The Shield of Faith

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

I don't know about you, but I have thoroughly been enjoying going through the pieces of armor again.

It has been such a blessing.

In fact, John Denson told me, he asked me, he said, preacher, after Revelation, we need to put on the armor of God.

I said, yeah, we do.

I said, that's awesome.

That's perfect.

That's where we need to go.

And so, and by the way, let me just say, and I know all you guys are going to get a little upset at me and get mad at me, but that's okay.

I'm in the pulpit, so I got I'm covered.

Amen.

And you know the Bible says, let another man praise you and not your own mouth.

We've got a lot of unsung heroes around here that y'all know nothing about.

And uh I want you to know that I do not take you for granted.

I mean that.

We've got uh a team that comes in here, and by the way, ladies, let me just say to you too.

And when I say heroes, I'm not just talking about males.

I'm talking about ladies.

We got a lot, about 35 folks that make everything happen every Sunday morning right here, right here.

And then afterwards, the heroes that pick up the chairs, the heroes that put up the tables and the King's Ranch homes and helps all of y'all.

That you don't know, that does not go unnoticed.

I want you to, I don't want you to think that we don't notice that.

Your pastor noticed that.

And let me tell you what that does.

That frees, while you're doing that, it frees others up to do what they do best.

And I I use this time the whole time to counsel and love on our people and to and to minister to them, find out what I need to do this week and who I need to go to see.

And and it it's just a beautiful picture.

In fact, I've got two churches that are gonna come uh and just come early.

I said, you gotta get here at 7 o'clock.

They said, 7 o'clock.

I said, oh yeah.

7 o'clock?

I said, yeah, because uh, in fact, if you want to meet my wife at a Saturday night, because she does a lot of the prep time, and then Jesse and a whole uh men group and some of the ladies get in here early to start the cooking and the putting out.

I mean, it's it's it's it's a lot going on before you even get it, while some of you are still in bed.

And uh, so there's a lot going on, and and then the people that are, you don't know how well protected you are here.

But let me just tell you, God help them if they try to come on this campus and do anything.

They better know Jesus because they're gonna meet the Maker.

Real quick.

So that's all I can say.

And uh, and you don't even know it, and you shouldn't know it.

That's the way it works.

But we're well covered on every end, every door.

Uh, just trust me.

So I praise the Lord for that as well.

And uh, and then the nursery and the children and Dale, and I mean, there's just so much that I don't want you to think we take for granted, guys.

We do not.

Your pastor just beams all over when I think about what God's done in this short period of time uh in this church and the ministries in Honduras and Costa Rica and Africa, and and listen, we're going to Africa in November.

So if you want to go, we hadn't been in three years, we're going.

We're gonna do a medical clinic and a major revival every night at our own Reuben's church.

So uh right now, if you want to go, you just need to start looking and working hard and raising the money.

And and uh where's Leslie?

Leslie, she uh uh I'm hoping we're gonna get Leslie to go with us.

We need a doctor.

So uh uh, and uh so anyway, it's gonna be a great trip.

We'll we'll minister to hundreds of uh Tanzanians during the day through our medical clinic, and then at night I'll be preaching the message, and uh it's gonna be uh with uh Reuben and the church over there.

It's about 250 now that we help build.

It's it's I'm telling you, he's in a little city.

You say a little city, yeah.

There's about 50 to 70,000 people within two miles.

It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

We'll be dealing with some witchcraft.

You'll have the witch doctors come out against us.

They did last time, but that's okay.

Greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world.

Amen?

Amen.

So, so it's it's gonna be an awesome trip.

And uh, so we hadn't been in three years' time to go back.

We have three places Costa Rica, Honduras, and and Tanzania.

And by the way, that's where Ben's from.

Uh that's his dad.

Uh Dr.

I call him the doctor at uh Rejoice Delima, his dad.

And we go way, way back about, oh, 15 years ago when I first met him.

And so we've been helping him train.

He's a bishop over 300 churches.

And so uh there's a great work there.

So anyway, that's what your little, hey, that's what your little church right here in Westover uh is doing all around the world.

Uh we don't try to do everything, but we have three places that we go and we put our time, our talents, our money into that.

That's our broad ministries and then as much as we do here locally.

So, and I think I just recently told you we had a large donation uh to the land just recently of over 40,000.

And I've been told that I think that that it may be paid off here very soon.

So let's give God a hand, amen.

Unbelievable.

And what I was gonna say, but I am gonna say it anyway, Darren Hyde, I know you're gonna, yeah, but I think I can whip you, so don't say anything.

Uh uh He has been relentless, him, Matt, uh, on this land project.

