Taking Up Your Shield of Faith - Now Go Forth

Well, I wanted to start with reading an illustration from a book that I read in the last two weeks by J.R. Miller called The Every Day of Life. And I thought it illustrates how much your life can have an impact on others, right? So it's very applicable for the context of the church and of the family. And this is kind of detached from my sermon.

We're going to look at Ephesians 6, 16. But I wanted to share this because it was impactful. And so I hope it is to you all as well.

So J.R. Miller, he shares this. And you can turn to Ephesians 6 while you're listening. A German musician whose ear was exceptionally sensitive to harmony was drawn by the sound of singing into a church he was passing shortly after arriving in our country.

However, the singing was very clashing, painfully jarring on his trained ear. He could not politely leave the building while the service was in progress, so he decided to endure the torture as patiently as possible. So you picture the man, he's walking to this church, hearing singing, and he's sitting there thinking, oh my, these people can't sing.

And he's like, it would be rude to get up and leave in the middle of it. Right? He doesn't want to do that. So he's sitting there.

And you know what happens? But soon amid the congregation's discord, he distinguished one voice. The soft, clear voice of a woman singing calmly, steadily, and truly. She was not disturbed by the noisy, ununified notes of her fellow worshippers.

Instead, she sang on patiently, firmly, and sweetly. As the visitor listened, one voice after another was drawn by this one singer's gentle influence into harmony. Until before the hymn had finished, the whole congregation was singing in perfect unison.

And this is the application. He makes it dealing with the home, but it applies to the church. This is often how it is when making a home.

At first, individual lives are willful, uncontrolled, and self-assertive, creating discord in the household. It takes time and the most patient love to bring everyone into sweet harmony. However, if the wife and mother, the true homemaker, has learned the blessed lesson of gentleness, her life becomes a calm, clear, true song.

It never falters. Little by little, it brings all other lives up to its own gentle key, until the life of the home is indeed a sweet song of love. You get the imagery there? And he goes on, actually, to speak about... Maybe the mom is not setting the tone in the house, and he actually calls daughters to do it.

Sometimes it's a daughter in the home whose quiet sweetness blesses the entire house. She has learned the lesson of patience and gentleness. She has smiles for everyone.

She has a happy tact to end small quarrels with her kind words. She softens her father's ill temper when he comes home weary from the day at work. Through her loving spirit, she's a peacemaker and a happiness maker in the home.

She eventually draws everyone into harmony with her own quietness and peace. However, some families never learn to live together lovingly. Often, harmony is spoiled by one household member who will not yield to unselfishness nor restrain and deny their own desires for the good of all.

On the other hand, in homes that mature into the fullness of love, there's often one person whose calm, true, serene peace, which nothing can disturb, eventually draws all the discordant elements of the household life into accord with itself, thus perfecting the music of the home. It takes only one small thing to spoil the music, yet it also only takes one small act of love, courtesy, and thoughtful gestures, and timely words, and a gentle act of common kindness to make home's music almost divinely sweet. So I thought that was some helpful imagery.

When your life is in tune with Christ, it helps bring others in tune. Right? I mean, that church, in a matter of minutes, went from having discord in how they sang to having a beautiful sound because someone was there singing in tune. And what we don't want to be is the person who thinks we're just going to endure the discord, we're just going to endure the problems, but we want to be the steady voice who can change the whole room.

So, saying in the right note, right, with your Christian character, and holiness, and godliness, live the character of Christ, and you could be the very influence in your home. Maybe you've got lost parents, or you've got parents with significant blind spots, and you're a kid, you could be the daughter who's making that impact on the home. So that's, I thought that was a helpful illustration.

Alright, let's look at Ephesians 6, verse 16. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Now notice where Paul began this whole section.

Look at verse 10, it's very important. Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. That verse controls everything here about the armor and putting on the armor.

We can get lost in the imagery of the armor in this verse 10. The Christian life is not about you and I discovering how strong you are. It's not even about figuring out how to allegorize every one of these pieces of the armor and what it means.

What it really comes down to in verse 10 is you've got to be strong, and it's not in your own strength. It's in the strength of the Lord's might. So remember that.

