The Church of Eleven22 - Shield of Faith: Stand Firm - Wk 5

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

God has gifted us with faith to protect us against the attacks of the enemy. But that doesn't mean he won't tempt us. In this message, Pastor Ryan Britt talks dives into how Satan likes to tempt us and how yet, God promises we will not be tempted beyond our ability. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen, amen. Amen. If you have your Bibles, you can open them to Ephesion 6. We're going to be continuing in our stand firm series. I'm Pastor Britt. I'm honored to be here. I had the opportunity to attend our student camp that we celebrated just a few minutes ago. And man, it was epic.

As a church, you should be very proud of our students, six through 12th graders, how they discovered and deepened their relationship with Jesus Christ and the significant next steps of faith that they've taken and the commitments they've made headed back into their mission field, which is their school. it was awesome. We are deeply committed as a church to raising up one more generation in the gospel. And we believe that when we sow gospel seeds into the next generation,

that that stuff's going to bear fruit three and four generations from now. Now, we're not just working for today or for tomorrow, but we're working for generational impact in the name of Jesus. Pastor Jobi and I both had the chance to be at camp last week. And I'll just have you know that he and I raced down a double water slide, and I'm pretty sure I won. And so don't tell him, I told you that, but I think it's true. He was, man, Pastor Jobby preached the whole thing.

He preached like seven, eight times over four days. And you know that, brother. He doesn't just give a talk when he preaches. He preaches from his guts. And so he just preached the pain off the walls. And it was incredible. And sometime between camp and this past week, Pastor Jobi got sick. And so he was supposed to be here this weekend.

But he's sick. So you can pray for his quick recovery. He's doing better, but he's not quite there yet. And so he gave me the call. And I'm always happy to help him anytime he calls and to stand in and open God's word for us for sure happy to do it. That said, I got it on short notice, and so I'm not sure if we're going to be here for 20 minutes for two hours.

I'm just telling you, I don't know exactly that's going to go. But let's get it. I want to share a God moment with you that happened to me at camp, and then we'll dive into our text. Where we took our students to camp is the same place that I met my wife 19 years ago. And our 18th anniversary is actually tomorrow. And so, yeah, thank you. Appreciate it.

Every year, she just re-ups for another one, so it's working out pretty good for me. So I met her there 19 years ago. My oldest daughter was attending camp, and my youngest daughter is not quite old enough yet, and so she was hanging out with us and just helping where she could. And one night, during the worship service, we were in the room where I first met my wife. And I catch out of the corner of my eye, my 13-year-old daughter just worshiping Jesus, man. Hands up, just pouring out affections on Jesus Christ. and I'm just like, I have like a moment, right, where I just begin to well up with emotion

and all of a sudden my eyes start sweating. And I have to sit down and I'm standing on the back row of this room in the worship service because I grew up Southern Baptist and that's just where they taught us how to stand. And I'm standing next to my wife and my younger daughter and I'm having this emotional moment and I sit down in the seat and maybe after like a minute my 10-year-old daughter comes over and just sits in my lap. And I grab onto that little girl and I begin to just snuck. cry on her back, you know? Because I'm in this moment. Do you ever have those moments in life where you look

around as your circumstances and you just are reminded that God is faithful? All we've been through in my marriage over the last 19 years, I'm in that moment and I'm in the presence of God with the people of God and we know our praises are breaking through to heaven and blessing God's heart. I was just reminded that God is faithful. And as I walked away from that moment and from camp, I was reminded of the reality that it is very difficult to have encounters with God if we don't put ourselves in a position to do so. It is very hard to have true encounters with God if we don't put ourselves in a position to do so. And that's so much of what the Stand Firm series is about, is that we have been a called, we have been equipped,

and we have been purposed for spiritual war in the heavenlies to partner with the Spirit of God as he beats down darkness in our world and we advance the kingdom across the world in Jesus' name that we've been called and purposed for that, and we partner with God in it. And the way we experience that is by standing firm in the Lord, and we have to put ourselves in the position to stand firm in order to be effective in the fight. Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 10, it says this, Be strong in the Lord and in His might. That's where we started this series, and it's very foundational,

because we don't stand on our ideas, we don't stand on our identity, we don't stand on our accomplishments. We stand on the strength of our Lord God. We stand on the strength of his name and in his might. Verse 11, it says, the way we are strong in the Lord is that we put on the full armor of God. Verse 12 says, the reason we need to be strong is because we are at war against rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil, not flesh and blood. Our problem is not each other.

