How to beat the devil: Day 5

Most of us don’t think of ourselves as “retreating” but it shows up in how we live: always bracing, always reacting, always hoping we can survive the next hit. This Field Notes message flips that posture with a simple question: what changes when you stop living on your heels and start advancing in your faith? 

We pull a powerful insight from the fight world: the person who advances most of the time is the one who usually wins. Then we connect that to the words of Jesus in Matthew 16 that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Gates are defensive structures. They don’t attack. That means the picture is not you hiding from darkness, but God’s people moving forward with purpose. 

From there, we ground everything in the center of the Christian story: Jesus has already won through the cross and the empty tomb. You are not fighting for victory anymore. You are fighting from victory. To make it real, we end with a weekend action step: take one proactive step of faith that forces you off your heels, whether that’s forgiving someone, sharing the gospel at work, or stepping into a discipleship role you’ve avoided. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review with the proactive step you’re taking next.

Transcript

Why Advancing Usually Wins

Gates Of Hell Are Defensive

Fighting From A Won Victory

One Proactive Step This Weekend

Resources And Weekend Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, happy Friday. You've made it to Friday. You got a day left. It is Friday morning. I'm so glad you chose to spend it with me. And this week has been a good week with Field Notes. It's been one of those weeks where like we're knocking out the cobwebs and we're sitting here going, let's get real about this. And we've covered a lot. We've covered ignorance is not a legal defense. We've covered what it means to make war. We've covered what it means to put boundaries around our temptation. And today we're bringing it all together. Did you know that 88% of fighters who spend the majority of the match advancing win? Think about that. Almost 90% of the time, it's the fighter who is advancing that is going to win the fight. The one who's constantly backing up, the one that's constantly playing defense, the one that's constantly fighting off their heels and waiting to see what gets thrown at them next, they are almost always the person who loses. Because if the advancing fighter wins 90% of the time, the defensive fighter loses 90% of the time. See, most of us, that's how we live our spiritual lives, though. We're just surviving. We're constantly on our heels, we're constantly waiting for the next attack, the next financial crisis, the next moral failure. But Jesus promised us something very clearly in Matthew 16: that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. Stop. Think about that for a minute. Gates are defensive structures. They're meant to keep things back. Gates don't attack you. However, gates fail when an advancing army is actively attacking them and overruns them. See, you don't have to be afraid of the devil. You're fighting an enemy who has already been completely beaten. The Bible promised that while the enemy might bruise the heel, the Savior would crush his head. When Jesus went to the cross, when he laid down his life and then walked out of the grave, he secured the ultimate victory. The devil knows that. See, when we fight temptation, when we push back against the darkness in our community, we're not fighting for a victory. You are fighting from a victory that has already been won. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. What about now? Or are you living a life advancing in your faith? Are you constantly putting one foot in front of the other? Are you constantly sitting here going, yeah, that last punch hurt, but here comes an overhand right? Are we living with the confidence of someone whose king has already won the war and knowing there's nothing left for me to fight for? See, our action step for this weekend is this take one proactive step of faith today that forces you off of your heels. Stop retreating and start advancing. Reach out to that person you need to forgive. Share the gospel with a coworker. Step into that discipleship role that you've been avoiding. Stop playing it safe. Get out today and kick a gate down. Well, thanks for being with me all week here on Field Notes. You can check out the resources we have available at missionscent.org. I hope you enjoy your weekend. I hope you get outside this weekend because honestly, guys, it's the best place to be. And uh there's a barbecue this weekend if you are interested. Uncle Joe's is doing their first barbecue competition. We are going to win gold. So I can't wait till Sunday. Can't wait to see you then. We love you, we thank you, and we can't do this without you.