Spiritual Warfare: Part 5 - Shield of Faith

0:42 Ephesians 6, 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, somebody say above all. Taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. I want to talk about the shield of faith. This is part five, the shield of faith. Say that with me. The shield of faith. All right, that's what I want to talk about today. Today's message is narrative.

1:35 This is a narrative message. That means I'm not going to give you any points. You write down what the Lord say to you. I'm not going to have any defined points to give you. They're not going to come up on the screen for whatever the Holy Spirit says to you. Okay, somebody say this. The shield of faith. Now he tells us why this shield is important. He says because we're going to receive fiery darts from the wicked one. How many of you understand that there's a lot of battles and challenges that you have to go through in life and they're coming from the wicked one? Now that's important because some of y'all think your challenges are coming from people. And you're arguing and fighting with humans. And we already learned from Ephesians 6.10, we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. It's not your enemy.

2:28 It's not your boss. It's not your spouse. is what's behind and influencing people. You don't fight with people. Y'all be talking about people, cussing people out, giving them a piece of your mind, when really the reality is your battle is not with human beings. And the reason the enemy is after you is because your life represents a threat to his kingdom. Amen? if you ever get to the place where God has destined for you to get you will reap havoc on the devil's kingdom and he don't want you to get there he wants to frustrate you, defeat you, disappoint you he wants to bring all kind of stuff up in your life and so the scripture says that we are fighting against and we want to be able to recognize that is the wicked one, somebody say the wicked one Paul writes to the church in Ephesus from prison and he tells us to take the shield of faith so that we can quench the fiery darts.

3:40 Let me talk about fiery darts for a second because what in the world is a fiery dart? Back in those days when they had battles and fights and wars and stuff, they would take an arrow and put a flame on the end of the arrow with the hopes and anticipation that when it lands, it would land on something flammable that will cause a fire to start and keep erupting. It's almost like what's happening in LA. One little spark got lit somewhere and it is spread throughout so many places in LA. And that's what the enemy wants to happen is he wants to create havoc in your life. He wants it to spread in your life, frustrate you in all aspects of your life. He wants you to have marital problems, children problems, job problems, money problems. He wants this to spread throughout your life. But I've come by here today in the few moments that I have to tell you that no weapon formed against you is going to prosper if you engage the right weapons. And he says, here's one of the weapons that you need.

4:42 Here's one of the spiritual weapons in our spiritual warfare. He calls it a shield of faith. the shield would go from the top of your head to the bottom, to the sole of your feet. It is a full shield. It's not a little round shield that you're holding in your hand. The Roman soldiers had a full shield. And here's why that's important because it means it's designed to protect every aspect of your life. Look at your neighbor and say, every aspect of your life. Every arena of your life. Every phase of your life. Every, everything. The devil wants to try to disrupt your whole life but he can't. Now yesterday, last night, I had to go to Minnesota yesterday for a funeral. I got back and it was halftime, but again, by the time I got back and halfway through the third quarter, my son did something, my youngest child did something he's never done before in his life.

5:44 He hugged me. He said, Daddy, I've waited 26 years for this. No, he said, I have never had the opportunity to feel good about a Washington football team. and he hugged me and kept holding on he kept holding on because finally in his life he has something he can cheer about I don't care what else is going on in his life it doesn't matter whatever else might be wrong no matter what else might be going on because his team beat up on the Detroit Lions last night. I'm sorry you had to come to church today on this day, Pastor. I'm so sorry.

6:41 They beat him up royally. people asking me you coming back to the commanders now no I am not coming back I tried to cheer for them for 20 years I tried but at some point if you listen if you keep cheering for something that keeps happening over and over and over again and you keep expecting different results and it keeps being defeat. That's called insanity.

7:24 I am a Baltimore Ravens fan through and through. Look at all y'all with this commander stuff on. They won one big game. One. One game. Now they're coming out. Everybody got their commander stuff all on. They're marching around, walking. There's the commanders. We're going to the Super Bowl. We're going to the Super Bowl. But here's the deal. Nobody gave them a chance to win yesterday. Not one commentator, not one person voted, and you didn't even bet on them winning the game yesterday. And you know why I'm telling this? Because the devil don't think you're going to win. The devil don't think you're going to succeed.

8:17 The devil is not giving you a chance. But he don't recognize that the God we serve is a God that's got our back. Can I get an amen right there? And Paul tells us in this passage the way we combat fiery dogs. And here's what the fiery dogs are designed to do. They're designed to make you fear, make you feel uncertain, make you doubt, make you have anxiety, make you have hatred. The devil wants you to hate people, dislike people, reject people. Those fiery darts are designed to bring tension and stress and strife. And my assignment is today to tell you, you have to be able to quench the fiery darts. And here's how you do it. You do it with your faith. When they interviewed Jaden Daniels at the end of the game yesterday, here's what's the first words out of his mouth.

9:13 They said, how were y'all able to do this? Here's what he said. He said, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, enabled us. He said, we have faith in the God that we serve. And all I'm trying to tell you, I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry. She's so sad. She's so sad. I apologize to y'all. Y'all shouldn't have came to church today. I'm sorry. All I'm trying to tell y'all today is the devil, we conquer him by not letting him give us fear, doubts, worry. I don't know what your destiny is. I don't know what God has called you to do, but he's called you to do something. He's called you to be something. He's anointed you to do something significant, and that enemy wants you to question it, doubt it, hate on it, don't think it's going to happen, but I'm here to tell you that the God we serve has got your back and all he needs you to do is have faith. Somebody high five your neighbors here.