Our problem is not people on the planet. That we are in a spiritual war against Satan, God's enemy, in the demonic hordes of hell, and that we as God's church are supposed to stand against them and claim ground in Jesus' name. We are at war. Verse 13, it says this, the full armor gives us strength to stand against the enemy's attacks to deceive and destroy. Verse 14, Paul begins to explain the armor. He says that we've been given a belt of truth. We have received a breastplate of righteousness.

And last week, we looked at verse 15 that says that we had been outfitted with the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace. verse 16 is where we pick up and we're going to spend our time today it says in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one we have an enemy and his mission is to steal to kill and to destroy john chapter 10 the way he goes about doing this is by causing division he wants to cause division individuals against themselves people against people churches against churches he wants to divide that's the way that he steals and kills and to destroy. Would anybody say that you've ever done anything,

you've ever said anything with your mouth that is out of line with your character? Has anybody ever done anything that they would say is not true to their integrity and then that action caused division in relationships? Has anybody ever done anything that they would say it's not just out of line with their character and their integrity, but is out of line with God's character and God's command? What's going on? the enemy is all up in that. He seeks to divide.

James chapter 1 says a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. The enemy does not want us to be unified in Christ. He does not want us to stand firm. He wants us to be unstable. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is doing all these miracles, and he's casting out demons as one of them, and Jesus' adversaries come against him, and they say, he must be demon-possessed.

And Jesus is like, what are y'all talking about? He's like, demons don't attack demons. I'm not demon-possessed casting out demons. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Division is the enemy's goal. He wants to get us double-minded in our thinking. The enemy does not want people to be saved. He does not want people to step out of the darkness and into the light.

He does not want people to be unified in Christ and unified in thinking according to God's word. He does not want us united in Christ or walking in the freedom that Christ Jesus has for us. He doesn't want that because when Christians, when people, people become Christians, and when Christians walk in freedom, God gets all the glory for that. And the enemy does not want God to have glory because Satan hates God. And therefore, Satan hates everything that God loves and God loves us. And because God loves us, Satan fixates his hate on us. And right now, all the time, the enemy is firing flaming darts at you and me, and he is trying

to sow division and he's trying to sow doubt. He wants us to doubt our calling. He wants you to doubt the reality of what Jesus said that you can do even greater things than he did in this world. He does not want you to walk in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. He does not want you to walk using your gifts and your time and your talent and your treasure to bring glory to God on the earth because he knows that you are as unique as your fingerprint and that there is no one in the history of the world that can give God glory in and through your life except for you. And he doesn't want you to do it because he hates God. and he hates us.

He is sowing division. The enemy does his best work in secret. The power of sin is in its secrecy. The longer that we keep sin in the dark, the more powerful it becomes. We've studied this many times as a church. If we want to be free, we have to be honest. The way the enemy accomplishes this division is by sowing doubt. You can go back to Genesis chapter three,

when he first tempted Adam and Eve. He says, he asked them a question. He says, did God actually say that you should not eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil? And if you do, he knows that if you do eat of that, then you will become like him knowing all things. And Adam and Eve are like, ooh, yeah, we want to be in charge, we want to be control, and they rebel against God. They resist God's presence. They reject God's word. They doubt God's faithfulness and God's word, and they choose to operate outside of what God has commanded them.

