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The River ChurchSermons

Justin Dean · 7 Jul 2026

Justin Dean · Tuesday, 7 July 2026 · 42:05 · 5,854 words

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The sermon examines Ephesians 6:16, portraying the shield of faith as God’s defense against the enemy’s flaming darts—chiefly doubt and temptation. It notes that doubt is a certainty for believers, not a failure, and must be met with trust in God’s character and promises. The speaker urges listeners to hand over areas of life they control—time, money, relationships, hidden sin—and to live faithfully, raising the shield daily by trusting God without full understanding.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

shield 34 arrow 29 flame 27 temptation 23 fire 23 faith 58 enemy 26 darts 10 doubt 19 extinguish 7 armor 14 troops 6

Topics

Faith 17 Sin 5 Hope 2 Prayer 2

Scripture referenced 12

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Ephesians 6 0:34 Ephesians 6 4:28 Ephesians 6 4:31 Ephesians 6:16 4:33 Ephesians 6:13-16 4:37 Ephesians 6 4:51 Ephesians 6:13 4:51 Isaiah 55 19:41 Proverbs 3:5-6 22:52 James 1 24:31 James 1:14-16 24:35 Proverbs 3:5-6 29:37

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:34. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Lorena, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope that you are blessed by today's message.

So it's been fantastic over this last six weeks now to be able to take a chance to look more and more at Ephesians chapter 6,

and specifically this passage where Paul is writing to the Ephesian church,

and he's teaching them about this equipment or this way in which God has provided for them

this means by which to be protected, to withstand.

To fight against the reality of evil forces that are coming after them.

And so there's this reality of spiritual warfare that as believers, we live in every single day.

And Paul says that God not only knows that that reality is there for us, but that he's not left us unequipped.

That he's given us some very real equipment, and he describes this armor,

this set of armor, and he says,

this suit of armor that we have been given by God, and we've been provided for by God for the purpose of having victory.

To being able to withstand and in fact advance the gospel and advance for the purpose of the kingdom of God.

And so last week, Pastor Patrick Bicknell, who's one of my best friends, he had a chance to come,

and he preached about the shoes of the gospel.

Peace and how those shoes are both a tool for offensive and defensive means.

And how that is a reality in our life that we need regularly, and we can't forget about one or the other.

And so tonight we talk about a primarily defensive piece of equipment, the shield of faith.

And I'm so excited, I was sharing with our table leaders just before this,

for me, the shield is such a easily visible piece of armor, right?

If you, you know, I'm very much a fantasy nerd in every way, shape, and form.

And so one crucial piece of every knight's armor is his sword, which we'll talk about next week.

But it's this shield, right?

This knight in shining armor with his sword and his shield, and there's always this scene where,

whatever this knight is fighting, or whatever this warrior's fighting,

he's using his shield in a very visceral or heroic way to defend whatever it is that's coming after him.

And so tonight we talk about that shield.

We talk about what it is that the enemy is looking to utilize to attack our lives,

and how the shield of faith helps us to withstand that.

And so we're going to dive into God's word.

If you bow your heads.

Let me go and pray before we go into the Lord's word this evening.

Lord, we thank you.

Lord, we know that when it comes to our walk with you,

when it comes to the ways in which we seek to follow you,

that our enemy wants us to have no part of it.

He will do whatever it takes to distract, to disrupt, to cause chaos, and to stop.

The proclamation of your word, Lord, and your growth in our lives.

And Lord, we pray tonight.

That you would protect us, and that you would help us in our fight against the enemy.

Lord, as we look to grow, and as we look to follow your word.

In your precious and holy name, Jesus' name, amen.

So turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6.

We're going to be in Ephesians 6.

We're specifically going to be talking about verse 16.

But I want to read verses 13 through 16, so we kind of see where we've been in these last weeks.

And so,

we look at this picture of withstanding evil,

and taking up this armor that equips us.

Ephesians 6, starting in verse 13, says this,

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 firm.

Stand, therefore, having fastened the belt of truth,

and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

and as for shoes for your feet,

having put on the readiness given by the gospel,

of peace in all circumstances,

take up the shield of faith,

with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

And so, if you are a fantasy nerd like me,

you know that when it comes to medieval battles, right?

Battles back in the sword, and shield, and spear, and bow days,

that typically, what there is,

is a game of rock, paper, scissors that is being played.

So, in most armies, now, this is an oversimplification.

If you're a fantasy nerd like me,

you'll probably have some problems with how I describe it.

But for the most part, it goes like this.

That if you have infantry troops, right?

