Defensive Stance
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A Defensive Stance
A Defensive Stance
Hello All!
We are going to just jump right into our message this week, so you can get back to your Easter Sunday.
If you have you Bibles go ahead and open up to Ephesians 6:16
As we will be continuing our Supernatural series.
If you have missed the last two messages, that is okay, but I would encourage you check them out.
Anyway before we get start lets hear from Chelsea Moberg to see what She is reading.
WHAT AM I READING
Thank you so much Chelsea!
This week we asked you to gird up your loins and not a ton of people showed up for this one!
Check out what we did get.
Alright so here is the deal Next Week!
I want to see your best armor of God.
Create it however you would like!
Send a picture or video!
We will upload them and show them for all right here next week!
Alright, lets hand things off to Kevin, as he leads us in worship:
WORSHIP
MESSAGE:
When I read the passage that we are studying tonight, Ephesians 6:16-
Do you know what image comes to mind?
It is this image from 300- where King Leonidas Spartans had fought off battle after battle with his mighty 300 men.
And there is a scene where an army is coming against them.
And it was told to the Spartans that the arrows would blot of the sun!
That is a ton of arrows.
And the response is “Then I guess we will find some shade.”
So when the army comes and shoots thousands of arrows in the sky— what do the Spartans do?
They find shade by holding up their shields.
The arrow fall onto the shields and nothing more.
The scene is amazing!
It is one of my favorites!!
Let me read you the passage and you tell me that you are not thinking about that scene from 300.
In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
That’s it just one verse this week.
We will be finishing up next week.
The first week we talked about that there is this war that is waging on, it is invisible.
Our battle is not against flesh and blood but from the evil one!
And last week we started to put together the armor of God.
We started with the belt of truth
The beast plate of righteousness
and the sandals of the Gospel of peace.
Tonight we look at the next piece of our armor.
The shield of faith.
Now before we look at this we all need to understand a very important reality.
Flaming Arrows have no rules
Flaming Arrows have no rules
Flaming arrows have no boundaries.
They can strike at anytime.
Flaming arrows are shot with a purpose.
That purpose was to destroy.
To destroy building, houses, your defenses.
Now that of course was in medieval time, we don’t tend to see this much anymore of course.
Yet what kind of flaming arrows of darts is Paul talking about?
He is talking about Satan shoot you with temptation over and over and over again.
He does not take break.
He keeps sending them over and over again.
These flaming arrows are shot to destroy you.
Of course it is not always temptation it could be persecution as well.
Paul the author here is telling his readers that in all circumstance flaming arrows are coming and they are going to keep coming.
I am sure any of you are wondering what are flaming arrows?
I’m glad you asked.
These again are temptations and or persecutions that are coming at you from the evil one.
They could be but are not limited too:
Making something an idol in your life, selfishness, fear, disappointment, gossip, lust— you know what let just read a couple of places where we see temptations:
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The temptation to make ourselves great.
The temptation to be jealous of what others have.
To put things and or people above God.
These are the flaming arrows being shot at us daily!
Sometimes we can brush them off— no big deal.
Other times we feel overwhelmed with the situation and satan knocks that arrow and takes sight and launches that arrow right at you.
And here is the deal— it can be at anytime/ anyplace/ with anyone.
I personally think satan chooses moments where we are the weakest to attack because it is just easier for him to make those temptations stick or maybe it is because when we are at our best the arrows don’t tend to faze us.
Flaming arrows have no rules of combat.
The armies that used them would fire away without really a care of what they may start of fire.
Satan does not give a rip about how crappy your weak has been.
That you have gone 3 weeks without seeing your friends.
That you just lost a family member.
That you have been told you have some disease.
SATAN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT AND YOUR PROBLEMS BECAUSE HE IS LOOKING TO ADD MORE TO YOUR PLATE.
He is looking to cause you more pain and agony.
He is looking to trip you up and have you fall into sin.
Because when we fall into sin we are saying— sorry God I know better, I have earned this, I deserve this, I need this, I want this, you don’t understand what it is like—
on and on we go justifying ourselves as we keep getting hit by these flaming arrows.
Illustration
What are some flaming arrows that you have hitting you right now in your life?
Can you think of a time recently where you have been tempted and you gave in— because you were at a low point either spiritually, mentally, or physically?
So what do we do?
If the devil is not taking a day off from shooting the arrows at us— guess what!
Neither can we.
