in step with the spirit and pointing others to him in everything we say and do, glorifying him, should be the goal of our lives.
Examine yourself. Look inward and learn about your personality and spiritual gifts. How do you see that God has made you and how can you use your gifts to serve others and glorify him with your life?
If you want to take the PLACE personality and spiritual gifts assessment to learn how God has created you, you can call the office at 817-599-8612 to sign up for the next session.
Monday, September 28, 2026
I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18
Our Internal Battle: The Flesh and the Spirit
On Sunday mornings we are currently in a series on Spiritual Warfare called Stand: Equipped for the Battle. As Christians we stand in a war that wages all around us unseen – a spiritual battle. As we walk through this series we will learn about nature of spiritual warfare and the weapons God has given us to fight this battle. We will learn how to fight spiritual battles in a way that honors God while being a witness for him to the world. We will embrace our key truth: We fight from victory, not for victory, because the battle belongs to the Lord.
Yesterday we had a guest speaker, Jay McSwain, who spoke about the battle we have going on internally between our flesh and the spirit. Our flesh is our sinful nature or desires that are apart from God. When our focus is off of God they can lead us into sin, causing us to miss out on God’s design for abundant life for us. That abundant life can only be found in walking in a relationship with him, stepping where he steps, and learning to live and love like him. We cannot satisfy the desires of our flesh while we are in step with him and living and loving like him.
But… this battle will always be a part of our life as long as we have breath in our lungs. We are human and the desires of the flesh are powerful. Paul, in his letter to the church in Galatia, lists them with a heavy warning in Galatians 5:19-21: Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul goes on to say what life looks like when we deny our flesh and live in the spirit: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5: 22-26
So we know we have these sinful desires that are not in line with our relationship with walking in the spirit. Here is something else we need to know and remember every day. We have an enemy who hates God and therefore hates us and he works endlessly to take us out of the battle. He knows our vulnerabilities and will use them to try to trip us up. When we fail, as we will, it does not nullify our relationship with God, negate our salvation, or cancel us completely from abundant life, walking in the spirit. But it does derail us and can honestly make us feel like all those things are true. It will render us useless – at least for a time – from the kingdom work God has planned for us. That is the devil’s plan. Less soldiers for the kingdom on the battlefield. But we still have victory even from the depths of failure. We just have to reach out and take it, repent, and get back on the right path with the spirit.
Yes, we will always have the battle against our sinful desires but as our key truth states, the battle between the flesh and the spirit has already been won. We have been crucified with Christ so we can fight from victory and not for victory. We can stand firm in the power of the spirit and live victoriously through him over our sinful desires.
Which One Wins?
Galatians 5:16-23 (CSB)
The Battle of the Flesh – Personality
The Dark Side of Discovery – Distraction
Self-destruction takes place when your focus is off of God and onto yourself.
When your focus is misplaced is when you are most likely to stumble into sin, struggle & destruction.
Dark Side of Personality:
- Something within yourself
- A tendency or weakness of your personality
- That hurts your witness
- Hinders your experience with God
- And keeps you from experiencing the fullness of life
- Promised for the Christian that is in step with the Spirit
The enemy looks for your vulnerabilities.
Design – Designer; Creation – Creator; Inward – Outward & Upward
Examine Ourselves - 2 Corinthians 13:5
Fearfully and wonderfully made - Psalm 139:14
Created for a purpose - Ephesians 2:10
Give your life away - But how? - Matthew 16:25
God receives the praise - I Peter 4:11
Investigation of the creation should lead to inquiry of the Creator.
Looking inward should point your eyes outward & upward.
Awe of the design should point one to worship of the Designer.
Thursday, September 24, 2026
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 corinthians 10:13
Giants On The Battlefield
No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will allow us to be tempted but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it. Satan can use the giants of temptation in our lives to distract us away from God. He wants us to turn away from God to and focus on something else - especially something else that would lead us away from God.
David knew about battles. He was just a shepherd boy, but he had fought a bear and a lion, and now he was asking if he could fight the giant, Goliath, who was threatening the Israelite army. He was literally a kid, bringing lunch to his brothers, who had no experience. But he heard the words Goliath shouted day after day and he wanted to go to battle with him. Goliath, the giant, came out every single day and shouted to the Israelite army, taunting them, insulting them, harassing and mocking them. He had them paralyzed with fear. The ones that had tried to fight him so far had not lived to tell about it. No one was lining up to go next and David convinced Saul that The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:37 The Lord did deliver David and Goliath went down. David knew that it was God who slew the giant that day and not him.
