Morning church, it's good to be in the house of the Lord, isn't it? Amen. Again, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. I just can't overstate that.
Mothers you are so important. I just want to give a special shout out to my mom in El Paso, Texas. She was a shining star in a life that was really dark for me. And she was brought, she was specifically given to me from God.
And I'm so thankful for my mom. I'm so thankful for her. Mom, I love you. Happy Mother's Day.
And again, I just want to state that I love you guys. You all are in this house for a reason today. We got you up, got you to this building. And if you've never heard those words, I love you.
Because it's not something that was said in your family. Whether it's your first time here, or you've been here multiple times, I love you. So I appreciate you all. Well, let's go ahead and jump into this week six of our Dressed for Success series.
How y'all liking it? That's great. It's a great series. And we're talking about the armor of God here.
And if you missed any part of this series, go back and listen to this series. This series is not just about information. It's about preparation. It's about preparation.
So let's go ahead and recap where we've been so far. So in week one, we talked about the belt of truth. In week two, we talked about the shoes of peace. Week three was the breastplate of righteousness.
In week four, it was the cloak of zeal. In week five, we had the garments of vengeance. If you missed last week, I highly recommend you go back to the app and listen to it and get an attitude. Amen?
Get an attitude. You might be like, what is he talking about? Go and listen to Pastor Ryan, or Lee Pastor's message, and get an attitude. I'm not going to reprieve his message because it's so good.
Go and listen to it. So I have a question for y'all today. What does Dressed for Success mean to you? What does it mean to you?
I can tell what it means. For me and the natural, it's getting up in the morning. It's taking a shower, getting cleaned up, making sure I smell good, ironing my clothes, making sure everything looks good. I'm putting on my best, whether I'm going to just have one lunch or I'm coming to the office or whatever I'm doing in the day.
I want to make sure I look good. I am dressed for success. So when people encounter me, they know that I'm ready to do business. I'm ready to talk.
I'm ready to engage with them, amen? Now, in the spiritual, that looks like for me, waking up in the morning and getting into my prayer closet, praying, getting into the Word of God, reading it, getting it into my heart. So what does that look like for you? What does that look like for you in the morning?
In the natural or the spiritual? Because a lot of us have jobs in the world. Are we dressing for success? Are we dressing for success in the spiritual?
Come on. Growing up, my dad used to tell me, dress for the job that you want, not for the one that you have. Let me say that again. Dress for the job that you want, not for the one that you have meaning.
Don't settle. Don't get comfortable. Don't stay where you are. Church, we should not be content where we are spiritually.
Look, salvation is not the finish line. It's the starting line. Come on. We weren't saved from something.
We were saved for something. Look, Matthew 28, 19, therefore go and make disciples of all nations. Everybody say all. That is the command.
It's not a suggestion from God. It's not a suggestion, but I don't want you to miss this very important part. He commands us, but he also promises his presence. It says, and surely I am with you always.
Look, God is not sending you into a battle where he is not going to be with you. He is not sending you somewhere where you're like, man, I'm going to be by myself and you are heart. He's promising us. Go build my kingdom.
So what's our part here? Our part is to move. Our part is to go. It's to act.
Look, Church, here's the reality. The enemy is not intimidated by passive Christians. He's not. A passive faith will never overcome a hostile world.
Look, if your faith never grows, if your faith never stretches, if your faith doesn't fight, you already do it exactly what the enemy the devil wants. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that's why we must fight.
Yes, I said fight. Wage war. Stay engaged. Look, if you missed last week again, go and listen to it.
Man, we are fighters. We are going to get into the fight. Fight for your family. Fight for your kids.
Fight for your spouses. The enemy is a real thing. And look, Paul tells us what we're up against. He tells we're up against people.
Look, it's not like God is saying, hey, go to the people that don't agree with you and punch them in the face. He's not saying that. And Ephesians 6, 10 through 12, it says, finally, be strong in the Lord. And his mighty power put on the full armor of God so that when you can take your stand against the, so you can take your stand against the devil schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavily realms.
Paul is reminding believers that there is a real spiritual battle going on, a real spiritual battle. And the enemy is going to do everything he can to steal, kill, and destroy. But look, we must maintain a balance. We must maintain a balance.
