What the Bible Says About Fighting Fear

Well, it is an incredible day celebrating baptisms on all of our campuses in all of our services today. And we're continuing in a series. It is part four of Battle Ready. We're learning that is a dogfight out there, y'all. It is a battle around every corner. And there is a spiritual enemy who is creating a very real spiritual attack in your life and in mine. And this series is really designed to help us know how to stand in the battle. Because though it's rough out there, it doesn't have to be rough in here in your heart. And we're learning in this series that you and I, we can be battle ready, that we actually already have the victory. We just have to learn to fight from a place of victory so we can stand in every single battle. And we've been learning this from one theme My goal for these six weeks of this series is to get this scripture deep within your heart so that you know it so that you meditate on it. So you think about it, maybe even so you can memorize it. And to do that, we've been reading portions of this scripture out loud together. And this is one of those scriptures I've told you every week. You can't sit for this one, y'all. All right. This is not a sit down scripture. This is a stand up scripture. I know you just got comfy. But one more time, would you stand your feet all over the room. And I'd love it today. If you would read the underlined, bolded parts of this scripture aloud with me. Reading scripture out loud is a great way, a great way to get it into your heart. So every voice on the bolded, underlined parts, I'll get us started. The scripture says this, finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power, put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you've done everything to stand, come on, put your hands together for God's Word today, everybody. It's awesome. All right. Okay. All right. You can sit down. We're going to jump in today to part four of Battle Ready, based on this powerful scripture that we've been studying together. If you haven't been here, then you need to know that what the Apostle Paul is telling us is that you need some armor, not just on Sunday, but you need the armor of God every single day. If you're going to stand up to the attacks of the enemy, if you're going to stand against the schemes of the devil, and if you miss the first three weeks of the series, then you should know that the imagery of this armor is really being inspired by that of a Roman soldier. The Apostle Paul who's writing this letter to the church at Ephesus, a book of the Bible we now have as Ephesians, he is in a Roman prison. He is likely chained to and being guarded by a Roman soldier who at all times was wearing 70 plus pounds of full on body armor. In fact, I'll show you he would have probably looked something like this. I posed for this picture yesterday so they could take it but you get the idea. He's got these different pieces of armor. He's guarding the Apostle Paul. And Paul is looking at this physical soldier who is armed and ready for a physical fight. And Paul's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about a spiritual soldier, you and I, who need to always be ready for a spiritual fight. And so just like the soldier had pieces of physical armor, Paul says that as a follower of Jesus as a

Christian, that you and I need some spiritual armor. And there are six pieces of the armor. Every week we've been talking about a different piece of this spiritual armor. Let's do a quick review over the first three. We started out learning about the belt of truth, which has to be buckled around your waist. And we said that truth is what God says, not what you think. Hello, that's truth. So truth isn't what we feel. Honestly, truth isn't even what we believe. It's what God says. And you've got to have God's truth, if you're going to be able to stand against the schemes of the enemy. And then we learned the The second week about the breastplate of righteousness, that if you will learn to walk in the righteousness that you already have, then you can stand against the schemes of the evil one of the enemy. The third week, last week, we put on new shoes, everybody, and we talked about the shoes of peace. In fact, I was in the food line a couple days ago, this lady stops me and she says, she says, I got up today and I put on the shoes of peace. I was like, let's go. I bet you did, cause that's awesome. And I don't know, I don't know about you, but I have felt more peace over these last six days, putting on those shoes of peace, because Jesus wants you to not only have peace, but he wants you to be a person of peace. And he wants you to carry peace with you wherever you go. Those are the first three pieces of armor.