The little harmful things that we let into our lives can become giants. They may start out as small, but left unchecked, they grow until they are giants and can consume us. We try to fight it and wish we hadn’t started it. What giants are in your life? What is that one voice that taunts and mocks you daily? We all have giants of some form we are battling. It could be fear, anxiety, addiction, anger, rejection, or many more. The single voice of one giant shut down a whole army and the voice of a giant in our ear can shut us down too. The Israelites were a group of people that God had done miraculous things for – removed them from slavery in Egypt, split the sea wide open for them to escape across, guided them through the wilderness and provided mana and water and brought them to the promised land. Yet they had forgotten all He had done and had no faith that He could deliver them from this giant. We forget all the God has already done for us and how powerful He is just like the Israelites.
Jesus is completely able to take down any and all giants in our lives. In fact, he already has the victory. No matter how formidable or looming or hopeless it may seem, He is the overcomer. No matter how loud the voice is, He is the giant killer. Just as David did not slay the giant, we also will not be able to slay any giants. The giant falls because of Jesus, not us. Turn away from the giants and back to Jesus. Put your focus and trust in Him today and let the giants fall.
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. Isaiah 55:2
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Lingering Dissatisfaction
As we have been talking about spiritual warfare and the way Satan operates in the battle, we know that he can use all kinds of things to distract us from God, his purpose in our lives, and the battle we are in - leaving us vulnerable to his attacks. Dissatisfaction is a strong weapon of Satan. It goes straight to the core of our hearts. A tiny seed of dissatisfaction can reap a huge pile of trouble in our lives.
We know that true satisfaction only comes from God, yet we look in the wrong places expecting them to do for us what only God can do. And we do it over and over again. In a previous sermon series Pastor Jim told us dissatisfaction comes when we replace God. Anytime we look to something else to give us what only God can provide we are replacing God with that thing/person/experience, etc, and this is idolatry. We are giving something else God’s place in our lives, and it can happen quick, before we even realize it.
Sometimes we may become dissatisfied with God and turn to other things to replace him. If we are replacing God with something else that we believe will give us satisfaction, we may have a wrong view of God. God is sovereign and in control of life. He is faithful and a promise keeping God. He is who he says he is. When we have a flawed view of God we can become dissatisfied. We want God to do things our way and our prayers exactly as we think they should be answered. We quickly become dissatisfied if it doesn’t go the way we think it should and we look to something else to make us feel better. If we believe God is who he says he is and we trust his sovereignty with our lives, we will trust him to answer our prayers in the very best way and we will be satisfied with whatever that answer is.
We believe we deserve everything we want, and we deserve to be happy. But what would it take to make us happy? More money? Different looks? A better job, car, house, or spouse? Believing these things can certainly breed discontent and dissatisfaction with God. We search for false gods to replace him with that we believe will make us happy, and they may for a minute. Then dissatisfaction sets in again and off we go.
We can spend lots of money on what we think is bread that will satisfy only to find out it doesn’t. Only when we turn to him and his abundance will we be satisfied. All the wrong things we turn to only make us thirstier and hungrier than we were before. Only when we drink the living water that leads to eternal life will we be truly satisfied. The longer we spend searching, the longer the dissatisfaction will linger. Satan loves for us to be dissatisfied. As long as we are dissatisfied and we keep looking somewhere else than to God, it keeps us from focusing on him and walking in a relationship with him. In his eyes, anytime he can turn us away from God it is a win.
So how can we refocus and make sure we turn to him to find the satisfaction we desire?
· Focus on God and your relationship with him. The temptation to feel dissatisfaction will weaken when we are in a relationship with God. That relationship will spread to every part of our lives. Focus on him and his kingdom – where satisfaction lies - and not the things of this world – that only gives dissatisfaction. Believe God’s promises. Find and memorize scripture that is meaningful to you and reminds you of the satisfaction that only God brings.
· Put safeguards in place. What do you need to change in your life that will keep you from the temptation of dissatisfaction? Maybe you need to stay off social media. Do the ads that pop up make you want more? Do the influencer profiles you see bring you feelings of dissatisfaction in your real life? Think of how God has blessed you and thank him. Volunteer at a homeless shelter and think about what you have and what they don’t. Ask for accountability from a Christian friend.
· Know that the Holy Spirit brings victory. Remember that defeating dissatisfaction can only be found in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it in our own power. Why waste time and resources running after something you will never find. Like the verses above say, why spend money for what doesn't satisfy? And why drink water that only makes us thirsty for more? As long as Satan can keep our minds and hearts distracted and our focus off God, our armor is off and we are not looking at the battle.
Where are you dissatisfied in your heart? Are you turning your focus away from God and looking for satisfaction somewhere else leaving yourself vulnerable?