Look, I don't ever want to be that church where we go too far, spiritual, everything is a spiritual attack because the enemy does have his schemes, but not everything we face is a spiritual attack. Sometimes what we call warfare is actually a result of our own neglect. If you don't put on the truth, you start to believe lies. If you don't walk in righteousness, you become exposed.
If you don't pick up your faith, fear creeps in. Look, church, don't miss this. Don't miss this here. The devil gains ground not only through attack, but also through our neglect.
We must wake up with purpose, church. We must wake up with purpose. Say, I'm putting on the full armor of God today. I'm going to get up and put this full armor on piece by piece.
And I'm going to show the devil exactly what I made up because I am made righteous in his eyes. I have his power and I'm going to go after him. The devil does not stand a chance. Or are we waking up passively or casually and saying, oh, man, it's time to put on, I guess, put the shoes of peace on.
Man, can I wash those? Can I stink? Do I want to put those on today? Oh, maybe the breastplate of righteousness.
Let's put the helmet of salvation. No church. We need to get on with an active faith that's saying, devil, you get ready. Because I'm up.
I'm up and I'm ready. I put my foot on the floor and the devil goes, oh, my goodness, Rob Hess is awake. Oh, my goodness. Oh, Margararo is awake.
Oh, my goodness. Madison Hess is awake. Monocha Mendoza just woke up. She's shaking in my booth because she has the full armor of God on and she's going to build a kingdom.
Are you putting on the full armor of God every morning? Today we are talking, today's piece of the armor we're going to talk about specifically is the shield of faith, the shield of faith. And we're going to pick up in Ephesians 6, 13, 17 today and we're going to read this. 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 have done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth, buckle around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith. Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.
So we're going to take up our shield of faith today. But before that, let's talk about those arrows, the arrows that are coming. The enemy, look, the enemy of the devil is not trying to get into a fist fight with you church. He's not trying to go toe to toe.
He is going to fight from a distance. Why? Because he knows who you are in Christ. He knows the authority that you have.
He knows how strong you can be in him. So he stays back. He stays back and he fires arrows at you. And here's the truth, church.
Arrows are going to fly no matter what. They're going to fly. No believers exempt from this. But I want to tell you, there's some good news here.
All he has is arrows. All he has is arrows. You know, I always found this a little weak of the devil, honestly. I just laugh at it.
I find a little weak of him that he can't come and get into a fight with me. He can't come toe to toe. I know who I am in Christ. I know what armor I have on.
Come challenge me. He knows he's going to lose. So he has to do it from a distance. He's not going to try to do it fist to fist.
He's not going to do it sword to sword. He's going to let those arrows fly from a distance because he knows that he becomes toe to toe with you. He will lose. He's hoping that you're going to drop your guard at some point.
He's hoping that you're going to put down that shield and you're going to give him an opportunity. And that's exactly where the shield of faith comes in, comes to play. And church, this is a powerful picture that Paul is painting here because he uses the deck. He's using a shield that Roman soldiers would use.
And if you do your research, Roman soldiers use many types of different shields in the span of what they were doing. They were just a battle, but some were small, some were round, and some were decorative. And they, some were made just purely for appearance. And some, the ones that were talking about, they were polished, they were designed, they were decorated, and they were used in ceremonies and parades.
It looked good, but it wasn't built for war. It wasn't built for war. And sometimes, as Christians, we have this shield and it's all nice and pretty. There's a lesson here.
Don't be a Christian with a pretty shield. Don't be the one that talks about the battles. Talks are talks about battles. Tell stories but never actually steps into the fight.
Come on. God didn't call you to sit back. He didn't call you to spectate. He made you a fighter.
He made you a fighter. Well, I don't see myself as a fighter, pastor. It's my personality. It's my background.
You don't understand. I'm just a butterfly. I'm a little... It doesn't matter.
He made you a fighter. You need to get in the fight. Pick up your shield. Well, I don't want to fly too bad.
The arrows are coming. He's going to fire them whether you are ready or not. And if you do not have the right shield, you're making it easy for him. You're making it so easy for him.
Look, the word that Paul is using here is translated from the Greek word, therios. And the word, therios means a large door. A large door. It's not small.
It's not decorative. It's not symbolic. It's not like you from head to toe, which means your faith is designed to cover you from head to toe, covering your whole life. Man, this is an awesome picture.
