And I turn in your Bibles if you will to the book of Ephesians book of Ephesians continuing on in our series of the armor of God tonight and Looking forward to this message and got a few messages left Series But Ephesians chapter 6 and notice verse 16 and I want us to notice the first two words of this verse and as we look at it here this evening. Notice Ephesians 6 and verse 16, the Bible says this, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Notice above all, we'll come back to that there toward the end of the message here this evening, Lord willing. But notice we're talking about the shield of faith tonight. We're talking about this aspect of faith. And this is one of those things that are, many times we speak of it in the Christian life. Many times it's something, it's a word that we know, but kind of like prayer, many times we don't use it. When we think of prayer, we talk about it an awful lot, but do we truly understand what prayer is? We've heard it said before, I've said it and many other men as well, that prayer is the weapon that we as believers leave in our closet or leave at home. Many times we leave prayer there. I think oftentimes we leave faith there as well. We will trust Christ as our personal Savior, and then we don't live the faith life. We don't go through our life living the life of faith, and we do ourselves a disservice when we do not take up the shield of faith. So let's go to Lord in prayer, and we'll get into this message here this evening. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you, and we thank you for who you are. We thank you for your Word, Thank you, Lord, for the way that we've been able to study through, Lord, the armor of God and where we are now. Lord, I pray that you would just do a work in our hearts that only you can do. I pray that each one of us would take this shield of faith. And dear God, Lord, that we would just do a great work for you because of the faith that we have in you. Lord, we need your help. We need your strength. And I pray that you'd be with us this evening. Lord, help our minds and our eyes and our hearts to be pointed toward you. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, through this series so far, we've looked at the loins girt about with truth. We've looked at the breastplate of righteousness. We've looked at the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And tonight we're looking at the shield of faith. And I think it's important for us, as I mentioned a little bit ago, when it says, above all, it's important for us to see why this one piece of armor is so important. Now you think about it, we're gonna talk about the helmet of salvation, and we're gonna talk about the sword of the spirit, and we've talked about the feet, and we've talked about the breastplate, and the loins girt abound. We've talked about those things, but it says here, above all, taking the shield, You know this one piece of armor is so important. If you have all of those other pieces, well one would think that you would be okay. But the Word of God says above all, even after it's mentioned these pieces of the armor, it says above all, don't forget the shield of faith. It's a pretty simple truth that we're dealing with tonight, yet it's one that we struggle with so often. And understand, this isn't talking about having a saving faith. Understand the book of Ephesians is given to the church there at Ephesus. It's given to believers there. These are ones that have trusted Christ as their personal savior. And he's writing to a local church, just like this one here, where we've got a group of of believers, ones who have trusted Christ as their Savior. We come together to hear the Word of God preached. We want to know what God's Word says. Well, he's writing a letter to this group of people, ones that have trusted Christ, and he says, above all, he says, take the shield of faith. When a person trusts Christ as their personal Savior, they have that saving faith. But this here tonight is not talking about the saving faith, it's talking about a living faith. Something that we do in our everyday life, something that we forget many times, is living the life When a person trusts Christ as their personal Savior, they are on their way to heaven. But there is a life that we are to live after salvation. And that life will not be easy. It's the life of faith. It's living by faith. Now remember up there in verse 12 when it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And then it says, wherefore, so because of what you've heard, these are things that you need to put on. And I think all of us would agree that we are in a battle in our world today. We would agree that there is wickedness that is running rampant even in a area that we live in that is by the standards, if you will, it's a relatively moral area. Yes, there is sin. Yes, there are sinners. And every one of us are sinners. And we all need God's grace. But we live in a very moral area, a very religious area, if you will. But there's still wickedness all around us. Why? Because we're in a battle. And so because we're in that battle, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. He says, wherefore, and he goes into this armor of God, take on, or wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. Stand therefore, loins girt about