If you're up here, if you'd grab your sword or the Bible, and we'll turn to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6. Had the air going all week, and then this morning, the temperature dropped, so we turned on the heat for a minute. Didn't seem like it took a second to get it hot, so I just turned it off. And so, if it's getting hot in here, it's all you guys. You're just little furnaces cooking away. But we try to make it as pleasant as possible, but it's just that time of year where nothing works. Ephesians six. Ephesians six, we're in the armor of God. Matter of fact, we're gonna talk about the fourth piece, verse 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." The fourth piece of the armor. It's the first piece that we don't really wear. It's the first piece that you wield. It's one that you have, you take up. It's one that you carry, you have in your hand. It's something that you move about. So it's different than the belt of truth that's on you, girding you, as it calls it, a girdle almost, but it's that wide belt that gives you the strength like a muscle builder. The breastplate of righteousness that you strap on that kind of clings together with the belt of truth that protects you in front and behind you with Christ's righteousness that is there, plus your testimony that builds upon it. The gospel boots, the firm foundation that we stand upon, that we have salvation, that we have a tread, a grip that will not be pushed and shoved aside. No, it is one that digs in, that stands, that holds the line, that we do not compromise, that we do not give up on the gospel. But now we have a shield of faith that's flexible and movable. And so this piece takes practice. So listen up, soldiers. I hope this becomes practical for us today. Verse 11 of Ephesians 6 says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. He makes a point here because I think he knows how we are in advertising. You repeat something two or three times for people to get it. If you all remember the one, rub it on your head, rub it on your head. Anybody remember that Asper thing? The head is like a bar, you rub it on your head. That's all the commercial was. You rub it to your head. Maybe only stuck with me. You're looking at me like, maybe I was watching TV too late. But it was like, you just put it on your head. God's telling us, it's like, you need the whole armor. Not just your favorite piece. You need it all. And the same thing in verse 13. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand. It's reiterated because I think God knows us. We take shortcuts. all the time, that's just kind of how we are. We atrophy, we get lazy, we get comfortable. When the astronauts come down from the space station, they can't walk because you get lazy, your muscles are like, I don't have to do this, I quit. They said bumblebees and they took them up, got where they didn't fly around, they just went little burst and they'd fly across the coast. We adjust to whatever's easiest, whatever's lightest. I think we've all known that, you know, when your wife puts a carpet in, you didn't know about, you trip on it, because it's this high off the floor, because you only pick your foot up just enough to be able to walk, you know, but ah, something will trip you, something new in that spot. God knows that, so he's like, put on the whole armor. Put on the whole armor. He tells us more than once. God's order's never out of order, as we talked about. You start with truth, it's what girds us. It's the girdle, it's the belt, it's the support that we have. This is true, God's word is true. We have the acronym, it would be it. Every word in the Bible is? Absolutely true, we believe it. You put on the breastplate of righteousness. It's Christ's righteousness that got to close you. It's a foreign righteousness. But then we build upon that as we begin to grow our testimony. It's a shield before us and behind us that we don't even have to handle or wield that Christ kind of has us guarded and protected in. It's followed by the boots. Preparation of the gospel of peace, where we understand salvation, and then we prepare to be able to share salvation. How is it we share? When we practice, there's different ways, there's different methods, and we've given several here, and we're not going to stop. We'll go over and we'll reiterate those. I try to say things the same way, so that we are prepared, and so that muscle memory kicks in. Oh, it's like this, repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ. you know, that we would have it. And so it's the preparation, it's being armed with tracks and t-shirts or whatever else, different things to be prepared to give a reason of the hope that lies within you, that we are prepared for this, that we stand on it, that we know it, that we practice it. You know, unless we think, oh no, someone might ask me. No, we want to be, yes, someone asked me to be prepared as a soldier. Now you get to verse 16, it starts out with above all taking the shield of faith, above all, He's listed it down here in the line. It's the fourth piece. But he's saying here, pay special attention to. Don't forget the shield, especially. Above all, the shield. It could be one thing. If my wife gave me a grocery list, make sure you get this, make sure you get that. And then above all, don't forget the milk. You'll have to have it. She expects me to get everything else on the list, but she's making special importance that I know to take care to get the milk. Here, God is saying, I want you to have it all on the whole armor. I've told you twice, but above all, don't forget your faith. Don't forget that shield. Why? Verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, And he tells us how we can use it here. With wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. How many? All. All the fiery darts of the wicked. What wicked? What are we getting ourselves into? Is it the wickedness of Satan, the devil? Probably. Maybe, sometimes. Your