Look, Romans 12, 3 says, he has distributed faith to each of us. So if your faith feels small, it's not because God didn't give you enough faith. It's because you're carrying the wrong shield. And you're exposed, you're vulnerable, and you're constantly trying to move around and react, wearing yourself out, getting tired.
Look, God never designed you to fight that way. Never designed you to fight that way. This is a writer James Hess's play shield. A shield of faith.
Some of you all have seen this before. We as Christians sometimes have this little shield of faith. We pick this one up. It's decorative.
It looks nice. It's pretty easy to play with. But this is not the one we're supposed to be carrying. We go like this, oh, okay, well, I picked up this shield.
It's nice and pretty. It's shiny. And then, oh, okay, I'm going to cover my head. But then the enemy goes after your heart.
Okay, I'm going to cover my heart. Then he goes after your thoughts. Well, maybe I can hide behind my heart in my head. Then he goes after your walk.
We have to carry the right shield. He gave us a door for a shield. And when arrows fly, you stand by the faith that he's giving you. Amen?
You stand behind it. You don't run around playing the five D's of dodgeball, which are duck or dodge, duck, dib, dive, and dodge. We're like, oh, come over here. Oh, I'm going to hit.
No. That's not what we're supposed to be doing. Look, church, when we gave our lives to Christ, arrows started flying. But our father, our father did not leave us exposed.
He gave us a shield. We have to choose. Are we going to pick it up or not? Are we going to stand firm behind it?
Your faith isn't proven when nothing is coming at you. It's proven when everything is. Oh, man, pastor, everything is going great. My whole life finances.
All this is great. My faith is so good. Then stuff starts to happen. Finances, all these things start going into the toilet.
And you're like, where's my faith? I need my faith. It's not proven. Your faith isn't proven when everything is going good.
It is proven when all the things are coming at you. Standing firm on God's word. So we must choose the right shield, church. Amen?
Now that we've chosen the right shield, we need to maintain that shield. We need to do shield maintenance. The shield was made out of layers of wood and multiple layers of animal high. This shield was the door that we're talking about.
It was strong, durable, and battle tested. But there was a huge problem with this shield. If it wasn't maintained, what would happen is it would dry out. It would become brittle.
And it would become brittle. And it would be opened for attack. It would become brittle. And it would start to dry out.
So the first arrow would be shot. And you would catch the shield. Maybe that one would stop it. The second one, OK.
Maybe it would stop that one. But the third hit, the shield would eventually break. It would eventually break. And this is a picture of so many Christians in their walk.
They can handle one hit. They can handle two hits. And that third hit comes. And life hits hard.
They fall apart. Why does this happen to them? Because they are neglecting their faith. They're neglecting the maintenance of the shield.
Every morning, the soldiers would wipe down their shields with oil. They would wipe it down with oil. And they would go through all the layers. And they would make it supple and pliable.
So it never dried out. So when arrows came, it would be with standable. They would withstand every single arrow that it hit. Because it was being taken care of.
Every single day. And the oil that I'm talking about here is the oil of the Holy Spirit Church. That's the oil for us. We need to tap into the Holy Spirit every single day of our lives.
Amen? Every single day of our lives. We need to spend time with the Holy Spirit. We need to draw from the Holy Spirit.
We need to pray in the Spirit. Which means I'm talking about praying in tongues. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 says praying in the Spirit is praying in tongues. And in June 20 it says, but you beloved.
Building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. This is what it looks like for us to take care of our shield and build up our faith. When we pray in the Spirit, when we pray in tongues, it builds up our faith. If you find yourself in a season of doubt, whatever the circumstances, God gave you an incredible tool in your time of need.
And it's called praying in the Spirit. Look, Church, I'm not going to harp on this subject very much longer, but what I want you to understand, there is something called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And that's praying in tongues. If you want to know more, please come see me after Church.
I'll be more than happy to schedule a time with you and go through the Scriptures. I was the same way, same scared thing that I had. What is this tongues thing? What is going on?
I started asking questions. I got taken through the Scripture. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. I'm the main changer for my walk with Christ.
It's the engine that powers Rob Hess. It's the engine that keeps me going. Amen? So I want you all to have that same power that God has blessed me with.
So if you want to come and talk about it, we definitely would. Me, Pastor Ryan, any of the elders would love to walk you through that. Amen? Okay.
So the Romans knew the shield was a critical piece of equipment. So they had to take care of it. If they didn't take care of it, if they didn't take care of it, what happened? It became brittle and it became, I'm sorry, losing my words here.
