THE SHIELD THAT HELPS YOU STAND

THE SHIELD THAT HELPS YOU STAND Ephesians 6:16 June 13, 1999 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory We return after a brief hiatus to study of Spiritual Warfare in Ephesians 6:10-20. More specifically, we are studying the spiritual armor outlined by the Apostle Paul, which helps the Christian to STAND in his fight against Satan and his demonic hordes. The picture we have of the devil in verse 16, warring against the church of Jesus Christ, and all the believers who are part of the church and make up the church, is one of an enemy shooting flaming arrows at us. Now, I don’t like this picture any more than you do, but it is a reality. According to Jesus in John 10, the enemy’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. And his primary target is anywhere God is building his kingdom. That means that the church, wherever it is, will be under continual siege by the enemy, because the Lord Jesus said, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He also said, "In this world you will have tribulation" and "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also...They will treat you this way because of my name." Because Satan is the god of this world, and holds the unredeemed in his grip, and because you are God’s through Jesus, you will be hated and mistreated by the world around you. It will not always go well with the church in this world. Please don’t think that because you are the objects of God’s grace, the world will treat you well. Because you are a Christian, the world will, in fact, gang up on you. What kind of attack does the devil bring against the church? Ridicule, rejection, slander, political oppression, outright persecution.. It is so nice when the church has the respect of its community, isn’t it? But how will you respond when political leaders begin to deride the church you are a part of as being un-American, a cult, religious profiteers, narrow-minded, manipulative? What happens when, because you are a member of the Lord’s church you get overlooked for jobs, promotions, raises--or you plain get fired because of your religious beliefs? These things will happen, brothers and sisters, and when they do, two things must be true of us, the Lord’s people in the church. One, we must have holy integrity, so that when anyone looks beyond the slander and investigates the church, we are clean of any real guilt. And, secondly, the church will have to have the courage to stand under that kind of fire. Paul uses the imagery of flaming arrows (or, fiery darts) because this is the way it feels when you are under attack. The armies of the first century would dip certain kinds of short arrows (darts) in pitch and light them, so that, not only would they inflict injury or death if they struck a soldier, but even if they missed hitting a soldier, they could still land in the grass and start a fire behind their lines. This could be devastating to the advancing army, as they might become pre-occupied with the smoke and heat of the brush fires, and easily become vulnerable to a direct attack from the enemy. Would you agree with me that the devil has a lot of tricks up his sleeve by which he would like to distract the church from her mission, keep her focused on lesser things, so he can sneak in unnoticed to create serious problems among the saints? The New Testament deals unashamedly with some of his more popular distracters: division/disunity, elitism, finance issues, personal agendas, backbiting, false doctrine, hobby horse issues... Paul teaches us that there is a shield against the fiery darts of the enemy - the shield of faith. He says, In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Please know that you can be STRONG AGAINST the inevitable fiery darts of the enemy! You are not defenseless! The shield Paul refers to here is not the small, round, concave shield you often see pictured in the movies, but it is a large mostly flat piece, about four feet high and about two feet wide, behind which a soldier could hide and be protected against a barrage of arrows from the enemy. (Demonstrate home-made illustration). The shields were usually a wooden or iron frame covered in ox-skins, several layers thick, and tightly stretched over the frame to give it a bit of a bounce. The impact of the arrows would be somewhat absorbed and would often bounce off rather than stick into the shield. The skins were drenched in water to keep them at least partially impervious to the fire. Notice that there is a "dish-like" extension at the bottom of this shield (amazing what you can do with aluminum foil and a not-very-creative mind!). Commentators have long puzzled about what Paul meant when he said, not that the fiery darts could be deflected, but that they could be extinguished. Historians and scholars have discovered that there were special shields designed for fiery warfare. After all, it was at this time that militias were beginning to use "bombs," rather like a primitive mulatov cocktail. And they were explosively fiery. The shield was designed with a bit of an angle to the upper half, and with a "dish" on the bottom. In this dish the soldiers would pour water. So, when the flaming arrows hit the wet skin at just the right angle, they would deflect downward into the water in the dish. So the soldier was not only safe from impact, but also safe from any resultant fires. Understand this, Christian: you have a shield available to you that will not only protect you from the stab of the enemy’s arrows, but will also extinguish the fiery after-effects of his attack. Our shield is FAITH. What that word, faith, means is more than believing in God or cerebrally assenting to Jesus. It means TRUSTING Him and His provisions for you. This faith is a shield to keep you from harm as long as you are in this world and in this battle with the devil. I remind you of 1 Peter 1:3-5 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who THROUGH FAITH ARE SHIELDED by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is to be revealed in the last time. Prove 30:5 - He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. What is this faith that serves as our deflecting and dowsing shield against the enemy’s fiery darts? What are the characteristics of an effective shield? Resolve To have faith in the Lord Jesus is to be resolute