Troops with a spear, and a sword, and a shield, right?

That are moving on foot.

The best way to counter those infantry troops is with ranged,

ranged archers.

And so, because, as the infantry troops move,

and they trudge, and they march along,

the ranged arrows of the archers can, you know,

obviously, fire these barrages of arrows,

where you don't have to be really accurate,

you just kind of have to fire in the general vicinity,

and there are these perfectly straight lines and clumps of enemies

that these arrows will fall and eventually hit someone.

And then the best way to deal with,

to deal with archers is through cavalry, right?

Because cavalry are on horses, they move quickly, right?

And so, the archers don't have a chance to get off very many shots

by the time the cavalry gets there.

But the best way to deal with cavalry is infantry,

with shields and spears that can clump up and stop them

from charging through the lines, right?

And so, there's this kind of this game of rock, paper, scissors

that armies typically play in those times.

And so,

as we look and we are these infantry troops, right,

that have taken up, you know, these different pieces,

the breastplate, the belt of truth,

on our feet, we have this readiness given by the gospel peace,

and we're taking up this shield,

and, you know, later on, like I said,

we're going to talk about the sword.

As we take up these things, we're infantry troops marching.

And so, when Paul gives this analogy or this message,

metaphor of this troop, right,

we are being equipped with the armor of God

to fight off these evil forces

or to withstand on the evil day

these forces of the enemy that are coming against us.

He knows that the reality of what we are fighting

or what we are in danger as we march towards enemy lines,

as we trudge on the battlefield to engage on this evil day,

is these flaming darts or these flaming arrows

that are looking to come after us.

And so, as he describes this shield,

he's describing this Roman tower shield,

which is literally the size of someone's body,

if you've seen it.

And the purpose is to create this shield wall,

this wall that stops everything,

whether that's Calvary that comes racing through,

this shield hits into the ground,

and links up with all your brothers in arms,

whether that is arrows that are coming from the sky,

whatever that may be,

it is this massive shield that is designed

to protect from the attacks of the enemies.

And so, what Paul describes here

as of greatest danger to us as footmen immediately

is he says there are these flaming darts,

these flaming arrows,

that this shield of faith,

is meant to stop and to extinguish.

It's this massive thing that we're meant to hold

in front of our body to defend us

as we move on the battlefield,

as we engage the enemy,

and as we maneuver as God's people.

This faith is to hold in front of our bodies

and to be effective at keeping us safe

from the attacks of the enemy.

And so, these flaming darts,

these flaming darts of the enemy are coming after us,

and they're looking to set fire to our lives.

Now, once again, I'm going to show you how nerdy I am.

One of my favorite things to watch on YouTube

is there's this guy who he describes

all the different types of arrows

that are used throughout history and battles.

And some of you are like,

wow, Justin, your life,

is really boring and bland.

That's what you like to watch on YouTube.

Yeah, that's what I find interesting.

I'm a history buff.

And so, he shows how at certain points in history,

there are all these different types of arrows,

and these arrows cater to the armor of the enemy

that they're going up against,

that these archers are firing at.

And one of the ones that I found so interesting

is he showed the arrow,

the arrowhead that would hold a firing arrow,

or a fiery arrow.

So, a lot of times when we think of a fiery arrow,

we just think of a normal arrow

that someone just lights on fire.

Well, if you think about it, right?

If I were to light a match on fire

and throw it at you,

it would be out before it got to you, right?

Because the air and the speed would put it out.

And so, these archers had to figure out

how are we going to shoot this flaming arrow

and it's not going to shoot.

It would still be lit by the time

that it would get to its target

in order to cause this damage.

So, if you look at this arrowhead,

it literally looks like a metal basket.

It's got a little bit of a sharp point,

but for the most part, it's this metal basket

and what they would stuff in there

is like cloth or fibrous material

that had been dipped in like oil or flammable liquid.

And then they would light it on fire

and it would be flammable enough

that it would hold that flame

even through the speeds of it flying.

Flying through the air

so that when it hit its target,

it would either send out a shower of sparks

or a shower of embers

or it would still be lit

on that fibrous material or cloth

and stick into whatever it's going to hit,

whether that be a shield or the ground or whatever,

and it would ignite.

It would sit there and ignite.

And so, the purpose of those arrows

was not for them to hit

and for them to ignite.

It was for them to immediately kill

because they weren't designed for that.

What it was designed for

was for it to hit something

and maybe stick shallowly,

but it was designed to engulf in flame,

to be this slow burn

that would eventually catch fire

and cause chaos,

cause damage behind enemy lines,

to stop advances.