And then today, today we're gonna learn that Paul says we need the fourth piece of armor. He calls it the shield of faith, the shield of faith. Everybody say that with me, the shield of faith. And I'm excited about this one, cause if you're gonna stand against the enemy's schemes, you need the shield that will protect you. I was thinking about this because my son, Brayden, he played baseball pretty much his whole life growing up. He started as, you know, little peewee little league, you know, and hitting off the tee. And he played all the way up through college at Christopher Newport. And so, because he played so much ball, it meant I was always at the ball field. And I'll just tell you, I have no shame in admitting this. I was one of those dads, one of those dads who recorded every at-bat. Y'all know the dad? And there's a few of us, a few of us who, we're gonna record this one just in case it's the hit that takes him to the big leagues, y'all. And so every single time he was up to bat from the time he was itty-bitty and I was carrying a big old camcorder, cause I'm old, all the way up to, you know, recent days where I was just holding my iPhone, I would always do the same thing. When it was his turn to be up at bat, I'd go position myself behind home plate,

behind the backstop, I'd get the camera rolling, I'd capture every single at-bat. And early on, early on, it wasn't a big deal, but as Brayden got older and the pitches got faster and the swings got harder, I became very, very thankful that there was a backstop between me and that ball. Because on more than one occasion, there was a foul ball or a wild pitch coming straight at my face and I was so glad that there was a fence or a shield, if you will, protecting me. Now, you don't have to be one of those dads to relate to what I'm saying, cause here's the thing, even if you've never stood behind home plate to video, you've seen it on TV, you've watched a baseball game where somebody's sitting in those expensive seats behind home plate, you know what I'm talking about, the owner's box seats behind home plate, where somebody flinches hard when a ball is coming straight for their face. In fact, I got a few photos that might show you what I'm talking about. Like this guy flinching hard, ball coming straight, poor guy lost his phone and his Coke, all right, y'all? Or how about this guy who looks like he's about to cry for his mama. I mean, he is scared to death, that ball coming straight at him, not realizing there's a net protecting him.

And then maybe my favorite of all, this guy who is completely scared. And I love the image of the Coke just spraying, and of course he's, you know, got the Dodgers jersey on. So what do you say about that? But I think it's awesome, these flinching faces are scared, even when they don't have to be. And what I wanna tell you today is that when the enemy attacks, you don't have to be scared. When the enemy attacks, you don't have to flinch. Not if you got the shield of faith. In fact, that's what Paul is trying to tell us in these scriptures. You don't have to duck, you don't have to hide, you don't have to run, you don't have to falter, you don't have to fall. You can actually stand in the face of the enemy's attack if you have the shield of faith. It's an essential weapon if you're gonna be battle ready. Paul says it like this, I'll show you the scripture. Paul says, in addition to all this, meaning in addition to the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shoes of peace, in addition to those, Paul says, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. So you don't have to flinch when the enemy's attacking if you have the shield of faith.

Because the shield of faith will extinguish all the flaming arrows of the devil, all of them. I don't know if you call it that little word, all. I spent some time this week with that little word, all, that Paul uses. I dug in deep to the original Greek where Paul says that little word, all, and I did a little word study. I found out the definition. Can I just tell you that when Paul says, all, that little word, all, means all, everybody. It means all. Every single attack the enemy throws at you, every single flaming arrow the enemy shoots at you, anything the enemy comes against you with, if you have the shield of faith, the Bible says you can extinguish all that the enemy sends your way. Doubt, check. Discouragement, check. Disease or sickness, check. Disunity or disagreement, check. Anxiety, addiction, depression, shame, condemnation, check, check, check. Insecurity, check. Every single thing the enemy's coming at you with, you can extinguish with the shield of faith. You just gotta have it. You gotta hold it. And you gotta carry it with you in order to protect it.

You don't have to flinch. You don't have to fall. Paul says you can actually stand when the devil fires his flaming arrows in your direction. And here's what you need to know today. You need to know something about the shield, and you need to know something about faith. So let's unpack those two concepts a little bit. If it's called the shield of faith, let's understand a little bit about the shield first, and then a little bit more about faith. When Paul says, take up the shield of faith, he's referring to that shield that a Roman soldier would carry. And this wouldn't be like, I don't know, this wouldn't be like a Captain America trashcan lid kind of shield, all right? I want you to picture something else in your mind. I want you to picture more of like a wooden door. It would have been a shield about four feet tall, two to two and a half feet wide. It would have been made of planks of wood fused together, covered by canvas and then covered by leather. Sometimes shields would have had iron built in the center of it or covering the edges of it to reinforce it. And ancient historians tell us that the Roman shields were so large that they were capable of covering the whole body when a soldier would crouch down behind it.

