Category: Helpful Resources

The Invisible War

By Chip Ingram

 

– Be aware of the battle. Don’t ignore the existence but don’t play with it either.

– There’s a visible world just as there is an invisible world. 2 Kings 6:16 – Ephesians 6:10-20 — first tells us to be strong in the Lord. Next we are to put on the full armor of God.

– We are involved in the invisible war.

– You have a personal enemy. He wants to destroy you and make you miserable.

– I Peter 5:8 — the devil tempts us and then makes us dwell on the guilt, he’s trying to destroy us.

– Before we can turn to and depend on the sufficiency of Christ, we must understand our own insufficiency.

– We are to understand that our enemy is strong, but we are not to be preoccupied thinking about him.

– God puts limitations on the devil. He is on a leash held by our Father so we have no reason to live in fear.

– We do not fight for victory, we fight from victory. In Christ we are victorious and invincible in Him.

– We fight on every front but the good thing is that Jesus is our strength.

– Sometimes God’s greatest blessings are preceded by the worse attacks.

– You have to choose between fear and faith.

– The devil makes us doubt God and our identity in God. It starts with that and from there he leads us down a dark path.

– We are to renew our minds. The reason that God is so concerned about our minds is because that is a central area the devil loves to attack.

– Power falls where prayer prevails.

 

– Pray ACTS:

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

The Fight of Your Life

by Tim Clinton

 

– 50% of churchgoing men struggle with pornography

– Exposure to when a man is introduced to porn is said to be from 8 to 11 years old.

– Porn ruins sex.

– 34% of Internet users have seen porn unintentionally.

– The World Wide Web is exactly that, a web! Many have been caught in the web of distraction, losing their family, marriage and a good reputation.

– Sex is a beautiful thing given by God, but God has planned sex for marriage.

– 30,000 people every second are viewing porn on the Internet.

– Pornography is dehumanizing. It turns women into commodities and sex objects.

– Pornography is destroying sex. People that look at pornography actually have less sex.

– In one poll, it showed that pornography is the number one problem in homes.

– Pornography destroys much more than just the individual; friendships, families and many others are caught up in the destruction.

– Internet filters are not the answer — the real problem can’t be filtered by technology, the real problem is your heart.

– Pornography is destroying your passion and love for your spouse and God.

– Your greatest sex organ is your brain. What makes sex exciting is what you think.

– Believing that the problem of sexual lust will end at the marriage altar is one of the biggest lies.

– Consider the following things about your fantasies:

• Who is it with? An old fling, someone you saw in pornography?

• Where is it? The first place you kissed a girl, the first time and place you saw pornography?

• How does it end? Now take Christ to your fantasies and letHim take those thoughts captive.

– 1 Cor. 6:18 – God can help us take down strongholds. But how does a stronghold get rooted in the life of a man? It is through repetition of seeing, acting on and thinking.

– Sexual sins strip a man of integrity, makes him want to hide and shrink away in silence.

– As a child of God, our deepest and most spiritual intimacy should be with God. Because of a lack of that, we are seeking to fulfill that in many other ways.

– Are you willing to deny yourself? When people came to ask Jesus if they can follow Him, He replied by telling them to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him.

– There can be no resurrection until there is first a death. And you will never fix your marriage or put your life back on track until you are willing to die to your own selfish pleasures.

– Before we can be cured, we must want to be cured.

– Give up, get up and start walking in faith!

– The enemy lies, and tells us that a little lust and indulgence will not hurt. Proverbs 5:3-5; 6.26; 7:22-23. – Illicit sex will slaughter you. It will reduce you to nothing more than a piece of bread and destroy your life, family, desires, goals, relationships and everything about you.

– When any part of your life is lived apart from God, it becomes utterly miserable.

– The lies of porn will promise but never fulfill.

– Physical lust can never be satisfied, the more you fill it the more it cannot be fulfilled.

– Sex is an idol in our culture and idols cannot satisfy.

– The beauty of sex is only found within its God-ordained boundaries.

– Jonathan encouraged David’s hand in the Lord. We all need accountability, people who will encourage our hand in the Lord.

– Failure is not fatal, but failure not to change could be.