shield can answer him, blow for blow. Your shield of faith is strong enough to withstand Lucifer himself. Is it the wickedness of men? Our fellow men out there trying to pull us down? Yes, your shield can resist men. Because God has given it to you. He is trustworthy. He is the one who is able. He is the one who is strong enough. And so yes, your shield of faith is strong enough to resist mankind, men, as they lobby things against you. Is it strong enough? Is it maybe built for us here? Is he saying the wickedness of yourself? probably our most common enemy, probably the one that probably yields us the most is that old man that raises his head again saying, feed me, satisfy me, cool my flesh, all those things. Yes, the shield of faith is strong enough to overcome him. That's why he has given us this, and that's why he said the wicked. It's all of them, the world, the flesh, and the devil. It'll take on all of them. He's given us and equipped us with the shield of faith that is available for us if we would but yield it. And he told us here, he says, above all, Above all, have your shield of faith. I know I've told you this before, but I'm gonna tell you again. But when you were born again, the day you repented of your sins and you asked Jesus Christ to save you, you were born into a war. You were thrust onto opposing forces. You were in one team where things seemed like they were going fine. They didn't have that much opposition. Then you switch sides and all of a sudden you catch the devil's eye. You catch the enemy's attention now. You switch teams. Now you become a target. You become a focus of this. And so, in a sense, we're like the Spartans. The Spartans were a unique culture. In Spartans, they were a warrior society. That's how their whole everything worked. That's what they were built upon. That's what their drive was to be, is that it was built on some basic principles on discipline. They were a disciplined group of people. They did not have a lot of fluff. They even kind of prized themselves on being very minimalistic, but not having much because they were ready to go to war at any time. That's what their whole mindset was. They had a duty to fellow Spartans. It was not about themselves and who they were, but what could they do for Sparta? That's what they lived for. In that kind of sense, it's like dying to self, living for others in that way. And it was a collective strength. They knew within themselves they were to hold up their part, but it was all them that came together that made Sparta this fighting force that they were to be. And so that's a big part of our structure. We're born into that. That we are to be disciplined, we're to have a duty, we're to have a collective strength, and let alone we have the secret weapon that God is our strength, that we stand against. Every male in Sparta began training to be a warrior at seven years old. So TJ, my grandson, he'll be seven this month. And so he'll be training to be a soldier. Can you imagine that? That kind of discipline, talking about death and how to kill, building up their body, building up everything in them to train them to be able to fight, to hold and wield the shield. The mothers would say to their sons as they would go off to the battlefield, take care, son. Don't lose your shield. You better return with your shield or be prepared to return upon it. So basically your shield was a vital thing. They're like, don't lose your shield. You mind your shield and you either, Return with it, or you'll return upon it, because it was a big shield. They're going to drag you back in. He said, she was like, but you remember that? They trained with the shield. They practiced with the shield. We are to practice with the shield above all. Forget not the shield of faith. Every male is to become a soldier. Warfare was their highest honor. It was a self-sacrifice. It was the obedience to the group, you know, to go forth and to fight. It was the endurance, was to be prized, you know, something that they would keep on and they could push longer, harder, and faster and wear out the opposing forces. We're to be undaunting. We're to never rest. We're to press towards the mark. We're to be marching, pressing forward, onward, Christian soldier, marching as to war. We're to do that. We are too, like the Spartans, we are born to be warriors. Are we? Do we choose to be? That's the challenge for us. You were born into a war. So understand, you will be assaulted. you will be attacked by the enemy. So don't be shocked when the attacks come. We just went through the book of Acts. Paul was attacked constantly. Worse than any of us ever will be. He never lost face, never once. His shield was strong until the very end. Matter of fact, he counted it a joy to be able to have one life, to be able to live as Christ, to die as gain. I'm getting confused with a patriot. But here it says, here he is. We are required when you're born into this family, this warrior group, as soldiers of Christ, it'll be required for us to defend the faith. So don't be shocked by it. It is required for you to defend the faith. Be ready always to give an answer for the reason of the hope that lies within you. It's required that we defend the faith. It's required of us to resist the devil. Now he tells us, resist the devil and he will flee. He's given us a shield, he's given us good boots. He says, you resist and he will flee. We are expected to stand against the wiles of the devil, knowing that he's gonna trick us, he's gonna try to come against us, and so we test all things, examine all things, and we hope fast for that which is good and true, that God has told us about. We are to know the word, be saturated in it, that we can wield the shield of faith. Know this, you will be a sorry soldier if all you did was defense. We're not just called to sit here and defend. Soldiers are often called upon to attack. We're called to go out. We're called to confront. You will have to move against the foes at