But Paul does put this imagery here, and I do want to consider verse 16 in the imagery. It's there in the text, so we should consider it. But the armor of God is really teaching us how to live in a conscious dependence upon the strength of the Lord.

Verse 10 is setting up this whole section with that statement. So verse 16, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith. What's another text in the Bible that talks about all circumstances and something we should do? Yeah, what's it say in 1 Thessalonians 5? Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God.

Here you've got take up a shield of faith in all circumstances. Another place you've got giving thanks in all circumstances. What's operating in obeying both of those commands? It's by faith.

How are you going to give thanks in all circumstances? You're trusting God has brought certain circumstances into your life. Every circumstance in your life calls for faith, for taking God at His word, for looking for a promise to believe of the Lord's. The pleasant circumstances, the frightening circumstances.

Have any of you guys ever faced confusing circumstances in your life? You're just kind of confused, like what's going on here? You ever had that happen? You want to give thanks, you want to take up the shield of faith. Any of you had circumstances you prayed would never come, and they happened? Right? You need faith in those. There's never a moment where you and I can take the shield and lay it down.

He says right there, in all circumstances, taking up the shield of faith. Now why do you even need a shield? The text talks about we have an opponent. We've got an enemy who is firing at us.

If you look at verse 11, put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. In our text, he mentions that the devil is shooting flaming darts. So we're in a battle.

How does Peter picture the enemy? He pictures the enemy as what? In doing what? Prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking to whom he may devour. How does Luke refer to the devil in Luke 4? The devil, when he schemes, he's looking for what? Luke 4.13. He's looking for an opportune time to strike. We looked at this not too long ago, and I realize this sermon has overlap with the other sermon.

I'm sorry if a lot of my sermons I'm saying the same things. That's just where I'm at. But 2 Corinthians 11.

What's Satan seeking to do to your thoughts? Lead them astray from a simple and pure devotion to Christ. This is the enemy. He's got schemes.

Do you know the schemes of the devil? Because Paul mentions that we should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. Have you ever studied Satan's devices? Prowls like a lion, deceives like a serpent, looks for an opportune time. You should know that.

I should know that. Because then I'm not surprised by the fiery trial that comes upon me to test me as though something strange were happening to me. Because the Bible's already taught me this is what is the path that you and I are on.

So, we've got an enemy. And Paul gives us a picture. He fires flaming darts.

And so point number one is the dart. Satan wants something to hit you. Satan wants something to hit you.

Paul is not describing, when he says to take up the shield, he's not describing a little tiny round shield. What type of shield is he describing if you look at the original word? What object in this room is that shield close to? Anyone know? What I think of the shield being close to is one of those doors right there. That's what a lot of the commentators, they mention.

It's like a door. It's a big shield that protects the whole person. He's not describing a little round shield.

The word refers to a door-like shield carried by a soldier. It's broad enough that the soldier could turn it towards the direction of the attacker. And that's significant.

The breastplate in our text, what he mentions right before, covers one particular part of the body. The shield is depicted as covering, the shield of faith covering the whole person. You lay down your faith, your trust in the Lord, all these other parts are going to be vulnerable to the attack.

The shield can turn every way. And so the attack may come from one place today, another place tomorrow. Today, you know what? You might get attacked by lust.

Tomorrow, you might get attacked by fear. The next day, you might get attacked by an accusation. The next day, it might be bitterness.

Three weeks from now, you might have an attack of assurance salvation. Maybe some of you are facing the attack and you want to give up and stop following Christ. Maybe you're facing self-pity and you've had a pity party all week long.

And then you have some other horrible thought that seems to come out of nowhere. Paul is saying, turn the shield towards that. That there is protection, there is an ability through the Lord's strength to overcome these attacks.

And notice the enemy's weapon. He doesn't say that the enemy is just firing arrows. What type of arrows? And what's the fire intended to do? To make the whole person burn.

It isn't just getting penetrated once. He wants to light you on fire where your whole person is burning. It's designed to strike and to keep doing damage.

The devil doesn't just want to penetrate you and you've got to cut and you go away with the wound. He wants you burning. And he wants the attack to keep doing damage.

