Faith and the Flame (Ephesians 6:16)

Joshua Kehler: hey everybody, how are we?

Good.

Good.

Ephesians chapter six, verse 10.

Finally be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his might put on the whole

armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over this present

darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be

able to withstand in the evil.

And having done all to stand firm stand, therefore having fastened on

the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as

shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace

and all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish

all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation in the sword of the spirit, which is the word

of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all

the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly

proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I

may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

This is the word of the Lord.

I don't know if you guys know I like movies.

I think I bring it up once a week.

But one of the ones I really like is called The Truman Show.

Have you guys seen the Truman Show?

and the Truman Show is a story about a man who's actually from the time

he was a baby, he's being filmed and everybody's acting, and everybody,

everything's a set and everything's planned, and everything is planned

to keep him in this little town.

as he tries to escape, there's natural disasters.

There's like a toxic spill or a, and so everything is designed to keep him.

getting up in the morning, going to his job, coming home, and for

everybody else it's a form of entertainment for him though.

He starts to itch and he starts to wonder, and he starts to be curious if

there's something beyond the ordinary.

If there's something beyond the mundane,. And so he tries to escape.

He starts to see maybe there is something else out there.

And as soon as he tries to break away from the 40 hour work week, and that's

all there is, three meals a day, having a family going on vacation twice a year.

trying your best not to get sick.

Planning where you're gonna be buried, trying to save for your retirement.

maybe going on vacation once you retire.

Like that being your life, that being your world, that what you are living for.

As soon as he tries to break away from that, they throw everything

out of to keep him there.

They throw everything at him to keep him in.

That little world.

And in him, he knows there's something bigger and he tries with all his strength.

And he pushes.

and he pushes.

the whole last scene is.

they planned when he was a kid, his fake father died by drowning on a

boat so that he would never get in the water, so that he would never

sail because their set was too small.

And so he gets on the water.

He pushes through that fear, he pushes through, they throw storms at him.

They try to drown him to keep him from going, but finally he escapes, and

finally he steps into a bigger world.

I love that story because it's like the story that Paul is talking about here,

Christian, the enemy of our souls is quite content with God's children spending their

lives on the cares of this life trapped in this little world where we get to

80 years old and we look back and we're like, Did I bury my talents even, weighted

down in the mundane, in the quick sand of apathy, even as Jesus bids us to follow

him, to take up our cross and follow, we can break our legs with excuses.

I have to bury, my father translated.

I have to wait for my inheritance.

And when I'm financially secure, then I'll think about mission.

then I'll think about, using the gifts that you've given me or I will follow you.

If the path is easy and I'm shielded from the trials of life and that I'm

comfortable, can you guarantee that to me?

Now, Jesus said to that, man, foxes have holes in, the birds have nest, but the

son of man has nowhere to put his head.

he bit us to come, to take up our cross and to follow him.

He like the cross is involved.

It's he.

He's don't be shocked.

I said it right at the beginning when I bid you to come.

But push against the gates of hell.

Start to follow.

Start to pray for your neighbors.

Start to ask for opportunities.

Start to put on the armor to stand in the evil day.

and the enemy will throw everything in his control to keep you

asleep, neutralized, apathetic.

In that place of the mundane following after Jesus, there will

be resistance, battle warfare.

But honestly, I was thinking about it this morning.

What choice do we have?

What choice do we have?

There is a bigger world, God is calling us to the kingdom of heaven itself.

Don't we say, when faced with the decision to carry on as usual, to prop

up the status quo and to give ourselves to the weeds to be choked out, don't

we say instead, where else do we go?

You alone have the words of eternal life.

Or in Matthew 1613.

Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,

who do people say that the son of man is?

And they said, some say John the Baptist.

Others say Elijah, others, Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

the general tendency and all those answers under estamate Jesus, to

give him a measure of respect and honor.

But to fall far short of honoring him for who he really.

Is, yeah, you're like a miracle worker like Elijah, right?

Or you're a, a prophet calling people to repent like John the Baptist, or you're

a sensitive prophet calling people back to intimacy with God like Jeremiah.

But then he asked him, who do you say I am?

Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living.

and Jesus answered and blessed are you.

Simon Bar Jonah for Flesh of Blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is

in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter.

And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

When we went to Israel, I got to go to Caesarea of Philippi and we found

out Caesarea Philippi in this day and age used to be a very spiritual

cultic place, and there was a cave that was believed by the local people

that the gates of hell was this cave.

It was a pathway to the under.

So it was like literally the funnel where all of hell would come out

of and Jesus said, all of hell will not prevail against the church.

All is might, every spirit, every bit of wickedness, every bit of evil

will not prevail against the church.

He's called us to attack the.

, the kingdom of God is coming into our fortified cities that have

been so given over to the enemy.

just look around, look at the look.

Follow 2 0 9 times, it just breaks your heart.

The amount of violence that goes on here, the amount of, racism and discrimination,

the amount of, injustice, on an economic level that's heartbreaking.

