How To Fight Invisible Enemies Series

Application: Sin and guilt that follows will render you ineffective in kingdom work. Satan will use them to make you feel worthless, helpless, depressed, overcome, give up. Addictions, broken homes, violence, sexual sin, some mental illness flow from awful things that we have done or have been done to us and the shame we feel. This is why we are commanded to walk in holiness. 3. We are to take drastic measures to defeat besetting sin, cutting off the hands and gouging out the eyes. Personal holiness is not high on the personal goals of people, but merely avoiding big sins…What areas in your life are you being disobedient to Christ? Don’t be generic. What has God convicted you of? Maybe attitudes as well, pride, anger, victim, fear, bitterness, unforgiveness, greed, failure to give, to love

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3) Let the Gospel Be Your Strength (v. 15)

Ephesians 6:15 ESV

and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

3) Let the Gospel Be Your Strength (v. 15)

Explanation:

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Thessalonians 1:5 (ESV)

because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Illustration: the gospel undermines a performance based religion. Charles Stanley, Martin Luther, Keith Williams,

“Engaging in spiritual warfare is fortifying our lives against the enemy by applying the Gospel to every part of our lives

(i.e., our relationships, our dreams, our self-esteem, our suffering, our joys, our hopes).

Any part of us that is not saturated with the Gospel is subject to manipulation by our enemy for our destruction.” –JD Greear

Application: Know the Gospel and know how it applies. Find the sin, and pin the blood to it. Forgiveness, freedom, and overcoming grace flow from a proper understanding and application. So, when you speak harshly to your children or family, you return and ask for forgiveness as Christ has forgiven you. You have the power to do that because of the gospel. You are not bound to pride anymore, Christ died for that, and you died with him. The gospel is the weapon by which you refuse to lose ground and you advance upon the position of the enemy. Christ wins it all, won it all.

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Closing illustration: 4000 churches close their doors each year. 1500 pastors quit the ministry because of moral failure, church conflict, or burnout. 2.7 million believers fall into inactivity each year.

Truth and Righteousness and the Gospel