Standing Ground: Shields Up

We're in a series right now called Standing Ground.

And if you haven't been with us, we're talking about something that we often call spiritual warfare.

And that can sound like overly intense, that can sound like some made-up thing, some superstitious thing, but the reality is this I'm a Jesus follower.

I say that almost every week.

What that means is that I've given my life to Jesus, I've committed my life to him.

So what I think, what I believe, how I live my life is not based on my own opinions or whatever's popular in culture today.

I've given my life to Jesus.

And so he's the authority for me.

What he teaches, what he says, how he lived his life, that's my guide.

And when you read the story of Jesus and you read the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus' followers that we have in the New Testament, one thing that you find is that there is a res it's a it's a resolute belief.

It is resolved.

It's not an if, it's definite.

That there is a spiritual reality.

That there is a spiritual reality, and it affects our lives, that there's an overlap between the spiritual and the physical.

One of the key texts that tells us this is Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12.

Ephesians 6:10–12

A final word.

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Now, when we read something like that, we have to decide whether or not we believe that.

Because what it is saying is that there are spiritual forces that we cannot see with our eyes that have deep influence and effect in the world that we live.

This impacts our lives so much so that when we feel like our enemy is another person, like it's flesh and blood, it's not.

It's not.

That it's it's spiritual.

Jesus always connected the spiritual and the physical.

Always.

One and the same.

He said, What good is it if a man gains the whole world, like all the physical blessings you could have, yet loses his soul?

They're connected.

And what Paul, the author of Ephesians, tells us is there's there's there's this spiritual world, and in it there's some dark stuff.

Words we would use from scripture would be Satan, demons, evil spirits, that kind of thing.

And he says to stand your ground, to be on guard.

To be on guard.

Now make no mistake, Jesus has won.

Like we sung a few minutes ago, the the end is written.

Like it's it's done.

And so if we've given our lives to Jesus, we are on the winning side.

But even soldiers on the winning side suffer casualty.

Even soldiers on the winning side can get wounded.

And if we don't stand our ground, if we're not spiritually equipped to deal with a spiritual enemy, then even though we are on the winning side, we we put ourselves at risk.

That's what Paul's talking about when he says, stand your ground, be on guard, be ready.

And it's awesome because he details for us what God has given us to make us ready, that we're not unequipped.

Verses 13 through 17, therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you'll be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.

Then after the battle you'll still be standing firm.

He says, Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness.

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news, so that you will be fully prepared.

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil, put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

This is our spiritual armor, so to speak.

But we're not powerless.

That we have a spiritual enemy, but we've been given spiritual equipment, spiritual armor by God.

We've got to put it on, we've got to wear it.

And so we've been going through that armor piece by piece.

Today we get to the shield.

The shield of faith.

We see it in verse 16.

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

So do this with me one more time.

Shields up.

Alright.

You guys have got this down, you're pros.

Let's talk for a second, let's make sure we define our terms.

Sometimes, to be honest, as someone who teaches, when you get to a term like faith, you're like, ah, that is the most broad thing you could possibly talk about.

Basically, we talk about faith every Sunday, right?

To some degree.

So what do we mean by faith?

Well, what we mean by faith is something that Scripture actually defines for us in Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

It says, faith shows the reality of what we hope for.

It is the evidence of things that we cannot see.

Faith is the substance that fuels our belief.

And it's deeper than our senses.

I heard a pastor say once, is faith nonsense?

Of course.

Because it's not something that you can sense with your five senses.

It's not something you can always see.

In fact, we're told in 2 Corinthians 5.7 that we live by believing, not by seeing.

We live by faith, not by sight.

You may have heard it said that you'll believe it when you see it.

Doesn't work that way with God.

Sometimes.

But generally speaking, no, no, no.

In fact, there was a man of faith that we call St.

Augustine.

He lived a few centuries after Jesus, and one of his more famous quotes is that some say they will believe when they see.

What they don't realize is that seeing is the reward for believing.

That faith is what fuels us, it's what fuels our belief.

It's the reality of what we hope for.

Faith is something that pleases God, it pleases him tremendously.

In fact, scripture is really clear about this.

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6 says it is impossible to please God without faith.