in your determination to follow Him and to trust Him for all you will ever need. This is the kind of resolve that decides in advance to face whatever may come in the strength of the Lord, trusting He can bring you through. This resolute faith does not complain about how hard it is to be a Christian, and how bad the problems are. There was a man named Thomas who decided he wanted to become a monk. But he wanted the toughest outfit he could find. So he joined a monastery whose vow of silence required the monks there to be absolutely quiet for ten years--no words at all. After each ten years of absolute silence, the monks were allowed to speak five words, then ten more years of silence. After his first ten year stint, Thomas spoke the five words that were on his heart: "The bed is too hard." Another decade passed, and Thomas said to his superiors, "The food is too cold." After ten more years, Thomas told the superiors, "I think I’ll quit now." His superior frowned and said, "I’m not surprised. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here!" Jesus called people of faith to put their hand to the plow, and not to look back. Life is tough, and life in the kingdom can be a real challenge. But it is not a kingdom behavior to complain and wish for better things. Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble" He said, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." Don’t be alarmed at the fiery ordeal that comes at you, Christian. If you are serving Jesus, you will magnetize these to yourself. Peter reminds us (1 Peter 2:19) that it is commendable when we suffer as Christ did. And also remember that God ALLOWS these attacks to come your way, while encouraging you with the assurance that none of them will be more than you can bear through Him. "I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world’s delight; things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight!" The devils’ job is to get you to a place of fear, confusion, doubt or pride. And he will do anything to get you to stumble into one of these areas. Many Christians are afraid of what "the devil may throw at me tomorrow." They have elevated the devil to a level of sovereignty that only belongs to God. Faith does not exaggerate Satan’s power over us. Sure, we are warned that he goes around like a roaring lion looking to have us for lunch, but we are also told that he is in no way greater in power than the one who lives in us--the Spirit of Christ. Confusion is a tool of the devil. You can be sure that if you are confused about something for any length of time, it is the devil’s work. Faith that is resolute will not remain in confusion, but will get the issue resolved. How? Spending time in the Word and Prayer. Doubt is another of the states of mind the devil would love to keep you in. Doubt is not wrong. Satan wins when he gets you to thinking you are the only one who ever doubted God. John Wesley had taken a mission trip to America only to discover that he was not a Methodist Minister, but only a lost soul himself. You heard the story of his conversion back at Aldersgate when he wrote of his experience as one in which his heart was "strangely warmed." Most of the time, the story ends there at Aldersgate as if this great revivalist "lived happily ever after." But a year after his Aldersgate experience, he wrote, "I know that I am not a Christian. I know it because I do not feel that I love God and His son Jesus Christ as my Saviour." Later he led England in the great spiritual awakening that sparked revival in America as well. Every Christian faces doubts, and they rock us, for awhile. The fourth attitude the devil would like to get you into is pride. It is never of God when you think you’ve arrived -- even at little accomplishments. Pride will kill you, because it will get you relying on your own strength and not drawing on God’s strength. Always be resolved in your faith to say only, "Not I, but Christ in me." JESUS WANTS US PREPAREED, BUT NOT PETRIFIED; ALERT, BUT NOT ALARMED; COURAGEOUS, BUT NOT COCKY. Resistance I am not saying that being tempted or led astray momentarily by Satan is in itself sin. I am saying what the word teaches is that when you face these trials from your enemy, be concerned, but don’t be discouraged. Once you allow yourself to be discouraged, you fall to defeat more easily the next round. Faith not only resolves to follow Jesus, come what may; it also continues in RESISTANCE. When you are face to face with the devil, when you are facing a choice he has presented to you, determine NOW to exercise your faith in the act of resistance. James 4:7 - Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The counter truth to that is "Listen to the devil, entertain the devil, and he will stick you like flypaper. This is faith in action. Faith teaches us to not allow our minds to stay in the gutter, play with temptation or flirt with Satan. When we start warming up to fiery darts, we are in trouble. Sinful behavior is not fiery darts--sinful behavior is what results when we put our faith shield down and allow those arrows to start brush fires in our lives. You have got to take action against the devil’s first intrusion, because, true to his nature the enemy is setting fires all around us. We can run around like mad putting out the fires, or we can capture and sentence the arsonist. When you face anything which would tempt you to discouragement, confusion, fear, doubt or pride, speak to that situation and take authority over it. Often we don’t understand the what or why of things that come at us, but we can always say, "I don’t know if this from God, man or the devil; but I do know this--the devil would use it for my destruction or God would use it for my growth--I choose growth! Believe God for good things for you, as He promised you. This is the victory that overcomes the world - our faith! Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:4-5) The devil would have you believe God is out to get you, that you’re no good and you can’t possibly be effective in serving the Lord. To His people Israel, broken and troubled in captivity, at their spiritual lowest, god spoke these words of comfort: "I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-12) This leads to the final attitude of faith that is a shield. Repentance We’ve got to learn to recognize this one real truth--that the devil is out to destroy us and God is out to bless us. And as we live to please Christ we will fail, we will fall. Once we sin what is the last thing that our defeated heart wants to do? Repent. To say one more time, I’m sorry--I choose to live for the Lord. Why is this so hard? Because we are in a moment of defeat which can turn to discouragement and distance from God. It’s the moment when Satan thinks he has us defeated, because we are tempted to think we failed God and we’ll probably do the same thing again, so what’s the use? We think God can’t forgive us, we’ve failed him too many times. But this is not the time to give up, it is the time to trust God does love and forgive us. It’s the time to bend over and pick up the shield of faith which is our confidence that God receives us and believes in us even when we fail Him. We can’t conquer sin and discouragement on our own, but He has conquered it through the death of Jesus for us. Taking up the shield of faith means trusting that God’s word to us is true--that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Of what do we repent? Our failures, our lack of trust, our weakness, our feeling that we don’t need to rely on the Lord. SATAN HATES THESE THINGS. But, you’ve got to ACT OUT your faith. Norman Whan said, "God won’t steer a parked car!" Concluding Exhortations: We need a shield in our defense that will not only deflect fiery darts, but also DOWSE. Martin Lloyd Jones - "Faith is the refusal to panic" What is your potential panic today? Are you discouraged because you haven’t yet seen what God promised you, and it’s been such a long time? Is it that you are in a sin binge and you don’t believe God could possibly love you? Are you under what seems to be an extra heavy attack by the enemy? Is there physical or emotional pain you are struggling with and you’re wondering if God is even there? Are people your difficulty--people who seem to be against you, who slander you or resist your overtures of reconciliation? Pick up the shield of faith--it is the only way you will ever handle these fiery darts. Put on your faith. it doesn’t matter how small it seems -- exercise it, and God will honor it. Faith is a muscle and you get more as you exercise what you have. There are four exercises available to you to help you take up the shield of faith. 1) Draw near to God in faith, using whatever faith you can muster. Hebrews 11:6 2) Pray desperately. "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ILUS: Young man told his mentor, "I want to have more of God." The old mentor took him out into the lake and walked to where they were chest deep. The younger man was pleased because he thought the old man was going to baptize him and this would be the beginning of his deeper connection with God. The old man dipped him back into the water, and with a firm grip held his head under the water. After a few seconds the young man began to panic, and started thrashing and kicking, but the old man wouldn’t let him up. He kept him under for what seemed like an eternity. Finally when his protege was just ready to drown for good, he let him up. After the young man caught his breath, his mentor said, "When you want God as much as you wanted water, you will find Him." 3) Read His Word until you get addicted to it. Start reading and don’t stop until you don’t want to. Faith comes from encountering the Word of God, and you will find your shield of faith as you plow through the Word. 4) Smother yourself with the company of God’s people. If you are in deep darkness of soul, you have probably been starving yourself of good company, so find a group of trusted believers, imperfect though they may be, and hang with them. Meet with them, talk with them, share the Word with them, worship with them, commune with them, confess your faults one to another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Don’t give up meeting together, but (contrast) let us encourage one another..." (Hebrews 10:25) You will find it much easier to take up your shield of faith. Tony Evans says it like this: A number of years ago, a madman named Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, bringing death and destruction. Knowing it would be next on Saddam’s hit list Saudi Arabia called Washington and asked for help. On that occasion President Bush was at his best. He picked up the phone and called England, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, turkey, and many other countries and built the famed coalition. Men and women from vastly different backgrounds all gathered in the gulf with one focused agenda--to serve notice on this madman, demanding that he not take more territory and that he relinquish the land already taken. The coalition informed him his days of rule in the Gulf were over. There is another madman in history, and he is called the Devil. He’s come on territory he has not created and does not own, bringing with him death and destruction. God has responded by building his own coalition of people, all pulled together into one league called the church. God’s people stand together in defense of one another, drawing a line in the sand, serving notice on this mad man, demanding that he not take any more territory from any of them, and that he relinquish the territory he has already taken. When Saddam looked across and saw five hundred thousand men and women with high-tech weaponry, he said, "I’ll try plan B," and launched a SCUD missile attack on Israel, trying to ally his Arab brothers with himself against their common enemy Israel. It was the heroes of the war showed up--Patriot missiles, which met the SCUDs in heavenly places. The war ended in just a few days. The enemy of our souls is ruthless with his SCUD missiles. He is bent on the destruction of every one of us. One of the strongest resources we have in this relentless battle is the alliance of other Christians around us. When you need reassurance, when you need the Patriot bomb of intercessory prayer from another, when it’s time to have just another interested believer to talk to, confess to or rejoice with - you’d better have a family close to you. The fellowship of the church--especially a few close brothers and sisters, like your cell group--is an irreplaceable armament in building up and picking up your shield of faith.           [Top]