So there's a dart, it hits contact, it ignites and it spreads. That's how the enemy's attacks are being depicted here. It sets everything else on fire.

Satan does not merely want the dart to hit you. He wants the dart to burn you and light you on fire. So what's one of those darts that has hit you? God has forgotten you.

That hits you. That's the dart. Satan, he's not happy with just that.

He doesn't just want to penetrate you with the thought that God has forgotten you. He wants it to now enter your mind. And you think, God has forgotten me.

And then you think, if God cared about me, this would not be happening to me. And then what's the next thought the devil wants you to burn? How does he want you to view prayer? Why pray if God has forgotten me? He doesn't want me to pray because he's not going to hear my prayers. If you've gotten to that point, the dart not only penetrated, you're on fire, Christian.

That's Satan. That's his scheme. He wants you to question the Lord.

Let's look at it another way. Well, that one ends, now you're not only not praying, you're taking matters into your own hands. Okay, here another dart is, someone wrongs you.

The dart is, look what they did to you. Right, that's the first thought. Then it catches.

And you think, they do not deserve forgiveness. Then it even spreads further. You think to yourself, I'll never forget what they did to me.

Then, if you're burning now even from that attack, what are you now thinking? You're thinking, I hope they suffer for what they did. Right? It all started as a simple thought, look what they did. And look where it spread.

Just like that. Where you got fear. Where you got lust.

Lust. I'll tell you, lust is a big, big thing. Early on as a Christian, I talked about it all the time.

I realized, you don't need to talk about overcoming lust, you talk about Christ. And that's where there is going to be victory. But the same book that I quoted from early on, I had a quote from this book also, was very sobering.

And parents take this to heart with a great amount of weight. A man well past midlife said that in his sensitive youth, and this is a book written in I think 1890. 1890.

Okay, no internet, nothing. Obviously. A man well past midlife said in his sensitive youth, another man drew him aside.

In his youth, a man drew him aside and secretly showed him a vile picture. He looked at it for one moment. And he turned away.

But a spot had been burned in his soul. The memory of that glance, he had never been able to wash out. It had come back to him throughout the 40 years he had lived since.

Even intruding upon him in his most sacred moments and staining his most cherished thoughts. We do not know what we're bringing into our lives when we admit someone into our companionship even for one hour. If that person is not good, if they're not pure, if they're not true.

In that one hour, you could invite someone into your companionship. What's one of the most common ways we invite people into our companionship for two hours? A movie. Who can estimate the corrupting influence of such companionship when it continues until it becomes intimacy and a friend? When confidences are exchanged, when the soul touches, etc.

You know, there's a movie I saw as a kid. I'm not going to mention the name. I was amazed.

An image in that movie stuck with me. It was such a path to lust. I remember talking to another brother in our church and he said the same movie his parents let him watch and the same thing happened to him.

It's scary. Look, there's absolute, there's victory over the lust of the flesh. But you know what? We're not getting a glorified body on this side of earth.

And things will, they can stick in your mind even when I was reading that quote. It's like there's thoughts from my past trying to come into my mind. That's part of this fallen world that we're in.

And so I just read that quote. The seriousness of this, I just can't emphasize enough. God help us.

William Gurnall made the point that these darts are fiery, especially because of their ability to inflame the heart and the conscience. And that's the danger. It's not just merely what hit me, but what is this going to ignite in me? What could this ignite in me? And so that's point one, the dart.

Satan wants something to hit you and he wants to light you on fire. And you've got a shield of faith that Paul talks about that we're going to look at. You raise this shield of faith.

You raise whatever promise of God or what truth there is there. And you don't have to be a defeated Christian. You don't have to fall into this.

So point two I want to look at is the fire. The dart is not the same as surrender. And I'll explain what I mean.

The dart is not the same as surrender. And this is important pastoral. I've tried to emphasize this over the last few years.

A dart hitting the shield doesn't mean the soldier has invited the dart, right? It's a picture of battle. I'm going to expect as I have a shield up and I'm in a battle that there's all manner of vile things that are trying to attack me as I'm going through combat of life as a Christian. And that shouldn't mess me up and make me panic and think why did I have that thought come? Why did that dart come? A thought entering your mind doesn't necessarily mean that you even embrace that thought.