Hebrews 11:6

Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

So faith pleases God so much so that it's impossible to please him without it.

That actually bears out in the story of Jesus.

There are two times in the story of Jesus where it says Jesus is amazed.

And think about that for a second.

Think about what it would mean to amaze Jesus.

Like that would be hard to do.

You know, he's Jesus.

He's doing miracles left and right, he's teaching and he's teaching in such a way that people are like, I've never heard anyone talk like this.

This is amazing.

And so Jesus being a person who amazed everyone, it would have been a really hard person to impress, to amaze.

Two times in scripture that he's amazed.

Once is when he's amazed at the lack of faith that a group of people have.

Another is when he's amazed at the amount of faith that a certain person has.

It like, he it affects him.

Faith affects God.

It affects God.

It's like, it's almost like currency with God in a weird way.

Like it just does things with God.

It's effective.

That's why, for example, in James chapter 5, it says, Are any of you sick?

James 5 · chapter mention

You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.

Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.

And if you've committed any sins, you will be forgiven.

It just is what it is, church.

We've had people in our church that have been healed through faith.

We've had people who were sick and doctors did not know what to do, and we've seen those people's lives changed through faith.

We had a gentleman in the back of our room a year ago who collapsed, was unconscious.

We had police officers who go here who went to him.

He had no pulse, he was as white as could be, no discernible pulse.

We stopped the service, we all prayed.

It was the first gathering, I believe.

Prayer team rushed over.

Within about 10 seconds, he opened his eyes.

Paramedics came, they took him away.

They could find zero evidence of a heart attack, zero evidence of a stroke, completely and totally fine.

Yeah.

And it's so funny because I think sometimes when we read stuff like that, we're tempted to be skeptical, going, like, I don't know about that, but I'll tell you who like people that I've talked to who aren't very skeptical about that are doctors.

Because doctors will say all the time, yeah, we see people get better, um, and we just can't explain it.

And I've never heard a doctor tell a patient, no, no, no, don't have people come pray for you.

That won't do anything.

They welcome that.

They need all the help they can get.

Faith is effective.

It works, it's what fuels our belief.

And we get faith, according to scripture, in Romans chapter 10, 17, by hearing.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Faith comes from hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ.

That's why when we get together and we sing songs together, we're speaking truth.

I mean, most of the songs that we sing, the words that we're pulling from in those songs are right from Scripture.

When we sing those truths, when we get together, we open up God's word and we read it.

Our faith grows.

Our faith comes to us, it grows just by hearing, by having a heart that desires to learn, a heart that desires to know God better.

Our faith is solidified when we walk it out.

Our faith is solidified when we act on it.

You know, so you do something by faith, and then you see God work, and then your faith grows.

And because your faith grows, you do something else by faith.

And by stepping out in faith, you see something happen and your faith grows, and this just keeps continuing.

It's like walking.

It's it's left foot, right foot.

Faith, action.

Faith, action.

Faith is that's kind of everything for us.

And in the scripture, Paul says it's our shield.

It's our shield.

And its place in our spiritual armor is to be a shield, but a shield against what?

Against Satan, but it but it describes Satan.

This is actually really interesting.

At this moment in the scripture on the armor of God, we actually get to see the way that Satan is attacking.

And it doesn't paint Satan as like a as a swordsman.

It doesn't paint Satan as someone who's coming up close.

In this particular illustration, Satan is an archer.

And he's he's shooting arrows.

It's the fiery arrows of Satan, is what it says.

So our shield is faith, and it's meant to protect us from the arrows that Satan is shooting.

And that's a really rich metaphor.

I want us to explore that for a second.

Um, if you study the history of warfare, what you'll find is it's really simple.

It's just this one question that has fueled every military ever, and it's how can I defeat my enemy from as far away as possible?

That's it.

Because when you get up close, that's that's risky, right?

Up close, like you might lose.

But from far away, that's much safer.

And so the world we live in today has missiles and drones and bullets and all kinds of things.

It's all designed to defeat an enemy from as far away as possible.

And in more ancient times, that was bows and arrows.

Archers have been responsible for more military victories than swordsmen.

When you think of ancient times, you think of like swords, right?