– The lust of your heart is not your wife’s responsibility or fault.

– Love trumps sex. We must preserve intimacy above all else.

– John 10:10; 1 Peter 5:8 — the devil has a plan for you… he wants to destroy you. Even bigger than your plan of staying away from pornography, the devil wants to ruin your life anyway possible.

– John 8:44 — Satan is a liar and the father of it. He only has one tool that he uses over and over and it all revolves around being a liar. He will lie to you and deceive you.

– You can turn the tables on the liar by inserting truth. When the devil throws up thoughts of the past or lustful thoughts of fantasy, you can stop him and insert the truth. Remind the devil you have been forgiven and how God has other plans for you now. You can stop, replace and think different thoughts – Philippians 4:7–8.

– Love for God will conquer a thousand sins.

– Sexual sins destroy trust at a very intimate and deep level. Trust is key in a relationship.

– Trust must be earned. If trust has been violated, it will take both time and work to rebuild.

– The best sex has always been between two people who are committed to oneness for life.

– 1 Thessalonians 4:3.

– Nehemiah 4:14 – They tried to get him to come down from the wall, but he would not. Fight for your family, your marriages and the generations to come.

– One man must break free of the shackles of sexual sins so that he can live in freedom and then go help all the other men captivated by the devil.

The Dude’s Guide to Marriage

by Darren Patrick

 

– Sin makes us all selfish, but God gives us a way to live both with him and others.

– If we paid as much attention to our wives as we do our phones, we would have a phenomenal marriage.

– One of the greatest problems with marriage is not adultery or “big” sins, but neglect.

– Repeat what the other person said before you respond.

– Unity is better than one victory.

– Learn the “Halt method.” Do not discuss subjects or argue when you are hungry, angry, lonely or tired.

– Almost everything becomes more interesting when we get involved, that definitely applies to marriage.

– Wives need husbands who have the right God sitting on the throne.

Strategy of Satan

by Warren Wiersbe

 

– The devil is a liar and deceiver — Rev 12:9; John 8:44

– Satan’s attack is on your mind — 2 Cor 11:3; Eph 4:17-24; Rom 12:2; Prov 23:27;

– God renews us through His Word — Philip. 4:8; Is 26:3;

– Satan’s weapons is to lie — so he did with Eve

– Eve took from and added to God’s Word — God never said don’t touch. She doubted His love and care for her. She rejected God’s Word and accepted Satan’s word.

– We must make time to read and study God’s Word. God’s Word is the answer and if we don’t know it, it is our fault, no one else’s.

– Satan’s target will be your body if he can’t take your mind. He did this with Job and so many others.

– Your body is the temple of Holy Spirit — I Cor 6:19-20

– Lost people may not read the Bible, but they will see you, meaning your life is an instrument for God.

– Satan wants to destroy your body and eliminate you from the race in life. He can’t touch your soul but can mess with your body and make you reward-less.

– Satan would love to make us impatient with God’s will and/or just give up. Patience is both a mark of immaturity and a lack of unbelief. Impatience leads to costly mistakes.

– Satan wants to attack your will if he can’t get your mind or body.

– We are to serve God out of our will and obedience.

– Most things are a matter of the will. Satan wants us to submit our will to him.

– Pride is a chief weapon the devil uses.

– The devil wants to destroy the church so he goes through the individual Christians.

– Pride means we act independently of God and God’s will.

– Our defense is the indwelling Spirit of God.

– God works in you so He may work through you.

– Don’t listen to the voice of the devil, listen to the voice of God. The devil wants to lie to you, make you doubt, accuse you and make you follow your feelings.

– If the devil can get you to think about or even talk about sin, he’s taken the edge off of conviction and you’re more likely to commit to that sin now.

Start With Why

by Simon Sinek

 

– We follow leaders because we want to, not because we have to. We follow leaders for ourselves, not for them.

– There are leaders and then there are those that lead. You have to inspire people if you’re going to accomplish anything. You have to start with why.

– Great leaders inspire others, they give them a purpose.

– People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.

– Great companies do not hire skilled people, they hire motivated people and inspire them.

