 We're going to be looking today at verse 16 in Ephesians chapter 6. We're looking at one of the articles of armor that the Lord gives to us. It's written about concerning those things here in this passage before us. And so we're going to be looking at verse 16. I'll begin reading at verse 13 just to give context and we'll be looking at verse 16. So in verse 13, So up to this point, we've looked at three pieces of armor that Paul has been speaking concerning. We looked at the girdle of truth. I mentioned to you that that speaks of the content of that which is true, as well as an attitude of truthfulness, a real settled commitment to truth. We looked at the breastplate of righteousness. That spoke of the security and protection we have in Christ and how we are to let righteousness rule our emotions. And we looked at having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which is an exhortation to safeguard our walk as well as to evangelize. And so the three pieces of armor that we've looked at have one thing in common. They are to be worn at all times on the battlefield. Notice he had said having girded, having put on, having shod. So this is all done while having the entire war in the forefront of your mind. We know that the war is a lengthy one, so we are to be prepared at all times. So at this point, Paul writes concerning three other weapons, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. Now these three weapons are to be kept in a state of readiness. We're to take up these weapons. When he says take up, that means to pick up or to raise up. We are to take up these weapons when we're in actual combat. And so we're going to be looking at the shield of faith. I wanted to show you a picture. I believe we have, this is a shield of faith. I'll describe some things in just a moment. This isn't actually the shield of faith. This is a shield. But I want you to notice the size of it and everything, because I'll be pointing that out. I think we have something, another picture I wanted you to see. And that's how the shields could be used in combat. And I'll be sharing some things about that in just a moment. And so with that said, why would Paul speak about a shield? Well, I wrote this out so I'll read it to you. At this time, large darts were used for long range attacks. They were made of wood or metal at a sharp point and were dipped in pitch or wrapped with pieces of cloth and ignited. They were thrown at the soldiers in an attempt to confuse them as well as to force them to break ranks. When a dart hit a soldier, they would burst into greater flame with the intention of taking the soldier out of the fight. The effect would be like the modern day use of Molotov cocktails. So great numbers were thrown from various locations to cause chaos and turmoil. The soldiers couldn't immediately locate the enemy and once chaos occurred, a mass attack could begin. And so as we're looking at this shield of faith, we need to understand that this is speaking about long range attacks that are intended to cause confusion. It speaks of distractions that are intended to neutralize us as believers. It also speaks of attacks that are disrupting unity. They're not necessarily lethal, but they can be successful in immobilizing us. And the one who is responsible for these long range attacks is referred to here as the wicked one. Now that's another name for the devil or for Satan. When it speaks of wicked, that word wicked means evil or wretched. It speaks of that which is vile. And in this context, it's speaking of his influence. In 1 John 5 19, we know that we are children of God and that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. It's speaking of his influence. So Satan's intention is always to influence us for evil. His darts are intended to distract us, to confuse us, to take us out of the fight. He provokes us to distrust God, to forsake his protection, to break ranks. He tries to undermine our trust in God. He tries to undermine our unity with other believers. And if he's successful, he can disrupt God's work through the church. The primary battlefield is our minds. In 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3, Paul said it like this, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. So his intent is to influence us away from our trust in Jesus Christ. So he tries to distract us, he tries to confuse us. And he does so in what has been called the theater of our mind. Now, how does he use fiery darts? Well, he distracts us. He ambushes us. He does his best to catch us off guard. You see, as we've been going through the book of Ephesians, Paul has revealed a number of distractions. These are the things that he's already been telling us about. He's been identifying these things. These are tactics of the enemy. And these are things he uses to undermine the work of the gospel. And so I began in chapter one. I'm not giving you all of them, but I began in chapter one just to look at some of the things and to write the things down. What does he do? How does he distract us? What is he bombarding us with? Well, he bombards us with temptations to forget who we are, to forget what we have in Christ, to forget our purpose in him, to forget our inheritance, to forget his grace. He tempts us to yield to racial division, to forget what the church is, to doubt the love of Christ. He tempts us to live in an ungodly manner, to yield to pride. He provokes us to reject the unity of the spirit, to devalue spiritual leaders, to yield to spiritual deception, to steal from others, to be lazy, to casually use profanity. He encourages us to be bitter, angry, vengeful, to be sexually immoral, to be foolish, drunken, to quench the spirit, to reject fellowship, to become unthankful, to have bad marriages, a bad family life, to stop serving the Lord. There are distractions that he will present to us that will have that effect in every one of those areas. There are so many things, and so many other things that are distractions that we experience. So how am I to deal with all of these things? And that's just a short list. I actually condensed it. That's just a short list. How can I deal with these attacks? Well, this is