Y'all don't even know the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you've been very responsible in saving this church.

And I know you don't want the glory, you don't, I know that, but you y'all just don't have a clue.

He's over here at night when we're in bed running those machines, getting the thing ready.

And we will be planting and putting the irrigation in.

Uh Todd back there was and all these guys that do uh Lanny's back there does work in this church.

And you just don't understand how much money.

Do you realize they were gonna charge us$300,000 to bring dirt in here?

And we said, no, we're gonna pray the dirt in.

And do you realize there's been over$400,000 worth of dirt brought in so that we didn't have to spend a dime on dirt to fix that field?

Can we give God hallelujah?

2,800 loads of dirt at$300 plus dollars a load, you do the math.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

And still bringing it.

They're gonna build a baseball bill next.

Hey, we're not stopping.

We're not stopping, folks.

Uh so let me tell you, that's why when you, Pastor, gets up and say, please start tithing, please start giving, you know why?

I'm not ashamed to ask for your money.

Hello.

Let me tell you, this is one investment, that 10% or more, you're gonna get great dividends on.

All the other, you're gonna leave behind.

Oh, I never thought about that.

Well, you ought to start thinking.

Trust me, I promise you.

I promise you.

It's unbelievable.

And here, don't miss out on it.

Get in on it.

Don't miss out on it.

Get in on it.

I like that saying.

Amen, Lord.

Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

You know, today we're gonna be looking at verse 16.

And above all, now you just read that and and and you kind of let it just jump by.

That's a powerful statement.

What Paul is saying is above all, above all what?

Above all that you've already seen and done and put on.

Above all the belt of truth.

And we talked about the belt of truth.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.

No man cometh unto the Father except through him.

Can I get an amen?

And that we are to live our life by that truth.

And then above all, after putting on the breastplate of righteousness, which covers your heart, it protects your heart.

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.

Proverbs 23, 26.

And it protects your bowels.

Remember what we said about that part of your inner soul, your emotions, and that will.

It protects that.

And that we're to be holy in all manner of conversation because He is holy.

We're to live out that imputed righteousness through practical living, practical righteousness.

And then last week we put on the sandals of peace, the peace of God that passes all understanding, that will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4, 7, understanding that it's that peace that when all the fiery darts, which stands for when all hell breaks loose against you, you can still walk through the fire with the peace of God.

And then he says, so above all that, he said, you ain't seen anything yet.

Now I'm gonna show you.

All that doesn't really compare.

Well, it does compare, but now I'm gonna give you probably the most or one of the most important truths of your life and your spiritual armament as you fight this spiritual battle.

See, he says, I'm gonna give you the shield of faith.

Now it's awesome here.

He makes a major transition.

The first three pieces of armor, notice what he says, and having on the belt of truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, having on, putting on the shoes.

Then he changes the verb tense.

Now he says, you gotta take it up.

See, the other three stay on.

The last three are pieces of armament that are ready and need to be, I'm talking about completely ready for the battle that you're about to take, and they will be ready because you don't know which one you're gonna need to take up.

See, sometimes when the errors are flying, you don't pick up the sword, you pick up the shield and you hide under the shield till the errors quit.

And then you, hey, then you take up, actually, back in the Romans days, and you're gonna see there were two types of shields.

They had the shorter shield that would be on their back, and they would uh for hand-to-hand battle with the sword.

But this shield we're talking about, this shield, the shield of faith, was the big wood.

I'm talking about it would be a five foot tall.

I'm talking about they could literally make a wall.

They could really cover them, the whole uh group of men to uh with their shields together.

You could not penetrate those shields.

So now he says, this is what's gonna completely cover you against any of the attacks of Satan.

Now, I don't know about you, that's pretty important.

This above all, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench, to extinguish.

Oh, say that word with me.

I mean, what kind of what kind of attacks?

Some attacks?

Special attacks?

Oh attacks of the fiery darts, of the evil one.

A lot of people misunderstand faith.

They misuse faith.

They say, God's gonna be on my faith.

I want God to be on my faith.

Now, can I say something?

When you get saved, you have all the faith that you're ever gonna have.

Now, what you've got to understand, well, how does my faith grow?

And when he says in 2 Peter 3 18, but grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here it is.

Let me give you the definition of faith.

Let's start out with a definition of faith.

Faith is taking God at his word.

You can't have faith that is disattached from the word of God.

Romans 10, 17.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what?

The word of God.

So you don't ask God to increase your faith.

What you ask God is to increase your knowledge of the Word of God, which then executes and brings out the faith that you can apply in your life.