This is what he does is he soes doubt. You and I, we are under attack every day, all day. The enemy knows some things about us. He knows that we are creatures wired to think, feel, and behave in that order. We think thoughts. Those thoughts produce feelings, and those feelings produce behaviors. I don't think the enemy is all that interested in what we say we believe. I don't think he works that much through ideologies.

I think what he's after is our behaviors because he knows that the way we behave reveals what we truly believe. That we're creatures that are wired to think, to feel, and to behave. This weapon in our armor, the shield of faith, begs us ask this question. Are you serious about your faith? Is your faith a hobby, or is it your only hope in life and death? Having faith is not what gives faith power. You can have faith in a lot of things, and it doesn't necessarily.

necessarily come inherent with supernatural power. It is not the idea of faith that gives us strength. It is the object of our faith that our strength comes from. And we, as Christians, our faith is not in an idea. It's not in a religious prescription. It's not in a religious system. It's not even in each other. Our faith is in a person, and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And Jesus walked on this earth for more than 30 years. And while he did it, he made some radical claims. Like he said, I am the Son of God. I and God are one. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. He made some radical claims. And throughout the course of his life, he was tempted in every way as a man, and yet he never sin, revealing that he had power over sin.

And with this power over sin, he offered himself up freely as the full and final payment for sin. Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness for sins. And so in order for the sins of God's people to be forgiven, Jesus freely offered himself up on a Roman cross shedding blood and his blood has the power to forgive sins. But praise God according to the glory of God and by the spirit of God and in God's power, Jesus Christ did not stay dead. After three days, he rose from the dead and when he did, he had total victory over sin, over hell, over Satan, over death, and he alone has the keys to eternal life. And when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, the same spirit that resurrected Christ from the dead dwells in us

and we can walk in that same resurrection power. This is really good news. The enemy doesn't want you to do that. He wants us to grab onto normal. He wants us to grab onto apathy. He wants us to grab onto complacency. He wants us to grab onto the American dream and let it define us.

He does not want us walking in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. He knows us. And he knows right where to shoot that arrow to get you doubt in God's promises. Right where to be. fire that flaming dart to get you doubting God's desires for your life. Maybe it's in ideas, it's in shame, it's in guilt, it's in the videotape of the mind, it's in lust. He knows right where to hit you to get you doubting God's promises. If you were your enemy, how would you take you

out? That is where we raise up the shield of faith. That is where we take hold of the shield of faith. Anybody ever have any ungodly thoughts? Uh-oh. anybody ever anybody ever just out of nowhere think just some wild stuff I'm talking like straightjacket stuff you know I'm talking about stuff you say it out loud you never gonna have friends again it's like

I'm just doing I mind them on business so somebody hit the cray button you know what I mean anybody ever have negative emotions that seem to have compounding interest on them that if you believe them they're going to lead you into isolation Anybody ever have some kind of like relational strife, maybe a little disagreement? And the temptation is to overreact in a subjective way when objectively what's going on is not that big a deal.

Anybody ever been there? He may come at us through external means, but his aim is to control us internally. Make no mistake about it. The battlefield is the mind. The battlefield is the mind. Five things to know. about temptation. This is from Sam Storm's book called Understanding Spiritual Warfare. Quickly. Five things to know about temptation when these flaming darts come our way. Number one,

Satan likes to tempt us when our faith is fresh. He likes to tempt us when our faith is fresh. So maybe you're new to the Christian faith. And I would say this, we love you, we're excited about what God's doing in your life, and you are very vulnerable to the enemy's attacks. This is why you need to get into a disciple group. You need to be consistent in being here at church under the word of God. You need to get in relationships with some people who have been Christians a little bit longer than you. They're not smarter than you. They're not godlier than you. They've just been added a little bit longer and they make it help you see some areas where the enemy might be trying to attack you to distort your understanding of who God is and what he's done. And maybe it's not just

