Faithbridge Sermons

Pastor Ken Werlein kicks off the new Healthy Church sermon series in 1 Corinthians 12, addressing the question head-on that many people carry but rarely say out loud: I love God, but I'm done with the church. Ken reminds us that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to one of the messiest, most dysfunctional churches in history—and still called them the Body of Christ. From that image, Ken builds three convictions: you need the Body, the Body needs you, and it's time to get into circulation. Nobody was ever hurt more by the church than Jesus—and nobody loves it more. His challenge to close: don't spend your life protecting your point. Get some crayon on the wall.

Pastor Ken Werlein opens up Hebrews 10:24–25 with a simple but convicting observation: there's no such thing as Christian Solitaire. You can have the Bible app, the podcast, the worship playlist, and a genuine faith—and still be missing the one thing Jesus never offered anyone: a syllabus to follow alone. His method was always relational. Ken gives us three things the text calls us to do: lock in on the people around you, stir up one another the way hot coals stoke a dying ember, and show up—because a crowd sees an empty chair, but a community sees a missing person. You don't need perfect people. You just need some people who love the same perfect Lord and want to follow Him more faithfully every day.

Pastor Ken Werlein takes us to 2 Chronicles 20, where King Jehoshaphat faces a coalition of three armies with no time to prepare and no plan to execute—and reaches for something no one expected: a fast and a prayer. From that ancient moment, Ken draws three convictions for how we face the hard things: run to God before you run to the details, show up to the gathering because there are things that happen in a room full of God's people that a screen simply cannot replicate, and sing before you see—because Jehoshaphat sent the choir out front, Paul and Silas worshipped at midnight, and heaven moved as they began to sing. The valley where God worked was renamed Berakah—blessing—not for the battle fought there, but for the worship that happened there. Ken's challenge is simple: what are you reaching for first?

Bible Teacher Steve Carter opens up Ephesians 6:10–18, reminding us that the devil's playbook hasn't changed—he's still running the same three schemes he's used since Genesis 3: getting us to hide, drowning us in shame, and keeping us paralyzed by fear. The good news? God hasn't left us unequipped. Steve walks us through the armor of God—not as a list of abstract spiritual concepts, but as real, practical tools for standing firm in everyday life. And then he lands on the piece most people miss: after all the belt and helmet and sword, Paul ends with pray. Prayer isn't the warmup to the fight—it's how we go on the offensive. When the church stops hiding, stops letting shame win, and stops living afraid—and instead prays on all occasions—the enemy doesn't stand a chance.

Bible Teacher Clay Scroggins closes out the Not Today, Satan series by showing us the end of the tape. After weeks unpacking how the enemy works — his lies, his shame, his temptations, his strongholds — Clay takes us to Colossians 2:13–15, where Paul describes what actually happened at the cross: every sin forgiven, every debt canceled, every weapon stripped from the enemy's hands. The problem isn't that we don't believe Jesus won. It's that we're still living like the war is undecided. Clay's challenge is simple and gutting: stop fighting for victory, and start fighting from it — because "Not Today, Satan" isn't wishful thinking. It's a statement of what's already permanently, cosmically true.

Bible Teacher Jared Darby takes us into 2 Corinthians 10:3–5, making the case that the enemy's greatest weapon isn't possession — it's formation. If he can shape what you believe, what you love, and what you dwell on, he doesn't need to possess you. Jared unpacks how the enemy builds "strongholds" in our minds — lies we've believed so long they start to sound like our own voice — and gives us three ways to fight back: destroy every stronghold by naming it, tear down the high places by exposing the lies underneath them, and anchor your thoughts in the truth of God's Word. Because we don't defeat the enemy's lies with willpower or self-hatred — we defeat them by declaring what our Father has already said.

Bible Teacher Dan Slagle opens up 1 Peter 5:6–7, showing us that worry and anxiety are one of the enemy's most effective weapons — and that he knows exactly when to use them. At the root of all our worry, Dan reminds us, is a lie: that we are in control. He walks us through two kinds of worry — the kind we bring on ourselves by running ahead of God, and the kind that just hits us when life takes an unexpected turn. For the first, the answer is humility. For the second, it's trust. Either way, God's invitation is the same: "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."

Bible Teacher Duffy Robbins takes us into 1 John 2:15–17, where the Apostle John maps out what Duffy calls "the Devil's Triangle" — three temptations that cause more believers to crash and drift than almost anything else. The first is the desires of the flesh: the things we want to do. The second is the desires of the eyes: the things we want to have. And the third is the pride of life: who we want to be. Duffy reminds us that the enemy doesn't attack us with obvious evil — he lures us with disordered versions of desires God actually gave us. The good news? Jesus has already shown us the way through: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him.

Bible Teacher Duffy Robbins teaches from Ephesians 4:26–27 and 30–32, reminding us that not all anger is sin — but unchecked anger is one of the enemy's most effective weapons. Duffy unpacks how unholy anger works: it starts small but grows fast, it begins inside us but eventually poisons everything around us, and it always brings grief — to our relationships and to the Holy Spirit Himself. The good news is that the same God who calls us to "be angry and do not sin" has also given us the power, through His Spirit, to kill bitterness at the root before it takes over.

Michael McDowell takes us into Genesis 3, where the serpent's subtle lies lead Adam and Eve into sin, and shows us that the enemy is still using the same playbook today. Michael unpacks three lies the enemy uses to pull us away from God: that His Word is restrictive and ridiculous, that sin has no real consequences, and that God isn't ultimately good. But just as Jesus recognized and rejected these same tactics in the wilderness, we can too — by picking up the sword of God's Word and trusting in the power of Jesus that lives in us.