You've heard me mention that illustration about you can't keep the birds from flying over your head, the temptations. But you can keep them from making a nest in your head. That imagery has greatly helped me as a Christian.

There's horrible birds that want to fly over my head. I can prevent them from making a nest. Through the strength of the Lord.

But just because those birds are there doesn't mean that I've sinned. But what does Satan do? He fires that dart and you block it with the shield of faith. But you start to question why did that dart come at all? And now Satan is trying to trick you into condemnation.

He gets this thought where you're thinking why did that thought ever appear? Why did I have that blasphemous thought? Why did I have that frightening thought? Why did I have that thought of unbelief? And Satan says what kind of Christian would ever think something like that? Has the devil ever told you that? I've heard that many times. Has Satan ever accused you in that way? Now you become terrified by the fact that the thought ever appeared. Brethren, the arrival of the dart is not necessarily you surrendering as a soldier.

It might just be simply evidence you're on the battlefield. And you're a target of the enemy and he's after you. There's a difference between when a temptation arriving on the battlefield and a temptation being welcomed by you and you sitting in a back room with temptation and not even engaging in a fight.

There's a difference between me thinking what if God does not provide and me thinking yes, God cannot be trusted. Those are two different things. You're tempted to think, is God going to provide? You're now actively believing and thinking God can't be trusted.

That's a huge distinction. Otherwise, the enemy can use the first dart to create a fire for a second one and take you out. We experience this as Christians.

The hideous thought arrives. You think a genuine Christian would never think this thought. And now fear, condemnation and despair, they all fall on your head and they crush you.

Faith says that thought does not tell me who God is. And that thought does not represent what I really actually desire as a Christian. And so Paul brings in some, look at verse 16, what word he brings in.

With the shield of faith which you can extinguish all the darts of the evil one. He doesn't merely say you're going to survive the flaming darts. He mentions that you can extinguish all the flaming darts.

So the dart strikes, the fire goes out and that means extinguishing. Obviously, it doesn't mean you never face the temptation in the first place. Right? It's just it never burned your person.

It never led you down a path of distrusting the Lord in the ultimate way. It means the power has lost, the dart and the attack has lost its power to ignite you. You ever feel that? You're facing temptation.

Almost like you're being pulled into giving into the desires of the flesh. And there's this battle there and you're seeking to believe the Lord. Guys, that's Satan trying to burn you.

And we're to extinguish this with the shield of faith. The smoking arrow might still be laying right there. The circumstance might not have changed at all.

But what's now changed in your mind is how you interpret the circumstances. You're interpreting the circumstance in a biblical way. Every attack calls for a right interpretation from God's word on what's really going on and how should I think.

We're all interpreters of our circumstances. We have to interpret it from the truths of this book and our God and his character. So thirdly, the shield.

Why faith? Why faith? Why would God picture faith as a shield? What makes Satan's lies burn? Believing it, not putting up the shield. Faith being put down. And what puts Satan's lies out? Believing God.

I mean, any situation where you look back and you're like, man, I really sinned. I didn't just get tempted. I gave in to sinful anger today.

At some point, you put down the shield of faith. At some point, you put down the word of God. At some point, you got laid down with some thought that following this fleshly desire was the right thing to do in the moment.

What's faith? Is faith positive thinking? Nope. Absolutely not. Faith is not having confidence in your own faith.

What does faith do? Faith looks away from where? Self. Right? Faith takes a look to where? God's word, his character, his promises, his providence, his righteousness, his son, his cross, his resurrection. And so maybe here the simplest way to say it is the shield of faith is not hiding behind your faith.

It's hiding behind your God. That's all it is. It goes back to verse 10.

Be strong in the Lord. You're facing a situation and you realize I have this anxiety about this health thing in my life. Lord, please give me grace.

You're looking to your Father for help, for strength. So when Satan says, if God loved you, this wouldn't happen to you. Faith raises the shield and it says, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

How much more will he graciously right now give me all things? And the fire goes out. Satan says, after what you've done, surely God cannot receive you. Faith raises the shield and it says, God, it is you who justify.