with truth, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It talks about the breastplate of righteousness. And because you're in this battle, because of what I mentioned back up here, he says, above all of those things, Don't forget your shield of faith. Don't think that, well, I can put these things on and still live the way that I want. You can't do that. You have to have the shield of faith. Remember all the way back in the beginning of this series, how we talked about each piece of armor being equally important. And we said, well, we cannot get up in the morning and say, well, I wanna take this one, but I don't wanna take this one. No, you either put it all on or you don't put any of it on. You cannot take and choose from the Bible and say, well, I'm in obedience to God's Word. No, if we are only obeying some verses of God's Word, the ones that we feel like obeying, understand we are living in disobedience. We gotta obey it all. It's not easy, I understand that. But the Bible says I can do all things through Christ. It strengthens me. Look at Hebrews chapter 11, if you will. Hebrews chapter 11, a passage we focused on for a good long while through our study in Hebrews. But Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. It says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now as we went through that chapter of Hebrews, and you can find those messages on our sermon audio or through the church app, whatever you'd like to find there. And you can find the messages to the series of Hebrews and we broke that chapter down and each person and how their faith was and how they lived because of their faith and things that God did through their life. And all of us would say, wow, I want God to work through my life like that. Well, how did they do that? Why did God work through that? It's because of that word, faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The faith life is not always going to make sense to the human mind. We'll take it a step further. Very rarely will it make sense to the human mind. So as we consider this area of faith, and we see that it is to be a life of faith for the believer, then there should be some changes. Remember, old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new, the Bible says. So what should we do by faith? If we are to take the shield of faith, if the Bible says here in the book of Ephesians, if it says that we battle not against flesh and blood, and it goes through that list, It starts listing the armor and it says, above all, taking the shield of faith, then what must we do? What is it in our lives that we must do in order to say, I've taken the shield of faith? Well, first of all, letter A there, notice, we must stand. Stand by faith. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter one, if you will. 2 Corinthians chapter one. Second Corinthians chapter one, we must stand by faith. Second Corinthians one in verse 24. Notice the Bible says, not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy, for by faith ye stand. Now notice over in the book of Ephesians as well, in verse 14 or verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, notice, to stand. And then as he goes into that next verse, he says, stand, Therefore, so we must stand by faith. Each one of us, it is impossible for us to say, well, I'm living for the Lord and I've got the shield of faith and I'm going throughout my life and I'm taking this shield of faith with me. I'm living a life that God would be happy with. It's impossible for us to do that if we are unwilling to stand for what the Bible says. If we're wavering, if we're tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine as the Bible says. No, we must stand. Stand for truth. That's what all of us must do. Notice letter B. What else must we do by faith? We must walk. Walk by faith. Stand, it has the idea of being settled in what we believe. We know that this is what the Bible says, therefore that's what we're going to do. But we also must walk by faith. There in 2 Corinthians, I believe five, in verse seven. Notice 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. It says, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Remember as we talked about just a couple messages ago, we talked about how actually it was with the feet shot at the preparation of the gospel of peace. We talked about how God will oftentimes only light up that next step for us. We don't know where the next step's going to be and the one after that, but God is leading us along. We must be walking by faith. When it says there in the passage that we just read in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, for we walk by faith. Well, I just don't understand where it's going to take me. If you understood it, then it wouldn't be the faith life. Because if we understood it, then we could say, well, then I can do that on my own. But when we have to take a step into something that we have no idea about, we can't trust in ourselves for that. We have to trust in God. We must walk by faith. We must stand by faith. We must walk by faith. Something else we must do. We must live by faith. We must live. Notice Galatians chapter 2, in verse 20, Galatians 2.20, the Bible says this, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. living by faith. We must have a life that is completely