But as kingdoms breaking into our cities, into our neighborhoods, into

our workplaces, into our schools, and everywhere the soul of our foot touches.

So others might know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

And so today, because the battle's real and because we need to be

equipped to stand in that evil day, we look at a very necessary piece.

The shield of faith.

Faith makes oceans into streets and mountains into something

you've tossed to the side.

Faith finds streams in the deserts and bread in empty baskets.

Faith drinks water from rocks and tastes the sweetness and bitter lakes.

Faith uses a rock for a pillow and sees in a barren wasteland the city of God.

Faith is the eyes of the soul that see the greatness, the goodness.

And the glory of our God.

So what I wanna look at today, what the shield of faith is, why

we need it, and how to take it up, what the shield of faith is.

I like this one cuz I think I've always misunderstood faith, just as an aside,

and I've always tried to get more faith, I've tried to conjure it up.

I tried to, Maybe say it in a different way.

Maybe if you say Faith then maybe that will, that's how you do it.

Maybe it's the way, you say it, and really have misunderstood it.

And so hopefully this will help clear some things up.

Ephesians chapter six, verse 16.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of.

With which you can extinguish , all the flaming darts of the evil one.

Notice first the armor, right?

He said thus far

the verb is changing.

It's having, it's been that, right?

It's been this far, having the belt of truth, having the breastplate

of righteousness, having the shoes of the gospel of peace things.

We wear it all times.

And then he's gonna move into the shield of faith and he's gonna say, take this.

When it's necessary, the sword of the spirit, take this up.

The helmet of salvation.

Take this up so the belt of truth remembers stand.

Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, having fastened on the belt of

truth, Jesus, whose truth is to encompass our whole being, making it of us true.

The truth stands against the attacks of doubt and neglect.

Breast plate of righteousness and having put on the breast plate of righteousness.

Righteousness, covering our hearts and our vital organs, not a righteousness.

We provide our earn.

We talked about this last week, but a foreign righteousness that

was one for us at the cross.

And Jesus, our righteousness is making us righteous from one degree

of glory to the next as we behold him.

The breastplate helps us stand against the attacks of shame and

guilt and the accusations of the enemy, the preparation of the gospel

of peace, and as Shoes for Your Feet.

Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace,

something that keeps our feet from slipping into doubting God's love.

That's the attack to doubt God's.

So the gospel of peace, gerd, about our feet, making our steps sure and secure.

We remember that while we were enemies, Christ died for us.

He made a peace between enemies and made us friends.

It's the proving of his love.

God demonstrated his love for us that while we were yet enemies.

Christ died for us.

While we were with yet sinners.

We remember that while we were his enemies, Christ died for us.

When we were an open rebellion to him, he chased us and pursued

us, and made us his friends.

He loves us.

So having, that's kinda like a baseball player, right?

A baseball player has his uniform.

He wears it the whole time during the game, but at certain

parts of the game, he takes up.

Right.

He takes it up cuz he is up to bat.

If he's in the field, then he has got his glove right because

he is being called to action.

Always wears the uniform.

But when the right time takes up the bat, takes up the glove, designed

for specific , kind of attack.

And I think that the shield is very important, in that shield.

And Greek is, through reo.

This writer, Polybius, he describes what Paul was looking at when

he's looking at the shield.

Remember, he's chained to Roman soldiers, but in the culture, Rome, had conquered

the world and, they did it through the Pax Ramana, peace through might, right?

Peace through violence, really.

They'd put down any kind of open rebellion?

they'd put it down with brutal violence.

and so the soldiers were feared and their military mite was second to none.

the strategies they used and the things they did were absolutely, incredible.

especially at the time that they were in with not the kind

of technology that we have now.

The Greek writer, uh, Pius describes the early, scut in his histories.

The Roman soldier consists firstly of a.

The convex surface of which measures two and a half feet in

width and four feet in length.

The thickness at the rim being a palm's breath, it is made

of two planks glued together.

The outer surface being then covered first with canvas and then with calf skin.

It's upper and lower.

Rims are strengthened by iron E.

Which protects it from descending blows from injury when rested on the ground

and also has an iron boss or an ambo fixed to it, which turns aside the most

formidable blows of stones, pikes and heavy missiles or fiery arrows in general.

Now we've seen the movies, right?

Gladiator with Russell Crow and he's fighting in the arena and he's got the

little shield and he is got the sword.

And that's typically we think about.

Know the soldiers.

And, this was different.

This was a different kind of shield.

This wasn't for hand to hand combat.

This was to go in Beja City.

This was a door.

This was something you could crouch down and hide behind,

and you were completely safe.

when they went to battle, they would soak their shields in water.

And, what would happen is they would come to the castle wall

because they would besiege the city.

they, Romans came up with this tortoise formation where they would all lock their

shields together and they would crawl under 'em, and they became basically like

the shell of a turtle, and they became this invincible force up against the wall.

when they came to the wall, they're in the most dangerous situation cuz that's

when they would throw hot tar on you.

That's when they would throw these uh, rocks that try to bludgeon you.