That's good, preacher.

So we don't understand it or we we misuse it.

I just need more faith.

No, you need more truth.

And you need more activation on the truth you already know.

Woo! Amen.

You gotta activate what you already know.

You gotta apply what you already know.

You gotta be doers of the word, not hearers only.

Deceiving yourselves of what?

Of faith.

See how that fits, man?

That's good.

So you gotta understand that.

And that's what he's talking about.

See, the Bible says that when we get saved, oh, I'm gonna have that abundant life.

Yes, that's true.

But when I got saved, I thought all my troubles were gonna be over.

Because I was a troubled person.

Amen.

But you realize what I realized?

All hell broke loose.

Because I, you know, I'm I'm gun-ho.

Let me tell you something.

My wife would tell you.

And people try to get me involved in a lot of stuff, and I don't get involved in a whole lot of stuff.

And let me tell you why I don't.

One, when I get involved, I'm gonna give it 100%, and I'm gonna get either leave, fall, or get out of the way.

So I I but I know where my energies and my giftedness are used for.

At my age, I want to get the best for my money.

I want to get the best for my buck.

Amen.

In other words, my energy, my time is gonna be spent where I am doing the most with my abilities for the glory of God.

Amen.

Amen.

That's why it was funny.

Clay said, I know what my pastor does.

He does two things.

He studies and he visits.

That's it.

I love people.

I'm gonna share the gospel.

And I'm gonna preach the gospel.

I'm gonna teach you the word.

So our faith, hey, not so that our faith can grow, so that we can exhibit more faith.

That's it.

So, but but you think it's, hey, listen to what the Bible says in the introduction there in your notes.

The Bible says, and by the way, this is normal, that we're going to reign, if we're gonna reign with Christ, we gotta suffer with Christ.

Hello, 2 Timothy 2.12.

And then notice what Jesus said.

Be of good cheer.

Why?

He says, in the world you will have tribulation.

But then he says, but be of good cheer.

Why?

I have overcome the world.

So what you realize is once you get saved, you don't understand.

You enter into an army because you are now in a spiritual battle.

You are in a war with God against Satan.

That's the life you're gonna live till you go to be with Jesus.

You're in a war.

But bless God, we have the armor.

And by the way, the armor is not of this world.

The weapons that we have are not of this world if we're gonna win.

Can I get an amen?

He says in 2 Corinthians 10, 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

What that means, they're not of this flesh.

But they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Can I get an amen?

So we see this.

We really do.

And that brings me to the first point I want to give to you today.

Is that the introduction then?

That's the introduction.

And here's the introduction.

In order for us to what?

Apply faith in our life, we've got to look under Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Amen?

So that's what we're gonna be looking at in order to do that.

There's several things I want you to look, really, about five things.

This is gonna be good.

Now notice what he says.

Above all, taking the shill of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts.

Now, the word quench there is the Greek word spy to me.

Spy to me.

It means to suppress, to stifle, to extinguish.

It means everything Satan brings at you, you can extinguish it.

Everything he brings at you, you can put it down.

There has no temptation taken you, but such as is coming to man.

But God is faithful and just to will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but with the temptation make a way to escape.

Is that not good?

1 Corinthians 10 13.

Now watch.

This is awesome.

Picking up the shield of faith is this with the other pieces of armor.

It's a matter of putting on Christ Himself.

Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, and then I love Galatians 2.20.

You know it?

If you know it, quote it with me.

I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So the life I now live is in Christ.

It is his faithfulness that protects me and preserves my life from the attacks of Satan.

Now, the first thing I want us to look at.

Number one, the priority of the shield of faith.

Paul begins by saying, above all, take the shield of faith.

Faith is the key to all the spiritual armor.

The shield of faith deflects the fiery darts of the wicked one before they reach our heart and our emotions and our will.

Without the shield, the warrior is more vulnerable.

So faith is, let's let me tell you, let me give you the definition again.

It's very important you understand it.

Faith is acting on the truth.

Write this down.

In fact, I wrote it down.

God gave me this, this I can't remember what morning I was studying.

Faith is acting on the truth.

Faith is acting on truth.

That's so easy, but now watch this.

Let me finish it.

Faith is acting on the truth.

And what is truth?

Okay?

You say, well, the truth is God's word.

Yeah, but let me give you what God gave me this week.

Faith is acting on the truth, and truth is God's view of the matter.

That's good.

Truth is God's view of the matter.

So, in other words, I don't care what you're going through, where you are in life, what you need is God's wisdom, God's view on your situation.

Is that not good?

And that view comes from the Word of God, the truth.

Of God's word.

Isn't that good?