new to faith. Maybe it's new to the faith family. Maybe you're new to this church. And there's nothing the enemy would want more than to tempt you to put on some glasses to where you start holding everybody hostage to your own preferences and you start looking around and figuring out reasons why everybody here is not good enough for you to belong? Because the enemy would love nothing more than for you to make the choice to not be a healthy, vibrant, contributing part of a local church because if you are that, you are shielded up, joined shield with God's people, pushing back darkness and he doesn't want you on mission with God. So he often comes at us when we're new to the faith or in new faith environments. When our faith is fresh. Second thing, Satan likes to tempt us

when our faith feels strongest. The three most dangerous words, a person can say is, I got this. When we think we have things under control in our life, we are susceptible to attack. We are vulnerable because we become less diligent. Oswald Chambers once said that an unguarded strength is a double weakness. Third thing, Satan likes to tempt us when we are in an alien environment. Has anybody ever seen a 45-5? year old person go all spring break on a business trip what's that about we we get ourselves outside of

our normal routines we get outside of our normal environments we get outside of the responsibility and the integrity that comes with having responsibilities and our norm and we find ourselves an environment all the sudden the whispers start to come and says you're free you're free you're free you're free feel better feel better feel better and then all the sudden we start doing stuff acting out of completely out of character. The enemy's attacks come against us when we're in an alien environment. Satan, number four, does his best work

following the highs and lows in life. We get a little bit of money in the bank, and all of a sudden we start thinking, we deserve that, and we earn that, and we get selfish with it instead of seeing it as a tool to steward for God's glory. We have a really healthy season of relationships, and we begin to just assume

that it's because we're awesome. and our hearts are not filled with gratitude. Instead, it becomes entitlement. Or maybe it's in the lows of life, where we're emotionally low or we're spiritually low. In these dark seasons, the enemy loves to attack because he wants to put compounding interest on our negative emotions.

And if that's you, and you're here, and you're just spiritually low, you're emotionally low, I want you to know we see you and we love you and you are in a safe place. And we would love nothing more than to come alongside of you and to help God, by the power of God, lift you up out of the pit so that you can stand firm on God's word. We want to be in it with you.

And I'm going to tell you how at the end. Number five, Satan likes to tempt us by putting his thoughts. This one's important. Satan likes to tempt us by putting his thoughts into our minds and then blaming us for having them. My two girls, they were recently in the place. and they were swimming around and we were having a grouchy day at the Brit house and so they get in the pool and one of my girls looks at the other girl and says hey look don't come anywhere near me do you know what the other one heard she's like temptress she heard I want you to swim as close to me as humanly possible without touching me that's what she heard right and so she begins to swim underneath the water. And she swims as close as she can without touching. Do you know

what happens? She got kicked in the head. That's what happened. She got kicked right in the head. This is the way the enemy works. Man, he'll throw out an idea. It gets all twisted around her head. And then we act. The next thing you know, we're getting kicked in the head. William Guernell has this really intelligent quote. I want to read it to you. I saw on the screens. It says this, when thoughts or inclinations, contrary to the will of God, creep in, many dear Christians mistake these miserable orphans for their own children and take upon themselves the full responsibility for their carnal passions. So deftly does the devil slip his own thoughts into the saint's bosom

that by the time they begin to whimper, he is already out of sight. And the Christian, seeing no one but himself at home, supposes these misbegotten notions are his own. so he bears the shame himself and Satan has accomplished his purpose. The name Satan means accuser. And all day and all night, he's accusing you. Revelation chapter 12 tells us that there are times when he accuses us to God. And God the Father and God the Son, who is Jesus and our intercessor, they reject Satan's lies.

And so Satan, when his lies about you don't work to God, do you know what he does? He lies to you about God. When he lies to God about you and it doesn't work, he starts to lie to you about God. This shield of faith, he, I've told you this story before, but it's been a minute. When I was a teenager, my father was a pastor, and one of the ministries he gave himself to was that of a chaplain. He worked with our local police department for decades. And when he became a chaplain, they gave him all of the police swag. He got the hat.