some point in time. God will stir it up within you enough to say, you need to act. And brother, sister, you better act. If your king has called you to do it. Sometimes we might have to cut off the enemy's attack and we're saying, oh, you can do that in Ohio, but not in Indiana. You might do that in Marion County, not in Johnson County, not in our schools, not in our area. And we stand up and we give voice to it. Shame on us if we haven't been doing it, but we better be doing it because we're getting the results of what we haven't done. It's because the church has been silent and the church has been sitting. So we're called to do that. We head off advances. When we see trends that things are going, we're like, no, no, no, not here. We instruct our children. I instruct you. We instruct each other. We warn. We put it out. We're like, no, not here. We don't have that. Not in our community. hopefully not in our country, as we rally together. Maybe we'll be called to be like Joshua, to drive the Canaanites out of the land, to say, no, no more. Flee from here, away from our families, away from our kids. We don't want your pollution here anymore. I think we might be in the beginning of a season like that, when we're saying, we're sick of the evil. Get it out of here, get it done. We don't want it. We never were that way. We're not going to be that way. Oh, I hope the church isn't silent. As those turns come to us, how are we gonna speak up? What are we gonna say? What are we gonna do? Sometimes we're called to attack. We cannot be content to hide in church. to only speak up or to speak out when the saints are assembled together. It's easy. It's easier for me to stand here and address like-minded folks. It is harder to go to the school board, to stand and confront the principal, to go to the town council or to say something to someone else. It is hard to your boss, your manager, whatever else that they're trying to implement. You're like, this is not Godly. This is not right. I cannot do that. So yeah. But we can't just hide here. We can't just sit here. We are called to leave this fortress. We're called to be in the world, but not of it. We're to be a change agent. We're ambassadors for the cause of Christ. We're to be out speaking of him, telling of him, inviting others, changing the world by changing the enemies and to fellow soldiers, you know, by witnessing to them. We are expected to go out and pull down enemy strongholds as well. They can build a fortress and they can think, oh no, the school's ours. And we can say, oh no, not on our watch. And we go out there and we pull it away and we recapture it for Christ. Praise be that in our community, we have Bible clubs. It's rare when you tell somebody that we have a Bible club in a school, people are like, what? Shouldn't be. You know, the first schools were all started and supported by churches. The first basic textbook that the schools had was the Bible. How far have we gone? Let's pull down those strongholds. Let's clean things up. Let's do our job. The word here for the shield, above all, taking the shield of faith, is a specific shield. It's a door shield. It's not like a little shield. These are just easier to move around. This is easier for demonstration. And during the summer, I did build a big door shield. But imagine a door. It's basically like that. If you see the picture, There's no knob on it, you know, it's got the handle on the back, you know, well not with Gorilla Tape, but you know, but weld it all together. But it's a good door shield, something you can get behind. You know, if I was to step in the battlefield and they're like, arrows are coming, I'm probably going to get hit. You know, it's like, there's too much of me, too little shield. So you need to have a big shield, one that would protect the whole man. The whole man can get behind it. You know what it also protects? It protects your armor, it protects your helmet, it protects your boots, it protects your belt, it protects your breastplate, it protects all those things because you can get it all behind there and it shields it. Your faith is what protects and guards against the truth that you know, against the righteousness that's been given to you, the salvation that you have upon your head and the gospel boots that you're going to proclaim. Your faith is the first line of defense that is out there and it's big and it's strong and it's as big as a door that you can get behind. It's going to protect the whole man. It's a shield of shields of sort. I told you when we talked about the breastplate that it's like, yeah, it's a shield, an inner shield, and the shield of faith is the outer shield. So it's the shield of the shields. Your helmet is a shield for your head, but you can put behind the shield of shields when you get behind the shield of your faith. I'll tell you this also. Your shield better be of one solid piece. You don't want any patchwork shield. You don't want something that's cobbled together. You don't want something that when a blow comes against it, it glances and it goes, it finds no purchase. There is no spot for it to dig in, like Smaug having a missing piece of scale that he's able to be killed. That's Lord of the Rings reference for nerds. But you don't want a spot, you don't want an opening there. You wanna make it one piece. One piece made out of a solid, finished work of Christ. Christ alone. That's who we put our faith and trust in, right? Christ alone, God alone, and his word alone. We believe in him and we believe in it. We trust it. We're not trusting in anything else. That's not our faith. We're not trusting in our flesh. We're not trusting in, well, my water baptism, it was such a thing. I made this decision. It was all about you. Water baptism is a great thing, but that's not your salvation. And if you're trusting in that, that's not much of a shield. Water is not much a protector. If you're trusting in church membership, don't trust in that. Churches change to and