As a Christ follower you should know you have an enemy — Satan — who hates you and wants to ruin your life.
Damian LaCroix, an elder at Community Church, gave a message on Sunday, Oct. 7 about the importance of knowing our enemy and how to win the spiritual battle against him.
Here are some key points from Damian’s message:
*Let’s start with some good news. We already know the end of the story. John 3:16 tells us that we have hope in Jesus Christ, who offers us the gift of eternal life and will ultimately defeat Satan. But before the return of Christ, Satan will attempt to take down as many people as he can so we need to be on guard and ready to wage a spiritual fight.
*As Christ followers we have the capacity to sin and chase after idols. That’s why need to be aware of the presence of Christ every hour of every day that we live, and the strength he gives us to fight Satan’s evil ways.
*We see in the first two chapters of Genesis the paradise God created, and in the last part of Revelation we read about Christ’s triumphant return. In between, those scripture passages is the “messy middle” in which we experience struggles, doubts, disappointments and uncertainty. Life can be hard, but we know that God is good.
*How do we become equipped for life when we find ourselves in spiritual war against an enemy? Paul talks about a spiritual tug of war in in Romans 7, but ultimately our hope is in Christ. He gave us a helper, the Holy Spirit, to be our advocate and counselor who intercedes on our behalf.
*When you are in a desert or cave, as Elijah was in 1 Kings 18, and feeling like a failure, how do you allow God to minister to you? In those times faith doesn’t make life easier. Faith makes you stronger.
*When Satan attacks, are you taking necessary steps? Are you self-controlled and alert? Do you have a strategy to fight back?
Satan is a deceiver, destroyer and accuser who targets your mind, body, will and heart. He uses as his weapons lies, your suffering and pride, and uses accusations with the purpose of making us ignorant, impatient and independent.
Our defense against his schemes are the Bible, God’s grace, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
*Satan will make you think you are unworthy of God’s love, but in those times we must remember the words of Romans 8 that tells us nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
*God gives us strength in times of temptation against Satan. Immersing ourselves in scripture is helpful, and you can claim God’s promise to give you a way out of temptation. Instead of saying, “God, this is my problem,” we should say instead, “Problem, this is my God.”
*In Matthews 4: 1-11 Jesus is tested in the wilderness and we can learn from his example. Like Jesus, we need to spend time in solitude and get our hearts aligned with God’s will. Like Jesus, we need to immerse ourselves in God’s word to combat Satan’s lies. Like Jesus, we need to be more concerned with God’s opinion of us rather than the world’s opinion.
*God is more interested in our holiness and character tan our comfort and happiness. When we flip that around we make ourselves vulnerable to Satan’s attacks.