He got the shirts. He got the belt. They even gave my dad a gun, which if you knew my dad, this is not a good idea. And one of the things he got was a couple of badges. He got a couple of different badges. And so one day, I'm 16 years old and I'm walking through the kitchen and I see one of my father's badges sitting on the counter. And I think to myself, huh, that could probably come in handy at some point. But I didn't touch it.

I just walked right on by. The second day, I see it on the counter, and I walk over to it, and I open it up. It was like a badge wallet, and I open it up, and there's nothing in it. And I think, well, my dad's not really using it right now, but I close it back, and I walk away. Third day, badge is still sitting there. And I have this thought. I go, you know, my dad needs my help. I'm going to hang on to this badge for him so that whenever he's looking for it, I'll know exactly where it is.

and so I take it immediately to my car and I put in it my license, my registration, and my insurance. I put my identity inside of my father's credentials and I slip it in the glove box. Sure enough, a week goes by or something like that and I am exceeding the recommended speed preference on that particular street that day. And I catch the blue lights and I pull over and the officer comes up to my car and he's like, son, do you know how fast you were going? And I think to myself, the question is, do you know how fast I was going? And he's like, you were going 85 into 35. And I'm like, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I was not going. I'm totally kidding. I was going fast, though. And he said, let me see your license and registration. I'm like, okay, can I reach into the glove box? He says yes. And so I go into the glove box. I get my father's badge out.

And I hand it to him. And he looks at it and recognizes it as the real thing. And he's like, who's badge is this? I go, well, it's my dad's badge. He goes, who's your dad? I said, my dad's Billy Britt. And he's like, Billy Britt's your dad? I'm like, yeah, and he's like, I love your dad. And I was like, me too. He's like, your dad ministered to me in some of the darkest days of my life.

He's one of the reasons I became a Christian. I love your dad. And I'm just like, praise the Lord. He sees my last name's Britt. He closes that badge up and he hands it back to me. And he says, go on, you can go on and be about your way. And next time you see your dad, you tell you. him, I said hello, and I said, my man, you know? Now, what happened? The officer comes to my window,

and I'm a punk teenager who was speeding, but as soon as he recognized who my father was, it changed my identity to him. When we hold up the shield of faith, do you know what we're saying to Satan, our enemy? We're saying, do you know who my dad is? Do you know who my father is? Do you know how much power my dad has? Do you know what my dad has done? We remind Satan, he is defeated. He is defeated, and we stand firm on his defeat in our faith in God. Quickly, I'll share this story.

I was fishing a couple of years ago with some friends. And we were way offshore, like far. And the first day out was brutal. Four to six foot waves. We just got absolutely thrashed. At one point, one of the guys with me, his name was Paul. It was two Pauls and a Rusty that were with me. And one of the Pauls was like, man, I'm not feeling good.

He's all nauseous. And he's like, do you have one of those patches? And I'm like, I have one, but I think it's like, we're way past that point. And he's like, no, give it to me. And I give it to him. And it makes him sleeping. And so he like half passes out and he's half nauseous. And we hit this serious wave and he just looks up at me.

And it's like, bleh. I mean, it's just one of those days, right? It's terrible. So much so that the second day, we decided that we weren't even going to go out. and then we saw the waters and it was much calmer and we talked ourselves into it we go out fishing we're out there four hours five hours six hours we've caught no fish in like 15 16 hours of fishing no fish we're so bored four grown men we're standing on the on a boat we begin to play the alphabet game do y'all know the alphabet game you're riding around with your kids and you're like

you got a long trip you're like let's play the alphabet game and cities in america do them in order a bcd-de-ef so we're on our fourth round of the alphabet game on this boat we've done baseball teams We've done rock bands. We've done something else. And the fourth round was Bible names. And one of the Pauls was like, hey, I want to team up with a pastor so that I can win. So we're playing a team game. And we're going through Bible names, ABCD, with Daniel, Esther, Festus.

