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Searching for "battle" in the Quiet Time Archive
Displaying results from "0" to "25". (73 found)

2008-02-26 - Power of Gratitude - Uncommon Peace
What enables us to have such uncommon peace? - Commonality

  • Relationship with God
  • Decision to make Jesus Lord of our lives
  • Basic mission - to seek and save the lost
If we in a battle together, we are unlikely to attack one another

Stay committed to God with the mission and discipling firmly in place, our unity will remain

Three warning signs, if not doing:

A. Daily diet
  • Time in the Word daily - Acts 17:11
  • Daily prayer - Luke 11:1-4
  • Share our faith daily - Acts 17:17
  • Open with our lives daily with one another - Hebrews 3:12
B. Lack of commitment
C. Lack of discipling

2008-09-18 - Teach Us To Pray - Courage and Boldness
Prayer reminds us God is in control
It is his battle, I belong to God, and God will make me successful
God will not let me be tempted beyond what I can bear - 1 Corinthians 10:13

To pray for boldness and courage:
  1. Trust - We are exactly the way God wants us to be; he will make up what we are not - 2 Timothy 1:7
  2. Righteousness - Righteous are as bold as a lion; god can not hear us if we cherish sin - Psalms 66:18
  3. Action - do what the word says; Keep praying until you act
Does our faith come from our results or our results come from our faith

God's work cannot be done in this world without courage

2008-11-03 - Man of Prayer - Developing Spiritual Protection
World is filled with unknown and dangerous supernatural enemies - the battlefield is out there

Not against flesh and blood - but the spiritual forces of evil - Ephesians 6:12
We are part of a war of epic and eternal proportions that effect every area of our lives

Many men are casualties of a war they don't know is being waged
We are to prepared and equipped  to wage this spiritual war

One of the seven major components of prayer is developing spiritual protection
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one - Matthew 6:13



2008-11-05 - Man of Prayer - The Flesh (part 2)

Sinning is easy; it comes naturally
When we turn our lives to Christ, the Holy Spirit creates a new nature - the two battle within us

Fruits of that new nature - Galatians 5:22-23

Jesus fought the battle with scripture - He said "It is written" many times while responding to others
David hid the God's word in his heart so he would not sin - Psalms 119:11

God promises that we will not be tempted more than we can bear - 1 Corinthains 10:13

 



2008-11-06 - Man of Prayer - The Flesh (part 3)

Three other ways to fight the battle aginst our flesh (nature)

Resist temptation - 1 Peter 5:9
Turn and flee from temptation - 2 Timothy 2:22

Most effective - avoidance - Lead us not into temptation
He guides me in paths of righteousness for hos name's sake - Psalms 23:3

Prayer becomes our spiritual "dressing room" for the battle of the day - Ephesians 6:13-17

 



2008-12-01 - Raising Awesome Kids - Love
Love is of first importance. All else is secondary.
Above all we should have love - 1 Peter 4:8

Lack of love, we are nothing - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
We may lavish upon our children the finest things but if we do not make them feel loved, it is all to no avail

If there is closeness and love between us and our kids, we have a place to stand and start for the battle of their hearts
Build our families on love and our kids will be strong

Kids are born with the capacity to love, but not all learn how

2008-12-13 - Raising Awesome Kids - Winning Obedience from Children (part 2)

First principle = first time obedience

Second principle = Parents never lose
They want to see their limits
Apologize when warrented but never give up in the battle of wills

Sometimes the whole issues comes down to the "mother of all battles"
Compromise is one the most devastating mistakes parent can make
When we do this, we sow the seeds of rebellion - Ephesians 6:4

If you have failed in this area:

  1. Read about passages about obeying
  2. Talk to them about obeying the first time
  3. Explain this has not been the way but will be now
  4. Pray together
  5. From that time on be different

 



2009-03-15 - Promises of God - Convictions from scriptures
Satan furiously went after Jesus - Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus countered the enemy's temptations with Scripture

The Word must deep into our hearts so we recall the scriptures when needed
We rarely have the opportunity to open the Word when being tempted

Not just "stop that" or "start doing this"

Bring to mind specific scriptures
Hearing ourselves quoting the appropriate scriptures, it brings conviction during the battle of sin

2009-08-21 - Wild at Heart - Intro (part 3)
What makes a man come alive?