Whatever it may be,

it would,

it would cause this fire

and it would cause chaos

and would eventually burn things down.

I think that is exactly why

Paul describes here

the attacks of our enemies

and the need for faith

as this flaming dart

or this flaming arrow.

It's because our life is under siege

and we're in need of protection,

but the enemy is not always sending in kill shots.

Actually,

more often our enemy is sending in things

behind enemy lines

meant to shallowly stick in our lives

and slowly catch fire

with the hopes of chaos starting,

with the hopes of things catching fire

and eventually slowly burning our whole life down

because a lethal shot is immediately noticed,

but a small fire that begins to rage,

it somehow becomes less of an issue.

And so these flaming darts are sent in

and meant to spark fires

that ignite and burn our lives down.

And so we look and we say,

okay,

in order to know what we're holding our shield up against,

we need to know what is coming at us.

And so what are the ways in which the enemy looks to do this?

What are his tactics?

And I really see two types of flaming arrows

that come flying into our lives

and like to ignite in our hearts and minds.

The first one is doubt.

The first one is doubt.

Now, it's important for us to recognize

that when Paul talks about these flaming darts

of the evil one,

there is a sense of certainty that he speaks with, right?

Look back at verse 16.

He says,

take up the shield of faith

with which you can extinguish

all the flaming darts of the evil one.

He doesn't say so that you can extinguish these flaming darts

if the evil one sends them

or so that if the evil one sends these things,

then you can extinguish them.

He says it with this certainty.

There will be flaming darts.

There will be flaming arrows

that the enemy is sending at your life.

And so these things are a certainty that happen.

And it's also important to know that they are attacks

that doesn't necessarily mean they are sinful,

that in and of themselves,

that they immediately produce sin in our lives.

You will experience doubt as a believer in Christ Jesus.

That is an inevitability.

And there will be,

there has been people who sit in my office

or who catch me after gathering

and they'll be like,

they'll come to me so ashamed.

And they'll be like,

I'm just really struggling right now.

I'm struggling with doubt.

I said,

I look at them and say,

man, I struggle with that too.

Me too.

That is an attack of the evil one.

That doesn't mean that it's,

that it's killing us,

that it will kill us.

But it means is we have to recognize

that that is an attack from our enemy.

If we are not receiving attacks from the enemy,

guess what?

We're not on the battlefield.

And so this doubt is an inevitability

that creeps in our lives.

Now we have to address that fire that's being,

that's getting started.

We have to turn our shield

to intercept this attack from the evil one.

But that doesn't mean that it won't happen

because here's the deal.

When doubt creeps in life,

the reality is we want to understand everything.

In our lives,

we want to have control.

And as we move,

we want to understand what it is we're doing,

why we're doing it this way,

all these different things.

We want to have some semblance of understanding

of our lives.

But the reality is we don't understand everything.

We don't understand everything in our lives.

And we definitely don't understand everything in the world,

everything in the universe.

And so we encounter things naturally

that we don't understand.

And so naturally as people,

we question why,

why does this happen this way?

What's going on here?

Am I getting the full picture?

Am I having the full story?

Why?

Why this?

Why that?

It's been so fun,

but also frustrating.

My daughter has learned the word why.

And just everything that I say is just why?

Why?

And I'll give her the answer.

She doesn't even really comprehend the answer,

but she knows that she'll get me to keep talking

if she just says why, right?

Climb up in your chair.

Why?

So you can eat.

Why?

Because you're hungry, kid.

What do you mean?

Like you were just saying how hungry you are, right?

But the reality is there is this limited understanding.

Well, obviously as we grow,

we gain more and more understanding,

but with more and more understanding,

only more and more questions of why, right?

Eventually, sometimes she'll look at me and say,

why do I need to eat?

Kid, I don't know, right?

Like, I don't know why we have to eat.

Probably because you're hungry

and there's some sort of scientific thing

where it deals with when food's in your body,

this is what it does, right?

And this is why, right?

At some point, there's a lack of understanding.

The understanding breaks down.

The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.

But the reality is this idea

of doubt comes in when there's this lack of understanding.

And when we look at God and we look at our world

and we look at these things on cosmic grand levels

or the supernatural where we don't get the full picture,

there is even less of an understanding.

And so there's naturally doubt that creeps in.

And we look and we say, well, why do we doubt?

Why don't we understand?

Is there hope for us to understand?

Isaiah 55, eight through nine answers this question.

For my thoughts,

are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The reality is there is simply

never going to be an understanding that we have.