And we get to G, and it's my turn. And I say, God. I'm pretty sure his name's in there and the entire book's about him. And it was sure it would be nice if he would help us out right now. And within seconds of me saying these words, two of our fishing lines go hot. on one we have a hundred pound yellowfin tuna and on the other we have 150 pound yellowfin tuna and so we stop our game and we jump up and we begin to pull those ocean cows off the bottom of the ocean floor we fight those things for like an hour an hour and a half we get them up and

the Bible says that if you call upon the name of the Lord you shall be saved that day I called upon the name of the Lord and I got some sushi you know what I'm saying I tell the story it's funny here's here's the point. If some of us are honest, we're just playing games with God. We're just playing games. Faith's like an add-on. It's like a hobby. It's something we give mental assent to. But we're just playing games with God. And it's time today for us to take up the shield of faith to call upon the name of the Lord and get in the fight. It is time for us to armor up and to get in the fight. This war that we're in, Ephesion 6 says it like this. it says that we take up the shield of faith.

Hebrews 111 defines faith this way. It says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen. Faith is believing what God has said regardless of what you feel. Faith is trusting in the word of God over anything that you may see. Ephesion 616 says this.

In all circumstances, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. For some of us today, the battle is real. The whispers, the temptations, the thoughts, the negative emotions, the ideas. It is so real that at times we have a physiological response to these ideas and these thoughts and these temptations. For some of us, it's moved from being a temptation to being a behavior. and that behavior has turned into a habit, and that habit has a stronghold over our body and

our minds. First Corinthians chapter 10 says this, that there is no temptation that has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. One of the things the enemy wants to believe is you to believe, as he tempts you, is that you're all alone in this. He wants you to believe that you're the only one that struggles this way, that you're the only one that thinks this way, you're the only one that feels that way. What Paul is saying to the Corinthian Church is that there's nothing the enemy can fire at you that can overtake you except what is common to mankind. We are in this together. And God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can endure it. Maybe today, being here is the first step

to stepping in the way out that God has for you. We fight this war on three fronts. One, we fight it against the flesh. When the Bible says the flesh, what it means is our thoughts and emotions. We fight it there. We fight against Satan. We fight it. It's a truth war. He seeks to suppress the truth that God loves you because he knows that if you believe your highest calling in life is to be loved by God and you let God's love define everything about everything, that it will change everything about everything.

And he doesn't want that. So we fight against Satan and we also fight in the world. You do not have to look very far to see that this world, society at large, is against God. It is against God. And so we fight against the flesh, the devil. and the world. 1 John talks about the spirit at work in this world this way. 1 John chapter 4 verse 3. He says every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. He didn't say some. He doesn't say there's neutral ground. That's not what he's saying. He says every spirit

that does not confess Jesus is not from God. What's the other option is that it's from Satan? This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. If you study history, which I do from time to time, if you look across the landscape of history, if you look across the landscape of nations, this is not only a government thing, but it is certainly a government thing and a rulership thing based on the country that doesn't it often seem that unrighteous people end up being the ones in charge? Not always.

But doesn't it seem that unrighteous people often seem to be the ones in charge? there is a very practical way that you and I can shield up together, that we can stand firm against the flaming darts of the enemy at work in our world. And I'm going to say it, and you're going to be like, okay, what are we talking about? But just hang with me. Do you know what's a way that you and I can practically stand firm in the faith and shield up together? Do you know what we can do? We can vote.

You're like, hold on. You didn't even see that coming, did you? You didn't even know. You can vote. we live in a country by God's grace and under God's common grace and we live in a system of government. Romans chapter 13. We live in a system of government. And in this country, under God's common grace, we the people are still in charge.

And the way that we wield that authority is by voting. And we vote to elect officials. And then those officials legislate laws and pass bills. Sometimes unrighteous people end up in those places and they begin to legislate laws that would seek to redefine things. that God has clearly defined like gender, or they would seek to make it permissible and accessible in order for babies to be murdered. And as Christians, we don't get our voting advice from Instagram.

