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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.
Shield of Faith
Series The Armour of God
I. What Should We Do by Faith?
A. Stand
B. Walk
C. Live
D. Resist the Devil
E. Overcome the World
II. Why is Faith a Necessity?
A. To Please God
B. For the Battle We Are In
C. For Answered Prayer
D. For Obedience
E. To Keep From Sinning
III. How Can We Increase Our Faith?
A. Read the Word of God
B. Listen to Preaching
C. Endure Trials
| Sermon ID | 52241055564783 |
| Duration | 54:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 6:16 |
| Language | English |
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