So truth is God's view of the matter.

It's important you understand that.

In other words, see, what happens is we we kind of get a little pity party sometimes when we say, well, God just doesn't understand.

Or you, or I'll say to my wife sometime, honey, you just don't understand.

Well, it really doesn't matter if she understands.

Now I hope she understands, but what matters is that I get God's view on my situation.

Hello.

Now, thank God I've got an unbelievable godly wife.

And I know she's gonna give me God's view.

She always says, and she always has when I want her to.

I do not have a uh uh uh come here, honey, and cry on my shoulder.

My wife's not like that.

My life, suck it up and go get in the word and go do what you're supposed to do.

Hello.

That's who it is.

She's or or I'll start saying, she said, Well, have you talked to God about it?

I'm the preacher, don't you know I talk to God?

Maybe I just want you to say, Oh, honey, I'm sorry.

She can't do that.

No.

Tough.

And y'all don't think that.

And she didn't come across that way.

But let me tell you why she's that way.

She's very compassionate.

But she knows the truth.

And the truth shall set you free.

And she knows that if I can get God's view on the matter, I'll be set free.

Woo! You want to be set free?

Hey, get God's truth, God's view, and then do it.

A lot of times we have it, but we don't do it.

If we do what we already know, we'd have revival within ourselves.

Amen?

We got a lot of knowledge.

And we wonder why we're praying for faith.

Because we're not activating what we already have.

Woo! We're not doing what we already know to do.

Why would God give you more of something if you're not doing what He's already told you to do?

That'd be like me saying, I'm gonna give you a raise for not doing your job.

Hello.

Amen.

Oh me?

Oh, you've just done a terrible job.

Let me promote you.

How about that wicked service?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we see the priority of faith.

So, all right.

So let me tell you what faith is not.

Faith, number one, is not feelings.

Because, see, feelings is dictated by circumstance.

If you feel good, hey, you're happy.

If you feel bad, you're sad.

So if we determined our faith by our feelings, we'd be confused all the time because we're up and down, up and down, up and down.

And up and down and up and down is confusion.

You with me?

So faith is not feelings dominated.

Now, granted, when you are walking by faith, you do feel good.

Hello.

You know why you feel good?

It's not the feelings, it's the peace of God that's giving you contentment, which makes you feel good.

Faith is not tied to your feelings.

You know what faith helps?

Faith is not, secondly, it's not tied to your senses.

You can't hear it.

You can't see it.

You can't smell it.

You can't taste it.

You can't touch it.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things that aren't seen.

See, we live in a spiritual world.

And we have to go up into that spiritual world and bring that invisible down to, hey, which is that imputed righteousness coming through us through the practical righteousness that we've been imputed and given.

Now we're living it and we're trusting it and we're believing it and we're acting upon it, and because of that, we're seeing miraculous things happen.

So when you're not going up into the invisible world to activate the grace of God and the faith that you've already been given through the Holy Spirit teaching you the Word of God, and you live in the Word of God, doing the Word of God, if you're not doing that, you're here on a human level, fleshly level, and you're doing everything in your flesh, and that's why you're failing, discouraged, I'm in everything.

You're just down and out.

Because you know why?

You're trying to do it by what you hear, by what you see, by what you smell, by what you taste, and what you can touch.

And if you're doing that, you're living in the flesh.

And you gotta get beyond that.

You gotta go into the supernatural.

You gotta go into the supernatural.

Woo! Let me give you an example.

Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Jesus is in the boat with the disciples.

They've been fishing all night.

Jesus just used Peter's boat to preach and teach.

And he knew they hadn't caught anything.

Jesus.

You know why we do the love feast?

Everywhere Jesus goes, he feeds people.

Hello, he does.

There's something fellowship, there's fellowshipping around breaking bread together.

And I love our love feast every Sunday.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you, ladies.

Just thank you.

It means more to us than you'll ever know.

That's why this church is so unique and unified.

Now, what's this?

After that, Jesus knows they didn't catch anything.

Now they have fished all night.

And they are fishermen.

Oh, no, not just fishermen, master fishermen.

In other words, they got a degree in Zebedee.

Zebedee fishology.

They got a PhD.

Okay?

And so Jesus now says, launch out into the deep and let your nets down.

Peter says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Wait a minute here, Peter.

I meant Jesus.

Wait a minute, Jesus.

Now we know you're the preacher.

But we're the fishermen.

We got our degree in fishology.

And we have fished all night.

So we got a couple of problems here, teacher.

One, you don't catch fish in the deep.

You catch them, you throw your nets in the shallow.