When we look at God and we look at our world

and we look at different things,

there is a mystery.

To why God does things,

to how God functions,

that we cannot hope to understand

because his ways are not our ways.

His thoughts are not our thoughts.

He is so much more infinitely complex.

He is God, maker of heaven and earth,

mighty, all knowing, in complete control,

everywhere and all at once,

not bound by time.

And you know what we are?

Not those things.

It's like trying to honor help.

An aunt understand why I put things in a refrigerator.

It's just, there's no hope

because we just can't understand.

God is so much more complex.

He is so great.

He is so mighty.

He is so all knowing.

He is so perfect in every way.

And we are just so not those things.

And so there will always be this gap in our understanding.

But we're filled with this mindset

that we can figure it out,

that we can understand.

That we can hope to make sense of it all.

And in this comes this sense of doubt.

There will be things

that we just simply cannot hope to understand.

When I was listening to a pastor,

or I was listening to a sermon this last week

by Alistair Begg,

who was on one of the Psalms

that we're going through as a church.

But one of the things that he said

stuck out to me when it talks about this idea

of doubt that comes in.

He said, there is a list of questions

that I will have of the mysteries

of God that when I get to heaven,

they can only hope to have answers.

He says, because we simply,

we don't have the capacity

or the perspective to understand them

on this side of eternity.

That's not a comfortable statement.

Even as a pastor,

that's not a comfortable statement.

I want to have answers to every single question

that someone comes to me with.

But sometimes the realistic answer is,

I don't know,

but I trust in a God who does.

And so this doubt,

it is not a question.

It fires into our lives.

But how can we let it not catch fire?

What should we do?

Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 gives us the answer.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him

and he will make straight your paths.

If you find yourself leaning

on your own understanding,

on your own control,

on your own perspective,

on you,

you will be in doubt, period.

There is nothing that you will ever be sure of.

You will always be in fear.

There will be deep anxiety.

Why?

Because you're living according to your understanding.

But we are called to trust in the Lord.

Have faith.

The shield of faith.

We'll come back to that.

The second arrow that I see fired at us,

this flaming arrow that looks to burn our lives down,

Now, temptation is not sin.

Because you're tempted.

Just because you're struggling with temptation

does not mean that you are in sin.

Jesus was tempted.

When he went out into the wilderness,

he was tempted by Satan.

Satan was firing flaming arrows

at the savior of the world.

And he defended with his faith,

with God's word.

And the enemy sends temptation at us

in attempt of letting temptation

catch fire in our lives

and lead to ultimate sin and death.

This is exactly,

what James describes in James chapter 1.

James chapter 1, 14 through 16.

He talks about the reality of temptation.

And that temptation is this thing

that progressively leads you to sin.

He says,

but each person is tempted

when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire,

when it has conceived,

gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it's fully grown,

brings forth death.

Do not be deceived.

My beloved brothers.

So he says,

there's this picture of

when you feel temptation,

it's this natural flesh,

your sinful tendencies in your life

to want whatever it is,

to have a desire to pursue things selfishly,

to gratify that sinful desire in your life.

And when that desire is conceived,

conceived in action,

by giving into that desire,

that brings forth sin.

And that sin,

when it grows and grows and grows and grows,

when it is allowed to consume

and be fueled in your life,

it brings forth this death and destruction in your life.

He's literally,

I could see the picture

of what Paul is describing

as this flaming arrow

in James's description of temptation.

Right?

The temptation is launched in by the enemy.

You drive past that liquor store

that you always used to stop at.

That person hits up your phone.

Who you know only wants one thing.

You get into a fight with your spouse

or a family member

that all of a sudden you want to numb that pain

the way that you always used to.

This arrow flies in

and it begins to provide a flame

to the fleshly desire in your heart.

The desire for sin,

the desire to do contrary to God,

the desire to go my own way,

to do my own thing.

And that temptation is there.

And there is this moment

where,

where you can either

extinguish that flame

or you can fan that flame.

You can add tinder.

You can add wood.

You can blow on it,

you know,

bigger and bigger and bigger.

Or you can stomp it out.

You can pour water on it.

But those of us who,

when that temptation sits,

we slow down by that liquor store.

We pick up the phone.

We go to that place,

that dark place

when we have that disagreement

or that heated argument.

We're fueling that temptation.

We're fueling that temptation.

And then guess what?

We find ourselves giving into that temptation,

giving in, doing sin.

And then, oh, that's just one time.

Well, we know relapse

is very rarely ever just one time, right?

And it burns and burns and grows and grows.

And what started off as a spark

is now a house fire.