    1. Need a battle to fight
  • Swords, camouflage, six-shooters, uniforms
  • Boys want to be powerful and dangerous
  • Aggression is part of man’s design – God’s image (Exodus 15:3)
  • They do not want to call and talk about relationships
  • Boys play is a rehearsal for a bigger drama
  • Life needs man to be fierce and fiercely devoted
  • Every man needs to know he is powerful – be the hero

    2. Needs an adventure to live
  • Fights the grizzly, wins the beauty
  • Recipe for fun with boys – add an element of danger
  • We may fear the test, yet we yearn to be tested and discover what it takes
  • If a man has lost this desire (says he doesn’t want it) does not know he has what it takes – believe he will fail the test.

    3. Needs a beauty to rescue
  • Nothing more inspiring to a man as a beautiful women
  • Make you want to charge the castle, slay the giant
  • Men going to war carry a photo of their sweetheart in their wallet
  • Paintings on side of airplanes
  • Lonely men fight lonely battles
  • Where would James Bond, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Indiana Jones be without their women
  • Man needs a battle to fight, he needs someone to fight for (someone in particular – women he loves)



2009-08-27 - Wild at Heart - Question that haunts every man (part 1)
Men look in their hearts but they don’t discover something valiant and dangerous
Find fear, lust, and anger
"All men die, few men really ever live"
Women - Many have given up hope for a true man.

Real life of the average man seems a universe away from the desire of his heart
  1. No battle to fight
  2. No swords and castles
  3. Without a great battle in which a man live and die - fierce part goes underground
Men are angry – and we don’t know why
Why are men addicted to sports? - biggest adventure many will ever taste
Careers? Same reason
Trading stock – taste of excitement and risk

Guys have been told to be responsible

2009-08-29 - Wild at Heart - Question that haunts every man (part 3)
What is a man for?

Why does God create Adam?
Desire reveals design – our design reveal
God command to Adam – rule, subdue, be fruitful and multiply
Explore, build, and conquer – take risk and danger (the catch)
Something hinders us from living to the level of risk God invites us to
God has a enemy and so do we
There are many, many battles to fight on many different battlefields

Before Eve is drawn from Adam’s side and leaved that ache that never goes away until he is with her.
God does not tell Adam what he has done.
No warning or instructions – temptation of eve

God believes in Adam – he does not need a play-by-play book – this is what Adam is for

Hebrew word “with her” – means elbow to elbow
Adam was watching the whole thing unravel
What does he do? Nothing
He won’t risk, he won’t fight, he won’t rescue Eve

2009-08-31 - Wild at Heart - Question that haunts every man (part 5)
We pick battles that are easily won, rescue only the beauties we are sure to rescue

Strength gone bad

Violent men and passive men - Cain kills Abel
Men say the most awful things to their wives or they kill them with their silence
Type-A personalities – casualties tend to be the family

Abraham - Always hiding behind his wife’s skirt - tells Pharaoh that Sarah is his sister
Isaac does Rebecca the same way - he is a coward

What if I offer her all I have as a man it’s not enough?

2009-09-08 - Wild at Heart - The fathers voice (part 1)
A man needs to know his name - He needs to know he has got what It takes
Can not know who we are until we know God
Adam knew Eve intimately - this how we need to know God.

Deep knowledge comes from a process of initiation. You have to know where you come from.
Some try to get their identity from others – girlfriend/wife, friends, job, and hobbies
Who can we turn to for this need?

God could take him on that journey, provide what is missing

Who will give your name and mean something? God!
There is a terrible assault

Adam was created for adventure and battles; he created us for a unique place in his history
Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, and Saul becomes Paul

2009-09-19 - Wild at Heart - Healing the wound (part 5)
Until we are broken, our life will be self-centered, self-reliant, our strength will be our own.
So long as you think you are really something in and of yourself, what will you need God for?
Think of the poser you know – are they the kind of man you would call 2am, when life is collapsing around you?