No one can condemn. Right? I mean, go memorize the end of Romans 8. What promises there to be used when you have fiery darts of the enemy seeking to engulf you in flames. Satan says, you need this sin to be happy.

Faith says, my God is good. He's withholding no good thing. The fire goes out.

Satan says, you cannot possibly forgive them. Faith says, God sees. God will judge righteously.

Vengeance is the Lord. Christ has forgiven me. Colossians 3.13 says, I also must forgive.

And Jesus says, if you will not forgive, you're not a true Christian. And your Father in heaven will not forgive you. He will condemn you because your lack of forgiveness exposes your unregenerate heart.

And that puts the fear of God in you. And it leads you to realize, I must genuinely forgive and obey this command. The fire goes out.

Faith is bringing in God's interpretation between your soul and Satan's interpretation of the lie. It's happening all the time. Interpretations.

Discerning. What's right? What's true? What's not? And different darts require different truths. Lloyd-Jones, he described faith here as the ability to apply a particular truth necessary for a particular attack.

And I know, I've looked at this before, the 2 Corinthians 10 sermon. But the more you grow as a Christian, you get these promises and it's like you can categorize them. When I'm anxious, I think of these verses.

When I'm fearful, I think of these verses. When I'm tempted with lust, I've got these verses. When I'm tempted to be lazy, I've got these verses.

That's actually a good thing. That's knowing the Word and hiding it in your heart that you might not sin against God. Do you have those categories? If not, I would encourage you, don't get overwhelmed by it.

But think, think. Okay, I'm trusting in my feelings. What are some verses I can go to? Right, that helps.

That's almost getting equipped for the battle. Because you don't answer every attack with exactly the same sentence. Okay, fear comes in your life.

What's a verse? Who's got a verse? You're afraid. I couldn't hear you. Yeah, fear not for I am with you.

What's another verse? Fear is coming. Yeah, whom shall I fear? The Lord is my light. It's dark as this feels right now.

There's a light and it's the Lord. Death. Death frightens you.

What's a verse you go to? You're scared of dying. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints, Psalm 116. What's another verse? Yeah, for fear, for death, that'd be a good verse to go to.

Right? We want to have a repertoire of these verses. When suffering causes you to question God's love, who are some biblical characters you'd go to? Who's the number one biblical character you go to? Christ. Right? Paul, Job, Joseph.

You know their lives. The Old Testament is there for a reason. What does Romans 14, 15 say? The Old Testament is there that we might have great encouragement and hope.

So those characters and what they went through and God's protection, God's allowing them to suffer, should give us great hope. What about when lust comes? What is a verse? What's a text? Could be lust for money. Could be lust for sensual things.

What's a verse? Because no one here struggles with lust at all. This is amazing. What a church we have.

Wow. What? Yeah, this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from impurity. And he says you don't live in the passions of the lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.

They don't know God, that's why they're behaving in that way. What's another verse? You're tempted with lust. Yeah, flee sexual immorality.

1 Timothy. Or 1 Corinthians 6 as well. What's another in 1 Corinthians 6 that people don't think about enough? That I don't think about enough.

What's one of the greatest motivations to not go sleep with a prostitute? In your heart, your body, in whatever way. What's it there in 1 Corinthians 6? People do not refer to it enough. What's he say? Yeah, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Paul gives that as a motivation for them to stop fornicating.

And that is what? Knowing who they are in Christ. That they're the temple of the Holy Spirit. So how could they as a congregation and individuals go and partake with a prostitute because they're sinning against the Spirit of God.

What a motivation. So we got to have these thoughts ready. Because then it extinguishes these darts of the enemy.

So, I mean, in a way right here, I'm trying to show you practically what it looks like to take up the shield of faith. Right? That easily could have been me walking in my yard, talking to myself and pulling out verses and praying. Right? I just took up the shield of faith right now.

Truths about God and His Word that help extinguish thoughts and temptations that could be darts being thrown at you that are trying to inflame you and you extinguish these things. So it was a practical example of that. You recognize what the dart is? I mean, how do you actually raise up the shield? I have that as a point.

