Equipped for Battle: Standing Firm in Faith

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "We are in a spiritual war. And so Paul doesn't say lay down or sit down. Yes, we'll be sitting in heaven. In fact, we are already seated in heavenly places, Paul says in Ephesians two, because our eternal position is so secure. But the work that we have to do here on earth is to stand. Which takes strength. which is why Paul says in verse 10 to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. The assumption is that we're weak and we need help. We're like infants. Babies don't just stand and walk on their own. It takes time. They have to be fed. They have to be nurtured. You have to train them to gain the strength and the skill to be able to stand on their own." [07:21](52 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "The gospel of peace that we are to preach, that we are to share. It's right there in Ephesians 2. And so Satan wants to come and to destroy your peace, to allow little disagreements with your spouse, or with your roommate, or with your co-worker, to feel like big things. Satan loves to stir up disagreements, division, disruption, anything that will create drama in you and your family. Satan wants to fill you with anxiety and worry, so that you will be distracted from, from your one true mission. Because he knows if you're caught up with inner turmoil, if you've got turmoil all around you, then you will not live out your God-given mission in life." [26:03](41 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God, not the peace lovers, but the peacemakers. And it's sort of like the same theme of unity we talked about in chapter four, where Paul says make every effort to keep the unity through the bond of peace. We, made the point before that we don't create the unity that's only something God can do, breaking down the wall of hostility that separates us from God and from one another. We can't create unity, but we can work to keep the unity. We can't create peace, but we can keep the peace that has come from God." [34:12](36 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The point here is that Jesus, the point here in our text, is that Jesus wants you to take the gospel of peace to those around you who are suffering, who are suffering in sin, who are suffering in poverty, who are suffering in sickness and anxiety and addiction, and to share the hope of Christ. He wants you to be ready, to be prepared, because you never know when God is going to open up the heart and the mind of someone to not just see the gospel demonstrated in action, but to hear the gospel truth spoken in words." [31:31](36 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The devil wants to keep you from standing, wants to keep you from being prepared, wants to keep you from being stable, wants to keep you from moving those feet towards the spiritual needs of those around you. So, so, so we must be ready to put on the gospel of peace to go anywhere. Anywhere that God may call us." [32:49](21 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


### Quotes for Members

1. "Wobbly Christians who have no firm foothold in Christ are easy prey for the devil and I don't know about you but I see a lot of wobbly Christianity today Christians who are unsure of who God says that they are and therefore are unsure of what they are called to do you know wobbly Christians tend to underestimate the power of the enemy and they're a few characteristics of wobbly Christians the first one is that a wobbly Christian doesn't know what is in their wardrobe when you're a believer you have access Paul says here to the full armor of God to the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness for to shoes that carry the gospel of peace to a shield of faith the helmet of salvation to the sword of the spirit it's all in your wardrobe it's all available and wobbly Christians will only put on one or two pieces of the armor and will develop a religious mindset that makes you think you're not a Christian." [14:17](53 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "The second thing I see with wobbly Christians today is that they have difficult a difficult time settling into a church visit a lot of churches shop around that a lot of churches talk about a lot of churches but never really settle into and commit to one this is not a new scheme by the way the devil's been doing this way before the growth of the so-called consumer mindset in america listen to what the senior devil screw tape tells his junior double he says this surely you know that if a man that's us can't be cured of church going the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that suits him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches he says that the search for for the suitable church makes the man listen to this a critic where the enemy that's that's god actually wants him to be a pupil." [15:46](60 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The third characteristic of a wobbly Christian is they don't know what they believe and this is what paul is talking about in chapter four when he said when he talks about not being mature as a believer and being tossed back and forth by the waves wobbly christians tend to major on the minors they take secondary issues and they make them primary issues they tend to live from one hot button issue to another they live from one headline to another they want the church to speak to any and every issue like we're a sunday morning talk show the temptation for wobbly christians is to think that our real enemy is flesh and blood specific people or political parties or political parties or leaders and the temptation especially for a wobbly christian in dc is to create a third way for every issue." [18:40](49 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The fourth point is that they don't know how to raise their kids and this is a scheme of the enemy that when we don't know what we believe when we're not plugged into the community of the local church when we don't know the weapons that we've been given to fight off the evil around us you know who suffers the most the next generation and let me be real parenting is hard there are so many parenting philosophies out there today there's attachment parenting authoritative parenting permissive parenting authority authoritarian parenting free range parenting helicopter parenting tiger parenting positive parenting slow parenting holistic parenting gentle parenting unconditional parenting mindful parenting respectful respectful parenting and there's so many debates that are happening today about the merits of breastfeeding versus bottle feeding or on-demand feeding versus scheduled feeding or co-sleep versus cribs sleeping and all these debates i'm not saying that these debates are are not important but do you notice the scheme of the enemy he wants to distract you with parenting philosophies that are downstream from the sensual question that you should be asking as parents and the question is this will i raise my child in the ways of the lord." [21:39](78 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The fifth scheme of the enemy that is characteristic of wobbly Christians is that they don't share their faith. And we'll land with this one. Ephesians 6, 15, this is what it's talking about. Your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. And we know that the greatest thing that Satan wants to destroy is your peace. Your peace with God first and foremost. That's what sin does. It destroys your fellowship with God. And when you don't have fellowship with God, that's what brings you peace. But the enemy also wants to destroy your peace with one another. The devil comes to create confusion, and to cause division, to break down our relationships with one another. And he uses the root sin of pride to advance this agenda." [24:33](47 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)