It would become, you know, succumb to the enemies attacks. So they didn't just oil it when it was convenient for them. They didn't just oil it when it was, you know, the right time or when they thought of it. I thought about it.
They did it all the time and they were trained to do it. They were trained to do it. The Roman soldiers would oil their shields first thing in the morning. They would oil it first time before a march.
They would oil it before a battle. They would oil it even when they're on leave in Rome. Come on. Whether we're at work, whether we're at home, whether we're at church, whether we're on vacation, we need to wake up every day and oil our shields.
It doesn't matter where we are, what situation we're in. We need to tap into the Holy Spirit first thing. Without the oil of his fresh anointing, sooner or later, our shields will fall apart. Our shields will fall apart.
And unfortunately too many Christians make this huge mistake. They make this huge mistake. Oh, I can take a day off. I can take a day off.
I deserve a day off. You can't take a day off. You can't. Why?
Because the enemy doesn't take a day off. The enemy doesn't take days off. He doesn't retreat. He's always attempting to gain ground.
Remember, your enemy, the lion is prowling around looking for someone to devour. He is looking to get you. Are you going to let him get you? Or are you going to do the things you need to to make sure that you're oiling and staying within his presence?
And that time comes. You're like, ah, lion. You ain't ready for this fight. You ain't ready for this fight.
And look, Church, keeping it oiled is just part of it. There's another thing. This is where it gets better with the shield. The shield wasn't meant to be held alone.
It wasn't meant to be held alone. If you were here in the first message of this series, Pastor Mao talked about the belt of truth. There's a little clip on the belt and the belt of truth. And that's where the Roman soldiers would connect the shield on their side so they could carry it.
It was designed specifically to fit on the belt and it was designed for that shield, which would help the soldier carry it and maneuver it. So if that shield was getting too heavy or they needed to maneuver it a certain way in battle, they would clip it and they would be able to move with it. They would be able to rest on it. So what I'm saying is the shield of faith and the belt of truth are inseparable.
You need both of them. You won't be able to build up your faith without being grounded in the word of God. You might be able to carry, might be able to carry it for a little bit on your own strength, but eventually you will drop it and look, Church, the enemy is patient. The devil is patient.
He's going to wait till you're tired. He's going to wait till you're tired. He's like, man, I got so much going on. I got the house to take care of.
I got work. I got this going. We got so many things with the kids. We have so many things going on.
And then he's just sitting back there, drawing his bow. Oh, I'm going to get him. He's going to put a shield down right now. He's going to wait till you start questioning.
Why God? Why is this happening to my family? Why am I in this circumstance? He's going to drop it soon.
He's going to wait till life doesn't make sense. God, you have me on this plan. You told me this is exactly where I'm supposed to go. You said this was supposed to happen, but nothing is going right.
He's taking a draw and he's going to wait till you put that shield down. He's going to strike. Look, that's why in Romans 10, 17 it says faith comes by hearing the word. Not by your feelings, not by opinions, not by circumstances, by the word of God.
Amen? So let me ask you a question. Where are you? Where are you with reading your Bible daily?
Are you just checking a box? Well, Pastor, I open up my app and I go to my plan and I read the Bible and I listen to it and I move on with my day. Not talking about that type of reading. What I'm talking about is are you letting it soak into your heart?
Are you letting it come into you and change your life? Where even if it's a little scripture a day, you're spending time with it and you're like, oh, man, that's so good. I'm going to leave this scripture, Lord, until you show me something and I'm not going to move on to the next day until you give me something that's going to change my heart in this Lord. Let me read this over and over and over and let it soak into my life because if the word is not in you, your shield has nothing to connect to.
If it's not in your heart, it has nothing to connect to. Through the years as a pastor, so many times I've had people come up to me and say, I'm under attack, the enemy is after me. I'm in a motion of wreck, I'm struggling, I'm battling. And the first question I usually ask him is, where are you at with reading the word?
And this breaks my heart every single time. They say, I'm not reading the Bible or I'm barely reading it. The attacks are coming because you have not fastened that belt firmly around your waist. You have not fastened that belt firmly around your waist.
And when you do that, when you clip your shield or when your shield has nothing to clip onto you and you don't have a belt or it's not firmly on there, when truth wanes, your face starts to collapse. So you have to get into the word daily church, daily. Well, I'm too far behind, pastor will start today. Start today.