reliant on God. Now all of us would say, well all of us are reliant on God. None of us could take a breath unless God gave it to us. And we understand that, but the reality is this, we cannot stop it there. No, God wants us, if we are living by faith, if we're going through this life and we're striving to please the Lord and we want to have that that shield of faith there. Understand, God wants it to be more than just, well, I know that God gives me my breath. No, God wants it to be, Lord, where do you want me to go today? Who do you want me to talk to today? What is something that you wanna teach me from your word today? Every single day, living by faith. Something else we must do. There in letter D, notice we must resist the devil. by faith. Look at the book of 1 Peter if you will. Book of 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 8 and 9. 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 8 and 9. The Bible says this, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Notice, whom resist steadfast in the faith. You can't resist the devil without faith. You can't do it. The Bible says here, whom resist? So resist the devil, but you must do that by being steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. We must resist the devil by faith. Well, how do we do that? by following the same pattern that the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ followed when he was in the wilderness. What did he do? When Satan came and he tempted him, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he didn't just rely upon himself. You may say, well, he could because he was God. He was 100% God. He was 100% man. I agree with you there. But you know what he did? He pointed to God's Word. Why? Because the truth is founded upon God's Word. He resisted the devil by saying, it is written. Well, how is that living by faith? Because you're admitting to the devil, it's written and I have faith in someone that's a whole lot more powerful than you are. I have faith in my creator God, the one that created everything. the one who is all powerful. You can resist the devil by faith. Don't allow yourself to go through this life with a defeated mindset. No, take the shield of faith. Resist the devil by faith. And the Bible says, if you resist the devil, he will flee from you, the Bible says. Notice also letter E. What we must do by faith is this, overcome the world. Look at 1 John chapter five. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 4. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world. Notice, even our faith. I didn't do a study on how many times the word faith is mentioned in the Bible, but it's a whole lot of times, I can guarantee you that. Why? Because it's important. Because as we go through life, we are to have faith in God, not in other things. We can't stand by faith without standing on the truth of God's word. We can't live by faith without standing on the truth of God's word. We can't resist the devil without standing by faith on God's power. We cannot overcome the world by standing on our own two feet. No, we must stand on God's word. How do we do that? By faith. You see, every one of these things are aspects of the Christian life because we have, by faith, trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Therefore, we can live the faith life. And what's important for us to understand is this, just as no one can trust the Lord for you by faith, no one can cause you to lose your salvation either. And just as no one can make you live by faith, no one can make you stop living by faith. Well, you just don't understand what that person did to me. That's what threw me off track. Now, if we take our eyes off of God, we can't blame that on anyone but ourselves. on our own sinful flesh. I understand things happen, but the reality is this, many times something will happen, and the one that we take it out on is God Himself, the one that's been there for us the whole time, and we will, rather than saying, Lord, I don't understand why I'm going through this battle, but Lord, I'm going to trust you through that, rather than saying that and having that attitude, the issue is many times we will come to Him with the attitude of, Lord, I don't deserve this. When it's then we need to be reminded the only thing we do deserve is a place in hell. You see by faith we can live for the Lord. And we can have the right mindset. We can overcome this sinful world by having faith in the Lord. No one can cause you to stop living the faith life. But you must make the decision to live the faith life. Satan cannot make you live a faithless life, but you can allow Satan's tactics to cause you to live a faithless life. Faith can be and should be increased every single day. Look at the book of Luke, if you will, Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17 in verse five. Luke 17 in verse five. needs to be our prayer of course this is the Apostles talking to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Luke 17 verse 5 it says and the Apostles said unto the Lord increase our faith well wait a second they were they were already saved they were literally walking with the Lord Where he went, they went. Where he slept, that's where they slept. Where he was eating, that's exactly where they were eating. You don't get closer to the