– The Wright brothers were working on the plane at the same time as Langley. Langley had money, wealthy friends and everything going for him, but he was not the one to make things happen. The Wright brothers did not have success as their recipe, in fact they looked more like failure. They did not have the money or the contacts, but they were inspired. The motivated and inspired Wright brothers were the ones to bring the new invention to the world.

– The role of the leader is not to come up with all the creative and bright ideas, it is to create an environment in which creativity and bright ideas can be born.

– Clarity is very important in your purpose, but you have to have a megaphone or some way for people to hear about what is going on.

– Say it only if you believe it. Back it up with passion.

Spiritual Warfare

by Borgman and Ventura

 

– The closer we get to God, the closer we are to the front lines of the battle.

– Awareness and vigilance are essential for survival.

– The spiritual life is like standing on head of a pen, you can fall off any direction.

– We are in a very real war, but it is invisible and not against flesh or blood. There are two extremes to this: one is to disbelieve and ignore while the other is to believe in excess and dwell on always.

– How we think about this battle is credible to how we fight the battle.

– Self dependency is our weakness in this war, we need the help of Christ. We are insufficient by ourselves, however God does not leave His children alone.

– We do not draw our strength from without or within ourselves, we draw our strength from the Lord. This is why Paul says so many times our strength is in the Lord.

– Satan may attack you by force or by fraud, but you must always have your armor on and be prepared.

– Knowing how our adversary works will help us in the battle. Just as our God has good and loving names, so our enemy has evil and corrupt names that explain who he is.

– One of Satan‘s strongest weapons is what he used with Eve at the very beginning, to make us question or doubt God. Has God said? When we begin to doubt, the devil begins to win.

– We are always on duty as a Christian, there is no holiday. The devil attacks at any time and wants to take advantage of us.

– The first line of defense we have in our armor is truth. Truth is what we have that does not change. Our enemy is an evil foe and only the truth of God’s Word can keep him at bay. I Jn 2:14; Is 54:17

– If we live passively, we will be in danger that the darts of the wicked one hit us between the armor like it did with Ahab in 1 Kings 22

– Your feet must be shod. The feet are important, they give you grip and let you run and keep on the path.

Spiritual Leadership

by J. Oswald Sanders

 

(I personally have taken more extensive notes that I’ve used to teach in classes, but this is an abbreviated list after one of my last readings of the book. Dr. Don Sisk says that this book should be read every year.)

– There are only 3 kinds of people:

1. Those who are unmovable

2. Those who are moveable

3. Those who move them

 

The latter is leadership

– To lead others, you must master your own appetites. Have you been able to quit or take control of a bad habit?

– Do you develop or discourage people? Do you use people or cultivate people? Do you criticize or encourage people?

– A spiritual leader is a shepherd — work requires a shepherds heart.

– Do you see difficulty in every opportunity, or an opportunity in every difficulty?

– A leader can have many good characteristics, but without the Spirit, he is incapable of being the right leader.

– It is said that George Whitefield stayed up in the late hours of night writing letters of encouragement to new converts.

– To move people, we must be able to move God – it is through prayer that we can talk to God who can move people.

– Procrastination is fatal in leadership.

– Reading maketh a full man, speaking a ready man, writing an exact man – Francis Bacon

– Wesley told the students that they should read or get out of the ministry.

– Success can get to our head unless we remember that it is God who gave us all we have.

Servant Leadership

by James C. Hunter

 

– Many don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses — no longer listen to, respect or allow to influence.

– Leadership is not management, it’s influence.

– Management is what you do; leadership is what you are.

– Do you leave things better than you found them? We all leave a mark, so leave a good one.

– Leadership is a skill. You have to move principals from their head to their heart.

– Leadership is not about style and personalities, it is about character.

– 99% of leadership failures are from lack of character

– Listening is an important quality in leadership.

– Power erodes relationships. People do few things because you have power, rather because you have influence over him.

– All of life is relational. Good leaders understand the importance of relationships and how to relate to others.

– At the core of every person is the need to be appreciated.

– Commitment is important for a leader, whether he sees fruit or not.

– Everything the leader does sends a message to others.

– Those who follow the crowd will not have a crowd that follow them.

– Treat those whom you lead like you’d want to be treated – the golden rule.