We get it from heaven. And we vote according to God's Word, and we vote according to Christian Ethic. Listen to me. I'm not telling you who to vote for. I'm telling you to study God's Word and with great discernment, which it takes in the world that we live in.

It takes great discernment and wisdom. To study God's Word and vote according to heaven's ethic and heaven's integrity. according to my faith votes there are 90 million people in this country who claim to be Christians and in any given election cycle 40 million of them won't vote 13 million of them aren't even registered and so if you're here and you're not registered to vote we want to make that easy for you you can text the word vote to 44 1122 and you can get all the information that you want so that you can pray you can think you can discern and then you can vote according to god's words

That's one way we can lock shields together and stand firm against the enemy's attacks that are at work in our world. Ephesians 6 says, take up, pick up. These Roman shields were two and a half feet by four feet. They were big. You could get behind them. And the image that Paul wants us to see here is the image of ancient warfare. And in ancient warfare, the Romans would grab these huge shields. They would wrap them in leather and in linen, and then they would see.

soaked them in water. And so when the flaming arrows came at them, it would hit into the shield, and then that flame would extinguish immediately. It was pretty smart. The image we're supposed to see here is like, you know, the opening scene of Gladiator. You seen Gladiator? Right? When Maximus, Decimus, Meridius, commanders of the Northern Army, leader of the Felix Legion, servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius, y'all know what I'm talking about? Anybody? Hello? Okay, welcome to church, everybody. In 300, the Persian general is like, we're going to blot out the sun with the arrows and the Spartan warriors like, well, then we're going to fight in the shade. This is the image that the Apostle Paul is pointing at. He's saying that we stand firm with these shields, but in order for

the shield to work in battle, you have to take it with you. Faith is a gift from God, meaning that to believe on the truth of Jesus Christ as revealed by God through the scriptures is a gift, but As Christians, we don't earn the shield. We didn't make the shield, but we do have to pick the shield up every day to be effective in battle. I have a house, and I live in it with other people. And somehow, we're all still standing, so praise God for that. Sometimes I'm on my house and I sit on the couch and I get hungry. And if I don't get up off the couch and do something about it, I'm going to get hangary.

And then if I get hungry, I'm going to make bad decisions. Right? If I ever go to the grocery store hungry, sin. That's just what I'm going to do. I'm going to, I just can't, it's not good when I get hungry. But if I get up off the couch and I go to the fridge and I get some food at and I start to eat, all of a sudden, my capacities come back and I begin to make good decisions. The truth is, there's a lot of Christians who are sitting on the couch and they're spiritually hungry. They have been brought into the house by God. They have been adopted into the family by God, but in the last season of their life, they've just been sitting on the couch and they're hungry. And today, some Christians need to get up off the couch.

They need to go to the fridge and they need to feast on God's faithfulness. And they need to realize that God has given them everything that they need for life and godliness. And you have everything that you need to stand firm against the attacks of the enemy. Some of us need to eat. It says that this shield of faith with which you, with your birthday, your Social Security, number, your past, your present, and your future, you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Let me read these scriptures to you and have them land on your heart and on your mind. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 4. It says, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 31, we read this all the time as a church. You can't get enough of it. What then shall we say to these things. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that was raised and who is at the right hand of God interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall distress or persecute? or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.

As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Listen to me, Christians. We are not victims. I'm not saying that hard doesn't happen. It does.

I'm not saying that sometimes bad things don't happen to us. It does. I'm not saying that people don't sin against us. It does. I'm not saying that sometimes we break our own integrity, we sin against our own character, that we step out of line with God's character in God's way. That happens. But here's what I'm saying, we are not victims. That is not who we are. We are victors in and through Christ Jesus. And we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. I want to offer us three opportunities or maybe just close with this. There's three different, maybe groups of folks that I would invite to respond. The gospel demands a response, and so every week at the end of our service, we say we respond to the good news of the gospel. And maybe you're here, and if you were honest, there's a stronghold in your life. There's a stronghold over your mind. One of those flaming darts landed, and that thought, that idea, that impulse turned into a feeling.