Lord, physically speaking, than the apostles were. But they asked him, Lord, increase our faith. Why is that? Because they understood something that we need to understand, and that is this, we should be growing in our faith every single day. Because any day that goes by that we don't grow closer to the Lord, understand we've made the decision to pull ourselves further away from Him. We must grow closer to him. These were his disciples. They were with Christ and they asked him to increase their faith. What makes us think that we can just go through life not reading our Bibles, not praying, not serving the Lord faithfully and think that we're going to live victoriously? You see, those are things that we should be doing, but if we aren't willing to put in the work, we're going to live defeated lives. Well, how do I increase my faith? Stay in God's word. Stay on your knees before God. When it comes to faith, the Bible mentions three levels of faith. Look at Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four in verse 40. Mark chapter four in verse 40. Mark chapter four and verse 40, the Bible says this, and he said unto them, this is the Lord speaking, why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Who is he speaking to here? The apostles. He was speaking to the ones that were with him. And he says, how is it that you have no faith? They were with the Lord. Some may say, well, I know I have faith because I've trusted Christ as my Savior. That doesn't mean you're carrying the shield of faith. That doesn't mean you're living the life of faith. Look at Matthew chapter 6 in verse 30. This is another level of faith, if you will. So first of all, we saw no faith. Notice this one here in Matthew 6, 30. The Bible says, wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith. So we see no faith. We see little faith. And then notice Matthew chapter 15 and verse 28. Matthew chapter 15 and verse 28. The Bible says this, then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Understand there was those three levels there, no faith, little faith, great faith. If we're honest with ourselves and honest before the Lord tonight, I think we desire for the Lord to say that we have great faith. But more often than not, we're in the no faith to little faith category, are we not? Because we want to do things our own way. We want to follow our own thoughts. We want to follow what makes sense in our mind. But this woman here in Matthew chapter 15, she placed her faith in the Lord. And he said, great is thy faith. So which one do we have? If we think we have great faith, well, most likely we're in those first two categories, but if we are willing to do as we see over in the book of Mark, Mark chapter nine in verse 24, notice what this verse says, and straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears. Now, before I read what he says here, understand If we are willing to pray this prayer, if we're willing to ask the Lord for this, understand God's going to do something in our life. It says this, in a straight way, the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. That's coming to an end of ourselves and saying, Lord, I believe that you can do this. but I also know that I have a sinful flesh. I also know that there's going to be attacks from Satan. I know that the wiles of the devil are going to be coming at me. I know that he's going to be trying to throw me off track. And I know there's going to be times of unbelief. Lord, I believe you can do this, but Lord, would you help my unbelief? That's living the faith life. Many times we think of, well, if someone was living the faith life, they had to be this great giant of the faith and everybody knows their name, know some of the most faithful people that I've ever met in my life. Most people wouldn't look at them and say, wow, look at their life. But people know that they're prayer warriors. People know that they had been through some battles and they came out on the other side they gave glory to God for what he did through that. How can you grow your faith? By daily taking steps to move in that direction, be on an upward trend, be in your Bible, pray and live faithfully for the Lord, carry the shield of faith. The ones who live by faith are the ones who strive daily to increase their faith. So first of all, we asked ourselves, what should we do by faith? Notice second of all, and quickly here this evening, notice why is faith a necessity? Why is it a necessity? Why is it important? And speaking of salvation, we would say that one trusts Christ by faith. It is by grace through faith, the Bible says. But what about living the Christian life? Why is it so important that we take this shield of faith, that we carry this shield of faith with us? Why is that important? Well, first of all, letter A there is this, because faith is necessary, notice, to please God. It's necessary. Well, I can please God without doing these things because I know some of these other things. No, the Bible says that it's impossible to please God without faith. Look at Hebrews chapter 11 and verse six. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse six. The Bible says this, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. Absolutely impossible. Well, I'm striving to please the Lord. Not if we're not willing to live by faith or not. The Bible says it's impossible to please Him without As we go through life, we try to make up our own rules. We try to live by our standards. And when we don't want to abide by the biblical standard, we attempt to justify ourselves by saying things like, well, God understands. No, he doesn't understand. The thing that God sees and when we don't obey his word, when we don't give ourselves wholeheartedly over to him, what he sees is disobedient children. That's what he sees. The Bible doesn't say that pleasing God without faith is doable as long as you do X, Y, and Z. No. It says clearly in His Word that without faith it is impossible to please Him. I believe that all believers would say, I want to please the Lord. I want to live a life that is pleasing to Him. But if we're unwilling to live a life of faith, if we're unwilling to carry the shield of faith, understand we are not acting in obedience to the Lord, therefore we're not pleasing Him. All of us that are parents, we understand that when we tell our children to do something, it pleases us when they obey what they've been told to do. every one of us, and growing up we had a parent or a loved one that told us what we were to do, and we know that it pleased them by our obedience. Why do we think it's any different with God? Why do we think that we get a pass just because God is up there in the galaxy somewhere? No, God is, remember a friend that sticketh closer than a brother? He's right here with us. And without faith, it's impossible to please Him. So faith is necessary to please God. Notice the second blank there. Faith is necessary for this, for the battle that we're in. We just talked about the battle earlier, and in 1 Timothy 1, notice what the apostle Paul says to young Timothy here. 1 Timothy 1, verse 18 and 19, notice he says this, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. Notice, holding faith and a good conscience. which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. Notice he says that thou mightest war a good warfare holding faith. Church we're in a battle. This battle that we're in, we need faith in order to make it through this battle. He told him here to war a good warfare, holding faith. You may say, well, Lord, I just don't know how I can make it through this battle. Hold on to faith. I don't know how I can have the victory by faith. I don't think I can do this. You know what God says? You're right, you can't do this. He says, but I can. And I can help you through these things. He says, just have faith that I will protect you, that I will take care of you. So understand, if God is going to take care of us, then what should we do in our daily lives? In 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12, notice the Bible says this, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, the Bible says, whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. So notice, there's going to be battles, there's going to be struggles, and the Apostle Paul was telling young Timothy here that he needs to stand for truth, he needs to stand for right. There's a battle that's coming. He says, fight the good fight of faith. We must be fighting the good fight. This was the way to live victoriously in Bible times, and it's still the way to live victoriously today, by fighting the good fight of faith. We may not know which direction to go, but we are told in God's word how we are to live. We may not know where this path is going to end up, but we are to be reading and studying the word of God. We may not know who will trust Christ, but we do know that we are to tell everyone about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We may not know what God's plan and desire is for us in all of its details, but we do know that he desires for us to follow him and to serve him. Fighting the fight of faith isn't supposed to be in bickering and fighting within the church. No, it's speaking of living the life of faith. Living a life in which we put God first and say, God, what you want, that's what I'm going to do. God where you lead me, that's where I'm going to go. This morning I was talking to Miss Judy and she called me this morning I guess around 630 or 645 or so and they were getting ready to take Robert up to Lancaster General and of course you could tell over the phone how She was kind of downhearted and you know, I understand that and dealing with health things it's never easy to go through that and and Told her I said we'll be praying for you and keep me updated and she called me a couple hours later and She had a little bit more pep in her voice if you will and And I asked her, I said, do you have any answers yet? And she said, no, they're still running tests, but I wanted to call and share this with you. She said, the person that came in to do the blood work for Robert, a young girl, I believe she said her name was Danielle, but I may have that wrong there. Anyway, she said she came in and while she was in, she said, I gave her a gospel track. She said, and this young girl looked at me and said, You'll never believe this, but my sister was just talking to me about this yesterday. And I told Ms. Judy, I said, don't overlook the fact, don't allow Satan to get you down. I understand we're gonna go through battles and trials and those types of things. I said, but what you just did