In fact, it was said that when soldiers would go off to battle, a soldier's wife would say to him, come back with your shield, not on it. It was a common phrase. Come back with your shield, not on it. Because the soldier's shield was one of the primary ways they would carry his injured or dead body back from the battleground. That's how big this shield would be. And so you can see it's an incredibly important part of the soldier's army. It's an important defensive tool used in battle. That's the shield. Let's talk for a moment about faith. What is faith? Well, faith is not a feeling. Faith is not a thought. Faith is not a wish. Faith is not a dream. Faith is not cross my fingers and hope to God. That's not what faith is. The Bible actually defines faith for us like this. The Bible says now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. That's faith. Faith is confidence and assurance. I want you to get those words in your spirit today. Confidence and assurance. And now look at me because you need to know this.

What does confidence and assurance always lead to? When you have confidence and assurance, it always leads to action. And I believe that's one of the most misunderstood aspects that we have about faith. That faith always leads to action. And the little Greek word is the word pistis. It's used over 200 times alone in the New Testament. And every time it's used, it's used in association with some follow through, some next step or some. action to be taken. This is why James in the Bible says this, that faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, faith, it is dead. In other words, it's worthless. It's useless. So faith is more than just thinking something. Faith is more than just believing something. Faith is more than talking about something or singing some songs about something. Faith always relates to action. I heard somebody define faith like this one time. Faith is acting like God's telling the truth. I like that. One of my favorite definitions of faith is by Dr. Tony Evans. He says, faith is acting like it is so, even when it is not so, so that it might be so simply because God said so. And y'all, that's so good. I love it. That's faith. And Paul says, when you have that kind of faith, when you have that kind of assurance and confidence to the point that it leads you to take some kind of an action, that kind of faith is a shield and it will protect you against the attacks of the enemy. And we all need it. Let me see if I can maybe help you process this idea of faith a little bit more. A few moments ago, I asked you all to stand. We read the scripture together. And then I said, be seated. And based on what I could see, at least here in the room, and I'm going to assume this is true of every one of our campuses. I believe that when I said be seated, all of you just plopped down in the chair. I think that's what happened. Like I didn't see anybody hesitate. I didn't see anybody check the structural integrity of the chair you were sitting in. I didn't see anybody turn around to make sure the chair was still there. Like I said, be seated. And you had confidence and assurance in the chair

that it would hold you. And you plopped down in it. That's faith. That's faith. Now let's replay that scenario for a moment. Let's imagine that I said, be seated. And before you could, let's imagine that a voice came over the PA system and said, wait just a minute. Wait just a minute, because I've seen some people sit in these chairs and the chair actually collapses. And the voice says, in fact, there was some screws on the floor from the chairs today. So maybe those screws came from your chair. And then the voice of the loudspeaker says, and by the way, it's been a couple of weeks since you've been here and it looks like you put on a little weight. Have you checked the weight limit in the chair? Now you may be seated. Some of you would have enough faith and confidence, that's assurance and confidence in the chair that you still sit. That's called faith. But a bunch of you, ah, you'd hesitate. You'd think about it before you sat. You might check the chair out a little bit before you, you might shade chairs so the person sit beside you before you sat. Because now a voice has spoken and that voice has created a doubt in your mind. And that doubt has caused your confidence and assurance to waver, which means now you don't have faith. You don't have to follow through the action to sit in the chair. This is exactly what's happening in many of our lives right now. God has said something. He said it to you in his word. He's told you to believe him for a truth that he's promised. He's, he said something. He's told you to trust him with a problem. He said something. He's told you to forgive someone, give something to someone, share your faith with someone. God has said something. He's told you to honor him with your finances. God has said something. He's told you to be baptized. You just saw a ton of people have faith demonstrated in front of your very eyes because they didn't just believe something. They had confidence and assurance that led to action. They were baptized. God has said something, but the enemy has come over the loud speaker of your life and the enemy has started to whisper some doubts, some doubts that maybe God won't do what he said he would do. Some doubts that maybe you can't trust God the way he says you can trust him. Some doubts that you aren't strong enough to do what God's asked you to do. Smart enough, skilled enough, competent enough or qualified enough. The enemy has started to speak over the loudspeaker of your life. God has said something.