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Monday, September 21, 2026
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. Ephesians 6:10-12 CSB
Know Your Enemy – The Opposition in Spiritual Warfare
Last Sunday Pastor Jim began leading us through a series on Spiritual Warfare called Stand: Equipped for the Battle. As Christians we stand in a war that wages all around us unseen – a spiritual battle. As we walk through this series we will learn about nature of spiritual warfare and the weapons God has given us to fight this battle. We will learn how to fight spiritual battles in a way that honors God while being a witness for him to the world. We will embrace our key truth: We fight from victory, not for victory, because the battle belongs to the Lord.
Who do you see as your enemy? Most of the time we mistake the people in front of us for the true enemy of our lives. Satan wants us to see the people around us as our enemy. This is how he destroys families and tears churches apart. We see each other as the enemy and destroy each other instead of seeing that Satan is the real enemy.
We are in an unseen battle with unseen forces, but the battle is real and we can feel it and its effects. We have a God who loves us and an enemy who hates him and who sole purpose is to make us feel defeated, helpless and worthless for the kingdom of God. He wants to distract us from the purpose God has for us. It is imperative for us to know this enemy and how he works, as well as to know the power we have from God to stand firm against him.
Pastor Jim gave us a lot of great information yesterday about our opposition in Spiritual Warfare.
The Battle is real. The enemy is real and the battle is real. He wants us to underestimate him or not believe that it could even be real. Even though he is real and he attacks us in more ways than we realize, we have all the power we ever need to stand firm. We have the power of Jesus in our hearts. We would never have the power in our own strength to stand firm against the attacks of the enemy.
Why don’t we stand in his power? Pastor Jim gave us four reasons we don’t stand in the power we have been given when we are followers of Jesus.
We are spiritually immature – make light of the battle because we are not growing up in our faith. We do not take God, our faith, or spiritual battles seriously. We cannot see the real enemy, misinterpreting who the enemy is and his strategy, leaving us vulnerable in battle.
We still have habitual or unconfessed sins. No confession or repentance. We have not dealt with the sin in our lives, allowing Jesus to transform us so we don’t ask for his help, leaving us vulnerable in battle.
We are too self-reliant. We think we can do it in our own power (which stems from pride), but sometimes we feel like we have to do it in our own power. We believe we can fight the battle in own power leaving us vulnerable in the battle.
We have a weak and ineffective prayer life. We don’t seek God because – we are spiritually immature, have habitual or unconfessed sin, and are self-reliant so we have an ineffective prayer life, leaving us vulnerable in the battle.
The devil has a plan. Satan wants us to believe that we have no strength in the battle. He wants to distract us from God with everything else. He has a plan to lure us away. He uses fleshly means to distract us from God and the work he has for us to be doing. He cannot defeat us so he will deceive us and distract us so we are not useful or effective for the kingdom of God. The armor of God, which we will learn about in this series, is the only way to defend against the devil’s plan.
Four specific stages within the enemy’s battle plan:?
Desire – this is temptation – Satan tempting us to fill real desires with counterfeit things.
Deception – desire leads to deception. Our desires can begin to control our minds.
Disobedience – when we are tempted by desire and allow it to control our minds in deception we act in disobedience. We eventually act on our sinful desire.
Death – sin leads to death, which would be Satan’s ultimate goal – to take us out of the battle.
The enemy is spiritual. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. We are not fighting flesh and blood enemies so we cannot fight them with man’s weapons. We can only fight with spiritual means.
How does understanding Satan’s plans and strategies help us to walk more faithfully with Jesus? We know that Satan’s plan is to deceive us and distract us so we will not be effective for the Kingdom of God. He wants to lead us away through desire, deception, disobedience and death. Walking faithfully with Jesus helps us to resist Satan and his schemes, stand firm in the battle and claim the victory that is already ours in Jesus.
Are you engaged in the battle? How has the enemy deceived or distracted you? How will you fight back using the armor of God?
Stand: Equipped for the Battle
“The Opposition in Spiritual Warfare”
Ephesians 6:10-12 (CSB)
Key Truth: We fight from victory, not for victory, because the battle belongs to the Lord.
Main Question: How does understanding Satan’s plans and strategies help us to walk more faithfully with Jesus?
1. The battle is real. (vs. 10)
Why don’t we depend on God’s power in the battle?
a. We are spiritually immature.
b. We still have habitual or unconfessed sins.
c. We are too self-reliant.
d. We have a weak and ineffective prayer life.
2. The devil has a plan. (vs.11)
Two Key Questions:
1. What is the spiritual root of the attack that I am experiencing right now?
2. How do I return to “first things” and reorient my focus and obedience on God?
Why don’t we depend on God’s power in the battle?
a. Desire
b. Deception
c. Disobedience
d. Death
3. The enemy is spiritual. (vs. 12)
After the Message:
Read Ephesians 6:10-12. Are you engaged in the battle? How has the enemy deceived or distracted you? How will you fight back using the armor of God?