You think of like men standing next to each other grunting and sweating and cutting each other with swords, but but very few men ever made it that far.

Because if a nation had good archers, they they took care of the problem way before it was up close.

In fact, in the 13th century in England, this is kind of interesting, um, or maybe boring, but like on Sundays, on Sundays, men were required by law to practice archery.

If you were a man in the 13th century in England, on Sunday, you were breaking the law if you did not practice with your bow and arrow, because England was all about the longbow.

They won huge battles just because of their proficiency with archery.

It was more important to them than a sword.

Because history has been decided most often from a military perspective by whichever nation is most effective from far away.

Here's what we have to understand with that.

This is where it connects.

Is that our enemy, Satan, there will be moments in life, make no mistake, where he will come up close and personal.

Many of us have had those moments.

We've been in those situations where we have been attacked, and it's as close as it can be.

In fact, this last week I spent time with a few families in our church who are dealing with some really heavy stuff, and it is as personal as you could possibly imagine.

But but oftentimes Satan, he he thins us out in terms of our faith and our effectiveness for God's kingdom from afar.

And it's it's with doubt.

It's with doubt.

Satan loves to shoot wave after wave of doubt at us.

It's like it's like volleys of arrows.

You know that term volley?

You know, it's like a wave of arrows that comes from up high.

In fact, did you guys know that that volleyball is called volleyball because it was started in the Roman Colosseum, and when the participants would be playing, people would be shooting arrows at them.

That's not true.

I just made that up.

Um But that's the only thing I made up in the message, I promise.

Um, like trust level just went down, sorry.

Um, volleyball was invented a little over a hundred years ago.

Interestingly, four years after basketball, which extends the number of consecutive Sundays I've mentioned basketball.

So here we go.

Um, ancient militaries, they would shoot wave after wave, volleys of arrows in the air.

Imagine being a soldier on the battlefield and you're marching, and in front of you, you just see this sea of arrows fly in the air.

How terrifying that would be.

Unless, of course, you were the Roman army.

And then you weren't scared at all.

And that's the army that Paul is referencing when he talks about the armor of God.

See, the Romans had not only mastered long-term warfare, but they had mastered how to guard against it.

And the shields that they carry, they weren't these like little shields.

It wasn't something that you'd like block with and move on.

It wasn't for up-close battle at all.

These shields were massive, four feet tall.

And when the Roman military would march, they would march side by side.

And if they saw a volley of arrows go up in the air, all they did was they all did this.

And then they stood back up.

And oftentimes, by the time they got to their enemy, every single shield that a Roman soldier was carrying was just covered in arrows, many of which were smoldering from the fire that they were shot with.

They would light them on fire, but the Roman shields were designed to snuff those out.

And how terrifying would it be for that opposing force to shoot thousands of arrows into the air and then see it have zero effect.

To see the march continue.

That's the fear that our enemy should have.

Because when he throws doubt at us, when he shoots those arrows of doubt, we're equipped.

And our faith should withstand that and we should keep moving forward.

But we have to be on guard, we have to have our shields up to guard against doubt.

Because doubt is a very serious thing.

It's the opposite of faith.

See, if doubt sinks in, it leads to disbelief.

And disbelief is a dangerous, dangerous thing.

Listen to Jesus talk about disbelief in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

It says, Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn't repented of their sins and turned to God.

What sorrow awaits you, Corzin and Bethsaida?

For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre in Sidon, those were ancient cities from long ago, you read about them in the Old Testament, just absolutely abhorrent places.

If the same things have been done in Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap, throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse.

I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on Judgment Day than you.

And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven?

No.

You will go down to the place of the dead, for if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today.

I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on Judgment Day than you.

Disbelief.

Doubt will mature into disbelief if we let it in.

If we let the arrows of doubt that Satan shoots constantly that are that are all over the place in our world, if we let those penetrate, it becomes disbelief.

And there's just nothing useful about a believer who doesn't believe.

Disbelief, it's something we have to guard against.

And so here's what I want us to do for the next few minutes.

We live in a world that's full of doubt.

And I said last Sunday, this series is something that we're kind of coming together just to do some work.

I hope that every week we walk out of here truly equipped, ready to go.