Maybe he's told you to walk away from something, to stop doing something, to leave something. And now the enemy has spoken to your life and says, did he really say that? Did he really mean it? But what happens if and it's caused you to hesitate? This is the attack of the enemy. The enemy comes in to places where there is confidence and assurance, to places where there is faith that results in follow through. And the enemy whispers lies to try to get you to stop, to hesitate and not do or believe what God said. He's causing you to have questions in your faith. And Paul would say, this is the moment when God has spoken, but the enemy causes you to hesitate. This is the moment you need to decide. I'm picking up the shield. The shield of what? I'm picking up the shield of faith. I'm holding on to the shield of faith and I'm demonstrating. I have faith. I have confidence. I have assurance in God. And I'm going to do whatever it is, whatever it is that God said to do. And look at me, everybody. The moment you do that, you thwart the attack of the enemy. The moment so many people stepped into the waters of baptism, guess what? The enemy lost the battle because they followed through on faith. And you can do the same thing. This is how the shield of faith works. When you pick it up, you stand. When you pick it up, you stand. This is why the Bible says, this is the victory, y'all. The victory that has overcome the world. Even our, say the word, even our faith. Faith is how you fight. And without it, you won't win. But with it, you can extinguish the flaming arrows

the enemy shoots in your direction. I want to teach you today how to handle the shield of faith. How do you handle the shield of faith? Because here's what I know. There is an attack. It's happening. Without the shield of faith, you can't stand. So how do we handle it? Four ways. And I hope you'll take some notes today. Notetakers are world changers because when you take notes, it takes this message from the hour on Sunday to the rest of your week. It allows you to meditate on the truths and carry these scriptures home with you to think about them. You can open up your Water's Edge Church app and follow along with our fill-in notes. You can use the notes sheet in the seat back in front of you. There are four ways to handle the shield of faith. The first way is this. If you're going to handle the shield of faith, you've got to number one, care for the shield. You got to care for it. A soldier's shield required care and attention. It required intentionality. It required effort, time, because the soldier had to ensure that the shield was battle-ready. It was ready when the battle would come. So the soldier would do all sorts of things. He would have to oil the leather of the shield. The soldier before a battle would have to soak the shield in water. Let me show you why. This is fascinating. Can we put the verse back up again, please? Where Paul says this, in addition to all this, he says, take up the shield of faith. And then he says, with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. So in a battle,

the enemy would light the end of their arrows on fire. Imagine this flaming arrows being shot from the enemy as a means by which to not only distract, but as a means by which to attack. And a flaming arrow would be extinguished by the water-soaked leather on the shield. Now I need you to understand this. A well-cared-for shield doesn't just deflect the arrow. It extinguishes it. A well-cared-for faith doesn't just deflect the attack of the enemy. It extinguishes it. We fight from victory because we have faith. This is why the Bible says, it says, No weapon forged against you. you will prevail." Now, it doesn't say that there won't be a weapon forged against you. No, the enemy is going to come at you with some weapons, some flaming arrows. But to the Christian who has the shield of faith, that weapon will not prevail because faith will extinguish the attack of the enemy. But here's the problem. Here's what a lot of us do when it comes to our faith. We neglect it in times of attack. When the enemy attacks, a lot of us act like we're just too tired to fight. And so we just lay down. We just give up. We just give in to the attack of the enemy. And we neglect our faith. I was talking to somebody the other day, and I ran into him out somewhere, and I hadn't seen him in a long time. And I just said, hey, I feel like it's been forever since I've seen you at church. And then they began to explain to me all the reasons why. They told me all the things that happened in their life, all the stressful situations, all the bad things that have gone on, all the problems and stress they've been encountering. And it was bad. And honestly, it sounded to me like an attack from the enemy. And then they finished their little tirade, their little story by saying this. And so we just haven't been coming to church. And I thought to myself, are you stupid? That's what I thought to myself. I didn't say it. I thought it, everybody. All right. You should be proud of me. I didn't say it. But I thought it. Because when the enemy attacks,