That's when they would shoot their arrows that were lit on fire.

And so soaking them in water, it would put that fire out as they

would come against that wall.

so it gives you this idea.

So the shield of faith is big and it's protective.

It encircles you.

It's not so much about your, agility.

I play VR this game, called Space Pirate Trainer.

And it, it's so fun cuz you've got guns, but you can pull out a shield,

but it's this tiny thing and you're trying to block all the lasers.

it's like you have a Frisbee that you're trying to, move on to the next level with.

But, that's not what's in mind.

What's in mind is slamming this thing down and getting down and

being fully protected against the enemy, against the fiery arrows.

. So the shield of faith.

So if we have an idea of what the shield is, the shield of faith,

it's big, it's protective, can extinguish with fiery arrows.

Then what is faith?

Faith in its most simple definition is acting on the truth.

Acting on the truth.

Boiled.

Acting on the truth.

Now we're gonna build on that a little bit.

If you don't know the truth and act on the truth, faith is

really a meaningless word, right?

You remember in James where, James is talking and they're like, he's

anticipating his audience and they're like, we believe in God.

And what does he say?

He says, so do the demons, and they tremble.

They have a greater faith.

They actually respond as he's calling them to action to that.

You don't just I believe, but to now step out in that

belief, which we'll talk about.

Faith is acting on truth.

In order to have faith, you have to know the truth.

Where do we find the truth in God's word.

Specifically revealed in the person of Jesus.

, I am the way, the truth.

And the life.

Not a truth, not more truth, I am the truth, right?

His tone, his tenor, his attitude toward the sinner, toward the broken person.

You wonder what God's, like Jesus said, it's me.

If you've seen me, you've seen the father.

faith is only faith when it's tethered to the truth, right?

Because if it lacks truth, then.

It's just a lot of activity.

It's a lot of, motion.

It's a lot of commotion.

I think about cults.

I think about Mormon.

Um, they have a lot of activity.

A lot of activity.

They actually do a lot of good in this world, they're constantly helping.

They're doing this.

They're, I mean, they believe so.

They have conviction and they act on it, but they don't have the truth.

so faith is only faith when it's tethered to the truth.

Acting like God is telling the truth, what he says is real and then.

Okay, that's reality.

When God says, like we talked about the couple weeks ago, I remove

your sin as far as the east is from the west, to remember it.

No more, to, to truly live your life.

Like that's reality.

Like what he says about you and your new identity that you're

adopted into his family and have all the rights and the privileges.

As the son himself to live like that.

To just, okay, I'm gonna, yeah.

Okay.

I'm gonna be bold.

I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for it.

That's the idea that he's talking about.

A lot of people who talk about faith are not connected to the truth and

wonder why faith isn't working.

So they go around and look for more.

They look for more faith.

Truth is what God says about a matter.

Also, faith isn't about feelings.

feelings are circumstantially driven.

If things are going well, I feel good.

If things are going bad, I feel bad.

You can't control circumstances.

Faith isn't tied to our feelings.

Otherwise, it would be up and down as my feelings are.

Faith is tethered to.

truth.

Now, often when you believe something your feelings will follow.

When you see God working or when you trust that he is, then all of

a sudden you'll erupt and praise, but don't be led by feelings.

Faith is acting on the truth whether I liked the truth or not, which is really.

We talked about this, people don't like absolute truth.

in fact, the idol of our culture for our younger generation is freedom.

Freedom.

And if you tell them that there's an absolute truth and absolute

standard that feels like the destruction of their freedom.

Don't say that.

No, I want to be free.

I will decide my own boundaries.

I'll decide my own truth.

I'll figure out, and I'll be true to that.

And you have to recognize my truth, right?

But there's things in God's word, even for us Christians, that God

says that we don't always like.

. That's why we like the promises calendar.

where we're like, we collect them.

We're like, I like this one, I like this one.

I like this one.

faith is acting on the truth whether I like the truth or

not, I feel the truth or.

or I agree with the truth of God, right?

So often the word of God contradicts us and it needs to, it needs

to contradict our worldview.

It needs to, we need to be open to the word of God contradicting our

foundations or why we do what we do.

We need to let the word of God come in like that two edged sword and divide us.

In that sense to, to see what's there, to see, why are we doing what we're doing?

I think of revelation the way Jesus so gently goes to those churches

and he just tells 'em the truth.

the church at Ephesus, they thought they were gold star.

In fact, they get to go first.

we're the first church, and Jesus is like, I'm gonna take your lamp, stand

away because you've left your first love.

You love me.

You just don't love me primarily.

, like any, to hear that, they need to hear that that's a necessary diagnosis.

Does faith make God move?

that's a question in something we hear a lot, right?

, if you have the right faith, if you have enough faith, if you have more faith, then

you can move God to act and do things.

If you believe that though, you're going to be looking for more.

And not more knowledge.

That's more truth.

What's truly true about God and what he says is real in the universe.

That's where we go, right?

Because all through scripture, God's constantly telling us

you don't need a lot of faith.

