Session 1: Understanding the Shield of Faith
Shield of Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Bible Passage: Ephesians 6:8-20
11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest,
15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.
16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.
18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Key Verse:
16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Game: "Block the Arrows" – Use nerf arrows to simulate flaming arrows; children use their shields to block them.
Discussion: How many of you all like warriors. You know the tough guys that fight off the bad guys. Those heroes that fight for what is right?
Who is your favorite action hero?
What do you like about him or her?
This week we are going to look at this Idea of what it means to be a warrior for Jesus Christ.
Every Warrior is given what they need to do battle with the enemy. A good king will give his warriors what they need to do battle for the kingdom.
God is that good king and this is what he says about us.
3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life; he seeks to please the commanding officer.
Now let me ask you a question.
How many of you like a good action story about a hero that has to fight off bad guys or save the day?
When a hero has to fight bad guys is it hard for them? Do they sometime half to suffer in order to win?
What if I told you that God is writing a story. He is writing a story that includes villians, bad guys, action, suspense, soldiers and a hero.
Now instead of this story being fiction or make belief, God is writing a real story. The Hero of the story is Jesus Christ and we are his soldiers.
We will face danger, both physical and spiritual enemies. We will have hard time and good times.
But one thing is for sure our commander and king gives us what we need to fight and to fight well.
16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
This verse tells us that in every situation we are to take up the shield of faith.
So what is this shield of faith?
I don’t know about you but I don’t have a shield at home that is labeled faith. So how do I take up this shield if I don’t know what it is?
Well before we get to that what does our memory verse tell us it does?
It protects us from the flaming arrows of the evil one. Do flaming arrows only hurt the spot they hit?
So maybe by us figuring out what these flaming arrows are we can understand better what this shield is by knowing what it does.
10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
In the 18th century, a clever peddler made his way through towns selling bright, shiny trinkets that caught everyone's attention.
He made each one of these objects look like so much fun! As the people watched one by one they thought, I must have this trinket. It will add so much value to my life. This is something of great value.
Little did they know, these trinkets held no real value nor would they last. Each Item they bought was worthless and cheaply made. As the items broke from use they would leave sharp edges that cut them and injured the user.
This the way Satan deceives us with the allure of sin. He gives us things that we think will be of great value to our lives but as we turn to sin instead of God, these things will cut us and leave scars.
Did you know that Satan’s greatest weapon is lies. He sneaks his lies into everything he can. He sneaks them into your cartoons. He sneaks them into your movies. He sneaks them into your music.
His biggest lies are that God does not care about you or what you do or that He will keep you from enjoying life. In fact, he’d rather you believe in anything else other than God is worth following.
So then what do you think his fiery arrows are?
lies, thats right. He wants you to believe that their is something better than Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4:4 “4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
So what does he not want you to see? He doesn’t want you to see the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ.
But he doesn’t just lie to people who have not yet accepted Jesus as Lord and savior he also lies to those who have.
He says look, how much fun all the stuff that your parents don’t let you do. I mean they don’t let you watch what you want to. They don’t let you listen to the what you want to, they don’t let you wear what you want too. Your parents just think everything is bad, but you know better than them. These things are not a big deal, its not like your actually going to do the things you see in movies or hear in music. Your stronger than that, these things won’t actually affect you.
So what has Satan done...He’s distracted you from seeing the Glory of Christ. He’s distracted you from seeing how awesome God’s ways are.
He the best liar anyone has ever seen.
So then how do you defend against being tricked by these lies. You take up the shield of faith.
30 God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is pure. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart celebrates, and I give thanks to him with my song.
1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.
So then what is the Shield of faith. It is God himself.
When you put your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior he becomes your shield.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Then as a Christian when you focus on how awesome the ways of Jesus are, the Glory of Christ, God gives you something awesome. He gives you the ability to see. He gives you the ability to see the darts, the lies, coming at you. Then you can use your faith in Christ to block them.
Prayer Focus: Ask God to help us trust Him more and use our faith as a shield.