that's the time you need to be coming to church. That's when you better start showing up more. You should stay for both services. Like understand that when anxiety rises in your life, that's when you turn to the scriptures more. When your marriage is really struggling, that's when you get up earlier to pray. Hey, when temptation is coming like full force, that's when you join not one group or two groups, you join three or four groups. It's hard to be tempted when you're in a group every night of the week. When your kids are running off the rails, this is when you turn off all the other media and you crank up worship music in the four corners of the house and let it ride, y'all. I'm telling you. Because your faith doesn't have to falter under attack. You can actually stand under the attack of the enemy. But you got to have faith. And you got to care for it. Well, how do I care for faith? How do I build my faith? How do I get more faith? The Bible tells us, this is how you get more faith. The Bible says, so faith comes from hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ. How do you build your faith? You hear the good news about Christ. How do you grow bigger faith? You start every day with God's word. And you start every week in God's house. And you sit under the teaching of God's word. And you listen to songs that proclaim God's word. And you meditate on and read God's word. And you get it deep into your heart and into your spirit and your faith grows. And suddenly now you've got a bigger faith. And your faith grows. And suddenly now you've got a big old shield that protects you against the attack of the enemy. The problem is way too many of us are listening to bad news that tears down our faith when Jesus wants you to listen to good news that builds it up, y'all. In fact, if you are, if you don't have this little practice in your life, then you aren't battle ready. I'm convinced of it. If you don't, if you don't start every single day with Jesus, you aren't going to be battle ready. How do I care for my faith? How do I care for the shield? I call it the first 15, the first 15 minutes of your day. That's all it needs. First 15, spend 15 minutes with God to start every single day. Your faith will grow. Your faith will build. What do I do during those 15 minutes? Let me tell you, five minutes of worship. Pick one of these songs and you put it on the background that we sing. You put it on and you worship. Five minutes in the word. You open up your Bible. Maybe take the scriptures that we're talking about today. Read over them. Think about

them. Meditate on them. Ask God to speak to you from them. And then you spend five minutes in prayer. The first 15 is how you care for your shield. It's how you stand against the attacks of the enemy. How do I handle this shield of faith? Number one, I care for it. Number two, if you want to handle the shield of faith, you got to carry the shield. good would a shield do to a soldier who leaves it behind and doesn't carry it to the battlefield? You got to be a person who picks up faith and carries it with you. I don't know if you noticed this, but Paul actually changes the language that he uses talking about the shield of faith. When he talks about the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of peace, he uses this phrase, put it on, put on the belt of truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, put on the shoes of peace. But he changes the metaphor. He uses a different language when he talks about the shield of faith. I'll show you, the scripture says it like this, in addition to all this, now he doesn't say put on, he says take up the shield of faith. The shield is meant to be carried and the shield is meant to be out in front and the shield is meant to lead the way, take up the shield of faith. The idea here is that the soldier would stay in the shadow of his shield when he goes into battle. And every single day, Paul is saying to us, we got to stay in the shadow of our faith. Now, let's get some clarity because we don't have faith in our faith. Like our confidence and assurance isn't in our faith. Our confidence and assurance is in the object of our faith. So we don't have faith in faith. We have faith in God. He is the object of our faith, faith, the action part that we play because we have faith and assurance in our faith. In God, he's the one that leads the way. He's the one that leads my life. He's the one that leads my decisions. He's the one that leads my emotions. He's the one that leads my actions. He's the one that leads my feelings. I have faith in him. He's in front. Let me show you this from the Old Testament. I love the imagery of this. Lord, help me show them the way you showed it to me. It's so powerful. When God spoke to Abraham, this is what he told Abraham. He said, don't be afraid, Abram. I am your, look at the word, everybody. I'm your shield. Your very great reward. Our faith is not in faith. Our faith in our God. He's our shield. I love what the psalmist said. He says, just like the Roman soldier would stay in the shadow of the shield, look at what the psalmist says. He says, those who live under the protection of the most high dwell in the shadow of the almighty. I will say concerning