We just have to do work and get stuff done.

And so what I want us to do is I want us to look at a few common doubts that all of us hear.

Picture it this way Satan, you know, if he has to get up close and personal, he will, but he'd rather just take you out from afar.

And so he's just got these go-to doubts that he just throws at everybody all the time, just wave after wave after wave.

And he's just trying to thin the people out and say, Who's left standing?

Who do I really need to worry about?

My prayer is that as a church, we're guarded against all of those.

And he looks out and he's like, oh no, they're all still standing.

So we're gonna look at some common doubts, and we're gonna we're gonna put our shields up.

Sound good?

That baby said amen.

So here we go.

I love you, Nate.

Nate's got the best laugh in the world.

He's the best, the good man.

Alright.

So we're gonna picture each of these common doubts like a wave of arrows, like a volley of arrows in the sky.

Okay?

Number one is this there is no God.

Anyone ever had that one sink in?

You ever have that thought?

No one?

Not one person in the room has ever wondered whether or not there's a God?

Liars! Come on.

I'm the only I have.

You've never thought before?

Is it true really?

Even just a little bit.

Remember, we're not talking about disbelief.

It will grow into disbelief.

We're talking about doubt.

Just that moment of hesitation where you're like, man, am I sure there's really a God?

It's funny because our culture oftentimes will tell us that we're fools if we believe in God.

That we're the simple-minded ones.

Scripture has the exact opposite opinion, by the way.

Psalm chapter 14, verse 1 says, Only fools say in their hearts, there is no God.

Psalms 14:1

So which is it?

Are we a fool for believing in God, or are we a fool not to believe in God?

I love science.

I love it.

Because science has a great track record at proving scripture true.

It's pretty amazing.

And if you look at the last hundred or so years of science, we've learned a lot.

We've learned a lot in the last hundred years, things that generations before us had no idea about.

And what we've learned is that the universe and ourselves are much more complex than we ever thought possible.

We are incredibly complex people.

We're incredibly specific.

Now, anytime you see something that is both specific and complex, you naturally assume that there's someone that designed it to be so.

Think about a building.

You've never seen one without a builder, never seen a painting without a painter.

The more complex and specific something is, the more we believe it had to be designed.

And you can look at us as a great example of that.

We are incredibly complex and incredibly specific.

One of the ideas that Charles Darwin popularized not that long ago in human history was the idea that we evolved from a single-celled organism.

The problem is Darwin didn't know much about a cell.

No one really did at that time.

So when they said we evolved from a single-celled organism, their assumption was that a single-celled organism is a really simple thing.

And so they didn't really have to figure out how that got there.

Well, now we know how absolutely complex and specific a single cell is.

And what it takes for a single cell to form and function is like mind-blowing, and you have to figure out how that single cell happened in the first place.

See, cells are made up of proteins, and proteins are made up of these things called amino acids.

You've probably heard about this stuff if you, especially if you're like a healthy person, you've got to get your amino acids.

Um, you know, gotta have a lot of those.

And so, amino acids, they have to form together in an incredibly, incredibly complicated and specific pattern to form a functioning cell.

I mean, it's nuts.

We're talking, think, think lines and lines and pages and pages and pages of complicated computer code.

I have some friends who do coding.

It's like if one of those bits of code is out of place, the whole thing falls apart.

If one amino acid is in the wrong spot, it all falls apart.

Scientifically, we have no idea how they figure out how to line up in the right order.

It's almost like there's an invisible force telling them what to do.

We just don't know.

And so what's funny though is like as complicated as that is, science has had to try to come up with theories to prove that that could happen if there was no God.

It's actually not very scientific to assume that something is true.

You're supposed to prove it, but there's a lot of people who just go, no, no, no, we're not gonna believe in God.

We've ruled that out.

So now we've got to figure out how to explain cells forming with no God to design them.

And one of the biggest scientific theories to explain that is the theory of soup.

Are you aware of this?

Yeah, no, it's an actual scientific theory.

Look it up.

It's called the theory of the primordial soup.

This is a scientific thing.

Um the idea is this is that billions of years ago, on the waters of the earth, all the amino acids and all those building blocks for cells, they were just floating around.