what we're looking at today. We use what is called the shield of faith. Now, the Roman soldier had various shields, but two of them were most common. He had a small round shield. It was two feet in diameter. It was secured on the arm by two straps. And that particular shield was used for close-up fighting. The shield that's spoken of in this verse is the other shield, which is larger. It was two and a half feet wide, four and a half feet high. It was wooden, covered by leather. It was coated with a flame retardant. And so he's saying when the enemy distracts us, be prepared, raise up the shield of faith. Now, when he speaks of the shield of faith, that word faith means trust, confidence. It speaks of our belief. To raise up the shield of faith is to trust God patiently, to submit to his will, to know that his word is true. Like it says in Proverbs 30 verse 5, every word of God is pure. He's a shield to those who put their trust in him. And what he's speaking about is the ability to quickly apply everything that we know about God that we've learned in Scripture. In 1 John 5 verse 4, he simply says, as John said, this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. So this is fruitful because faith isn't intellectual, it's not simply theory, it's not hope filled feelings. Christian faith is based on truth. Christian faith is to trust his word and to rightly apply it to your circumstances. We don't have what is called a non-specific, non-directed kind of vague hope. We have, as Mark 11-22 says, we have faith in God. We have faith in God because God can be trusted. God's word is trustworthy. He provides a defense when we're attacked. In Psalm 18 verse 30 it says, as for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. And so God's word to the Christian is a defense against the attacks of the enemy. The enemy bombards us. What am I to do? I'm to lift up the shield of faith. And I know that God protects and I know that God delivers. And he does so because he loves us. And he wants us to be free from the distractions that discourage us. Psalm 3419 verse 20 says, a righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all his bones. Not one of them will be broken. Now I want to give a second application to this. As God's army, we need to remember that we are a unit and we're to be in unity. I was thinking if I should add this to the study, so I will and hopefully it'll make some sense. When I served in the military, one of the things that you learned from the beginning, and I know I have other military vets in this room with me now and you'll understand exactly what I mean by that. When I served, one of the things I was taught that was this, that we are a unit. Not simply individuals, but we're a unit. And as a unit, we're to care for one another. And I still remember one of our sergeants speaking to us and he said this and I'll never forget it. I wrote it down and this is 50 plus years ago. He said, you are not white. You are not black. You are not red. And you are not yellow or brown. He said, you are green. And when he said that, that was simply the color of our fatigues, our uniforms were green. And what he was saying is on the field, there is no red, white, black, yellow. It's just us. And we were known as the United States Army. We weren't known as the Mexican Army or the Black Army or the Chinese Army. We were known as the United States Army. We were all one. Because the uniform that we were wearing represented our nation that we were to defend. That's something to understand. The Army wasn't about me. It was about something greater. It was about my nation. It was about my family. It was about my friends. And we had one task. And this every military person understands. We had one task. And that is when necessary, we destroy the enemy. We are to fight and we are to win at all costs. We were not trained to give up our lives for our country. We were trained to make our enemy give up his life for his country. And that's something that is being lost in our military today. Our military leaders are training recruits to use the proper pronouns. But our nation's enemies don't care about such nonsense. You see, in battle the enemy often began by throwing darts from various directions. And the soldiers would kneel behind their shields to protect themselves. They might station themselves back to back or in sections of four or five. And by doing so, they were protected simultaneously. In God's army, we're ordered by the Lord to take the gospel out to the world. And in doing so, you need to remember, we are entering hostile territory. The unsaved world is not necessarily pleased with us doing this. Sometimes it acts with real hostility. In John 15, 18, and 19, Jesus said it like this. He said, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. In order to succeed, the church needs to unite in Jesus Christ. Oneness of heart and oneness of purpose is extremely important. And if the church is not united in opposition to the enemy, we will be unsuccessful. In Mark 3, 25, if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. You see, the enemy has been working to undermine the church and undermine us in that battlefield that we find ourselves in. And from the beginning, it has been attacked. And from the beginning, the church has been divided. When you read your Bible and you look at Acts 6, Acts 6 speaks about a complaint between the Hebrew believers and what are called the Hellenists or the Greek cultured and Greek language believers who were Jews. There was the very first problem the church had to deal with. There was division from within. When Paul was writing to the Corinthians, he had a correct division. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10, he said, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. You see, a military force that isn't united and purpose, goals, and identity won't win. Not only must it succeed in its mission, but we also have to make sure that we care for each individual in the unit. And under fire, we are to take care of one another. That's what we're to do. I think sometimes we're forgetting that. We have become so... As a culture, we've become so narcissistic, so me-centered. It has to be pleasing to me that we forget that we were not saved to serve God by ourselves. We were saved to serve God with a family, a family of believers. We're to be united in spirit and in heart and desire and purpose. We're to be united in that way. And we're to care for one another. We're to love one another. We're to lay down our lives for one another when necessary. And that's something that we read about in the Bible, but that's something that's practical and very true. We die to ourselves, so we may help somebody else to succeed, to live, to grow. And that's what believers are supposed to do. And the enemy does everything he can to sow seeds of discord amongst the body of Christ, because if the unit fights within itself, it can't defeat the enemy. And so we put up the shield of faith because he's distracting us with the ways that cause us to break ranks and to forsake assembling with one another. What we need to do is we need to love one another. We need to love one another in a way that means that we would basically do anything we can to benefit or bless that person who is also a brother or sister in the Lord. And that's something unusual to say today, I realize, but that's what Christianity has always been. I remember sharing one time at a men's conference. And I was sharing about the love that we have and are to have for one another. That should be just the earmark of a Christian. And how that, in World War I, there was a battle that was taking place and an attack had come from the enemy and had wounded many American military personnel. And this guy was in a trench and he could hear the voice of his dearest friend. And his friend had been wounded on the battlefield and his friend had been calling his name. And so this guy who was there in the trench hearing his name called by his best friend began to scramble out of that trench. And his commanding officer said to him, you can't go out there. I order you not to go out there. You need to stay back here because if you go out there, you're going to die. And so this young man said, I don't care. He climbed out and he crawled across the battlefield. And as he crawled across the battlefield, he finally reached his friend and grabbed him by the collar and crawled back with him and brought him back and dragged him and dropped him into the trench. But by the time he had taken him to the trench, his friend had died. And so the commanding officer was looking at this young man and he says, I commanded you not to go out there and you did it anyway. He said, and now your friend is dead. You've died also. Was it worth it? Was it worth it? And the young man who had crawled and grabbed his friend and brought him back said to him, yes it was because when I arrived, he said to me, I knew you would come for me. And that's what the church is supposed to be. Instead of leaving the wounded behind, we go and get them. That's what a unit is. That's what we're supposed to be, is to care. What is it that Jesus said, God has no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends. And yet I believe the church is forgetting that here in the 21st century. Everything seems to revolve around my wants, my desire, my likes, what fulfills me as a person. And that's why we have all through this campus signals to remind us of who we are. That's why when you walk in the main sanctuary and you look to the left, it says the Jesus people community. It isn't just because I'm a hippie. It's to remind us that we belong together, that we're a community. We have things in common. That's what that is. When you look up and you see the four pillars, that's to remind you that we have a purpose, that this church is built on Jesus Christ. But these are the things that we together will do. When we sing songs and worship, it's not that we have a band. What we have is a worship team. Because I'm not talking about bands. I'm talking about those who worship the Lord and desire to bring us into the presence of God in a similar way through our voices and our hearts. See, all of this is what the church is supposed to be. And the enemy wants to distract us. He wants to cause a vision. He wants to cause us to break ranks. He wants us to fail to understand the need I have for somebody else. Who do you call on when you're hurting? You pray, but is there a person, a brother or sister that you can speak to where you might not say what the actual thing is? It's not personal, but do you have somebody that you can say, listen, pray for me. I'm going through it right now. I don't want to tell you what it is. The only place I ever see people doing that is Facebook and things like that. But in real life, because they think they have all these friends, anyway, that's something else. Well, we need flesh and blood people. The word of God is to be incarnated in the body of Christ. And Jesus Christ was one who heard and cared for those. And that's what we're supposed to do, too, is have compassion, concern, love, to lift one another up and all. And the enemy, the enemy is doing everything he can to destroy the work of the church. We need to take care of one another. Jesus prayed for his church. He prayed that we might have unity of spirit. He prayed that we would have a unity of purpose. In John 17, verses 20 and 21, Jesus prayed, my prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. You see, Satan does not only attack individuals. Satan desires to undermine the entire body. And when one portion of the body is attacked, the entire body can feel the pain. That's what Paul taught the Corinthian church. In 1 Corinthians 12, 13, he said it like this. He said, we were all baptized by one spirit. So as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, and we were all given the one spirit to drink. In 1 Corinthians 12, he went on in verse 26 to say, if one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. One of the things the enemy wants to do, causing distraction, is to get us to focus on things that can hurt one another. I didn't put this in my notes. So I'll say it anyway. Because I've shared this before. Sometimes I find myself repeating things that meant something to me that