Where a man’s wound is, that is where his genius will be.
Because the wound was given in the place of your true strength
Out of your brokenness that you discover what you have to offer the community
When we begin to offer not merely our gifts but our true selves, that is when we become powerful
That is when we are ready for battle

2009-09-20 - Wild at Heart - The Enemy (part 1)
Any castles? Any great battles? Are there any great dragons? A man needs a battle to fight
Early death of a man’s warriors keeps the boy in him from growing up
If we can reawaken that fierce quality in a man – higher purpose, release the warrior within, then the boy can grow up
and become truly masculine
Every man is a warrior inside but the choice to fight is his own
A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission to his life that involves and yet transcends even home and family.
He must have a cause to which he is devoted even unto death – in the fabric of our being
That is why God created you.
Your whole life is in preparation for
The lie from the enemy is that your role is insignificant
No other man can replace you
You are the hero in your own story - the main man

A warrior has a vision
Root of all our woes and false self was this: We are seeking to save our life and we lost it
“Who ever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” – Mark 8:35
For years all my daily energy was spent trying to beat the trails in my life and arrange for a little pleasure.
Mercenary fights for pay, for his own benefit, his life is devoted to himself

2009-09-21 - Wild at Heart - The Enemy (part 2)
A warrior is cunning.
When to fight and when to run
Three enemies:
  1. world
  2. flesh
  3. devil
We don’t want to move unless we’re guaranteed success
We want the easy way out
Your flesh is a weasel, a poser, and a selfish pig. And your flesh is not you.

Paul knew the struggle within – my sin is not me – this not my true heart - Romans 7
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you - Ezekiel 36:26
There is a war within us, but it is a civil war. There is a traitor within who wars against our true heart fighting alongside the Spirit of God
The real you is on the side of God against the false self.
The man who wants to live valiantly will lose heart quickly if he believes that his heart is nothing but sin
We are never told to crucify our heart
We are never told to kill the true man with in us
Never told to get rid of those deep desires for battle and adventure and beauty

2009-09-22 - Wild at Heart - The Enemy (part 3)
Walk right into those situations you normally run from
Speak right to the issues normally remain silent over
If you want to grow in masculine strength, then stop sabotaging yours.

Being wronged and saying that is OK, but furious inside
This will push your strength down and eventually you will believe you do not have any.
When you deny your anger, it turns to fear
Sabotage also happens when we give our strength away
Taking a bribe, refusing to confront an issue, sexual sin
Sexual struggle is sin and a battle for his strength

Start choosing to live out your strength and you’ll discover that it grows each time
Stand your ground and begin to taste your true strength and you’ll want more
Our strength is will and fierce and we are more than unsettled by what may happen if we let it arrive
“I’m afraid I will do something bad if I let all this show up” – You will do something bad if you don’t
Man’s addictions are a result of his refusing his strength
Let people feel the weight of who you are and let them deal with it

2009-09-23 - Wild at Heart - The Enemy (part 4)
The world is a carnival of counterfeits, counterfeit battles. Counterfeit adventures, counterfeit beauties
Men should think of it as a corruption of their strength
Battle your way to the top says the world and you will be a man

World give a false sense of security
  • Where does your sense of power come from?
  • Is it your position?
Look to be the servant of all
Want to know how the world really feels about you – start living out your true strength
Say what you think, stand for the underdog, challenge foolish polices
Many of us have actually been afraid to let our strength show up because the world doesn’t have a place for it

2009-10-08 - Wild at Heart - The Strategy (part 1)
1. I am not here

Satan says, “ I am not here, it just you”

You cannot fight a battle that you don’t think exists

Satan prowls around like a roaring lion - 1 Peter 5:8-9
Assume you are under spiritual attack
When you ignore the enemy, he wins
He simply loves to put everything on us
Get us to feel hurt, misunderstood, suspicious and resentful

Before an effective military strike, must take our the lines of communication
Marriage is a living example – Satan loves to divide and conquer
Sends a message – you are blowing it – “I thought you were disappointed with me”
They did not send this message

Most of all the Enemy tries to jam communication with Headquarters
Commit yourself to prayer every morning for two weeks and just watch what happens
Satan tries to make our mind wonder and cause interferences

2009-10-10 - Wild at Heart - The Strategy (part 3)
2. Intimidation

Our condition may become normal to use after a while - depression
If you pray and fight against – It will get worse.
Once the Enemy is discovered, he usually does not just roll over and die.
Jesus says get tough and resist the onslaught

Next level Satan tries intimidation and fear
He wants you to agree with intimidation because he fears you
Fighting back, he will lose – Resist the devil and he will flee – James 4:7

Why do so many pastor’s kids go off the deep end?
Evil One is trying to an old tactic – strike first and maybe the opposition will run
He can’t win, you know

God is with us
“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you” – Joshua 1:5
The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name – Exodus 15:3

How did Jesus win the battle against Satan? God was with him
Doesn’t simply mean that he’ll be around - he will fight for us
Satan is trying to appeal to the traitor’s commitment to self-preservation when he uses fear and intimidation.
So as long as we are back in the old story of saving our skin, looking out for Number One, those tactics will work.