You know, like in soup.

And one day, just by chance, you know, this was going on for billions of years, by chance, one day all those, all those little amino acids just so happened to like line up in the perfect order, and a cell was formed in the primordial soup.

And then that cell gave birth to more cells, and then it all just kind of started because you know, it just happened.

You know, like when you when you eat alphabet soup, anyone do that in the last 20 years?

I don't even know if they still make it, but if you if you eat alphabet soup, if you remember back to being a kid and you had alphabet soup, every once in a while like the word mom would appear, and you're like, whoa! You know?

An M, an O, and an M.

Mom, you're in my soup, you know?

But that's pretty simple.

The statistical probability of that being true would be like filling the Atlantic Ocean with alphabet soup and then just hanging out and waiting around until the complete works of William Shakespeare form up.

You know?

You're like, whoa, it's Hamlet! I just you see that?

It's just like all that's the statistical odds of that.

And that's supposed to be scientific.

So it's funny is that I'm told by some people that I'm a fool for believing in God, but you believe in soup?

In soup.

You believe that the origin of life is from soup.

Only fools say in their hearts, there is no God.

And so, hey, when that doubt, that little wave of doubt hits you, that like, are we really sure there's a God?

Shields up.

Come on, shields up.

Only a fool says there is no God.

Let's look at another wave.

How about this one?

Oh, yeah, there's a God.

Satan might say, I'll give you that concession.

There's a God, but like, how do we know it's a specific God?

You know, because there's lots of different groups of people who believe in lots of different ideas of God.

And does it even really matter what idea of God we subscribe to?

Isn't it enough that we just acknowledge that there is a God?

You don't have to really believe in this God, per se.

I've had conversations with people about that.

Like, what does it matter if we call him Jesus or whatever?

Why does that even matter?

I need a volunteer to help me with this one.

I need somebody close by.

Someone, does anyone that's close by?

You want to come up?

No?

You volunteer your own child?

Here, come on up.

Since you volunteered your son, yes.

Yes.

Stacy.

This is Stacy Walls.

Everyone say hi to Stacy.

She didn't know she was gonna be on stage.

So I first met Sandra a few years ago whenever we were uh do what's that?

Who?

What'd I say?

I don't know.

Oh, I'm sorry?

I didn't I didn't hear anything.

What'd you say?

I said Sandra.

What's your name?

Stacy.

Oh, okay.

Did you see how Stacy got bugged when I called her Sandra?

Did you see it?

How she kind of like turned and looked at me, like, excuse me, who are you talking to?

Stacy can go grab a seat.

Everyone give it up for Stacy.

Um at the first service, I pulled up a young guy named Alan, and I called him his older brother's name, Andrew, and he got really angry.

He was like, excuse me, my name's Alan.

You know, it's funny, it's funny how people get upset when you call them by the wrong name.

It's almost like they care to be known.

Like they actually care to be called by the name that they have.

Why is that?

Right?

Like my name's Justin.

Some of you call me Jason.

I've gone here for 13 years.

I've been the pastor for the last five.

And it's not that it like bothers me, but stop.

It's Justin.

And it's close to Jason, but come on.

It's funny how we have this desire to be recognized by our name.

Maybe that's because we're made in the image of God, like Scripture says.

And maybe that's because God has a desire to be known.

It's interesting.

If you go watch a movie, at the end there will be a roll of credits, and movies are becoming more complicated, right?

So the credits are longer and longer and longer.

There's like thousands of names.

You're never going to see a movie end, and at the end the credits roll, and it just says, some actors, a few rich guys with lots of money, a director, and some artists.

The end.

You're never going to see that.

It's like the people who make those movies are like, no, no, I want my name on there.

I don't care if my name is this small, and it's like at the very end, and no one ever sees it.

I just need to know that my name is on there because I made it.

I was thinking about the art that we have in our hallways.

You know, we've got Canvas coming up soon, and Marlon paints all those Tree of Life paintings, and I know Marlon pretty well.

And I know that if I went and I scratched off his name from all of those and wrote mine, he'd be ticked off.

You know?

But what if what if I went on all of Marlon's paintings and I scratched off his name and I just wrote an artist?