others say, I've already heard this well. If you've already heard this, okay, you'll hear it again. Because this is one of those things in my heart that is a stone of remembrance, a place where God met me in a special way. And those are the memories sometimes that I share with you that may be repetition to you, but were very important to me. As to who I am right now. And so as I'm saying this, my mind is going back to something many of you have already heard, forgive me for repeating myself to you, but for those who haven't heard this, when I got out of the service and I went into college, I went to a Bible college called Biola. And I was taking a class. I forget what the class was. I think it was a Philosophy 101 class. As a matter of fact, that's what it was. It was Philosophy 101. It was a young man who sat in the front row. And it was one of those classroom situations where you actually had seats in a lower level and then it kind of raised, they had tears. And I was in the very back and this guy was in the very front. He had dark hair, dark complexion. He had kind of real wavy hair. I still remember him from behind because I was looking down and I'd see his big old head. But he was a guy who used to interrupt the professor. Now, I'm not one of those students who like people interrupting the professor. I like to hear what he has to say. That's why I paid my tuition, not to hear the student, so when he heard the teacher. But this was a guy who liked to ask questions. And he always started out the same way. He always started out brother. And that's how he said it. Brother. And then he'd ask his question. He probably did that, you know, whatever. But he did that for weeks. Brother! Brother! The professor got angry, so angry at him one time. When the guy did that, he yelled at him, I'm not your brother! I mean, this philosopher couldn't hold back. But anyway, so I'm in the back. I'm kind of just seated there, you know, letting brother talk. When this fellow who is seated next to me and he says to me, actually, I'm trying to remember if he wrote it or said it. I think he said it. He turned and looked at me and he said, what is he? A Mexican? So I pulled out my switchblade. No. My spray can. Magic mark or whatever. I looked at him. I said what? What is he? A Mexican? And I smiled at him. He wrote it to me because this is what happened. What is he a Mexican? And I looked at him, what do you think I am? I said what? What is he a Mexican? So on his little note that he gave me, you know, I like you, do you like me? Yes, no, check the box. No. He wrote, he had written it. And I looked at him and I wrote, what do you think I am? And he looks at me and he goes, you're Italian. I said no. I'm Mexican. You should have seen his face. I wish I had a picture. I wish I had a phone that I could, I'd show you it right now. It was priceless. And he got real quiet. And then he said to me, he wrote, I deeply apologize I am profoundly sorry. I feel that you have, I have offended you deeply and I'm sorry. Which to me is fine, you know, well, whatever, you know. And I looked at him and I wrote the scripture down out of Galatians. I said there's neither Jew nor Greek, you know, male nor female, bond or free. We're all one in Jesus Christ. And I told him we're one in Jesus. Your last name is and it doesn't matter. We are one in Jesus Christ. We are a family of God. Listen, the enemy wants you to forget that. There is no such thing. Now this may get some people upset. I rather doubt it in this fellowship. But if you're watching too bad, because there is no black church. There is no brown church. There is no yellow church. And there is no white church. There is the church. It's made up of all. That's what we are. That's what we are. And we need to understand that. And the enemy is, there's no doubt, you see it, I see it. The enemy is sowing seeds of division and discord to divide. Why? Because a house that is divided will surely fall. And if the church gets caught up with this worldly garbage that's going on today, it's going to be ineffective. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. But distractions will immobilize us and make us useless. We have to be very careful. When I was in the military, I had a friend of mine, his nickname was Paki. We called him Paki because he packed parachutes. And that's why he's called Paki. And so Paki invited me to go to church. I was a brand new Christian. And he was real excited. And he said, will you come to church with me? And I said, well, yeah, of course. I need fellowship. And so I went with him. And this was in North Carolina in a town called Fayetteville. And so I went to his church and I was standing there. And remember, I was very innocent. And also I was born in California. So we had a multicultural experience. Anyway, that's how I was raised. So I'm not thinking anything, but now I am. And I remember looking around and I said to him, I said, Paki, where are they? That's how I said it. Paki, where are they? Now again, I was 20 years old. I was a kid. Paki, where are they? He goes, where, who? I said, where are they? He says, who? I said, the others, the other ones. He said, what do you mean? I said, as I look around, I don't see any black. I don't see any brown. All I see is a lot of white people. I'm just wondering, where are the others? Where are they? And this was his answer. He said they have their own church. What do you mean they have their own church? I was a brand new Christian and I knew that was wrong. That was wrong. And it doesn't matter. And I mean this with all sincerity. And I pray to God that we never are plagued with that kind of mentality. We've had it here. We have had it here. We have a group. There's a couple of guys, some of you have heard of the Guiceras Brothers. They're from our fellowship. They originally were here. We actually gave them their first opportunities to lead people in worship. They were mariachi singers. That's what they were. And I heard one of them playing the guitar. And I spoke to our worship leader Tony and I said, that man can play the guitar. They're kind of showing us their skills. I said, did they love the Lord? Yeah. Let's