fro. I think many of the founders of most churches would be rolling in their grave if they knew what they stood for today. It is nothing what the Bible says. And they would be like, what? And how far have we come? The apostasy is upon us. Is it a denominationalism? It's like, oh, you know, what are you? Why would you go to heaven? I'm a Catholic, I'm a Lutheran, I'm a Methodist. It's like, no, I'm a Christian. I stand on Christ and Christ alone, Him first and foremost. You stand in Christ and Him alone and not some other man? I'm not trusting in John Calvin. I'm not trusting in any of these guys that are out there. No, I'm trusting in Him. Don't trust in your family heritage that you claim as we are 10 generations of Christians. That is great. But if you're counting on your parents being Christian, making you a Christian, That is a faulty shield. It needs to be your faith, one that you've decided, one that you've chosen, something you've made your own. You can't live on grandpa's faith. Well, I had a grandpa who was a preacher 10 generations ago. Good. How are you believing? What are you trusting in? We can't trust in that. You trust in Jesus Christ, Him alone, one solid shield, not some patchwork thing that is put together, just Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the answer. If we don't know anything, know that Jesus is the answer and he is trustworthy. He is a good shield. He is a good shield. He is a good shield against death. Wages of sin is death, but Jesus Christ is our salvation. Just Jesus, trust wholly, firmly, desperately cling to him and him alone. That is the shield of faith that we are talking about. This solid piece, like the ones that they had Solomon had made of gold, solid in there and rich and expensive, we have that. If your shield is made of any other stuff, it will be of no use to you. It will fail you every time, which means it's no shield at all. It is no shield at all. Jesus is your shield of faith. And you want a shield that's agreeable with God's word, dependent upon his promises. You want a shield that knows it's true and you know it's true. You want a shield that you can put your faith in, a faithful faith shield. You wanna have faith in it. You want it to be fixated and focused on Jesus. You want it to be like a laser that combines it all together. My shield, my faith always goes back to Christ. Always points to Him. That's what the Bible does, it points to Him. That's what our faith should be, it rests in Him. My faith has found a resting place, right? Jesus Christ. It might take a strong arm to grip it. The back of a shield does have a handle, and you're gonna have to grab a hold of it and have it firmly affixed, and so grip hold of it. That's why it tells us here, above all, above all, take in the shield of faith. It's something we're to handle, something we're to know, it's something we're to practice with when we're not in the battle. Never let go of your faith. Never let go of your shield. We can't just let it sit in the corner over there and never address it. No, you need to keep it out and keep it fresh. Know what you believe and why you believe it. If you have questions or doubts or concerns, you work on them all the time to make sure that that shield is strong and solid and one piece. It is a faith like a door. Never leave it. You cling to it. A hand that understands grace. That's what we're gonna hold against it. Because as the devil brings stuff against us, understand it's by God's grace that we're given this shield. It's not by my merit, not by my works. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, that I have this, we're to understand that. And grace never lets go. I am so thankful for grace. Why am I saved? Grace. How could I be saved? Grace. You know, because God has done this. God has saved me out of his unmerited favor. I do not deserve it. Men and the devil will try to wrestle your faith away. In a field conflict with the Grecian soldiers, the idea was to get in close, wrestle the shield away so you can get your knife underneath and do damage to the soldier. The enemy is not stopped. If He can attack your faith, if He can pry your faith away from you, not have it close that you're hiding behind, if He can make an opening, if He can find a weak spot, if He can find that thing that you're trusting in that's not Christ, He will expose it and take advantage of it and try to destroy you as a soldier. Do not let it happen. Guard your faith. Protect your faith. Build up your faith, soldier. That's what we're to be doing. That's why we assemble together as soldiers here, to build our faith, to work on these things, to be instructed, to be guided, so that we know. That's why we read our Bible. So guard your guard, because the shield of faith is your guard. The thing that protects all of you, the whole man that is there. See, the enemy will try to trip you up. Maybe he'll try to get you to lift it too high, expose your ankles. Go with those. And yeah, he can just mislead you now or make you stumble. And no, use your shield of faith, block off whatever it might be to make you trip you up. I don't care what YouTube guy, what he has and what great AI video he has, graphics that go with it. He's probably heard about it for 10 minutes. Now he's making a video. You're gonna let that shake your faith? It used to be we had to worry about the Discovery Channel or CBS, NBC, ABC or somebody as they would attack 60 minutes, attack your faith. Now we have all these independents out there just trying to get a view. They're gonna go at things that make you say, I don't know. Is the Bible really real? Did they leave out books or some of them not here? Is this right? I have the gospel of Thomas and what if the church is corrupt? Is it all these different things sowing seeds of doubt? Take them. Take those doubts, bring them all in, study and understand. See the doctrine, see why you stand, see why you can trust, see why you can have faith in what you have. Use