And that feeling began to lead you to a place to where you behaved. and now you're in this downward spiral, if you were honest, of behavior. And even though there's times where your mind and maybe even your body think you need to do that thing or think you need to have that thing in order to be happy, deep down in your guts, you know the Holy Spirit of God is calling out, is crying out saying, you don't need that. What you want more than anything is for you to be free. That you want to be free.

And we want to invite you to take steps toward that freedom. You can text the word care right now to 44. 1122. You can grab a respond card in the seat back in front of you and you can tell us your name and your email and you can in the prayer section tell us what's going on in your life and you can check the care box so that we can come alongside of you. The Bible says that if we confess our sins one to another, then we shall be healed. That confession, if we want to be free, we have to be honest.

If we keep our sins in the dark, it is like throwing gas on a flame. It just gets stronger and stronger in the dark. And so I would invite you today to bring that out. into the light. In a moment, we're going to have the opportunity to respond, and I would invite, if you're there and you say, I just have a strong hold in my life. I have a strong thought that I can't seem to shake that I know is far from what God has for me. I would invite you to come to our prayer altars and to put your body in the posture that you want your life to be in. Kneel before the Lord and confess these things out loud to him. Seek his presence. Go to the throne room of grace.

Sometimes Christians say the dumbest stuff. Sometimes we'll be like, well, there's not much I can do about it, so I'll just pray about it. Prayer is far more than doing nothing. Prayer is seeking God Almighty and saying, will you get involved? Is calling on the name of the Lord saying, I need to be saved. It moves the heavenlies in the direction of God's people. So I'd invite you to come and pray. Maybe you're here and you would say, pastor, I've been standing firm. But I'm just in, I'm in a season right now where I just feel spiritually weak. We want to care for you too. Text care, 44-11-22.

We want to lock shields with you. We want to be your church family. We want to encourage you and we want to strengthen you in the Lord so that you can stand firm in the fight. And the last group is this. Maybe you're here and you're in a season of strength. God's opened up ministry doors for you. God's opened up influence for you.

And you're in a season of strength where you're standing firm against the flaming darts. God's giving you the eyes to see those temptations. We don't want to act like we got this. We want to be diligent. And one of the ways that we are diligent is that we worship God from a grateful heart. Because gratitude is the enemy of entitlement. Anywhere that we would grow entitled in our life to the gifts that we've had, when we speak gratitude entitlement has to flee. And so we're going to sing this song and we're going to do it with grateful hearts. And we're going to sing out loud because Jesus is worthy of our praise and adds God's people, we're going to declare that all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise is His. We're going to sing. We're

going to bring and we're going to pray. We invite you to come, put your body in the heart in the posture that you want your heart to be in. Would you stand with me at all of our campuses and let's pray? Father, we love you. We trust you. We need you. Father, we pray that you would help us to have your eyes that you would give us ears to hear your spirit. Jesus, you tell us in your word that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And so in the name of Jesus, I bind up the enemy that would come against our church, that would come against my brothers and sisters. I bind up his flaming darts, and I raise the shield of faith in Jesus' name to extinguish

all of his lies that would come against us. You also tell us that whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And so in the name of Jesus, I lose repentance, I lose reconciliation, I lose freedom over this place and over us as a people. Holy Spirit, you go where you're welcome. You are welcome here. We want to have a true encounter with you, and we want to be in the position to do so. We receive your grace. We believe that our highest calling in life is to be loved by you, and we thank you for loving us first so that we could love you and we could love each other.

As we respond, God, we pray that it blesses your heart and that you would bless us by meeting us here. in changing us, and we would leave different than when we came. We pray all these things in the powerful name and in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, amen. Amen. Let's respond together.