Raising Spiritual Spartans | Jentezen Franklin

When you pray every day, you're polishing and protecting and valuing the shield of faith. When you read this book, when you teach it to your children, when you correct them and tell them what the scripture says, when you tell them Bible stories, when you huddle them together and lay your hands on them, and every once in a while you take advantage of that moment and you say to that son, son Jesus means everything to me. Have I ever told you how he saved me? Have I ever told you how lost I was? Have I ever told you how we didn't have nothing and God blessed us and he gave us everything we have? Son I need to tell you that's what defending the shield is and you got to make sure you're passing it to a new generation. Together we're inspiring people to live for Jesus. If you're looking for more in life, to live with purpose and peace, to make a difference for your family and those in need around the world, Jesus is the answer and our mission is to simply point you to him. You're watching Kingdom Connection with Judson Franklin. Ephesians chapter 6 and I'll begin reading with verse 13. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand, stand therefore having girded your waist with the truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, above all taking the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all the fiery darks of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. I love and I want to center in on verse 16. Above all, above all taking the shield of faith. The truth is it is essential for us to have faith in God. Faith is the currency that heaven trades in. If you get anything from God, you give God faith and he in return to your faith saves you and every other promise in the scripture is unattainable without faith. The scripture lets us know the importance of having the shield of faith as it is underlined above all. You've got all these weapons to fight and win with, but above all, if you lose the shield of faith, none of the weapons will work. If you begin to let fear take over instead of faith, if you drop your faith, then the other things not mixed with faith are not productive. The importance of having the shield, everything we do in living for God is mixed with faith. You can't please God without faith. The Bible says in Hebrews, without faith, it is impossible to please God. That's a remarkable verse. Faith is our confidence about all that God said he would do. And if you lose that, you lose your confidence in what he

said he would do and what he said he would bring to pass. Then you're not walking in faith. You have to get to that place that you can believe God over everything else. When you have faith, you can believe God over what the doctor says and thank God for doctors, but you can believe God over man's final report and say, but I have another report and you can believe God over what the judge says and thank God for our judicial system. But I'm just telling you, faith can move mountains. Faith can overcome anybody or anything. Statistics, what they say, what graphs say, faith can overcome all of that. Faith can overcome what you don't have. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. This is what God's word says. It's the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. And until you're operating in that realm that I can't see it. yet but I believe for it then that is where God lives. The Bible said without faith you cannot please God. In Hebrews 4 and verse 2 it said the word preached didn't profit. Listen you can hear all the preaching you want to but it does not profit if it's not being mixed with faith. You hear it faith cometh by hearing and when you hear it you mix your faith because he's given to every man a measure of faith and all it takes is a mustard seed of faith. You don't have to have great faith if you can just ignite. See the the miracle is not dependent upon how big and great you're and strong your faith is. All you need is a mustard seed. It's how big your God is and you have faith in how big he is not in how great your faith is. In history there was a group of fighters in Greece called the Spartans. They were natives of a city called Sparta and it's one of the only cities in ancient days that did not build walls around their city. They said the reason we don't need walls is because our men are the walls of safety and protection around our families and around our cities. These Spartans were notorious for fighting. They were fearless. They were skilled in warfare. It was part of their very culture inbred in them to raise up young men that would become warriors. This is one of the facts when a male child was born in Sparta Greece it if it was a sickly child it was taken to the heels to die because they deemed it if it's unfit for war it's unfit for life. This was the mentality of the men and the women that were in this place called Sparta. When a male child was born at the age of seven every male Spartan was sent to military school. They were taken from their father and their mother and they were sent at the age of seven to be trained to be taught toughness to endure to be taught endurance of pain to be taught survival skills and honor and integrity and warfare and self-defense. They were taught to be warriors from