It could be as small as a mustard.

and you could literally say to this mountain move and it will be moved.

That's crazy.

so it's not about more faith, it's about the object of our faith.

if you put a little bit of faith in a whole bunch of truth, that's all you need.

and what God says, if you believe what God says, and you know what God says about

situations and circumstances, you're good.

That's amazing, right?

Faith accesses what God has already done in grace.

Faith is the point of access, not the point of power.

The power is in what God has only done for you because of Jesus Christ.

You hear that faith access is what God has already done.

In grace, we always talk about withdrawing the blessings, right?

So many times we, we pray and we're gonna read it God, will we just bless me?

He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing.

like it's yours.

Just draw it.

Just believe it, right?

Just believe that it is Faith is the point of access, not the point of power.

The power is in what God has already done where he says, be strong in the

Lord and the power of his might not.

In your faith, don't have faith in faith.

Don't be strong in yourself and because what so often happens is we

try to conjure up more faith, which often is just whipping up our emotions

if I believe right, if our or if.

If I just couldn't do it when I was like, when I was younger,

I got invited to my first dance and I was just so excited to go.

but unfortunately being a teenager, I had this like crazy zit on the

forehead, and the way I used to wear my hair was down to my shoulders,

and it just parted in the middle.

So it, it was like drapes, drap pulling apart on the

stage and saying, look at this.

It looked like I had a third eye.

Anyways, being a man of faith, a kid of faith, a teenager of faith,

I read the story about naming the leper and how he washed seven times,

and I thought, I just need faith.

And, and so I got into the shower.

I scrubbed my forehead once, twice, three times.

Four times four.

Oh no, I almost lost count.

I can't lose count.

It's gotta be seven.

Seven times.

It was a long shower, and then I got out and the, the fog was on the mirror.

So I'm like, okay, I gotta let all this evaporate and stuff.

And I'm so excited.

Thank you Lord for moving.

You are so good.

and, . And before the fog was gone, I could just see a glow of red

on my forehead from just abusing my skin with abrasive things.

I made it 10 times worse.

I made it 10 times worse.

See, at that moment, I'm trying to conjure up faith.

I'm trying to armbar God into doing what I want for him to do.

And so often, what does the truth say?

It says, I'm in control and I love you.

Everything passes through my nail scarred.

so often we want to use faith because we think we know better when what faith

does is look at truth and lean on him and trust and say, God knows better.

God knows better.

so often we say to God, my will be done right and I'll do this

and I'll do this and I'll do.

I'll take things seriously.

Lord, I'll be used by you.

I'll dedicate my life to the mission field.

and we're trying to get God to do for us.

We're saying, my will be done, but what is faith?

Faith says, here's what I want.

Like Jesus, I want to escape.

If there's any other way, let this cut pass from me, but faith is not my will,

but your will be done because you're.

And you're all wise and you know, all things.

So we don't try to conjure things up.

Romans five, one to two says, therefore, since we have been

justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we also have obtained.

Access by faith into the grace in which we now stand and rejoice

and the hope of the glory of God.

So right there, he's saying faith gives you the access into the grace.

What is grace?

It's what he has done for you above and beyond, right?

What we didn't earn.

What he simply gives as demerit favor, his favor bestowed.

His lavishness towards us, like pouring out all his goodness on us.

What does it say?

It says that we believe that's true.

That he tells us that's true.

He proved it on the cross, which will get to faith, gives you access

into what grace has done for you.

God has already blessed.

. Our problem is not getting more from God, but accessing what

he has already given to us.

Ephesians one, three.

Guys, we know this.

We just read this book.

Jesus has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing

from heaven, has past tenses, all every, or in Ephesians two, six.

It doesn't say he will enthone us in heaven.

It says He has already seeded us with Christ in the heavenly.

Christ is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now the seat at the right hand of the throne of God, and that's where He's

put us, he seated us with himself, is not something that means much

to us today, but it's the place of the greatest power in the kingdom.

It's the prime minister's place.

It's the place of the greatest intimacy.

You have the ear of the king.

You are at the right hand of the place of favor.

It says all power, all intimacy is already.

Ours.

What would it look like if we acted on that?

That's faith.

What would it look like if we believed that that was so?

Second Peter one, three says that, therefore, we have everything

necessary for life and godliness.

Hebrews 11, one says, now faith is the.

substance of things hoped for.

So it's got substance, right?

It's the conviction of things not seen.

It's real, like truth is real.

It's weighty.

Like God's glory is weighty, and here we come again.

Faith is the eyes of the soul that see the greatness, the

goodness, and the glory of are God.

And then acting on that truth, like it's truer than what we see by our sight.

We walk by faith, not by sight.

So it's interesting you brought that up, I think of a Red Sea, and then I think of

the crossing of the Jordan River, right?

So what do you have?

You've got, on one, God says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, right?

And then he parts the Red Sea.

in that situation, it was really hard to stand.

, everybody wanted to run and scatter.

Why?