Where they're roaming at night and late in the afternoon, early in the morning.

And we've fished there are no fish.

So what is he dealing with?

He's dealing with facts.

What he can see, what he can feel with the nets, what he can touch when he's pulling the fish in.

So we got a problem.

And then we got a second problem, Mr.

Teacher.

Mr.

Teacher is you catch the fish in the shallow not the deep, and you're telling us to go to the deep.

And we we we we know fishing.

So he had facts, he had feelings, feelings, he didn't feel good.

He didn't feel like there was any fish there because he had fished all night.

His feelings were up and down.

He didn't agree.

The facts, he didn't agree, but praise God at verse 5.

He said, Button teacher, at your word.

Even though I don't feel like it, even though I don't believe it, even though I can't see it, can't smell it, can't catch it, can't hear him jumping.

I'm gonna do it.

Caught the largest hall he had ever caught.

Why?

Because he turned his feelings, his facts to faith.

He entered into the supernatural.

Why?

He couldn't see it, but he believed it and he did it.

Well, that's good, that's good, that's good.

Just have my own spell on that one.

Amen.

Woo! At your word.

That's how you enter into the supernatural.

Number two.

Faith.

By the way, let me tell you what faith is.

Now let me give you my destiny.

Faith is believing something is so when it's not so, so that it becomes so because God said so.

Would you like me to say that one more time?

Faith is believing something is so when it's not so, so that it becomes so because God said so.

And that's exactly what happened with Peter.

Number two, the purpose of the shield of faith.

Paul says specifically that the purpose of the shield is to quench, to stifle, to suppress, to extinguish.

The fiery dye.

Shot by Satan.

Soldiers in ancient times would often dip their arrows, the tip of their arrows, in two things.

One, poison, real strong poison.

So if the arrow hit you in a place, but it didn't penetrate enough to kill you because of the armament, but maybe it would nick you or go in a little bit, but the armor would keep it from going, you know, real deep.

But it would break the skin and get to the blood.

The poison then would do its job.

But the other means would they would dip the arrow in what they call pitch.

Pitch was kind of like an oil, a tar.

And they'd put it all over that arrow.

Arrow head.

And then they'd light it.

And shoot it.

And anything that it hit, that pitch, once it hit, would splatter.

Spread.

That's why the soldiers would take their big shields and even the small shields and wrap them in animal hides that would be soaked in water.

So that when they hit, it would not catch on fire.

It's important that you know that.

Because here's what Satan's wanting to do.

He's wanting to dismantle you completely with his fiery darts.

Totally.

Totally put you aside.

And I say it happen every week with preachers and strong Christians every week.

Well, maybe not strong Christians, but weak Christians.

Christians that don't understand faith.

Christians that don't understand putting on the armament and having their weapons ready.

The fiery darts.

So the purpose of the shield is the faith is to keep Satan from taking you out.

Number three.

And by the way, that's why it says in Romans 13, 14, I'll give you some verses there.

And by the way, 1 Peter 4.12.

Yeah, I need to.

He says, Count it not strange.

What's this?

1 Peter, it's not on there.

God gave me this yesterday.

1 Peter 4.12, count it not strange concerning the fiery darts, the fiery arrows that are coming to take you out.

So 1 Peter, Peter even talks about them.

Count it not strange concerning the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And then that's why he says in Romans, Paul says, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the lust of the flesh.

You know what he's saying there?

Make sure all your armaments are on.

Because the lust of the flesh is coming at you.

That's what he's saying there.

That's good.

That brings into point number three.

The potential of the shill of faith.

Our tendency is to think that our problem is unique.

Our problem is the only problem like that problem.

I got news for you.

That's not true.

But it doesn't matter if it was true.

Because there's a word there again.

I'm going to get you said again.

And he says, Paul says that he's going to quench what?

How many darts?

All the fiery darts.

So it doesn't matter where you are in life, what valley you're in, it doesn't matter how, I mean, it doesn't matter how low you've gone.

God is still able to bring out the mup, to bring out the pit and put your feet on a rock.

And he's the rock.

And put a new song in your heart.

And we'll see that at the end of this message.

He says in Romans 8, 1 and 2, there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

And he says in 1 John 4, 4, Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

Therefore, the potential of the Shield of Faith is to be ready.

Because we have a defense against every kind of trouble Satan might bring to our life.

Look at number four.

We've seen the priority, we've seen the purpose, the potential.

Now look at the protection of the Shield of Faith.

Boy, this is good.

Genesis, chapter three.

Genesis chapter three gives us insight into exactly what kinds of dart Satan uses.

Now this is gonna be really good, folks.