You know, shouldn't it be enough that we just acknowledge the existence of an artist who painted these paintings?

Stacy, shouldn't it be enough that I just acknowledge your existence as a person?

Who cares if it's Sander or Stacy or whatever?

You know?

No, you care about your name because you're made in the image of God.

And God created us.

And he went to great lengths to introduce himself to us and show us who he is and tell us his name.

He's a personal God, not some impersonal force in the universe.

And so when that when that doubt comes of like, oh, what does it really matter?

No, no, no.

Shields up.

Our God has a name.

What about this one?

How do we know it's Jesus?

Like, okay, yes, there's a God, and yes, it's important to have the right specific God, but how do we know it's Jesus?

This one's really easy.

And uh not very politically correct, but very easy.

Do some research.

Just go online and research the historical Jesus and who he was and how he lived his life, what he said, what he did, and then research the founder of any other faith you want to research.

See who wins.

There's a man named Robbie Zacharias, who's a great pastor, and I heard Robbie say something when I was in college and it affected me.

He said, You judge a faith not on its abuses because all faith has abused.

All faiths have been abused.

You judge a faith based on its founder.

And there is no faith that can claim to have a founder that matches up to Jesus.

Again, it's not politically correct, but just stand Jesus next to anybody else, and I'm telling you, any logical person would be like, yeah, Jesus wins.

Which, by the way, is why every major faith in the world has this weird need to include Jesus.

I don't have a need to include anyone but Jesus, because Jesus is the best.

He wins.

He just is.

That's who he is.

And so when you get that wave of doubt, yeah, but what if it's not Jesus?

Just, guys, shields up.

Come on.

Jesus wins.

How about this one?

Man, why do bad things happen?

If God is real and he's good, why does he let bad things happen?

We've all heard that one.

How can God be a good God if bad things happen?

Well, number one, that logic breaks down pretty quick.

Because if you're saying that, if you're saying that like bad things happen, therefore God can't be good, well, then how do you explain good things happening?

You know, does God get no credit for the good?

It's just the bad?

That falls apart a little bit.

But even deeper than that, it's a simple reality.

Darkness does not disprove light.

Evil does not disprove good.

And our God is good.

He is loving.

And you know what love is not?

Love is not controlling.

Like, those of you who are single, how many of you are just itching to find a really controlling significant other?

You know what I mean?

Like, I just want someone who will tell me what to think, what to not think, what to wear, what not to wear.

Like, you're looking for that person?

Anyone looking for a significant other who's controlling?

I'm not gonna ask this.

Anyone married to or have been married to a significant other who's controlling?

I don't want to add, that's we're not, no, no, no, don't raise your hand.

You're sitting next to somebody.

It wasn't you.

Um, okay, it was a different person before you.

Good job, sir.

Um, does anyone does anyone have a dream one day to work for a company that has a boss that's just hyper-controlling?

You know, that just assumes everything you think or say is wrong and stupid and questions you and overrides you and micromanages you.

Anyone, anyone looking for that?

I want a controlling boss.

No?

Well then why would we want a controlling God?

See, whenever we say that bad things happen and that's somehow God's fault, what we're actually saying is, God, you should be in control at all times of everything.

And almost all the injustice in the world is the result of people.

And God doesn't override our control.

Because love does not control.

It doesn't control.

Now Satan controls.

You read about spiritual warfare in scripture, you will see instances where Satan possesses someone, where it's it's a person possessed, no longer in control.

They're possessed by a demonic spirit.

They lose control.

There's never an example of God possessing someone.

There's never an example of someone being possessed with the Holy Spirit.

Here's what's actually really powerful: God does not possess us, but he allows us to possess him, to have him.

The Holy Spirit comes into us.

The Holy Spirit partners with us.

The Holy Spirit works on us and makes us the people that we're meant to be, and the Holy Spirit equips us and gives us gifts and the ability to know things, but the Holy Spirit never takes control, never overrides us because love is not controlling.

And so we have this God who loves us, gives himself to us, but never actually takes control.

And in never taking control, what that means is that bad things are gonna happen because we have the ability to resist.

That's actually the proof of a really good God who gives people a choice.

And so when that when that wave of doubt hits you, of yeah, but what about all the bad things that happen?