Oh, I don't know where to start. Ask. I'll be more than happy to tell you where to start. And it's not in Job.
Believe me, that's where I started. I'll tell you, hey, get to know Jesus. You have to be gospel to John. And then ask me for a recommendation.
Please don't go to Job yet. Start John. Let that soak in every single day, man. Well, I forgot to read my Bible this morning.
We'll pick it up this afternoon. No more excuses. Start small, gain ground. Look, church, I'm telling you, if you start today and you read your Bible just a little bit, you let it soak into you, let it soak into you.
The next day, read a little bit more, let it soak into you. The next thing you know years from now, you're like, man, I've read the Bible multiple times. And man, I get so much from it. Every single day.
And I've read this Bible three to four times back and forth, back and forth, up and down. And then you get down 10 years down the line and you're reading your Bible. You're like, how did I miss this when I read this the first time? Because it's a living word of God.
And he's changing things in you and you're starting to recognize scripture in a different way. But it didn't start by you trying to read the Bible in one day. You will get nothing out of it. You will get nothing out of it except for maybe a high five from somebody for reading the Bible.
And if it's somebody in this church, come talk to me because you shouldn't be getting a high five reading the Bible in one day because you've got nothing from it. Start small. One of my favorite people in the whole world used to tell me this. He said, how do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time. One bite at a time. Start small and you will eventually finish that elephant and you will accomplish something very, very great in your life and it will have changed you. I quote from John Maxwell in his book called The Fifteen of Valuable Laws of Growth.
It says, small disciplines, repeated with consistency every day, lead to great achievements gained slowly over time. If you all know who John Maxwell is, please look him up. Great writing on leadership. Great writing on leadership.
But pastor, I put my shield down. I put it down so I put it down months ago, years ago. I can't, I don't know if I can pick it up. Look, that's one thing I love about our God.
I love about our God. It doesn't matter how long ago you lost your face. It doesn't matter how long you've been away from him. If you come back to him, he welcomes you with open arms.
I mean, I should have gotten a bigger amen there. No matter how far you think you've gone, when you come back to him, he welcomes you with open arms. Amen? Look, Paul is writing to us in the beginning of this scripture and he says, take up your shield.
And I know this, I mean, it's Holy Spirit, it's my God is putting this image because he knew that we had eventually put our shields down. He knows we're human. He knows that we make mistakes and things happen in our life. That's why Paul is saying here, take up the shield of faith.
Take up your shield, pick it up, get back into the fight. Get back into the fight church. If you have your shield on the floor, look, it doesn't say go buy a shield. It doesn't say go find a shield.
It says pick up your shield. He has given you one that is exactly for you that covers you from head to toe. Make the choice today. Pick up the shield of faith again, amen?
So in order to maintain their shield, Roman soldiers would oil them up. They would maintain them. They would securely fasten them to their belt. But they also did one more thing.
Right before battle, the soldiers would dip their shields in water. Why do you think they did that? Because the enemy was not only firing arrows, they were firing fiery arrows. The Bible describes them as flaining arrows or fiery darts.
And the Greek word used here is bellos, which means missile. And the word bellos was often applied to arrows that had special fin chamber that was filled with oil and tar. So archers, what they would do is they would put the arrow in fire and automatically draw it back and fire it. And when that arrow hit the shield, what it would do is the oil and tar would mix and it would explode on impact, making as much damage as much damage as possible.
And that is what happens spiritually when the enemy arrows come flying at us. For example, think about this. What happens when people get irritated? What starts as a small little annoyance?
Small little annoyance can turn into an all-out rage. We tend to hulk out, right? And that's the picture of the flaming explosive dart. Without the shield of faith, it is easy for a tiny little issue to explode into a major problem in your life.
So when we face problems, circumstances out of our control, we can choose to respond in faith or we can choose to lose control. Faith extinguishes the arrows. If we respond in any other way, the arrow will explode. I just love this picture that Paul is painting, dipping that in the water.
Dipping it in the water. Why? Because the water, when the arrow hits, it will help extinguish the flame. So it doesn't explode.
And I love the picture of water, because it's the living water. You know who we're talking about here. Look, Hebrews 10-22 says, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hearts sprinkled clean.