I want you to see this.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Now listen to how the New Living Testament puts it.

I love this, the way he did it.

He says, Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?

Verse 2.

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden.

Or the new LT says, Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden.

But now watch verse 3.

But the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it lest you die.

So notice, he tempts Eve with the dart of doubt when he says, has God said?

For example, you read a passage of scripture, and here's what you say.

I've been there, I've done it.

Hmm.

I don't know if I believe that.

Now you don't say it out loud because you think everybody thinks you're a heretic.

Or let's put it a better way, you would understand it because you say, oh, it's God's word.

We all believe.

If you really believe as much as you say you believe it, why aren't you doing more of it?

Ooh, ooh, ooh.

So here's how we justify saying we don't believe it.

I don't understand it.

Now, how can you not understand something that God says you should understand?

Because you don't understand the truth because you haven't studied it, you haven't done your homework, and you don't know how to apply it.

So all you do is you have knowledge of it, but you really don't have the wisdom of it.

Hello?

Because wisdom is having knowledge that you work out and apply in your life.

That's what makes it wisdom.

Is that not good?

So you you have knowledge, but you don't have wisdom.

And when you have knowledge, you may have a lot of knowledge and you can debate knowledge, but you can't go into the invisible and pull down that faith that you believe, even though you can't see it, you can't taste it, you can't smell it, you can't touch it.

Knowledge is based basically on senses.

Wisdom, godly wisdom, is based on spiritual insight, the invisible.

Can't smell it, can't touch it, can't hear it.

That's why people don't believe the Bible.

I'm serious, right there.

There's your answer.

It takes faith.

You can't see it.

You can't understand it.

You just believe it.

You at his word.

Touch you.

Yeah.

Notice the second.

Notice the second dart.

The next dart, verse 4, he shoots is denial.

You will not surely die.

Uh-oh.

He literally tells them not to listen to God.

You will not die if you touch this fruit.

Deny.

Deny it.

I don't believe the Bible.

I'm going to do what I want to do.

Come on now.

Go ahead.

That's what's happening in America right now.

We're trying to kick God out of everything.

And you look at the results.

Look at the results.

Notice the third dart.

Then finally, he shoots the dart of deceit.

Oh, he's crafty here.

Look at verse 5.

God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Now watch how crafty and deceitful he is.

He has really just told you a lot of truth.

The only problem is half truth.

Yes, your eyes will be open.

Yes, you will know the difference between good and evil.

Yes, but here's what you won't be.

You won't be like God.

So see how he takes the word of God and gives you half truth.

And you swallow, we swallow hook, line, and sinker.

But it's only half truth.

Gotta have the whole truth.

You should know the truth, and the truth shall what?

Amen.

Amen.

Eve was deceived and disobeyed God.

And we've been counting the costs of her failure ever since.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all of sin.

Romans 5, 12, through Adam.

I believe, and you want to write this down, doubt is Satan's number one fiery dart.

I really believe that.

That's why Paul says we walk by faith and not by sight.

Hebrews chapter 11 is the famous passage of God's hall of faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

The record of the Old Testament saints who, by their faith, remain faithful in spite of unbelievable attacks against Satan.

Let me give you just kind of a quick overview.

Verse 7.

As we go to Hebrews 11.

Hebrews eleven.

Won't you see this?

This is awesome.

Verse 7, look at what he says.

By faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh, there's that invisible.

That's that invisible, that spiritual realm.

Not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heirs of the righteousness which is according to what?

Faith in that unseen world.

He went into the invisible, unbelievable spiritual world and believed at God's word and started building an ark.

Take him a hundred years, and guess what?

People were calling him a lunatic, calling him crazy, because it didn't, he said it's gonna rain.

They didn't even know what rain was.

It had never rained.

Amen.

Hello?

See, you don't understand that because we get rain every day.

But it had never rained.

And for a hundred years it took him to build the ark.

Can you imagine the people laughing at him and calling him lunatic and all that was going on?

And he didn't say a word, he just kept building.

Why?

Because he knew he believed God's word, and God said it's gonna rain.

Verse 8.

Abraham withstood the darts of doubt that were fired against him when he sat out on a journey.

He didn't even know where he was going.

I'm going.

Where are you going, Abraham?

I don't know.

What?

What if I was to tell you tomorrow?

Well, as soon as I'm leaving, where are you going?

We don't know.

You'd say that's stupid.

I'd say that's stupid.

I've never done that.

I've never, I've never sat out on a well, yeah, I did.

I did it when I went into liberty.

I said, I knew I was to go to liberty.

I didn't know how I was gonna get.