Paul writes very clearly saying in every situation, in every circumstance you must be prepared to fight.
How do we fight.
We fight by being defensive.
We must protect.
There was no better way to protect yourselves against flaming arrows when by grabbing a shield.
Yet in our case not just any shield but the shield of faith.
Taking up the Shield means trusting God
Taking up the Shield means trusting God
The shield Paul would have had in mind here would have been not like a tiny shield that is round but more like a door size shield that would have protect its user from anything.
By now you have caught on that we are not to be on the offense here.
We are not to be shooting arrows back.
A shield was used for protection.
As Paul is saying:
The Shield can extinguish all flaming arrows.
Shield back then would be covered in leather and they would soak it in water so that if they were hit by a flaming arrow it would extinguish it.
I do want to say that just because you are a believer does not mean that you are protected:
Paul is tell us that we have to TAKE UP THE SHEILD— It does involve a little work on our part.
This Shield that we are called to take up is not a shield that the world has ever seen.
This shield is reliant on faith.
The faith that we have God.
You see we need to understand that it is not our ability to withstand the attack/ it is the protection from God.
This is not the first time that God has been referred to as our shield.
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.
Boy isn’t that a lesson we can learn— God was telling Abram who would later be called Abraham to FEAR NOT— I am your shield.
Every word of God is pure;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
He provides protection— we seek refuge in Him.
He will cover you with his feathers;
you will take refuge under his wings.
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,
You see you are protected by God through faith.
Your Faith has nothing to do with your how hard you believe.
If we believe that then guess who we are putting our faith in?
Us— we are saying if I only believe just a little harder the cancer will go away.
If I believe that my belief will make God work better for me— we are misunderstanding what faith is.
Faith is believe that God can.
Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
If you were to go and read Hebrews 11— we call it the hall of faith.
You will read what people did by faith.
They walked in faith with God.
100% percent trust with God.
It was their relationship with the Lord.
Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
At the end of chapter 11 in hebrews after the author run down through all the pillars of these people who walked with God by faith.
Listen to the last thing:
All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised,
What was promised?
“Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.
and again the 4th promise:
I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
These men and women did not see the redemption come— they did not see the promise of Jesus come full circle.
They were waiting on that promise— yet they had faith that God would do what he said he would do- total trust in him.
They walked and trusted the Lord.
They had a relationship with Lord almighty.
What does this mean for us?
I have really been enjoying the book of Hebrews by the way! It is sooo rich, it may be my favorite book of the Bible.
Anyway!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
WE HAVE THE PROMISE!
Jesus went to the cross- so how much more than should our faith be in the Lord.
BECAUSE HE KEPT HIS PROMISE!
What makes someone trustworthy?
That they keep their word they do what they say they are going to do!
SO now you have this enemy who is trying to destroy you!
You are not enough to withstand this enemy?
What protect you?!?
What protects us from the arrows of the evil one is our relation with God.
Who is trustworthy.
who we put our faith in.
Because God can move the mountains not me, not you!
So when we take up our shield of faith— we seek refuge him who protect us.
Who can extinguish the arrows?
God alone.
So right now are you putting your whole trust in God?
Because we can’t say God I trust you but I not over this area of my life, that is mine.
I would encourage you take up the whole shield of faith!
Here is a question you may have; why does God allow flaming arrows to be shot at us?
If He was a good God He would not allow that!
Flaming arrows draws us closer to God
Flaming arrows draws us closer to God
Temptation in the form of arrows draws us closer to our shield.
It draws us closer to our savior.
It draws us closer to our God.
If you are seek protection of refuge from something, would you stand back from what was protecting you or would you press into it?
Some of the most important times in my faith have been when I was going through temptations and instead of trying fight it alone, I leaned into the Father.
David who wrote many of the psalms said something as he was going through trials and persecutions.
The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock where I seek refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
We take refuge in the only one who can offer us refuge.
Draw near to God.
Allow him to take care of the arrows— take up your shield.
Seek refuge in Him.
Some here is the application- what do we do now.
But here is some good news— no not John Krazinski— But he does have another episode out and it is amazing!
But some good news is that flaming arrows can be seen.
They literal are like big balls of fire coming at you.
Identify what are some flaming arrows in your life.
Trust God to take care of those arrows.
Put your Faith in Christ
Pray often and continue to draw near to the Lord.
And of course the last step is to come back next week as we wrap up this series.
Let’s pray.