the age of seven and for 13 more years they would they would be trained and when they finally after 13 years of rigorous training at the age of 20 a Spartan would become a soldier. The Spartan soldiers spent all of their time with their fellow soldiers. They were not allowed to go home. They were not allowed to hang out with just anybody. They only were allowed to have fellowship and time spent with fellow soldiers. They did not go home. They ate with them. They lived with them. They did life with them until they reached the age of 20 and they knew each other. They grew up together. They fought in the same units. They put them in units early. They knew each other's thoughts. They were like a team. They were like a unit. They were they had each other's back. They were trained this way. They knew the other's weakness. They knew everything and it was an amazing feat that they could history records that they would accomplish at the age of 20. They would take the oath of loyalty and that oath of loyalty was something that they would declare as they were now old enough to go into their first battle of warfare. They came, they came, there came the day when the Spartan soldier at the age of 20 would take this oath of loyalty and it went like this, I shall not disgrace my sacred weapons nor shall I desert my comrades by my side. Whenever I stand in rank, I shall stand and fight till death for sacred things. These young men at the age of 20 would declare that oath of loyalty from the age of 7 to 60. These Spartan military men and the military ruled their lives from 7 to 60. I want to read this other scripture from 1 Corinthians 16 because it's so important if you're going to have the shield of faith. Obviously, I'm building a case and I'm going somewhere, but I want you to listen to this verse. It says to men, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men. and be strong. This was the culture in Sparta, that the young men would come up and they would act like men, and they would be strong in warfare. Now I'm talking about spiritual warfare, but they were trained in physical warfare. But there's a great parallel that I believe is worth looking at. And while the others in Athens may have been concerned about luxury, and power, and politics, and all of that, they had one thing in the culture of Sparta. Your success was not based upon the things you owned, or this or that, or the power that you had, or the clothes that you wore. They could care less. They all wore the same uniforms. All they cared about and all they respected in that culture was men who would fight for their families, fight for their children, fight for their cities, fight for their farms, fight for their harvests. They would stop any enemy that would come against them. They refused to build physical walls because they said,

our men are so strong, you don't have to worry about intruders encroaching and stealing our things because we have men who stand up and who know how to defend their families and all that we have and possess. When they turned 60, they were allowed to carry the shield home. But the shield carried home meant I still am a lifetime member of the Spartan army. On the day that the 20-year-old made that loyalty pledge and then he was about to go into warfare and fight on his first bloody battlefield, the mothers of the young boys would talk to the son and she would be given by the commanders the shield, sometimes that had been passed down in the family for generations, and she would go over to her son. It wasn't just men acting like men, but we're talking about Sparta mamas, Spartan mamas. We're not talking about helicopter mamas that, my poor little baby, no, no, no, no, no. She would walk over with the shield and she would say to the son that was there at the age of 20, these words prior to him going into the battle, either bring this shield back or be brought back on this shield. How they brought their slain back from the battlefield is they would lay them on a shield because they never were to give up that shield. They were never to lay down that shield. It's not a toy. You bring it back on your arm or you don't come back, and this is their mother talking to them. You don't turn your back on your enemy. You don't run and flee in fear. You are a man. Act like a man. Stand up and provide for your family like a man. Fight for your family. Fight for your marriage. Take care of your children. Be a man, and the mother is saying, you either lay down, you either die defending this shield or you come back laying on this shield. Nothing else is acceptable. I think that's how we ought to be about our faith and about passing on to a new generation the faith, but also in the natural. We need to quit rescuing our children and giving them participation trophies on every blessing. We need to give a little toughness in them to stand up to life. If you don't, life will run over you and leave you. At some point, we need you to act like a man. If you're a boy, you need to act like a man. This is how we judge success. Are you still, have you been to university? It's great. I'm glad you went, but are you still holding on to the shield of faith? Do you still believe in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? Do you still believe that there is no other name whereby men can be saved? Education can't save you. Money can't save you. Good works can't save you. The Catholic church can't save you. The Pope can't save you. There's only one savior and he is This and Jesus only and Jesus alone.