get behind them. They're amazing. And so we were instrumental in them actually starting to travel with Franklin Graham and doing all kinds of things because we put them in a position where they could be used of the Lord. Good guys. Good guys. Ernie, their brother came here for a long time. Good friends. So I had them come up in church to show us their skills to show us and worship with us. And I said to them, sing a song in Spanish. Now you gotta know, I don't speak fluent Spanish. I can order. It's about it. And when Marie and I are together, we can get through. But I just think the beauty of the Spanish language but beyond that the beauty of the Spanish guitar, I just love the music. It's a church. It's a family thing, right? I got a letter. This is the United States. Speak English. And John, I have already forgiven you but I had to say it, man. But you see what I mean? It's like God only speaks English. In what world does that make any sense? In what world does that make any sense? I can't appreciate the beauty of another language and it's praise to God. If I can't speak it, I still can be edified by listening. So what does the enemy want to do? He wants to destroy. He distracts. He wants to take our attention from Christ. He wants to individually destroy us but he also wants to break up the corporate unity that the church has because if he can get us biting and devouring one another he's accomplished a great task. He's wounded us with a dart that has spread upon us and is burning us. We are one in Jesus Christ. You see, to defeat the enemy as the body, we guard our unity. Paul said in Philippians 1.27 whatever happens conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence I will know that you stand firm in one spirit contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. So what do we do? Well using this shield of faith we guard ourselves against the temptation to compete against others whether they're believers to get this weird sense of pride about our church our pastor, our building, our ministry we have to be careful to rejoice for those who rejoice and praise God for wherever the gospel is being preached in truth and people are being saved. And second we need to lift up the shield of faith in our own battles and we do that by rightly dividing the word of God. We spend time in personal study reading through the word of God making our own notes to ourselves so that we might remember. And I know that for some that can be very tough. You know when I first got saved I had smoked so much marijuana that I couldn't remember hardly anything. It actually had just before I got saved it had become almost a game with my mother find David's keys and I would come home from party and I would put my keys down somewhere and I had no clue where they were and almost every day because the last year before I got saved I was drunk or loaded almost every day and so I didn't know where my stuff was and my mom before she'd go to work made a game of let's find the keys and every day we'd be walking around looking and see I couldn't remember keys because those who say that marijuana doesn't affect you either they've never smoked it or didn't smoke a lot because it affected my memory and I know a lot of other guys in here if you could remember you'll remember that you lost your memory but it's true, it's true you get distracted and so when I got saved one of the things that I was rejoicing in the Lord is he restored my memory and I was able to read and to remember which to some people that may not sound like much but to me it was a lot to be able to read and to remember to be able to look at the page and my brother would ask me a question and I'd say it's right over here and I might not remember the numbers and the chapters but I knew what page it was on and I'd say it's right here and my memory started coming back and God was very gracious to me in doing that now some of you may have a difficult time remembering I get that I remember hearing about a young believer who was discouraged because he was trying to read and to remember the Bible and he started saying to himself this isn't any good, it's no use no matter how much I read I always forget what I've read and so his pastor said to him listen when you pour water over a sieve no matter how much you pour you don't collect much but at least you end up with a clean sieve and that's true when you pour the word of God you may not remember every single word and I think some people sometimes get frustrated about that because I understand that where was it I know I read that where is it at and you can get frustrated well you may not be able to say chapter and verse and maybe you can maybe you can't a lot of what I know I quote from heart but I forget the chapter and verse I actually all my studies I have to go and find them again it takes hours to prepare a Bible study it's not something you just walk up and do because I'll be reading and I'm thinking this scripture goes that now where was that that's Philippians where and I have to research and work that's what I do I still have to work on my memory as I'm growing older it's a little more tough but I have a clean sieve because the Lord has washed my heart my mind with water of the word over all these years and the same is true for you whenever the enemy comes against you lift up the shield of faith it is written it is written it is written well where's the say that you know it you know where it's at you know it's true I'll find it but right now you need to get get the behind me that's I do that I'll be honest with you I do that learn to use your shield the enemy is distracting you with relationships financial problems concerns over illnesses losses you've experienced fears you have in your neighborhood problems on the job difficulty in school join you know join the team he's doing that to all of us but guess what we can all lift up our shield we all can work together and together we can experience victory in Jesus Christ because again we know who won the battle we know we're victors and we fight we fight from the position of victory we fight from the position of the victor and so use that shield use a shield of faith