Become a warrior
The most dangerous man on earth is the man who has reckoned with his own death.
All men die, few men ever really live.

2009-10-11 - Wild at Heart - The Strategy (part 4)
3. Cutting a deal

When did king David fall?
When David was not a warrior
He sent other to the fighting for him

Weapons of war
If you saw your life as a great battle and you knew you needed time with God for your survival, you would have “quite times”
It’s about connecting with God
Whatever brings you back to you heart and the heart of God
If you do not have God and have him deeply, you will turn to other lovers

Men devote hours to finances to retire
Rigorous training for a marathon
How much do we strive to for our relationship with God?
The body is built to endure hardship
Put on the armor of God everyday

We walk in the authority of Christ
Do not attack in anger and do not swagger forth in pride
Do not even think about going into battle alone
Don’t make that a lifestyle of isolation

2009-10-13 - Wild at Heart - A Beauty to Rescue
Evil power who holds her captive
Only a champion may win her
Every little girl knows the fable without ever being told
Little boys rehearse their parts
Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet and so on
Strong man coming to rescue a beautiful women is universal and human nature

Why is it ten years later I wondered if I even wanted to be married to her anymore?
Why do most us get lost somewhere between “once upon a time” and “happily ever after”?

Our culture has grown cynical about the fable
We have not been poisoned by fairy tales

Many guys think that the biggest battle was asking her out
She is the special target of the Evil One
He turns most vicious malice against her
If he can destroy her or keep her captive, he can ruin the story

2009-10-20 - Wild at Heart - An adventure to live (part 3)
We pay attention to our desire. Often the clues are in our past, in the moments when we found ourselves loving what we were doing

To recover his heart’s desire a man needs to get away
When a man thinks that what will really make him come alive is something unholy – ask what is the desire beneath this desire?

The greatest obstacle to realizing our dreams is the false self’s hatred of mystery

Most important aspects of any man’s world – his relationship with his God and with the people in his life, his calling, the spiritual battles he’ll face
To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways

There are no formulas with God
God is a person and not a doctrine

Joshua blowing trumpets for a week – only did it once
Gideon’s plan of attack 32000 to 300 and torches and water pots
Jesus healing not the same way twice

2009-11-08 - Repentance - Transfigure Our Minds (part 1)
We each have a worldview or mindset that functions as a life lens
World has been squeezing us into its mold – more than we realize

Peter’s mind
  • Thought of Jesus as a Messianic Champion
  • Thought Jesus would reveal himself in a fierce battle
  • “You are the Christ!”
  • All the right data
    • Witness the transfiguration – built shelters for Moses, Jesus, and Elijah – Jesus said Peter didn’t know what he was saying
    • Night of the betrayal – Peter said bring it on, he held on hope that 12 leagues of angels would come; drawn his sword to the guard
    • Peter joined the other disciples in Jerusalem – with “one mind” in prayer and purpose
The World around us persists in its big squeeze on us
Prepare your minds for action – 1 Peter 1:13-14
Space shuttle takes 2,250,000 pounds of fuel to escape the earth’s gravity
Only few pounds to remain in orbit – Christians are called more than just to orbit
Most trials produce greater faith – hospitalized child, illness, death, ministry turmoil, financial pressures
Ways to fight – devote time to prayer, read scripture, explore ways to encourage wife, get advice from elders, spend special time with the kids
Ways to not to – laziness, frustrate wife, neglect kids, feeling overwhelmed and under underappreciated, escape to the TV

2009-12-14 - Master Plan - Reproduction (part 1)
He expected them to reproduce

  • Jesus built into the disciples the structure of the church; Mustard seed - Matthew 13:32
  • Jesus’ vision was for the church to be world-wide
  • The church would have many trials and battles but would never be overcome - Matthew 16:18
  • Peter finally realized what was going on - Matthew 16:18
  • Must see the direct relation:
    • Bearing witness to Christ
    • Ultimate Victory over the world
  • If the disciples did not evangelize, there would not be any Christians today.
  • “Through the Word” – Others would believe in Him too. - John 17:20
  • We must do what Jesus – He made disciples, we should walk as Jesus walked
  • He taught His disciples to reproduce
  • He had no other plan


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