10:14 I got faith. High five them. Tell them I'm believing God's making a way out of no way. I believe God's fighting my battles. I believe he's going to work a miracle. I believe he's going to fix my circumstance. I believe he's going to change my situation. I believe God. I have faith in God. I trust in God. I trust in God. Faith. We quench the lies, the anxieties, the hatred, the envy. I'm not jealous of what God does for anybody else. I want God to bless you. Because if he blesses you, it means he's in the neighborhood.

11:05 And if he's in the neighborhood, I might be next. Somebody say, I might be next. My miracle is coming down the pike. I might be next. God's working and orchestrating and fixing the circumstances all around me. And it might not come when I want. But by the way, when it comes, it will be on time. I wish I had somebody praying with me here today. It will be on time. Doesn't matter what the doctor says. Doesn't matter what they did on your job. It doesn't matter what happens down the pike of your life. Trust God. Somebody say trust God.

11:41 We quench the fiery darts with the shield of faith. when I was before I got called to First Baptist Church before I got called to any church I applied at all these churches they wouldn't even call me back to tell me I wasn't chosen they didn't even have the decency to call and say we didn't pick you and I got frustrated and I stopped applying at churches but finally eventually some church called me Little church in King George, Virginia, 35 people, maybe 40 on Easter.

12:23 But baby, look at me now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, Lord. Oh, I wish I had a prank yesterday. Listen, I see some of y'all. Y'all can't clap. Y'all can't celebrate because it ain't you. You might be next. If God did it for me, you might be next. Amen. God's working and orchestrating the events of our lives to accomplish what it is he wants to accomplish in your life. And he says, you take up above all. I love that term, above all. All those other things are great. But above all, have a shield of faith. I don't know what your future is. I don't know what God has. But God's had some stuff for you to do, some things for you to accomplish, some places for you to go, some people for you to impact as a part of your destiny. That's why God created you.

13:16 That's why you were born. You ain't just an accident of your mom and your daddy in the backseat of a Chevrolet. God had you in his mind before the foundations of the world. And guess what? I know you think, let me tell y'all something. I feel tension in the room. I feel tension. and the tension I feel is because some of y'all think, well, I did this and I did that, and since I made that mistake and I made that mistake and God can't do this because I did this and I went there and I did that, y'all think that the devil, y'all think the devil done brought this stuff up in your life and God has canceled you out. Can I straighten you out for just a second? Listen, we done all, if God measured us by our righteousness, this. None of us would be a candidate to be used by God. Not a single one of us would be able to be used. By the way, when God chose you to accomplish his purposes, he already knew how jacked up you were going to be. He already knew what mistakes you were going to make.

14:21 God does not choose or use us on the basis of our righteousness. It's on the basis of the righteousness of the God that we surrendered to. Oh, y'all forgive me today. I feel excited because I look back over my life and I've made mistakes and I've missed some errors and I've done some wrong and thought some wrong and wanted some wrong and went some wrong, but thanks be to God. He did not reward me according to my iniquities, but thank God he gave me another chance somebody look at your neighbor say he gave you another chance with your nasty self tell her you are jacked up joker but he gives you another chance he he lifts you up even though you shouldn't be there he gives you another chance who am i preaching to today that devil wants you to think you cannot be used but i'm here to tell you lift up the shield of faith and have the confidence that the God we serve is a God who can use me in spite of me.

15:24 And that's what God told me to take. we quench the fiery darts, we quench it with our faith. I believe, I believe God. Come on, say, I believe God. He's a miracle working God. He's a prayer answering God. He's a delivering God. He's a healing God. He makes a way out of no way God. God he's a God that gives me another chance God oh I wish I had a praying crowd would be here today I gotta close I gotta land this plane I gotta pull into the garage I gotta put the dishes in the dishwasher I gotta put the clothes in the dryer I gotta bring it on in but he's a God that gives me another chance All right, my time is up.

16:34 Let me just tell you this. Faith moves God. In Matthew 8, the centurion soldier said to Jesus, I don't need you to come to my house. I just need you to speak the word. All God got to do is say a word. The woman with the issue of blood said, I got enough faith that if I just touch the hem of his garment, I believe I'll be whole. And she touched the hem of his garment. Y'all not hearing what I'm saying to you today. I like that David said, David said, when he had to stand up against Goliath after the king and his brothers all told David, You ain't got a chance against Goliath.

17:32 But David said, I have, God has used me to kill a lion and a bear. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who would dare come and try to challenge my God? I like that. The Hebrew, here's what I like with the Hebrew boys. He said, I got to hurry up. It's 11 o'clock. My time is up. The Hebrew boys told the king, when the king said, we want you to bow down. We want you to dance to our music. We want you to bow down. The Hebrew boys said, oh, king, we don't have to give in. We don't even have to consider how we're going to answer you. We don't have to debate it. We don't have to discuss it. We are not bowing down. And then they said this, our God is able to deliver us. But then he said this, but even if he doesn't, it doesn't mean that he's not able. I don't know what you are going through, but whatever you are facing in your life, our God is able. Tell your neighbor, he's able.

18:30 Get up in there grilled. Get in there face and say he'll work it out. I may not have enough money to pay my bills, but he's able. The doctors might believe I can't be healed, but he's able. I don't care what they say or what they do or what they declare. I'm preaching to you today that we serve a God who is able. I feel a shout coming down in my sanctified soul. Tell your neighbor he's able. Just say it one more time. He's able. I'm just trying to build your faith. I'm just trying to get you to lift up the shield of faith. I'm trying to get you to have the confidence of whatever's happening in your life.