The future of our people depends on us honoring and protecting the shield. What means more than anything is to maintain the honor of the shield of faith in our families. If we're not careful, we'll turn our eyes away to the glitzy spoils of war. Oh my look at there. There's a there's a there's a great bag of gold. There's this and that's what's happening in our culture because more and more the younger generation is not picking up the shield of faith because their values are different but there needs to be a value in this book like never before the only thing that you can give your family that really matters is the shield of faith honor it honor it God help us to value the importance of the shield of faith get your eyes off the glitter get your eyes off the gold sitting in church is a valuable thing. I'm polishing my shield. Prayer is a powerful thing when you pray every day you're polishing and protecting and valuing the shield of faith when you read this book when you teach it to your children when you correct them and tell them what the scripture says when you tell them Bible stories when you huddle them together and lay your hands on them when you turn music on in the car and they hear you worshiping when you're cooking and you're listening and tears are going down your face or when you're working in the back with your kids are sitting in a deer stand and every once in a while you take advantage of that moment and you say to that son son Jesus means everything to me have ever told you how he saved me have ever told you how

lost I was have ever told you how we didn't have nothing and God bless us and he gave us everything we have son. I need to tell you that's what defending the shield is and you got to make sure you're passing it to a new generation. My daddy was a Spartan. My daddy was a Holy Ghost preacher. And he was a Spartan. He didn't do it for money in the eyes world and eyes of the world. He would be considered unimportant. He didn't have fancy stuff. He didn't even have much to give us. I'm going to tell you something. He had a shield of faith. He sure taught me about the love of God the prayers of God how to pray how to preach wrote me my first sermon on an envelope. Hallelujah. I'm a Spartan. You got a Spartan for a pastor. Hallelujah. That's why I get up my preach stuff that seems out of date cause I'm a Spartan and I don't judge my pastoring by what the world says. I don't care what the Universal Church thinks. I don't care if I don't get invited to certain cliques and clans. I just want to hear him say well done. I just want to know I stood on what this book says is right. Why do you get involved? Why do you stand for Israel?

Cause I'm a Spartan. Hallelujah and the Bible stands for Israel. Why do you stand for marriage between a man and a woman cause the Bible stands for why do you talk about abortion is wrong because the Bible says it's wrong. Why why Pastor can't you just shut up and preach a nice message cause we're called to be Spartans. In Jesus name spiritual Spartans. Maintain and protect the shield of worship. I don't care who comes to this church. We don't change our worship for anybody. You're welcome, but you do not control the menu. We're going to preach. This is the menu right here. John 3 16 is the menu and you're not going to come in here and change the menu. We'll fight for this. I just feel like telling you act like a man if you go sleep with her, you should marry her and do it get married and sleep with her. Don't give her a condom. Give her a ring and be a man be a man be a man. A man provides a man protects a man stands up for himself. there when everything's ugly. He doesn't cut and run. I don't know where this is coming from, but we need men. We need men to act like men. Quit being a whiny, girly man. If you have two, you work two jobs. If you have two, you work three jobs. Whatever it takes to take care of my family, that's what I'm gonna do. That's the culture I was raised in. My daddy to play, my daddy to stay in ministry sold cars. If you pulled up to the church, he would have two or three. He'd go to the car sale every Monday night, and he'd have four sale, four sale so that he'd

have a salary to feed his family. He always kept a car for sale, truck. Sometimes he'd get hot rod trucks and take me to school in them, and I was so embarrassed. And I would say, let me off a block away. I'm not pulling up in this thing. Oh, it'll do good. I'll sell it, make $500. He did that to stay in ministry. What are you passing on? We better get a burden off our children. Better get a longing to see our grandchildren hear so much about Jesus around the tables in the family that they want to go off and play church. Are we passing the shield of faith to a new generation? Are we raising up spiritual Spartans who put on the whole armor of God? Do you ever hear your kids singing in the shower to Jesus? Do you ever hear them pray? Do you ever have service sometimes and get a burden, and when you start to tell them a story? This used to happen to me when I had my kids. So every once in a while, we would have quick devotions most of the time, but every once in a while I'd get to telling a little story or something as I had the little family huddle together, and the Spirit of God would come. And it'll be happening in our homes again.