is living the faith life. Lord, I know I'm going through a battle. I know I'm going through a struggle. I know that the situation that we're in right now, I may not have all of the answers to these things, but Lord, I'm not gonna keep that, I'm not going to allow that to keep me from obeying what you've told me to do. She was a completely different person from the 6.30 phone call to that later phone call. Why? Because she was living the faith life. Because she was doing what God called her to do. I appreciate testimonies like that. Why? Because they challenge me to live the faith life. Because we get so bent out of shape on such petty things so often. I know in my life I do. When I should just be giving it to God. We're in a battle and we need to live by faith. Notice the next thing here, letter C, I believe it is. Faith is necessary, notice, for answered prayers. How many in here have ever had a prayer answered by God? Amen, praise the Lord. How many in here are praying for things now and you're praying in faith, believing that God's going to answer that? Yeah, same ones. You know, faith is necessary for answered prayer. Necessary. Look at Matthew chapter 21, if you will. Matthew chapter 21 and verse 22. Matthew chapter 21 and verse 22. Notice, and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, notice this word, Believing. What does that word mean? It's talking about faith. Believing. Ye shall receive. Look over at the book of James, if you will. James chapter one and verse six. James chapter one and verse six. We'll read verse five and six. The Bible says this in James chapter one, verse five and six. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Notice we see this word believing. Are we praying in faith believing? As we go through this list that we pray through on Wednesday evenings, and maybe you take this home with you and you pray through these things throughout the week, are we praying for them just as a name on a sheet or are we praying in faith believing, Lord, I know you're going to do something. Lord, I know that you can answer each and every one of these. Lord, I'm praying in faith believing that that's what you're going to do. I pray that you're going to save these ones in the salvation column. I pray that these ones with spiritual needs, Lord, you're going to work in their heart. These other needs and health needs, those types of things, Lord, I know that you can and you will answer these. Is that how we're praying or we just read through a list of names? Let's pray in faith, believing too often. We think that if we just say some words or whether they're in our heart or out loud that we have prayed, but that isn't biblical prayer. A biblical prayer is praying in faith, believing notice that verse that we read there notice. let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. That word wavering, it means firm and has the idea of standing firm. We need to ask in faith, realizing that by God's word, by God's ability, these things are going to be answered. But too often we pray for something and that's the last time we ever bring it up. Why is that? Because many times we're not living by faith. We're not praying in faith, believing that God's going to take care of it. Don't allow yourself, especially in your prayer life, to be tossed and driven with the wind. Pray specifically for things. Why is it that many times we miss when God answers a prayer, if you will? Because many of our prayers are just in generality. Every one of us have family members that are unsaved. We know that God knows each and every one of them. And when we pray, Lord, I know I've got family members that are unsaved. Lord, I pray that you would save their souls. But when's the last time we mentioned them by name or we've said, Lord, and mentioned a name and said, would you give me the opportunity to tell them about you? What are we doing there? We're telling the Lord, I'm willing to put feet to these prayers. That's praying and faith believing. Lord, I'm willing to do whatever you want me to do. Lord, I'm willing to take a step of faith here. When's the last time we put ourselves on the line? Notice pray in faith believing. Number four, letter D, notice this, faith is needed for obedience. It's for obedience. We talked about that a little bit ago. Notice another verse in Mark chapter 11. Mark 11 in verse 22, the Bible says this, Mark 11, 22, and Jesus answering, saith unto them, have faith in God. Have faith in God. How am I going to do this? Have faith in God. How am I going to get through this battle? Have faith in God. Lord, I just don't see a way out of this financial difficulty. Have faith in God. If we're going to obey the Word of God, we must have faith in God. Also notice there as well, lastly under Roman numeral two, notice faith is needed. Now notice here, and I'll explain this in a moment, faith is needed to keep from sinning. I'm not preaching sinless perfection tonight. I understand we have a wicked flesh and we live in a wicked world. You may say, wait a second preacher, I can't live a life and never sin. I've tried that. It hasn't worked out yet. I understand that's not what I'm saying. Not because of a lack of God's power. but because many times we sin because of our unwillingness to carry the shield of faith. Think about when we sin. Of course, sin