Because the Egyptians, they were coming at them with

chariots about to slaughter them.

they , had their backs against the sea

And the panic and the feeling and the anxiety and being terrified.

You want to run and God says, stand still.

And what do they do?

They stand still and God hurts the water.

And they go over on dry land, right?

And then for some reason the enemies, their enemies ride their

chariots in and God closes the waters on them like a grave.

But then there's the Jordan River.

Different.

They had all the time in the world they didn't wanna run.

In fact, a lot of them didn't want to go over.

Remember there's two tribes that said, we'll hang out over here.

we're good.

We don't want to cross the Jordan they had all the time in the world.

And so what does God say step.

, you gotta walk, you gotta take a step, you gotta step out.

And then it par priests get the arc of the coming on like

their most precious possession.

It has the 10 commandments in them.

It has manna in it, it has Aaron's rod in it, like these precious things that were

symbols of God's faithfulness to them.

And then they step into the water and what happens?

Well, at first, nothing.

They first step at nothing, and then they take another step in nothing.

And this was that flood time.

This is when like they couldn't build rafts to get across.

It was too crazy.

There was too much water.

It was flowing too rapidly.

It was flowing too hard.

And as they step more into the water, then all of a sudden God parts the water.

The disciples during the storm is one of my favorites because Jesus

says, oh, you have little faith.

And what he means by.

because he likes that a lot.

And then Jesus marvels at faith, right?

, what is that?

It's just the full confidence that God's in control.

that what God says about reality is real.

, that's faith that he marvels that.

Wow.

You really believe it.

You like, take it on faith value.

You are the centurion soldier, right?

He's oh, no, I understand authority.

I say to this soldier, go do this.

And he does.

If you are who you say, and you have all authority.

You hold every molecule and add him in the palm of your hand.

You don't have to come.

You're good.

You could just say, why don't you leave now?

Disease?

Any marvels of his faith?

I haven't found faith like this in Israel.

What was it?

The amount?

No, it was the object.

He just took what God was saying at face value about.

About his character.

I love the disciples because Jesus says something to new, they're

all terrified right in the storm.

Jesus gets into the boat, he rebukes the wind, he says, shut up.

and I the clouds just part, the sun comes through.

The waves, are just still right.

And what does he say to them?

He says, where is your faith?

Where is your faith?

He didn't say, you need more.

He didn't say, you need to grow your faith.

He didn't say, you need to do this, this, and this with your faith.

He says, take what knowledge you already have on me.

I just fed the 5,000.

I brought food, from nothing, from five.

I multiplied, I fe, I fed, 9,000 people or however many were

that day, counting women and.

You literally passed it out.

You literally held baskets full of food that would not run out.

Bring what little knowledge you have on me to bear on your circumstances.

Where is your faith?

It's not that you need more.

Bring what you know of me to bear on your situation and circumstance.

That's.

Faith, it's not the amount, it's the object.

, right?

Two people traveling on a plane, one's ridden on a plane a

hundred times and he's snoozing.

He's got the neck pillow, he's got the, noise canceling bows,

headphones and he's just loving it.

He doesn't even want to get off.

He, he is can't I just fly somewhere else?

I was sleeping so good.

The guy sitting next to him is terrified, shaking, goes to the bathroom a couple

times and throws up, taking pills and ambient and, all kind, Xanax, because

he's so afraid that he's gonna crash.

Do they both make it to their destinations?

Yeah.

Why?

It's because the object.

It's because the pilot gets him there.

The plane gets him there.

it's not that one believed and the other didn't, or, he placed

his faith and he got on the plane even though his faith was shaky.

That's why, the man with the demonized kid, he says, I believe, help my unbelief.

He's I think I do.

I want to.

But I don't know.

Are you gonna come through?

Are you gonna, are you gonna fail?

And so help my unbelief.

Do we understand?

faith.

Faith is acting on God's truth.

It's the point of access.

It's just, it's believing.

All through scripture, one of the great themes is the just lived by faith.

Those who are made right with God just justified believe that it's.

And they walk in that new identity that has been one for them at the cross.

That's how you live your life.

The just live by faith.

Those who are justified believe that God really justified them.

That he has taken their sin as far as the eases from the west, that

he adores them, that they have an inheritance, that they're a beloved

child of God, that God dotes on them, that he truly does sing over them.

Not just sometimes, but all the time because Christ's righteousness is secure.

It's invincible, it's impenetrable, it's beautiful, it's glorious.

It's the perfect obedience that he put on us like the, so that.

Perfectly obedient to the father.

There's nothing in the way believing that's true.

Walking in that that's what faith is.

That's what faith is.

So why do we need it?

And this is the critical point.

So like we said earlier, if you're trying to besiege a city, you didn't use the

shield and hand to hand combat on the way to the, Capitol City, this big door like.

Nor did you use it once.

You broke it into the city and were now mopping up the enemy.

You used it as you were besieging the city as you were actually at the critical

moment in which the whole campaign hung in the balance because as you were

actually assaulting the walls, that's the most dangerous place in the whole.

Because you are unbelievably vulnerable at that point.