Bodies washed our pictures of when we have given our lives to Christ and when we're baptized. So when you give your life to Christ, your heart is cleansed, you're washed free from sin. And when you're baptized, that's an outward expression of what has already inwardly happened in salvation. So you are cleansed of all sins.
Everybody again say, all. There is no need for guilty conscience here. Jesus paid the price for your failures. He paid the price for your mistakes.
He paid the price for your evil deeds. And the enemy would like nothing more than to get you to not believe that. He would want to convince you that none of that is true. So the truth is, is that Jesus' blood has washed it all, amen?
He has washed you clean. But there is a critical element to the Scripture here. And we have to pick it up. And it's at the beginning of this verse.
It says, we need to draw near to God with the full assurance of faith. Faith in what? Faith in what he says is true, amen? So when you lose a job, when you get that diagnosis that includes the word terminal, or maybe you lost a loved one in a very terrible way, you don't run away from God.
You stand firm on what his truth says. And unfortunately, there's so many Christians that pull away from God in these moments. Their situation gets too tough. They lose a job.
They get a diagnosis. A loved one, maybe they get a relationship ends. Maybe something happens. And what do they do?
Oh, God, I'm going to walk away from you now. They do exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to do. This is when we're supposed to draw near to God. And say, God, I don't understand my circumstances, but I'm going to stand on your word and your truth.
I need you here with me. Help me in my weakness. Look, and Scripture says, when we draw near to God, what does it say? He draws near to us.
He will speak truth into your life and fill you with the faith to protect you from the fiery arrows of the devil. Look, Church, it happens. It happens with us. How many times has something so small explode in our lives and turns into something so much bigger?
So much bigger. Snub a toe. Get angry at your wife. What happened?
Something just exploded. It reminds me of when I was giving my son Ryder a bath the other day. We're sitting there in the bath and washing his hair and he has soap on his head and soap starts running down his eye and he sees it and he freaks out. And a little soap got in his eyes like, hey, give me a second to grab.
What does he do? He picks his hands up with more soap on his hands and he starts rubbing his eyes and he turns something small into a big thing. His eyes are red now. He's dreaming.
He's throwing a tantrum in the tub, water splashing everywhere. And I was like, hey, Ryder, chill out. He exploded something from something so small. And that's what the enemy is trying to do to us, Church.
He's trying to take something so small in your life and he's trying to convince you that it's so big and then you start to lose your faith. And you react in a way that you're not supposed to. You get upset. You have a blowout with your family, a blowout with your spouse.
Something happens. Hear me. In those moments, draw near to God and let him draw near to you and let that arrow be extinguished with the living water, amen? Lastly, the shield works in community.
And this is huge, Church. This is huge. These shields, these doors were designed to lock together. That is so awesome.
The shield would connect on all sides, creating a wall, creating a wall, a moving fortress. That's this Church. That's what we're all about. We're about locking shields together, creating a wall.
You are never meant to fight this battle alone. Casey Christie says this all the time. Christianity is not a, our Christianity is a team sport. I almost said it wrong.
Christianity is a team sport. So if you're getting hit from every angle, it might be because you are standing alone. It's time to lock shields. Look, Church, the easiest way that you can figure out that enemy is attacking you or saying things to you is he's trying to isolate you.
Oh, you shouldn't go to church. Oh, what are people going to think? Oh, you acted so, so bad last week. Oh, man, somebody's going to know and they're going to find out consistently shooting arrows, trying to isolate you.
So even though you may have your shield in front of you, the arrows start hitting you from the sides because you don't have community. So we need to lock shields, Church. We need to get into community. We need to get into life group.
We need to call somebody and let them know what's going on or, hey, maybe reach out to somebody that God put on your heart. Pray with somebody because look, one shield is good, but many shields together are unstoppable. Many shields together are unstoppable. Look, Church, I really debated on whether I wanted to share this story with you because it doesn't really paint me in a good picture.
But I'm not, I think this is going to give you encouragement because I'm just a human, just like you. Just because I hold the title pastor doesn't mean that arrows don't fly at me. They come at me, they come to my family and it's my job to continue doing the things that I'm supposed to do. Amen?
And the story, I was former military and one of my buddies, Adrian, who I served with, man, I just, every time I hear his name, I'm just, I need to keep it together. But he was such a great man. He saved my life. I would not be here, but it was not for him.