I knew all I was gonna do was pack a truck and get there.

I wish I had a time.

That's another message.

And he provided everything.

I placed to stay a job, took every one of my credits all in three days.

Because why?

I didn't know how, but I believed him at his word and I went.

I went.

I didn't know where I was gonna live, I didn't know where I was gonna work, didn't know if I was gonna get all my three years of credit.

I didn't know any of that.

But God said, You go and I provide.

What about verse 11, Sarah?

She was tempted with doubts when God said you're gonna have a uh a son at 90 years of age.

What?

I'm pregnant.

Some of y'all get a little concerned at 30 or 35.

I've even heard of pregnancies at 40.

What about 90?

You say, oh.

And what's even such a greater miracle?

Abraham was a hundred.

That's a miracle.

Hello.

Let's go on.

Let's go on.

Don't park there, preacher.

Verse 17.

Abraham was forced again with doubts when God said, You're gonna go kill your only son.

Kill him.

Offer him up.

And God didn't, but God, but Abraham knew he didn't know how.

But I think in his back in his mind, he says, if I kill him, God will raise him up because God has promised me that he will be the seed and the lineage of Christ, and I know he can't lie at his word.

Oh, what I'm gonna say.

Yeah, but where's the sacrifice?

What about Moses?

When he was, verse 24, to lead the Hebrews out of captivity to Egypt.

His faith in the God of his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob caused him to set aside doubt and obey God's.

Can you imagine?

Here was Moses fixing to walk away from being the prince of Egypt.

We're talking about the highest second in command of the whole world at that time.

How many of us would do that?

I could take you back to when his mother put him in the in the river, too.

The faith she had.

And then verse 30, Joshua.

Joshua, you're gonna go and circle the fort seven uh one time every day, and on the seventh day you're gonna do it seven times.

Can you imagine how what he had to think?

Can you imagine on that seventh day seven times?

Can you imagine you're up on the wall?

What in the world are these idiots doing?

But on that last time, on that seventh time, they stopped and they blew the trumpets and the walls came tumbling down.

Why?

At his word.

One day at a time.

One day at a time.

They just decided I'm gonna believe God.

He's giving me a promise.

And there I stand.

And when I've done all I can do, I stand.

And then I close with number five.

The possession of the shield of faith.

There's only one way.

For Christians to come into possession of the shield of faith, we have to take it up.

Watch right here.

The commander makes it this very available, but the soldier has to take it up.

And to take up, are you ready?

The shield means we have to appropriate the faith we've been given by God.

For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourself, is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

We've been given this gift of faith.

And the way we appropriate our faith is by arming ourselves, are you ready?

With the truth about God from his word.

Every time Satan shoots a fiery dart of doubt, denial, and deceit, we are ready with the truth to shoot back.

1 Peter 3 15 literally says, Sanctify the Lord in your heart.

In other words, you have been set aside.

You've got God in you, and every day you're becoming more like God than you were yesterday.

You have one goal, and that's to be like Jesus, and then you are ready to give an answer.

That's what it says.

To every hope that lieth in you with meekness and joy and happiness.

Are you ready to give an answer?

Beyond your five senses?

Because the only way you can give that answer, you've got to go into the unseen.

You've got to go into the spiritual to bring down that truth.

You've got to allow the Holy Spirit who's in you and your teacher to go up there and grab those truths and teach it to you.

But more than just teaching it, more than just the knowledge, you've got to do it, which becomes God's wisdom for your life.

And when you are walking in God's wisdom for your life, you are walking in victory.

That's why Jesus quoted the Old Testament scriptures when he was tempted.

Remember when he was tempted?

He was tempted by Satan.

And he quoted them.

He said, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is what?

Written, because at God's word.

So let me bring this to conclusion.

Two things we must do.

If we are to procreate our faith and extinguish the fiery darts of the devil.

Number one, we gotta get straight about the object of your faith.

Your faith has to be in no one but Jesus.

Not your pastor, not your counselors, not, hey, not your accountability partner, which we all need them.

You know what's wrong with most of us as Christians?

We have no one to hold us accountable.

We really don't.

Why do you think, listen, why do you think if you miss three Sundays, or really if you miss a couple, we're gonna try to check up on you, but we'll come and see you.

But it's really because we love you.

And we don't want you to get away because the further you get away from, watch, increasing your knowledge of the truth is the less you're gonna be walking by faith.

Because you're walking by the flesh, because you don't understand what, hey, that unseen truths are until the Holy Spirit takes you into that unseen, that spiritual world, brings those truths down, and then you say, Yes, I see it.

And then I do it.