is rooted in pride. I believe you can trace any sin back to that root of pride. It has something to do with what we want or how we feel or what we wanna do and those types of things. But understand if we are living the faith life, if we are obeying God's word and we're allowing God to direct our path and we're allowing God to guide our steps, He's never going to lead us into sin. So how is it that we sin? We take our eyes off of God. So when I say here that faith is needed to keep from sinning, understand I'm not talking about sinlessness. I'm talking about how we should sin less the more we lean on God. We need to rely on His will and His power more than our wants and our desires. God's will will never cause us to sin, and when we truly have faith in God, understand God is not leading us into sin, and there are times in which we take our eyes off of Christ, as Peter did, and what happens? We begin to sink. Just as it took faith to be saved, it takes faith to live the Christian life. And the shield of faith is a necessity. So we saw what we should do by faith. We see why faith is a necessity. Lastly, I want us to see So how can we increase our faith? How is it that our faith can be increased? And have you seen that in every area of faith, in all of these verses that we've read here tonight, and there's so many more, possibly hundreds more verses on faith, but every single one of these come back to God's working in our lives. but we have to allow Him. You know, God gave us a free will. God's not going to cause us to live by faith or make us and force us to live by faith. He's not going to do that. He gives us a free will. But when we allow ourselves to live a life relying on ourselves rather than relying on God, we have no right in getting upset with God in the way that our life turns out. because he gave us the guidebook. So how can we increase our faith if we're to carry the shield of faith? And if it is impossible to please God without faith, then it should be our desire to get all of the faith that we can to grow our faith to its fullest extent. But why do we live a defeated life rather than a life of faith? Here's why. Simple answer. Because it's easier. Because it feels better. Our flesh doesn't want to live a life of faith. Our flesh wants to do the opposite of what God says. And when we do that, you know what our flesh feels? Our flesh feels fulfilled. It feels pleasured. The Bible says the pleasures of sin last only for a season. It doesn't say there's no pleasure in sin. No, there is. That's why our flesh goes to that. It's easier. It's easier to chase our own ideas than it is to follow God's plan. You know, when you chase your own ideas, you're going to have all kinds of people on your side, all kinds of people cheering you on. You follow God's plan and many times you find that you're alone, just you and God. Your flesh will never fight against you following your own ideas, but it will constantly fight against you following God's plan. So with that being said, I wanna give us these three things we must do in order to increase our faith, and they're very simple things, but they will help us increase our faith. And that's this, first of all, read the Word of God. Read the Word of God. When someone trusts Christ as their personal Savior, the first thing I tell them is this, be in the Bible. You know what I ask them? Do you own a copy of God's Word? They say yes, of course I'll tell them, be in God's Word. If they say no, I'll say, I'm gonna get you a Bible and I'll come back here and I'll grab a Bible off the shelf and I'll hand it to them, because I want them to see how important it is to be in God's Word. It is impossible to live the faith life and take the shield of faith and live that way without being in God's Word. Listening to it. Reading it allowing it to just speak to your heart. Look at Romans chapter 10 in verse 17 Notice what the Bible says Romans 10 17. It says so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God One man said this faith is simply taking God at his Word that's Simple but very profound is it not? The more we hear His Word, the more our faith will increase. Why is it important for us to be in church faithfully? Because this is where the Word of God is preached. And we need the Word of God to be preached to us. Too often we spend our time looking around at what everyone else is doing and what everyone else is being distracted by. And we miss the fact that we are here to hear from God. The Bible produces faith in an unbeliever, but it grows the faith. of a believer as well. A Christian is to grow in their faith. And as the Bible says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So we must read the word of God. Notice second of all, and this is something that helps me, and I try to do this throughout the week. In most weeks, God is my witness, most weeks, I'm able to do this and partake of quite a bit, and that is this, listen to preaching. Listen to the preaching of God's word. I'm not just talking about in this building. I'm talking about throughout the week. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter one, if you will. 1 Corinthians chapter one in verse 21. The Bible says this, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God. by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Something that I try to do often is listen to preaching. I have several different men that I'll listen to and the Lord uses the preaching to speak to my heart. Why is that? Because they're Bible preachers. because they're preaching what God wants me to hear. And if someone is a Bible preacher, their message will be filled with the Word of God, because preaching and the Word of God are both used to produce and grow faith in the heart of man. There are things that the Lord will lead us to do as a church. Some of those will be large steps of faith, and we need to be ready to take those as they come. And the Lord is working behind the scenes, always in some areas, and no doubt they will try our faith. So how do we How do we prepare ourselves to take that large step of faith when the Lord brings us there by allowing Him to grow our faith today? Growing our faith every day. One thing that is true is that when the Lord leads the pastor in the church to make a great step of faith, the naysayers are often the ones who have refused to grow their faith. They're not in the Word of God. They haven't been living a life of faith. Church, I don't want that to be me. I don't wanna be the one that holds back what God is trying to do. I wanna be the one that says, God, I may not understand all of the details, but Lord, I know this is the way you're moving us. I know this is the way you're moving my family and moving myself. Let's be growing our faith. Get on board with what the Lord's trying to do in your life. The Lord will teach us through his word and through the preaching of his word. And then notice, lastly here, number three, and that's this, endure trials. Endure trials. Look at the book of 1 Peter. 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 6 and 7 it says wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be you're in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ out of the Three things that we discussed here on growing our faith, this is by far the hardest one to do, enduring trials. Because enduring is not just going through. Enduring has the idea of staying faithful through the trial, trusting God through it. Many times we say, well, I'll take the faith, but Lord, just hold the trial, if you will. We don't wanna go through trials. I've never met anyone that said, well, I just can't wait to go through a trial. But I've met an awful lot of people who have said, I never realized how far I was from God until I went through that trial. Never realized how close I could get with God, how sweet the fellowship could be until I went through that trial. Paul asked the Lord three times to remove his thorn in the flesh, and God didn't remove it. Instead, God gave him grace to get through it. And this is when we read, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. What did the apostle Paul, what was his response to God saying no? He said, then I'll glory in my infirmities. Lord, it doesn't make sense to me, but I'm going to glory in it. because I know this is what's best. It's easy to say I have faith, but that's going to be put to the test when trials come. How do you respond to trials? How do you respond to difficulties, to hardships? Trials will increase our faith. There was a man that was walking along the edge of a cliff And he saw something down at the bottom there, and he said, you know, if I could have someone small enough, I could take a rope, and I could lower them down, and they could grab that, and I could pull them back to safety. And as he's thinking about that, this young man runs by, this little boy, and he asked him, he said, he said, excuse me, he said, you see that thing down there? He said, I really want that. He said, I'll tell you what, I've got this rope here, and I'm gonna lower you down, and I want you to grab that for me, then I'll pull you back to safety. Are you willing to do that? And the young man said, yes, I'm willing to do that, but I'll be right back. Young man runs away, comes back with another adult man, And the man standing there, he said, well, why did you bring this person? He said, I thought, you know, I had the rope here and I was just gonna lower you down. He goes, I'm not afraid of going down there, as long as my dad's holding the line. Young man didn't know this other man. He didn't know if he would let him fall, but he knew by faith that he had in his father, he's not going to let me fall. That's living the faith life, when we have that kind of faith in our Heavenly Father. But boy, we rely on man's wisdom an awful lot, don't we? Rather than saying, I know God's not gonna let me fall. I know He'll never let me down. He's never let me down before. Why do I think He would let me down now? That's taking the shield of faith. There are different ones. Some here tonight and some not able to be here because of trials that they're going through, health things and things like that. Going through some trials, can I encourage us tonight, whether you're in a trial, whether you're coming out of a trial or going into a trial, whatever it may be, have faith in God. Trust in Him. Realize He's the one holding the rope. He's not gonna let you down. Above all, taking the shield of faith. Each and every one of us need to live the faith life. We can overcome temptations and we can be shielded from Satan's attacks if we have faith in God.