it as a time to practice off the field to make sure your faith is strong, not something that makes you weak and give up. No, no, these things are not done in a corner, as Paul said. These things are done where we can know and understand, and we have the benefit of over 2,000 years of our shield being attacked, and it has always held, and it always will. But know and be ready for those answers for the reason of the hope that lies within you. Know what you believe and why you believe it. That take work on your part? Yeah. You think no soldier didn't do any work? Every soldier did work. Do some work on your own part. Know what you believe and why you believe it. And you're like, I don't know, a few things make me nervous. Work on those. That's what you go after. That's what you study. And then you can use that to show and build up your faith that you can trust it all the more and know and understand it. We're not someone here at Cornerstone. We're not afraid of taking any question. We're not afraid of taking any doubt. We will take it to God's word and we will find out what the answer is because he has given us the complete word of God and we can stand against it and we can defend against any fallacy, any charge, anything that is out there. God's word stands. God is true. God is right. He is righteous. His word is trustworthy. We can stand upon it. Trust it. I will help you in doing that. We will help each other as a group, that's what we do. It is faith founded on facts. It's not just a hope so, I believe so, I want. Faith is good. If you just have blind faith, you can have blind faith, but you know what's better? Faith founded on facts when you know what you believe and why you believe it. The Bible is written in a logical and in a sense that we can know and understand these things. We can go through and show you that. It's not just hope. It is faith on facts. It is faith because we know it. And if you have that kind of faith, that is a strong, solid door that'll take on any conflict. So work on your faith in that way. Some think, well, I don't know. And so they hide. And they're ashamed. Or maybe they just avoid conflict. I don't like conflict. I'm not gonna bring up anything. I'm not going to do that. Or maybe they just conform to the world to the point where no conflict ever comes up. Huh, I've never had anyone at work. I don't know what's going on. Probably because we're too much like the world, right? They don't see anything different. If you've never in a conflict, if you've never drawn enemy fire, if you've never stood against Satan and his kingdom, because you're no threat to him. You've not been noticed. The devil or any of his minions have never roared at you because they've seen you as, oh, they're no big deal. So how do you get to be a big deal? And granted, we are to be the peace, blessed are the peacemakers, we are. We're to make peace between God and men. But we stand up for righteousness, that's where the conflict comes. I'll tell you, if you want to have conflict, if you want to test your shield of faith, you're like saying, I've never had any of these conflicts. I don't know, I've just tried to live peacefully among men. You lift your shield of faith high and you display who it is you trust, who it is that you march with, who it is that is the captain, the salvation of your soul. If you proclaim Jesus Christ to him alone and he decides what you do, where you go, how you speak, what you say, you do that, I guarantee you conflict will come from family members, from coworkers, from neighbors for something. It'll give a rub to somebody and to whom it is you serve, they'll be like, Oh, wait a minute. If you lift your banner high for him, it will draw conflict. It will draw fire. The riders of hell will come forth to try to do damage unto you. And then you can try out your shield of faith to see where it is. But you have to have the confidence to lift it. So go lift up your banner in the community. Take a stand. Start something. Do something. Anything we've ever done here, we've gotten complaints and hates, hate mails and critics and comments and everything against it. We just know it going into it. It's because you're drawing fire, because you're doing something against the valley of hell. We're trying to fight against them, but no, we're to do that. So the soldier, I can tell you this, the soldier who draws fire from the enemy, your shield will not fail. If you're willing to stand up, enter into the fray, and stand up for Christ, your faith will be strengthened and emboldened by Christ himself. I guarantee it. Test it and see. That soldier who draws fire, his shield will never fail. It can't be cut. It won't be pierced. It will bear the blows. And if anything, it will make it stronger. Just like the calluses on your feet from walking on the rocks, your faith will grow stronger and stronger because you've been in the fray more and more. I think that's why Paul was as strong as he was. A shield needs handling. So does faith. Okay, so we can't just put it in a corner and leave it and go grab it when we think it's convenient. Don't be the soldier, though, who plays with your faith, plays with your shield, when there's no enemies around, but when the battle comes, you find yourself empty-handed. Oh no, I never thought. Because that happens. When all goes right and all goes well for him, he believes. But soon as something hard come, soon as some trial comes, his faith dissolves and flees and he finds himself with nothing to drift, an embattled soldier. Don't be that way. Let's not be that guy. So study, study, search. Practice the art of handling the shield so when the conflict comes, you're able to take the blows. And so that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna study the art. It is an art of handling the shield of faith. Have you practiced with the art of handling the shield of faith? If you watch somebody who's good with a sword, you can watch them do all kinds of things. There's