He pulled me out of the fire. I'll share this testimony with you later. It's too, too long to go through right now. But he pulled me out of the fire.
We made it back. And the next thing you know, we're back in the States and the enemy attacks him. He is a complete atheist. He does not believe in God.
He is that so far away. And eventually he succumbs to the demons that were in his head and he took his own life. And not too long ago I was working on some questions about suicide and I was working on some things. And the enemy saw an opening and he started shooting arrows at me.
He started shooting arrows at me. He started saying Adrian's name to me. He said, Adrian, Adrian, Adrian, Adrian. And then he started saying, hey, what if you got your life together quicker?
Maybe Adrian would still be alive. Maybe he would have a chance. Maybe if he would have become a pastor before, what do you say to people when one of your close friends and I'm like, stop, stop, stop. And I was like, Adrian, Adrian, I finally got so upset at the enemy.
I got so upset I said, stop. And I punched a hole in the wall. And in that moment, church, back in the day, could have turned into something so destructive in my life. I could have kept punching that wall.
I could have destroyed my home. I could have turned it and spilled it onto my family. I could have done so many other things in that moment. But in that moment I stopped and I recognized who it was because you know what?
I oil my shield every day. I'm in the word every day. I make sure I'm dipping it in the water. I know what door I have.
And so what did I do? I lock shields with my brother. I called my buddy Mike in El Paso and I said, hey, I'm going through something right now. And you and I have walked through this.
You knew Adrian. Let's talk. And he stayed on the phone with me for an hour. And we talked and we talked and we talked and we called Ryan, my pastor, I said, hey, this is going on.
And we talked and we talked and we talked and these guys loved on me. They locked shields with me. The arrows kept on coming from the enemy. But it didn't turn into a huge mess because I had the water, I had the oil, I had all these things going for us.
And it didn't turn into something bigger. It turned into a defeat from the enemy. He tried to get me. He tried to get me in a weak point.
But I said, no, sir, I'm calling my buddies and we are going to the fight and you ain't getting this guy anymore. I'm not the same man that I used to be. Not the same man that I used to be. I have a shield that's a door and I oil that thing and I'm going to put on the armor of God, amen.
That's what faith looks like church. That's what faith looks like. It's not pretending that the arrows are going to fly because the arrows are going to fly. But it's refusing to drop the shield.
You understand? It's refusing to drop the shield. I'm going to close with a story here. Do you all know who the boxer Muhammad Ali is?
I think everybody knows Muhammad Ali is. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Do I need to jump around and do it? No, I'm not going to do it.
There was a famous fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. This fight for eight rounds, George Foreman was getting pummeled. No, Muhammad Ali was getting pummeled for eight rounds. George Foreman was just boom, boom, boom.
If you want to go watch this fight, you can look it up on YouTube. You can see all the rounds here. All Muhammad Ali was doing, he had his hands up and he was on the ropes and he was doing this. He was doing this the whole time.
Everybody that was there was like, man, Muhammad Ali does not stand a chance. He is going to get whooped. George Foreman is making him look bad. He's one punch away from getting knocked out.
It didn't look good for him. Muhammad Ali had a purpose for this. He let Foreman wear himself out and then he turned the tables on him. This is what we call the famous rope adope.
Be like Muhammad Ali church. Be like Muhammad Ali. Put your shield of faith up. Let the enemies fire arrows at you.
Arrow after arrow after arrow. Withstand the attack from him. Withstand his attack. Let the enemy wear out for himself.
And at the right moment, this is what you do. You turn the tables on him and you do exactly what Ali did to Foreman. You pulverize the devil and say, not in this house. Not in this house.
I'm winning the fight. I have God behind me and we are going to further the kingdom here in the kingdom of God amen. pulverize that devil, amen? Look, it doesn't matter how many times you've taken a hit with your shield.
It doesn't matter if you've had that shield on the floor for very long. Again, it doesn't say go by a shield. It says, take up your shield. Pick it up.
Oil it. Attach it. Soak it and lock it in with others. Step back into the fight church because I promise you this, you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the enemy.
You can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the enemy. Amen? I'll end with this Charles Spurgeon quote, faith is a foot of the soul by which it can march along the road of God's commandments. Keep marching church.
Keep your shield up. Keep trusting God when the arrows fly because the enemy may fire fiery arrows but faith extinguishes the flames. Amen? Would you also end with me?