Shields up.

God is not controlling.

How about this one?

We're almost done, I promise.

How about this one?

What about all the hypocrisy in the church?

There have been a lot of Christians who are who are hypocrites.

Yeah.

There have been a lot of Christians who aren't Christians.

What I mean by that is that you can be a Christian, someone's like, yeah, I believe, but the Bible says even the demons believe.

And they fear.

But to be a Jesus follower is something else.

Now, look, number one, none of us are perfect, so we're all gonna make mistakes.

Sometimes people like to label all Christians as hypocrites, and it's like, yeah, we're the ones admitting that we have a problem.

I've heard someone say they don't go to church because of all the hypocrites.

It's like, where do you want us to be on a Sunday morning?

You know what I mean?

Like, at least we're here, we're working on it.

We're admitting that we need this.

But but here's the other thing.

If something is counterfeited, that's actually proof that it's valuable.

Right?

Like, like you're never gonna see someone busted for a counterfeit ring where they're counterfeiting pennies.

Never heard of that before.

I've never given a cashier a penny and they like hold it up and examine it, like, uh.

But you know when you give a cashier a hundred dollar bill, how they like do all these tests, you know, they basically like a few years ago they'll lick it because it has like a flavor.

I don't know, they keep having to do things like holograms and all kinds of stuff to make sure that this is real.

Why?

You counterfeit something that's powerful and valuable.

So the fact that there have been people who have had a counterfeit faith in Christ does not mean that it's not authentic.

In fact, in many ways, the fact that following Christ has been counterfeited so often shows that people recognize it has tremendous power and value.

There's just people that aren't willing to surrender to it.

They'd rather fake it.

And Jesus himself told us this.

I mean, he said it very clearly.

In Luke chapter 21, he replied, Don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming I'm the Messiah, saying the time has come.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

Don't believe him.

He said, There's gonna be posers.

So when that hypocrisy thing's happening, when that happens, when that doubt hits you, that wave, shield up, right?

Shields up.

Counterfeit does not disprove value.

In many ways, it proves it.

Okay, we're gonna keep going.

It's quick.

We're getting there.

I promise.

This is fun.

I'm having fun.

All right, next wave.

How about this one?

The Bible isn't reliable.

You can't trust the Bible.

It's this old book, it's been changed, it's been lost in translation.

You can't trust it.

Here's what I will let you know.

Clearly, the Bible is by far the most reliable ancient document in the history of the world.

Not even close.

It's not even close.

Yet it is more attacked.

There are more attempts to discredit it than any other document ever.

It's amazing.

I went to college years ago, and I didn't go to a Christian college, and I didn't major in religion.

I majored in communication.

Talking is the only thing I've ever been really good at, so I just gonna talk.

I'll get a degree in talking, basically.

Um and even in my communication, my communication classes, I had professor after professor after professor use their platform to attack scripture, to attack faith.

And it's interesting, they would quote people like Plato, they would quote Aristotle, and then they would attack Jesus.

But but check this out.

This is really cool.

Um, you guys have heard of Plato?

I'm not talking about the stuff you smushed together, this different colors, but like Plato, the Greek philosopher.

Um, so he lived 427 to 347 BC.

The earliest manuscript we have of his writing, which means the oldest surviving document that's attributed to Plato is from 900 A.D.

So there's a 1300-year gap between when he lived and the first manuscript copy of his writings that we have.

1,300 years where it could have been messed with and lost in translation and all kinds of things added or taken away.

And we only have seven copies of manuscripts that are that old.

Yet I've never heard the academic world or anyone in society challenge the writings of Plato.

How about this one?

Aristotle, good dude.

I think, I don't really know.

384 to 322 BC.

Earliest manuscript, 1100 AD.

So we have about a 1400-year gap.

Okay, from his from when he lived to when we have his earliest manuscript.

We have 49 of those copies, which by the way, when it comes to ancient documents, if you were hanging out with a historian, they'd be like, that's amazing.

49 copies of an ancient document, like that, that's solid stuff.

So yeah, we've got that big gap, but we've got 49 copies, and if they're all the same, that gives us some faith that we're reading like the writings of Aristotle, not some other person writing under his name.