And one of the greatest spiritual truths is not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the man of some are, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching.

Now you understand why you want to come to church or Bible study, or whenever you it's it's because you know God's gonna be teaching you more of the truth, so you'll have, hey, at your availability more faith.

Now, did you understand that?

I didn't say that you have at your availability more faith.

The faith's there, but you know it, now you do it, and then you have the faith.

It's activated.

Does that make sense?

So you don't really pray for more faith, you pray for more knowledge of the truth so that you will, hey, enter into that faith.

That's good.

That's helped me to understand that.

And then number two, you gotta get serious about the strengthening of your faith.

To build a strong body, what do you have to do?

Eat right.

Wait, first is what?

Eat right.

That means that sausage I ate this morning.

Not good for me, but good to me.

When we get to heaven, we're gonna be able to eat anything we want.

But I know what you're thinking.

The super spiritual person says, but God would not give you anything to hurt you.

Well, he'll make my fruit taste like sausage.

Amen?

Because he's gonna give me the desires of my heart.

I don't care that watermelon, boy, that's a good piece of ham.

Yeah.

It's watermelon, but it tastes like ham.

I don't know.

I don't care.

It's gonna be good.

Can I get an amen?

I'm crazy.

I know it.

I know it.

Watch this.

Now watch this.

You gotta eat right.

Then you gotta what?

Exercise.

Come on, you don't like that word.

What?

Exercise.

See, the problem with a lot of Christians, we do a lot of eating.

Especially at CCW.

Join CCW, gain 10 pounds.

20.

Hey, hey, hey.

Hey, hey.

We do a lot of eating, but no exercise.

See, you can eat the word.

Man should not live by what?

But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

But if we don't go apply it and do it, find a ministry and get involved in it right through this church, guess what?

We're gonna be fat, overweight, and guess what?

You don't do anything when you're fat and overweight except sit around.

Hello.

You know I'm right.

Hey, I'm getting me too.

I'm getting me too.

But hey, really, but uh it's a beautiful analogy.

We gotta eat the word of God, but then we gotta activate it.

We gotta do it in ministry.

I want to close with this illustration.

1996 Olympics.

Anybody remember that?

Remember the gymnastics?

We're going to the final uh vault on the horse.

Romania's number one, we're number two, Russia's number three.

And if you remember, Romania's coach had come over to start training America's gymnasts.

Bella Cola.

And there was a little girl that was last vault, she had to score a 9.2 for us to overcome Romania and become the gold meldons.

So there she goes.

Her name was Carrie Scruggs.

She takes off.

She hits the platform, the spring platform.

She hits the horse and she goes over and she comes down.

And when she does, she twists her ankle very badly and falls.

Everybody.

There goes a gold metal.

And she gets up.

She's limping.

She's crying.

And all of a sudden, over in the corner, there's a voice that shouts out, Carrie.

Carrie.

Look at me.

Look at me, Carrie.

I know you're hurting.

I know you are in pain.

I know your ankle's swelling.

Don't look down at your ankle.

Look at me, Carrie.

Carrie, you can do this.

Carrie, you can do this.

Go back there, Carrie.

You've got one more vault.

You can do this, Carrie.

Don't think about how it's hurting.

Don't think about your pain.

Don't look down at your foot.

Carrie, you keep your eyes on me.

And she went back, and you remember she couldn't run at full speed, but she's going, she's hobbling, and she hits that, and she hits that horse, and she comes over.

And when she comes down, she goes boom.

Perfect vault.

Even though she landed on two, she could only stand on one.

And she won.

She got the 9.2, and America won the gold medal.

Why?

Not because of Carrie's faith, but because there was someone in her corner saying, look at me, look at me, look at me.

Don't look at your circumstances.

Don't look at your pain.

Keep your eyes fixed on me, the author and finisher of your faith.

Are you with me, church?

I don't care what you're going through this morning.

Don't look at your circumstances.

Don't look at your pain.

Don't look at all the knots and the nose.

But my eyes are fixed on thee, O God.

And the Lord is my trust.

Psalms 141, verse 8.

Psalms 141:8

Looking under Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Every head bow, every eye close.

Woo! Glory.

Thank you, Lord, for your truth.

This morning you may be here and you're going through a major storm right now in your life.

Would you just raise your hand so I could see it?

I want to pray for you.

I want to love on you.

Come on, don't be ashamed.

You're in a mess.

You're in a storm.

And what I mean by mess, not that you're in a, but you you just you need help.

You need to keep, you gotta, you gotta get your eyes off your circumstances and put them back on him.

Because you got someone in your corner that's saying, look at me!

Look at me.