Because what they would do is they would shoot their fiery arrows.

They would throw pitch in tar and hot molten lead, and so it would

be under there besieging that wall.

And you would need to extinguish those things because what would so often

happen is if that shield wasn't put up or there was a crack in the defense is you

would turn and see your fellow soldier.

Jerry, who you've been fighting with since you were a young person.

catch on fire and yell and scream and thrash, and then

you hear it all around you.

The point, the most desperate part of the battle was in that moment.

Could you withstand the.

Could you withstand that?

Could you get through the walls?

Because it didn't matter how big your army was when you came up

against a fortified wall and a fortified defense, you had to endure.

You had to get through it.

You had to come through on the other side.

And there were many times and many battles where they would scatter

and they would run and they would retreat, and they would lose the

battle because they would not endure at the wall when the fire was coming.

So it kind of paints the picture, right?

these fiery arrows, as we often hear, could be doubts.

They could be temptations as we think about what these

fiery arrows are coming at us.

But I think what Paul has in mind here when he uses the word fiery, is suffer.

At first Peter four 12.

Peter writes, beloved, do not be surprised when fiery trials come upon you.

In Revelation chapter three, the same word is used here, fiery.

It says The church is like gold purified in the.

It's talking about dings of the saints.

So the shield, it's for those darkest times.

It's for those times in which certain kinds of surprising tragedies and

sufferings and amazing disappointments and disillusioning occurrences seem to be

hurled down upon you from out of nowhere.

They surprise you, they shock you.

That's their whole purpose.

They're there to alarm you, to make you panic, to make you flee, to make you

run, to make you turn your back on God, to make you question his goodness, his

power, his authority, and his justice.

They're not there just to hurt you, but to scare you they're there to

get you to turn around and run.

That's when you have to put up the shield of faith.

suffering is difficult.

and

many fellow soldier has been taken out because of suffering.

suffering is that fire, that can come out of nowhere.

that can come from friends, that can come from yourself and your own activities,

but it can lead you to a place where you just don't know down from up.

You don't.

Know if what you believed in and was good, your foundation feels shaky.

Some of the seasons that we've been through, I've been honest

with you guys as a church.

I, the only thing I was tethered to or the only thing tethered to me was Jesus.

I couldn't.

I couldn't pretend like he didn't exist, but man, I wanted to

leave everything else behind.

There's too much pain.

There's too much trauma, there's too much heartache and tears and long.

Nights, and I mean to the point where your body's affected,

where your body is taking on.

there's this book called The Body Knows the Score, like your body takes on

the trauma, the suffering that you're going through, even if it's something

like rejection or, being ostracized from community or something like it

is, it's crazy and it always seems.

At least what I do is I used to give God, I'd be like, God, you

can, here's my plan for my life.

It's amazing and there's suffering in there.

There's a cross.

That I'm gonna take up and follow you, but it only go here.

You can't come here.

You can't lean me all the way to Golgotha.

You can't lead me into the tomb.

just, I'll walk with you.

I'll be like, Simon, you know who, who took the cross with you?

and it said, all right, you now go do like that's my plan.

And God always seems to do.

And at first it feels more like you can handle.

Why does he allow suffering and fire?

Zacharia three 19 it says, and I will put this, third into the fire and

refine them as one refined silver and test them as gold is tested.

They will call upon my name and I will answer them.

I will.

They are my people, and they will say, the Lord is my God.

First Peter one, seven says that the tested genuineness of your faith.

More precious than gold.

That perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result

in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I'm gonna tell you two stories that help us under stand this process.

The story of job is one or the story of job God goes to, Satan,

or wait, no, Satan comes to God.

And God and him are dialoguing in this Job, chapter one, and God says,

have you considered my servant job?

Look at him.

There's nothing like him on the earth.

And what to Satan say?

He says, he only worships you because you have a hedge about him.

You protect him from suffering, is what he says.

You've blessed him and he doesn't have to suffer.

If you take that hedge down, if you let me bring suffering

into his life, he will curse.

And so God says you can do this, and this, but not this.

You can't take his.

In one day job goes from being one of the wealthiest people on

the planet earth to losing it all.

He loses his whole family except for his wife.

he loses, his kids, he loses his daughters.

He loses all his possessions.

Everything is wiped out in one single day.

And not only that, he gets stricken with boils.

Boils so big that.

You know what gladly it says, take a pot chart, a piece of broken pro pottery

to scrape the boils outta his skin.

He laid an ash to get some kind of relief and his wife looks at him

and she's what are you clinging?

Curse God and die.

And he says, no show.

the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Why would God let this happen?

Why would God do that?

Because Satan and God have two very different purposes for

the fire and for suffering.

Satan wanted to bring the fire down to consume job and God let Satan

bring the fire down to refine job.

In fact, even Job says in Job 2310, but he knows the way

that I take when he has tried.

I shall come out as gold.

So that's one.

You've got the story of job right, and the enemy wants to destroy

him with suffering and the fire.

He wants to ruin his faith.

He wants to take him out.