Homer was an ancient author.

He wrote the Odyssey, he wrote the Iliad.

This is really crazy.

This in ancient, by standards of like ancient documents, this is nuts.

He wrote the Iliad in 900 BC.

Earliest manuscript copy we have, 400 BC.

We have a copy.

Not just one, we have 643 copies of the Iliad that date back to 400 BC.

So it's only a 500-year gap, and we got a lot of copies.

That's that's big time.

You will never hear a historian say that we don't trust that that's the writings of Homer.

In fact, they'll say, no, no, no, like more than anything else, we trust that.

Check out the New Testament.

This is amazing.

It was written between 50 to 100 AD, all the letters that make it up.

Earliest manuscript copies we have are 130 A.D.

We have we have writings that were less than 100 years after the events actually happened.

We have 5,600 copies of those manuscripts.

So that whole thing about, yeah, you don't really know if what you're reading is actually what was written like, yeah, we do.

We're more certain of that than any ancient document that has ever existed.

It's almost like God was doing something supernatural to preserve it, because it's more important to him than anything else.

And yet you'll never find a document more attacked.

It's almost like there's an enemy with an agenda.

You can trust scripture.

You can trust it.

2 Timothy 3 16, all scripture is inspired by God, is useful to teach what is true, to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what's right.

So in that whole, the Bible isn't reliable, shield up.

The Bible is legit.

One more, and then we have two people getting baptized.

One person getting baptized.

Correction.

There's a screen that tells me what to do.

Okay.

All right, here we go.

One last one, and this one's so simple and so fast.

And here's what it is.

Yeah, but this is like the last, this is the last resort of Satan, the last volley of arrows, the last wave.

God isn't, He's not, he's not with the times.

Let's just be honest.

In our culture today, God isn't woke enough, you know?

And that's a big one because there's a lot of believers who, like, yeah, I trust scripture, I believe it's accurate, and like, yeah, I believe there's a God, I believe it's Jesus, but then they'll encounter something in their faith that just doesn't match up with something that our world values, and that's a problem.

Because when that happens, you have to choose God or culture.

Yeah.

So I find out that God is against something that our culture is for, and that our culture is for something that God is against.

Yeah, but Isaiah said that in the end, what is viewed as good will be viewed as evil, what is viewed as evil will be called good.

And sometimes we encounter these moments where to follow Jesus means to stand in an unpopular position.

And there are many who stop there in their faith.

And it's so sad because it's like they survive all those other waves of arrows.

Every single time, shield up, shield up, shield up, shield up, and then all of a sudden it's like, ooh, God, faith in God might make me unpopular to a certain group of people.

If you don't put your shield up there, boom, you get hit.

That leads to disbelief and kills faith.

Here's the way you guard against that.

God isn't a person like us.

He became one.

And yeah, for 30 something years, God was a person, but that is not who God is.

1 Corinthians 1.25 says, this foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

God's foolishness is wiser than our wisdom.

God's weakness is stronger than our strength.

So anytime I come up against one of those situations where there's that doubt that comes in from like, ooh, yeah, but uh, like for me to be honest about what I believe means there's people that are gonna be offended.

I'm not gonna be a jerk and like get online and be like, I hate all these people.

Like, I don't hate anybody, I love people.

But if someone asks me what I believe, I'll be honest.

Because again, I'm a Jesus follower, my beliefs are not dictated by the culture I live in or what I want to be true.

It's what what did Jesus say?

And the way you protect against that fear is this I'm not God.

But he is.

And if I ever encounter something that, to be honest, I disagree with God about, who's who's probably right?

You know?

If I find myself going, yeah, but God, I just I feel like you haven't seen it from this this perspective, you know.

It's like, oh yeah.

Like I there's something about us as people that has to surrender to God.

I don't think it's a coincidence that when Roman armies would advance and those waves of arrows would come up, that they would kneel.

There's a humility that we have to have to walk in faith.

We have to have the ability to get on our knees and surrender and say, You're God, and I'm not.

We have to be able to get low and recognize that he's God, that he knows all things.

And surrender to that and trust that.

And when we do that, we put our shield up, shields up, our faith is secure.