the Lord, who is my refuge and my fortress? My God in whom I trust. He himself will rescue you from the bird trap, from the destructive plague. He will cover you with his feathers. You will take refuge under his wings. His faithfulness will be a, say it everybody, a protective shield. This is our God. And so you stay in the shadow of your God and you're protected from the attack of the enemy. It's our faith in God that shields us. And it's our job to stay in his shadow. So here's a question you should ask. Anytime, anytime you feel the attack of the enemy, you should ask this question. Is God in front or am I? Who's leading? Am I following him? Because when you take up the shield of faith, oh, it means I've got some action. My action is, I got to get back. I got to follow in behind our God. He's going to be the one that protects me. So he's going to lead my life and where he leads, I follow. This is the shield of faith. You got to carry it. You got to care for it. Thirdly, you got to connect the shields if you want to handle the shield of faith. And I said shields, plural, because two shields are better than one. In a Roman army, there was a famous formation created with their shields. It was known as the tortoise formation. A Roman soldier's shield would have these iron hooks that allowed their shield to hook to someone else's shield to provide to them a formation of protection. It would actually look something like this, like a turtle shell, like the tortoise formation. Together, they were stronger. Together, they were protected. The enemy loves isolation. And I am convinced that you cannot stand in the battle alone. The Bible says this, though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. So if you wanna be battle ready, you gotta connect your shield with other shields within the family of God. Now, I hope you'll lean in and I hope you'll hear my heart on this. You really need to understand this.

And so many of us miss this. God's desire for your life is to place you in a spiritual family. The same way he placed you in a physical family, he wants you in a spiritual family. That spiritual family is called the church. And why would God want you to be in a spiritual family? Because it's the faith of others that allows your faith to grow. And it's the faith of others that keeps you protected when your faith falters. So I need your faith when my faith falters and you need the strength of my faith when your faith falters. We help each other in the family of God. And there are way too many, way too many Christians. And there are a bunch sitting in the room today and watching online and I love you, but please hear my heart. You will fall to the attack of the enemy if you try to stand alone. You need to be planted and connected within the family of God. And I get it, I know, I've heard it all. All the reasons why you can't be connected to the family of God right now. You're too busy. I've heard it. I get it. Or you were once connected to the family of God

at another church and those people hurt you so you're too scared to get connected to the family of God here. Or you have too many competing priorities because your kids have too many important things going on in their life to get prioritizing the family of God. Or for some of you, your excuse is just this, I don't really like people all that much. I've heard all the excuses, but I've come today to challenge you that if you truly wanna be battle ready to stand against the attack of the enemy, it's time to lay down the excuses and it's time to pick up the shield of faith and link it with some other people so that we can all advance together. I'm gonna tell you the best way to do that and please don't roll your eyes because you roll your eyes when we talk about it every week. Just don't roll your eyes right now, all right? The best way to do it is the growth track. It's the, hey, it's the growth track. Why is the growth track the best way to get connected? Because you're gonna have dinner with your campus pastor, he's gonna know your name. You need your campus pastor to know your name. And you're gonna have dinner with some of the staff on your campus team and they're gonna get to know you. And they're gonna hear your story

and you're gonna hear theirs. And you're gonna be sitting at some tables with a bunch of other people who are taking this next step of connection just like you are. And we're gonna talk to you about joining a team. And we're gonna talk to you about getting in a group. And we're gonna help you take your next step to figure that out. And if you've been thinking about baptism, we're gonna challenge you to do that. And if you've been thinking about giving, but you aren't quite sure how to start or why you would, we're gonna talk to you about that. And we're gonna talk to you about how to make this church your spiritual family and how to connect here because there's an attack. And I want you to stand. I want you to stand. GrowthTrack, it's coming up in two weeks. Tap the seat back in front of you, you can register. Go to our app, you can register. Go to our website, you can register. Come to GrowthTrack, it'll help you connect your shields. Your shields. How do I handle the shield of faith? I care for it, I carry it, I connect it. Finally, I claim it as my own. You gotta claim the shield. Because a soldier had his shield.

It was his, it was custom made for him. It was his own shield, not somebody else's. And you need your own faith, not somebody else's. Listen, grandma's faith, it won't protect you from the enemy. Your husband or your wife's faith, you've been leaning on that and just like. letting them take the lead and do all this stuff. No, no, no, no, you need your own faith. Your kids' faiths, some of you are only here because you're like, yeah, I want my kids in church. Well, what about you, my friend? Where's your faith? Your parents' faith, that doesn't work for you. It is time to have your own faith because it is only your own faith that will extinguish the flaming darts of the enemy. So you gotta have your own faith. Where do I get faith like that? It starts just by calling out to a faithful Jesus. That's where you get faith like that. The Bible says this, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful, oh, he is faithful. I said, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That's where faith starts. You call out to him, he'll save you, forgive you, cleanse you, and it'd be your own faith, a faith that is your own, but that's where faith starts.