Let me just read this. You recognize what the dart is? Catch it early. What's happening with my thoughts right now? Second, you expose the lie underneath the dart.

What if you're becoming bitter? You expose that. Third, you bring the particular truth of God against that. What's God actually said? Fourth, you turn that faith into prayer.

The strength of the Lord. Father, I'm afraid, but you've said this, Lord. Fifth, you take the next step of obedience.

You don't just sit around and pray all day. You go. This is important.

Some people think I can't possibly raise the shield because I still feel afraid. No, the best thing you can do is march forward by faith. Faith can say, I'm still afraid, but I'm going to obey God because He's faithful.

People who sit around and say, I have these temptations. I better pray until they're gone. That's wrong.

Then you're focusing on the temptations. Go and obey the Lord. Go serve someone.

Go love Christ. Go out, walk, and pray. Get an evangelistic conversation.

Get away from these temptations. That's the shield being raised. You're turning away.

You're telling yourself the truth, and you're keeping on the go. Faith produces obedience. We find that in Hebrews 11.

By faith Noah built. Abraham obeyed. Moses refused.

Simply put, faith acts. It goes forward. Notice verse 16.

Look at that second all. First, he says, in all circumstances. There's no exception.

The shield of faith can defend you in all circumstances. But what's the next all? It can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Take encouragement, Christian.

There's no sin. There's no temptation. There's no dart.

There's no attack of the enemy that is too powerful for the Lord to get you out of not falling into that. And what verse does that make you think of? I hope many of you have it memorized. If you don't have it memorized, I'm not trying to condemn you by saying you should have it memorized.

But what verse? 1 Corinthians 10, 13. It was one of the first verses I ever memorized as a Christian 19 years ago. And I have quoted that verse probably in my mind every week for the last 19 years.

No temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man. But God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with temptation will also provide a way of escape that you might be able to endure the temptation. Right? What a promise. The same thing here.

You can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Because Satan wants you to think that that temptation, this sin, it's too great for God. That's a lie.

No matter what it is, doesn't matter how twisted, doesn't matter how perverted it is, doesn't matter what you've done, there is victory in the Lord. There's no dart so hot that God is insufficient for it. Whatever direction it comes from, turn the shield towards it.

It might be a ton of arrows like in some movies coming. Get your shield up and lay on the ground and cry out for help. And believe His promises.

The answer is not become mentally stronger. The answer is trust your God. Isn't that what he says the whole start of the verse? Verse 10 again.

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. And they talk about putting on armor. Okay.

It's simple. You're weak. God is strong.

Trust the Lord. Know His word. Be a people of prayer.

He really hits on that. Verse 18. Praying at all times.

You've got giving thanks in all circumstances. You've got praying at all times. And not just some talking out loud.

Praying in the Spirit. And not just praying for yourself. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

So that would imply you're sharing your struggles. You're sharing your fears. Lord, I'm in this situation.

I have this fear. And you're going to brethren. Brethren, would you pray for me? We have this fear right now with this trial we're going through.

Please pray for us. And God can use that to have help granted through the prayers of many. And that can be taking up the shield of faith.

Because faith says you're not living as an isolated person over here. You're a member of a body. You want to trust that God uses those in the body for your encouragement and strength.

Satan fires a suggestion designed to reinterpret who God is. To inflame your heart and to get you to act in unbelief. Faith raises the character of God in your mind.

His Word. His promises. The victory of God in Christ.

And you rightly interpret the situation. Will the dark strike? Will you feel things hitting your shield? You better believe it. But it doesn't have to burn you.

It can be extinguished. The Bible never promises you're going to stop Satan from firing the darts. So don't expect that to ever happen.

Right? I wish I could wipe my brain out of the first 21 years of my life. I can't do that. But you know what? I can trust the Lord and move on with Christ.

So by faith, you can't stop the dart from firing. So we want to have right expectations of what the Christian life looks like. Right? I think a lot of places we can go wrong as Christians is we have wrong expectations of what the Christian life looks like.

I think as a young Christian, I've shared this before, but I had this idea that Christians shouldn't have all these severe temptations at certain points in their life. Those are wrong expectations. Jesus said temptation will come.