people who's just as good with a shield. Are you as good with your shield? We should, we're soldiers, we're training. Let's practice the art of handling the shield. Here's one of the first skills. Practice the promises of God. You know them. First you have to know them, right? Know the promises of God. Because the devil comes and says, you're alone. There's no one here to help you. And you say, no, the Lord says I will never leave you nor forsake you. That is using your shield of faith to dodge the blow of Satan himself. When the devil says, I will defeat you. I am too big. I am too strong. You said, no, he has begun a good work and he is able to finish the work within me that he will not He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He says that. Jesus says that. If I began the work in you, I will finish it. So no, he's not gonna leave you. He's not gonna let Satan defeat you. If the devil comes to you and says, you are weak, you can agree and say, that's right, I am weak, but he is strong. And the strength of God is perfect in weakness. And so it makes me the perfect vessel for him. Use that shield of faith, because you know the promises of God. Your sin is great, Satan might say. Oh, you just messed up. I'm here to take notice. I am the adversary. I will go before the king and tell him, make sure he notices what it is that you just did. But God said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God is greater than any of your sin. Jesus Christ can forgive any and all. And so don't fall prey to that. And so yeah, your sin might be great, but he is greater still. Maybe he will say, the devil might say, oh, God will abandon you. He has left you. You can tell he's far off. He's no longer nearing to you. But God hates putting away. You could say He hates divorce. He would not have it in His family. He would not have it with me. We made promises. We made vows one to another. God hates that. He would not do it. He neither has cast off His own or forsaken any of His children. Is He going to begin with me? I don't think so. Away with you, Satan. Satan say, oh no, but I have a greater strength. I can pull you down to hell. And he says, ah, you can just answer unto him. I am Christ. And he says, I am in his hand and he is in the father's hand. Who is able to pluck them out? That's using the promises of God against the devil and his attacks. That is using your shield of faith. I am trusting in the promises of God to bounce off and deflect those blows. You can also use the practice of doctrine. know your church doctrine, know what it is, why you believe and why you believe it. And the verses that back it up to be prepared for this. And so the devil could say, there's no good in you. Why would God save you? And you can say, that's right, there is no good in me. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, the weak things, the despised things, the things that which are not to confound the wise. And so, yes, there's nothing within me. Everything that I have is because God has given it to me. He might have called you, but he'll never keep you. He'll give up, you'll wear him out because you fail so many times. Jesus says, Lord, you've given them unto me, and I have lost none of them, save Judas, who was a devil to begin with. God does not quit. God does not give up. God does not lose. God does not let go. If he has chosen you and you called out unto him, he is never gonna leave you nor forsake you. Well, maybe not only the doctrines you can practice with the shield, and you know the promises, you know the doctrine, and you're like, well, maybe I don't know those. Use your observation. We teach kids downstairs the basic Bible story so they understand the character of God and how he's dealt with men, with the great saints of old, so that they at least have the examples of what God has done. And sometimes you're like, that's kind of crazy for a kid's story. We're gonna read them about David and Bathsheba? They need to know that. They need to know those truths. The devil can say unto you, you have no hope. Give up. And we can say, like the psalmist said, I've lived, now I'm old, I can say. And I've never seen God forsaken one of his children. That's observation. And I can say that along with David. I've never seen God forgive or give up or forget or forsake one of his children. The devil can say, well, once you sin big enough, God will leave you. Oh, I thought you were a Christian, you've done that? The power of observation, say. David stumbled greatly, didn't he? He looked with lust. He committed adultery. He commits murder. And yet, God used him, forgave him, said he was likened to himself, right? He had that kind of passion, and so, yeah. God never cast off his people. When I read through the whole Old Testament, he never has. Israel, rebellious, rebellious people, to the point where he has to take them out of the land. He returns them. He kicks him out of the land again. And we live in the day and age where he's returning him yet again. He forgives Peter after he denies him three times, just right there after he said he would never would. And yet he appears unto him and makes him the leader of the church, at least in the sense, as far as his proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. That is something that he launches with. Thomas doubted, unless I see him resurrected, I'd put my hand through his fingers or through his scars and into his side. He used Thomas to proclaim the gospel long up until the point he was martyred. And so since God has never forsaken anyone because of sins and doubts and failures, I can say, since God never changes, I know that truth. God has never changed. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Why would he change now? If God did not forsake them when they failed, will God forsake me when I fail? No, it's not in God's character. He is consistent. He is the same. And I can reason from observation from the scripture that those attacks against me from Satan are null and void. I can use my shield of faith, the character of God, the consistency of God, to be able to take those blows. You can also use your experiences. Your experiences as the devil brings charges against you. You can just go through and start rehearsing your testimony. God has moved in my life. God has moved me. He has worked in my life. God has answered my prayers. Can you sit down and list, have you ever taken some time every once in a while and thought about the times you prayed and God has answered? Our church is full of answered prayers. Some big milestones in a lot of different ways between organs that were needed, children that were wanted, that God gives them to the abundance, let alone healings and everything else that God has done. Grandchildren, children, all of us, the church, the church family, things that are doing, guarding and protecting. That's why we assemble. Well, maybe you've not had any conflict, but someone here has, and you live vicariously through them and see what God is doing, moving and working because you know them. You're not trusting the source of the news. Spin it. Is there some twist on this? We know the source. We know that God is moving. We know that God is answering, that things are going and happening in this way, and that we can have that experience. God has saved me. Has God ever used you once? Don't trust in that. God's promises are true. Sometimes you look back and think where you were before you were saved and see where you are now when you think you're not making any progress and sometimes you'll be surprised at the progress you've made. Go back and watch your favorite movies when you were a teenager or a kid and see if you can sit through them the same now. Chances are you can't, but God has been growing you in holiness, and you're like, wow, my parents let me watch that? I didn't go home and spank my mother. You're like, oh, the things I used to do, now I don't do because you've grown in that. I trusted him, he's worked in your life. Trust in him, he will work in your life. That the prayers that you're praying now that he hears, when you think heaven is silent, God hears. It's in his timing. It's in his timing. And a lot of times he's working patience with us. He's working trust with us. He's building your faith in him so that you can have that shield to pull out on the hard day when the battles come. He's been there for you in the past as you think of your history. He is with you in your present. Trust he's gonna be with you in your future. When you're like, oh, I don't know, I believe, I believe, I hope. No, believe. He will be, he will be. And so this type of thing is handling the shield. It's taking the things that we talk about, the experiences, the practices, the observation, the doctrine and the promises, and now using them in the battlefield to wield your shield, to know your promises. If you need some help with that. I have a sheet on the way out there that you can grab. Who I am in Christ. It goes through some basic one. I am accepted. Just knowing these truths. I am God's child. I am a disciple of Christ. And it goes through a list and gives you the Bible verses where you can know why you believe it. Another one, I am secure in Christ. That your salvation is not something that's all on the balance. I don't know. No, it's something where you can go through and why are you saved and why you can be secured in it. I am free from condemnation because of Jesus Christ. I've not been given a spirit of fear, but of power because he's given us this and you can go through. I am significant when the devil tells you you're a nobody. It'll go through and it'll give you a list of why, that you are significant, that God would save you. He's called you, you're chosen to be part of his church, be part of the bride of Christ. So you can know that. There's some basic ones. If you want more, here's a whole book of them that you can order. It's Neil Anderson, Who I Am in Christ. Just going through and listing the promises and why and how to use it as a shield of faith. I'll have these in the back where you can look at them and see. But making it practical. These things are real, it's genuine, especially as conflict is going to come, we're to stand up for it. And I would say on your shield, you need to put some escutcheon. There's your vocab word for the day. I learned it, so I have to use it. Now, escutcheon, that is like a coat of arms or an emblem. On this one, we have a big stylized cross. On the ones I made for the kids, a little cross. It kind of conveys to you what it is you're trusting in, who it is you're trusting in. Some of the things that you want to work on, I think it's good to kind of come up with a coat of arms for your family. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we stand for. To kind of have that, especially if you have young ones, something that you can rally around, like that's who we are, something you can point back to and say, see, this is who we are. This is what we do. Ulrich Zingwei, he had on his coat of arms a black ring and a gold ring, symbolizing eternity, you know, the eternity linked together. John Calvin, he had a hand holding a heart with a red background. It was the symbol that he had truly, symbolized that he truly yielded his heart to God. You know, so he had a hand and a heart like, see, I've given it to you, oh Lord. The Vatican has crossed keys. If you ever look, we're going to see a lot of things about the Vatican, so I thought I'd include that. They have crossed keys, saying that they have the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that they're the ones that hold them. I don't know if that's true, but that's what they have. That is there, but that's what they have. Joseph Irons says, we should have a cross and a crown. And his had a cross and a crown with the words, no cross, no crown. Like if you don't know Christ, you're not gonna earn any crown. And so that's a good one to remind him. It's