It's not where faith ends. And there are way too many of us who've called out to Christ and we know him as faithful savior, but do you know him as faithful friend? Do you know him as faithful healer? Do you know him as faithful leader? Do you know him as faithful comforter? There's so much more to your faith and your faith always demands a next step. It's always moving forward if it's a true faith because all faith results in action. It is confidence and assurance that leads to some action and it is action that will ultimately activate your faith. In fact, here's what I'm praying for all of us today. I'm praying that all of us will identify what is the next step of faith, the next step of faith? What is it that God has told me that I'm currently not believing or doing? Because the enemy has whispered some things over the loudspeaker of my life. What is the next step of faith? Because today's the day I need to claim it as my own. Let me see if I can set it up like this. It'd be a little bit like if today one of my kids, if they came to church late today, I hope none of them did, but if they did, it'd be a little bit like they tried to come in and let's just say, and this would never happen to anybody, but let's just say that the greeters kind of gave them the stink eye

because they were running a little late. And then the staff kind of gave them a hard time because they were running a little bit late. And then they got to the doors and the usher stopped them and said, hey, you're running a little bit late. The preacher is already preaching. And so why don't you just watch from out here in the lobby? What do you think my kids would say? I know what they'd say. I think they'd be polite enough to say, um, no, thank you. I think that would be polite enough to say, um, no, thank you but my dad's the preacher. My dad's the preacher. And so I'm not going to sit out here in the lobby and I'm not going to settle for just sitting outside the room. My dad's the preacher. And even though I'm running a little bit late, my dad's the preacher. So I'm going to go on inside right now. And by the way, I'm probably just going to sit on the front row, just so you know, because my dad's the preacher. That's what they'd say. And that's what you need to say when the enemy comes attacking you. He comes knocking on your door, trying to stop you, trying to throw some things in your direction, trying to get you to doubt some things about God, trying to get you to doubt some things

that God has said to you or told you to do. That's what you need to say to the enemy today. Excuse me. No, thank you. I'm not settling because I know my dad. My father has said this. My father has told me that. My father has instructed me to do this. I'm going on in. I'm not settling. I'm not stopping. I'm not laying down. I'm not getting knocked down or falling down. I'm standing up because I know my father. I got faith in him. I got faith in him. Confidence and assurance. Confidence and assurance that'll lead you to action. And today, it's time to stop the attack of the enemy with some action. And I bet you already have something in your heart that God's spoken to you. Today, let faith rise. Let faith rise and let it result in you taking a next step of action. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? I wanna pray for you today. Have boldness to do what God said, whatever it is, to follow him in front

and you be in the shadow because that's where we're most protected. Father, we thank you today that you are our shield. And today, we lift up the shield of faith and whatever the enemy wants to send our way, our confidence. Confidence and assurance in you is greater. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And so today, we stand against the flaming arrows of the enemy. We care for our faith, we carry it in front. We connect with brothers and sisters in Christ. And we claim it as our own. And that's how I wanna end this prayer for some of you today, to give your heart and life to Jesus Christ. You've never begun a relationship with him, but this is your moment, this is your time. This is an act of faith. And I'm gonna ask you to stretch that faith a little bit today. If you're ready to give your heart and life to Christ, I'm gonna invite you to pray a simple prayer with me. You can pray these words silently right where you are, but mean them from your heart. But first, I'm gonna ask you to identify this is your moment. And if that's you, and you say, pastor, include me in that prayer. I'm gonna give my life to Jesus today.

I'm gonna ask you just to boldly shoot your hand high in the air. Hold it there so we can see, so you can mark this moment as you stretch out your faith. Every faith requires an action. This is your action as you call out to him. Anybody else? God bless you. It's amazing. You can put your hands down, pray this prayer and really mean it now. Say, Jesus, I wanna know you. I want my sin forgiven by you. And I wanna live my life for you. Come into my life. I wanna make you my Lord and savior. And Father, thank you today for the faith that is growing in this room. As we take steps towards you, we love you and we worship you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Come on everybody. Thank God for his word today. Amen. Amen.