The Bible teaches that we are in a battle against the powers of this dark world. Our enemy the devil wants to steal, kill and destroy you and me. We are on a battlefield but I want you to never forget that we are not on this battlefield alone. We have each other and for those of you who have asked Jesus in your life we also have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. Not only that, but we have the armor of God so every day we need to suit up and be prepared for the battle of the day.
In Ephesians 6, Paul shares with us the armor of God. So far, we have looked at the belt of truth. If we are going to survive the battle of the day, we have to be people who say what we mean and mean what we say. No lies, no gossip, no exaggerating the truth. We need to ask God to set a guard over our mouth so we don’t sin against him. Because when we lie it always comes back to get us.
Let’s slap on the next piece of the armor. This is the breastplate of righteousness. That word righteousness means that we have been made right with God. How did that happen? We have been made right with God because Jesus took our sins debt that we owed God and paid for our sin on the cross. When we ask Jesus to lead our life, he makes us right with God by washing our sin away.
And finally we have the shoes fitted with the gospel of peace. A Roman Soldier wore sandals that had cleats coming out of the bottom of them. This gave him the ability to be sure footed regardless of the terrain that he found himself on.
One of the things that Satan will try to do is he will try to take the peace of God away from you.
Satan will whisper in your ear that:
But again that just isn’t true. Jesus never told us that he would spare us any pain. In fact Jesus warned us that in this life we would have trouble. Not that we could have trouble or we might have trouble but we will have trouble but he tells us to take heart because he has overcome the world.
Sometimes God will allow us to go through something that is hard and difficult and you will feel like you are facing an uphill battle. God does that not to hurt us but to develop us into the person that he needs us to be so no matter what comes our way we will stand firm and move forward in faith.
Now, we are looking at another piece of our armor that we are to take up and that is the shield of faith.
Ephesians 6 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.”
The shield that a Roman Soldier carried into battle was about 4 ½ square feet. Many times when the Roman Army moved forward to advance against the enemy they would lock their shields together and form a moving wall. As they got closer to the enemy many times they would encounter flaming arrows being shot at them aimed high in the sky to come down on them. At that point they would take their shields and raise them over their heads so they wouldn’t be killed. Needless to say the shield was essential.
In the same way as we march onto the battlefield we must take up the shield of faith
We come from a long line of people who placed their faith in God even when it didn’t make any sense. Noah was a person of faith. God told Noah to build an ark because God was going to flood the world because he was grieved that he had made us because our rebellion against God had become so great.
Noah is miles away from water and it has never rained before. God used a mist that covered the land in the morning so when God tells Noah it is going to rain he doesn’t have a clue what God is talking about. But by faith he obeyed God and did what God wanted him to do. Noah lived in a time where no one cared about God. Does that sound familiar to you? It would have been easy for Noah to go along with the crowd and do what everyone else was doing. But all Noah cared about was pleasing God and it ended up saving his life.
Let me give you another one. In the Old Testament Joshua is leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. The only problem is there are seven enemy nations that all have bigger and badder armies than he has got.
They got one early victory but now they are heading to the city of Jericho. And Jericho has a fortified wall all around it. God tells Joshua that the way they are going to tear down the wall is by walking around the wall. One time each day for 6 days and then on the seventh day they are going to walk around the wall seven times and the seventh time around they are going to have the priests blow their trumpets and shout really loudly.
Now if you were one of Joshua’s soldiers and he said this is what we are going to do to tear down the walls would you believe him? Would you think that is the best plan you have ever heard? If I would have been following Joshua on this day I would have thought he had been smoking too much. This is how we are going to destroy a fortified city. We are going to walk and scream and blow some trumpets. Seriously? And yet they did what God asked them to do and the walls came down.
God loves it when we believe in him. God loves it when we follow him even when everything he is asking us to do doesn’t make any sense. What is God asking you to do that doesn’t make any sense?
Let me be honest with you. When God asks you to do something you have a choice to make. You can either step out in faith or fall back in fear. That is where the battle will be. It will always be between faith and fear.
Fear is the enemy of faith. Fear does not come from God.
2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
366 times in the Bible God says “Don’t fear, trust me, be strong and courageous, and fear not.”
Fear will stop us faster than anything else from doing what God wants us to do. Fear whispers to us that God is not faithful and that he cannot take care of us. Fear tells us we are not safe in his hands. Fear causes us to doubt God.
The only way to overcome fear is to face your fear and move through the fear. What has God asked of you that you have refused to do because of fear?
Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
In other words we can’t play it safe and please God so let me ask you a question. When was the last time you took a faith-risk? When was the last time you believed God was calling you to do something you couldn't do on your own?
God honors radical, risk-taking faith.
We are in a battle? How big is your shield? How much faith do you have in him?
Consider your life everyday. Where are some areas you could take a big risk? Where might God be calling you to step out in faith? Quit playing it safe, consider how God has challenged you to make the big leaps, and do it this week.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