And the more you don't panic when a dart hits your shield, you view it for what it is. Because you're in a battle and you've got a shield up. And darts are hitting you.

Nothing's weird about that. Right? That totally makes sense. If you view it in that way, you don't get caught up in what's happening and you just fight in the battle like a good soldier all the way to the end.

And so I would tie all this in to that illustration I shared in the beginning about this church that was singing and they had a bunch of discord, but one lady sang in tune and eventually everyone joined her. I would say your voice in tune and using the shield of faith, trusting the promises of God, pulling people's minds to the promise of God, getting them away from the lies. The more you do that practically, the more you do that in conversations, the more you do that with your kids, the more you do that in counseling.

You don't give some self-help stuff. You give truth. The more you do that, you're actually going to be getting this unified voice of a people who are always raising up the shield of faith, the promises of God, the truths of God.

And do you all know in verse, we can read this whole passage wrong sometimes, verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. Who's the you? The church. It's plural.

Right? Just like Romans 12. People tend to read Romans 12. They tend to read Ephesians 6, and all they do is think about themselves.

I say that a little too strongly. Maybe none of us have that problem. But there are people who think about themselves.

In verse 13, it's a plural as well, that you may be able. So he's thinking about the church. This is something the church does.

Right? That ties right into verse 18 about praying for all the saints. We're in this corporately together. Yeah, I got to go fight and raise up my shield of faith.

But brethren, there's an interesting verse in Hebrews 3.13 that says, exhort one another every day, as long as it is called a day, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So you and I need to exhort one another every day. If we don't, we get hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

That hardened by the deceitfulness of sin is just another way of saying a flaming dart engulfed you. It's just the same idea. A little hardness gets on there.

You're a little hard towards God because of what He's done. And bam, you're burning. Have you ever had someone come up to you, you're just burning with unbelief.

You're on fire. I mean, maybe we should get like a fire extinguisher here that doesn't actually put out fires, but it puts out like Bible verses or something like that. And that's kind of what you're doing.

It's like they're burning over there with these lies. They won't even come to church. And you go get your fire extinguisher of truth, and you go to their door, and they don't even open the door.

What do you do there? Well, you're trying to extinguish these lies in their life. Right? I'm not a firefighter. Is Chris here? Evan here? I mean, that's the thing about Alamo Heights.

When they have fires to put out, what do they do? And what is the spiritual parallel? Right? So that's the idea. Where else does the Bible talk about a fire and how quickly it spreads? What book? Yeah, in James. It talks about the ton being a small member and how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small member.

And so it is with our enemy. And so maybe you're engulfed in flames right now of unbelief, of fear, of anxiety, of lust. I don't know.

Get the shield of faith up. Cry out to the Lord. There's victory through the strength of the Lord.

All right, we've got a few minutes. Does anyone have any questions or thoughts to add to what I've shared? I'd love to hear input. If you had a thought while I was speaking, or a question, or you thought something I said was wrong or imbalanced, I'd love for you to share that right now, or something you can add in that I didn't mention.

Who's got something they can share? Someone had some thought while I was speaking. Go ahead. Yeah, Galatians 5, the fruits of the Spirit.

Right? Look, when we're not walking by the Spirit, you get biting and devouring one another. Right? Joy, patience, peace. Who else has a thought? Tony? Yeah, I think that I would agree with what you're saying.

That's an act of faith. Luke 8, 15 says, I have a good and an honest heart. Right? Paul talks about the Gospel coming to bring about a people who are obedient.

Romans 6, 17 says, I've become obedient from the heart. And so, yes, it helped me as a new Christian get to the point where I just believed, I don't ever have to go look at this filth again. Right? And then years go by and you don't.

And it boldens your faith that it's not you're doing it in your power, but it's the Lord. He really has changed you. So you're just living in view of who you are.

And if the Holy Spirit really indwells me, I don't have to do those things. But if you do that in your own power, you're toast. And so, yes, to me that goes back to the imagery, I'm not being shocked.

Like as a new Christian, I had horrible nightmares. And I would wake up shocked about my nightmares. And I had to get to the point where it didn't bother me.