The battle is thick.

I, the battle is vicious when it comes to suffering, when

a loved one dies too early.

the enemy's right there to say he raised the dead.

He couldn't keep your loved one from perishing.

Oh, but you prayed for months.

You had the whole church praying for this little child with leukemia.

but he's the one, he doesn't wanna listen.

He doesn't wanna hear you.

You feel like the tension in the heart that's yeah, why Lord?

So Satan.

The suffering to destroy.

God wants and uses the suffering to refine.

the story of Peter is the second one, and this is a different kind of suffering.

for Peter.

It was the death of his hopes and his dreams, right in a single night.

You remember Peter's man, Lord, though they all deny you, I'll never deny you.

I'm your guy.

I'm the one.

he uses the very words like, I'll fight.

I will go to the death for you.

And why Peter's excited.

He gets to see things that the other disciples didn't get to see, right?

Jesus had said, as we read earlier, Peter, on this confession of yours,

I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell won't prevail against it.

You're a rock.

and, Peter's yeah, I'm the guy.

And when the Messiah comes into his kingdom, when he overthrows Rome,

when he overthrows our oppressors, and he, he wipes them out for all their

injustice against us and he puts Israel back on, that, that place, where they.

Rule and reign and righteousness and the nations will come

and see that our God is God.

man, I'll be in those places of power, James and Johnson, their

mother to ask, but I know, I see the way Jesus looks at me.

I know he's given me these places of power that it's coming for me.

And then his hopes.

Dying a single night as Jesus is arrested and put on trial,

and it looks like his Messiah, his savior is gonna die.

So what's he to do?

He says a couple of times, I don't know the man.

He denies Jesus.

And in Luke it says that Jesus looks over and makes eye contact

on the third time when a little girl says, Hey, where are you?

His discipl.

And he says, I swear I don't know the man.

I make an oath under heaven.

I don't know him.

And the rooster crows and Jesus looks at him, and Peter goes

out and he weeps bitterly.

Here's the thing, Jesus said, Simon Peter, Satan wanted to

have you and sift you like wheat.

So Satan like Job is after Peter's destruction.

he's after to ruin him, he wants to make Peter the next Judas.

Judas went out and hung himself.

He wants to destroy every single one of those disciples.

He wants to cause.

Such failure, such a dashing of the dreams and hopes in Peter's

life that he wants to end it all.

He's after Peter's destruction.

He wants to use suffering in that way, and that's what Jesus is.

Simon Satan wanted to have you and to sift you like we, but here's the

turn, but I have prayed for you.

And therefore, when you churn, strengthen the brethren.

, do you know what it means, Peter?

You're gonna come through the fire and when you're done, you're

going to be ready to be a leader.

You're gonna be able to strengthen your brothers, not despite your

failure, but because of your failure.

Because the leaders I'm looking for are refined.

Ones are broken, ones are leaders who have had their hopes and.

about what they want to do for God dashed so that they might

come humbly to God and he might.

Do what he's gonna do, which is far greater than we could

ever imagine or even hope.

A great leader is somebody who's broken, who's seen just like Job

and Peter, what his pride was, and therefore he wasn't destroyed.

He was refined because in the midst of the fire with Jesus's help Peter's a

difference between the gold and the draws.

He had to choose, who do I serve now?

And he served Christ.

It has to happen to become a leader.

Faith is looking at what Jesus has said.

Faith is looking at who God is.

That's why at the end of the Book of Job, the reason job, made it is because God

showed up and said, don't you see Job?

The problem is you're full of pride.

You think you're wise.

You think you're right.

you think you're trying to put me on the stand in the courtroom.

Where were you when I stretched out the heavens?

Like a garment.

Where were you when I called all the stars into being and

name them and what has he said?

I heard you with the hearing of my ear, but then I saw you

and I repented Dustin Ashes.

I was so wrong about you.

You are far more glorious.

You far more grand.

You are far greater.

Peter, wait, you conquered death?

You mean you weren't just overthrowing Rome and in, in overthrowing our

oppressors for a couple of decades, you overthrew the oppressors

from the beginning of time.

Satan sin and death.

You put death to death itself.

What?

You are far greater.

You are the conquering king.

You are not a prophet like Jeremiah.

You're not a preacher like John the Baptist.

You're not a miracle worker like Elijah.

You are the son of the living God.

What you do is good.

What you do is right.

What you choose from me is right.

So at the end of his life, Peter, Jesus tells him, Peter, don't worry about John,

what he's gonna do, what I got for him.

At the end of your life, here's what I got planned for.

You gonna go where you don't want to go.

And we know from history that Peter is crucified for his faith in Jesus, but

he's To be crucified, like my Messiahs,

that's too great of a thing.

Crucified me upside down.

What a different human being.

Because he was refined,

because of the draws of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness was

removed through that suffering.

wow.

Sorry.

I just think.

He walked who he walked into suffering

so victorious and so full of joy.

That's why he wrote counted all joy, because God's doing something through

this and the shield of faith goes, yes, it hurts, but I trust it hurts.