like Christ first, no cross, no crown. We can have that. Some of the olden day guys had a large anvil, just a shield with a big old anvil on it. And it had the saying, the anvil has broken many hammers. And that meant basically, you can bring all your charges against my faith. You can swing blow after blow. My faith will stand. The anvil has broken many hammers. Do you have that kind of faith that could take the blows time after time that swing away, just making me stronger? Psalm had it, which I thought it was just a recent thing, a children's song that we'd sing. But they had a candle with a bright flame with people around it blowing it, trying to puff it out. But the breasts only made the flame bigger and brighter. Do you have the kind of faith like a flame that when the enemy tries to blow it out, it builds it and makes it stronger and brighter and you represent it all the more? Some had that as their emblem on their shield. I'd recommend at least a cross and maybe an empty tomb to remind you that you trust in Christ alone, that He paid for your sins, that it was died, that He purchased for them, that the tomb is empty because Jesus Christ was accepted by the Father and He gave Him, as the firstborn of the dead, the resurrection power, the same thing He's going to resurrect us with. And so, yes, I have promise in eternity because of Him. Have an escutcheon. You didn't know it, but it's an escutcheon. That's our emblem. Faith here at Cornerstone, we have the shield. We want to put off the shield of faith, backed by the word of God, that we trust in the word of God, that every word in the Bible is absolutely true, that we have it in there. The banner over us is love. Cornerstone, which is basically another word for Jesus, right? The chief cornerstone that clings us all together. a cross that Jesus Christ has purchased our salvation, given us the circle of eternity that we live with Him eternally through Him, not through what I have done, not what you have done, what Christ has done for us. So we have symbolism in our symbol that shows what we stand for, that we are a church of faith, we are a church of God's word, we are a church found on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ, that we are a battle church. These are our weapons of warfare that we will use that are not carnal, but they're spiritual that we're able to use to pull down every stronghold in our community, that we're not just gonna sit here anymore, that we're going to go out and we're going to try to stop these things. And so having a scutching that you can stand against, plus this is fun to say, a coat of arms. I've been balancing that the whole time. And so, yeah, I recommend those for you. The battle can get close. Like I said, they'll try to pry your shield away, cling to it. Don't leave it at home. Keep it close. Work on it constantly. That's the wicked's goal to try to pull it down. He'll try to throw in unbelief. He'll try to give you uncertainty. He'll try to cast you down. Who are you? What can you do? He'll try to make you doubt. He'll make you unsure. I don't know, that guy had a good point. He'll try to make you unwise, to test you into doing things you shouldn't do. He wants you to leave it untested so you never really know. So I challenge you, lift your banner high. Lift up that shield. Invite it to take a blow or two. See how your faith stands. And the more you trust it, the bolder you will become. May your faith find a resting place in you. So stop being afraid. Let's stop hiding. Let's get out of the castle and speak up for him. Let's know we have a ready shield that we can always get behind, right? It is not a crutch. It is our safety net. It is Jesus Christ who will take the blows for us. He's already taken the blows for you. He's not done. The shield of faith. Your shield of faith will get the blows. Paul, John, Peter never said, I hope so. Never said, I hope so. They had a no-so salvation. They knew these things were true. They went forth and proclaimed them even when they would beat them because they knew it was so true. Why? Because Jesus Christ had transformed their lives from fishermen to persecutors of the church. Has Jesus Christ transformed your life? Have you had the miracle of transformation where you once were lost, but now you're found? You once were blind, but now you see and the spiritual realm opens up. Have you had that? Then you've had an encounter with God and you know that he is real. Beyond past reading and testimonies, you personally know, you have the observation, you have the experience of this, you have seen it in your own life. Can you not least stand up for that? God is real and know that it is true. Maybe there's some here today that God said, no, you've not had that, you've not crossed that line yet. He can't save you. God says, all who come unto me, I will no wise cast out. Have some faith, trust in the Savior. Satan might say, well, you're too great a sinner. I know that sin that you have, that you love, that you don't want to forfeit or forsake. Have a baby faith that God is able to do it. Use the observation of the lady in the Bible who crawled along and said, if I could but touch the hem of his garment, I will be cleansed. Christ has the salvation power. If you have a seed baby of faith, if you would just but come to him and say, God, save me, he will. If your Satan's attacks are true, when they're right on point, and you're like, I am that, I am those things. Trust Christ, who said, I didn't come as a doctor for the ones that are healthy, I came for those that are sick. I didn't come to save the ones that thought they were good and righteous, I came to save the lost. No one understand you are the one that Christ came to rescue and to redeem. Have you? Will you? What is your excuse? Why are you not? Salvation is available. It's here at the door. No more waiting. No more delay. Let today be the day. Make it known. I was a sinner, but now I'm saved. I needed Jesus Christ to save me.