Where it's like, this is just, I'm in a war, I'm going to get up and believe God. And then they went away, the nightmares. And so I think, in general, Satan wants to paralyze us with all the darts flying where we think something's wrong.

No, that's what you got into by becoming a Christian. You're going to get attacked. And the quicker you realize this normal Christianity is you're going to face temptations in different forms every day the rest of your life.

But you never have to give in. So it's not some defeated mindset. To me, that's helped me as a Christian.

So I think that's something people have to mature into. Any other thoughts? Hmm. That's a good connection.

Yeah, have I done everything? I mean, that brings to mind Matthew 5, right? If your right hand causes you to sin, the right hand is not something sinful. It leads to sin. What does Jesus say? If your right hand causes you to sin, it's better you cut it off and throw it away and lose one of your members and your whole body be cast into hell.

Or Hebrews 12, lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. And so, yeah, that's, you know, have I struggled in sin and done everything? And that goes back to our responsibility to fight sin. It's not just a passive reality.

So yeah, that's a good thought. I mean, look, the truth is, if we're falling into sin in certain areas, I mean, obviously we're leaving some door open for provision for the flesh. It's usually not that complicated.

Travis? What's the best way to increase our faith? What's the best way? I would say, for me, it's staying in the Word and having the times where my faith is struggled, I'm not in the Word as I should and meditating on certain promises and making a note of it. And I'd say it's very consistent with hiding the Word in your heart that you might not sin against God. I mean, if I wake up or if I'm living my life and I'm not getting a sword out and I'm not getting the shield of faith and these promises, I'm going to be vulnerable.

If I don't even have them ready, it's like going around with an unloaded gun. You're not going to be able to take out the enemy if you're not even putting ammunition in. And so to me, reading the Word, being in the promises of God, yeah, you find the Bible, even people praying that God would increase their faith.

I mean, part of what increases your faith is just you doing what's right and building a consistency of trust in the Lord encourages you. It's hard. Like the young Christian, they can get in this path where they keep falling into certain things and they're always discouraged.

When you can break out of that and really trust the Lord, it emboldens you because your faith is like, wow, God really is helping here. I don't have to go back to this laziness in my life. There's victory over that.

So I'm sure a lot more could be said on how to increase our faith. All right, let's pray. Thank you for sharing some thoughts.

We'll pray and then we've got some baptisms. Father, Lord, I realize there's so much more in this passage here, but Lord, I pray You'd quicken this reality to these dear brethren that they would take up the shield of faith, the promises of God. They'd trust You, Lord, that they would interpret the circumstances they're in, the trials they're facing, the temptations that are coming their way, that they'd interpret it with the Word of God.

Lord, from the garden till now, we know the serpent is cunning. That God really say, Lord, we're here today to say You really have spoken. You really have given us Your Word.

It is God-breathed. We're not hopping around life with all these great uncertainties. And Lord, the times we've got great uncertainties, often it's simply us refusing to take You at Your Word.

Lord, help us to be people of Your Word. Lord, do increase our faith, our trust in You, our knowledge of You. Lord, how is our faith going to be increased if we don't have the knowledge of Your promises? If we don't know about certain characters in the Bible who really lived and You really helped.

And so, Lord, I just pray You'd encourage us to not grow weary in well-doing, to not grow weary in the fight. Lord, help us to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. Lord, help us to be a people who are trained in warfare.

Lord, there is a battle against sin. And we want to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit. We want to fight in the strength of the Lord.

Lord, would You work in us to will and to work for Your good pleasure? Would You cleanse us of all of Your idols according to Your new covenant promises? Lord, grow us. Make us like Your Son. Lord, give us just simple rest in You.

Lord, I realize this message could wrongly burden someone. Lord, don't do that. Lord, help all these precious Christians to rest in You.

Lord, oh, justified, what a blessed thought. Lord, in one way, we can look at Chronicles where You tell them to sit still and be silent and You're going to win for them. And Lord, at the end of the day, we labor, but it's You who work in us.

And so, Lord, there's such a balance in these things. Lord, help us. Help us, Father.

In Christ's name, amen.