Fire's there.

It's coming on.

But God's got a purpose.

He's doing something greater.

He's gonna take with the enemy, meant for evil, and he's going to work it for good.

man.

John 15, the printing of the tree.

There's homework when, Gardner prunes a tree.

You think he's killing it?

And the Gardner says, you don't understand.

If I didn't do this, I wouldn't be killing.

, I do hope that it might bear more fruit.

Hebrews 12, the discipline from the fathers, as you mentioned, Matt.

faith is the eyes of the soul that see the greatness, the

goodness, and the glory of God.

How do we take it up?

Do you know what faith, the shield of faith is?

Faith is looking.

Faith is looking right.

We, not walk, not we walk by faith, not by sight.

He's, it's looking.

Faith is the eyes of the soul that see the greatness, the

goodness, and the glory of God.

We know the truth and that we look at that and we believe it's true,

and then we act on that truth.

Faith is acting on God's truth.

Faith is looking.

The Bible says we walk by faith, not by side.

That means we see him who is unseen.

Faith is looking at God instead of at the trial.

Faith is remembering God.

doth in the vi Bible is a very important place.

It's the place where my wife just was talking about this, where

Elisha is surrounded by the.

And then he prays, to the Lord, to open his servant's eyes, and his

servant's eyes are opened, and he sees the chariots of fire all around.

He sees the army as the Lord of hosts, and he's oh man, they dwarf the enemy.

, but Dhan also has another important place in the Bible.

Guess what else?

Dhan.

What happened to Dhan?

Dhan was the place where Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers,

and I'm sure Joseph prayed, God deliver me God.

This is unjust.

And he was sold as a slave.

Faith sees that God is just as present with Joseph, with his chariots and his

armies and the Lord of hosts as he was with Elisha, because what does God do?

Joseph becomes a second most powerful man in Egypt, and through his

wisdom nations all around are saved because he knows how to handle a.

And plans for it.

Faith, trust God,

so God demonstrated his love for us.

He loves this.

He died for you.

I think of the three Hebrew boys in the fire, right?

They said, we're not gonna bow.

So neer brings suffering into their life.

In fact, he says, turn the furnace up seven times hotter.

Doesn't it feel like that sometimes?

That's what I feel like my journey with God sometimes is as I get through

one fiery trial and then it's like the next one is seven times hotter,

and you're like, what in the world?

They go in and they're bound with rope.

They're thrown into this furnace.

And ne Ezer says to one of his servants, didn't we throw three in there?

Why is there four?

And the fourth has the countenance like the son of God.

And so then he bids him to come out of the fire, and they come out of the fire.

What's the only thing gone from them?

Says they don't even smell like fire didn't even smell like.

, but the things that bound them, theros that was burned off

the gospel says that Jesus is with you in the fire

because at the cross, the fire was heated to an infinite amount

and he was utterly consumed by it

so that you wouldn't be consumed by it.

So now because of the victory of the resurrection, because of

bearing that God can actually make suffering, serve your joy.

the ultimate defeat of evil, as we often say, is to make evil do the

exact opposite of what it's trying to do to bring good in your life.

That's what God did with.

Satan said, he'll destroy you and Job is more secure in his faith.

So as we talk about the shield of faith, we take it up in those

moments of suffering, they're going to come in our lives.

We look with the eyes of our soul and see the greatness, the

goodness, and the glory of our God,

and sometimes all the time.

Like those Roman soldiers, those shields were made in such a way

where they would click together.

Yeah.

And when one person was weak, when they lost their footing,

everybody else would hold them up.

And so we need community and suffering.

, we need other shield wearing Christians.

in the midst of our suffering.

And guys, sometimes that just means sitting with somebody.

Being present doesn't mean giving them the answers,

but sometimes we bear them up and bear their burden and let's

fulfill the law of Christ.

Let me pray for us.

we'll close and worship and take communion.

father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for, I just wanna say thank you personally.

I feel not only like the leper who was, cleansed and wanna say

thank you, but I also feel like,

like that or that's been refined.

Thank you.

That you don't leave us to ourselves.

Thank you.

That you refined.

Thank you that you prune.

Thank you that you're after our joy.

Lord, I could testify today every bit.

And the weight and the heat and the fire.

Lord, you've been glorified in it.

You've, you're more beautiful.

My heart's been set free, those bonds have been burned off, so thank you, Jesus.

Thank you that you don't waste our suffering.

Thank you that you're gonna wipe every tear from our eyes on that final day.

Thank you that you're ending suffering.

Lord, thank you that everything crooked will be made.

The thorns on the flowers will be removed.

And so Lord, we praise you.

And Lord, we look to you.

We don't look to our own faith, our own ability.

We look to you.

The man in the fire.

The man in the fire, and.

As we keep our eyes on you, even as Peter kept his eyes on you in the storm,

we step out into what you say is true.

So blessed this time now as we focus on your body broken and your

bloodshed, that were people of this new.

We thank you so much, Lord.

In Jesus' name, amen.