That is temptation.

The enemy is going to send temptation at you

because with every temptation,

there is a possibility of you being consumed.

And so we have to be on point.

We have to be so aware to raise our shield

and to intercept every single arrow of temptation

that flies from the enemy.

Why?

Because we know our flesh wants us

so desperately to give in.

Our flesh is dried out tinder

that simply wants to,

And so we raise this shield,

this shield of faith

so that we catch these flaming arrows

and we extinguish them

for the purpose of them not being,

giving birth to sin

and that sin not bringing forth death.

And so we intercept that temptation

with our shield,

our shield of faith.

And I love how James finishes that section.

He says,

don't be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Don't be deceived by the world.

Don't be deceived by these lies.

How can you not be deceived?

Well, back to Proverbs 3, 5 through 6.

Trust in the Lord.

Trust in the Lord.

The Lord will not deceive you.

The Lord will not lead you astray.

You know what will lead you astray?

Your own understanding,

your own perspective,

other people's understanding,

other people's perspective.

You know what won't lead you astray?

The Lord.

So trust in the Lord.

James, do not be deceived.

Don't be deceived.

How?

Through faith.

How does faith protect us?

Well, what is faith?

All people have this picture of faith.

Sometimes faith kind of seems to us like smoke, right?

You know when smoke's around,

but you can't really seem to catch it, right?

And so some of us,

we feel terrible

because we don't understand what faith looks like.

And we don't understand how we produce faith in our lives.

Well, first things first.

Faith is produced in our life through,

the work of Christ Jesus.

It is so crucial that we remember

that these pieces of armor,

it's not the armor of us,

it's the armor of God.

God provides us with these pieces of armor

so that when we're in the battle,

so that when flaming arrows come,

we are able to withstand.

So the only hope for faith in your life

is in Christ Jesus.

How does that faith first produce?

Confession that Jesus Christ is,

and belief that he is risen from the dead.

That faith is produced

in our confession of faith in Jesus Christ.

And we look and we say,

I'm a sinner in need of a savior,

and I need you, Christ Jesus.

You came, you lived a perfect life.

You went to the cross.

You died in my place.

I deserve death,

but you died in my place

and you rose again,

conquering and giving victory to me.

And I believe in you and I trust in you.

And how does that trust look?

How does that faith look?

This is how I would,

I would define faith.

Faith is trust with your whole life in God

without complete understanding.

Let me say that again.

Faith is trust with your whole life in God

without complete understanding.

So some of us,

we say we have faith in God,

but then we have plans B through Z, right?

And we prepare all these contingencies.

Well, if God doesn't come through,

then I have this as a backup.

Then I have this as a fallback.

If God doesn't come through,

well, I've been doing my own thing on the side.

And so I should be good if God doesn't come through.

That's not faith.

Faith is a wholehearted trust.

It says, if God does not come through, I'm sunk.

Now, it doesn't mean living irresponsibly and recklessly.

What that means is looking at God's word

and how it calls us to live and saying,

that's how I live.

If God's word says, this is what's true,

then this is what's true.

And this is what's true.

It's pretty easy to see how that combats doubt.

When I doubt and I don't understand,

I look at God's word and I say,

well, I may not understand.

I may not be able to put all the puzzle pieces together.

That makes sense.

Why?

Because God is so much more complex than me.

I am so dumb in the cosmic scale of things.

And my God is so much infinitely smarter,

wiser, more intelligent.

You name it than me.

And so I trust, I have faith and faith alone

in what God says and how God tells me to live

in the truth that he proclaims in his word.

And so it's this ultimate trust in him.

And then without complete understanding,

some of you love to build contingencies.

And when I say build contingencies,

I don't always mean,

plans B through Z.

What I mean is some of you like to take calculated risks.

Well, I'll trust God in this area

because in the grand scheme of things,

if it all falls apart,

it's not that big a deal.

But with this thing,

where if I trust God here,

it could cause this massive chaos in my world

if it doesn't work,

that I will stay in control of.

And so we compartmentalize.

We say, God, you can have control of this in your life.

It's like, you know,

when the driver's ed instructor

has the backup steering wheel and brakes on their side,

right, because they're like,

well, we're not going to give full control

to this person driving

because they could send us into a ditch, right?

We want our own little steering wheel as well

in the light, in our lives.

The reality is God does not need a co-pilot.

God does not need you to work in contingencies.

God's plan will never fail.

And so we look and we have to have faith,

faith with your life.

Both this is what I say I believe,

and then this is what I do and how I live.

So that faith first is in the gospel, right?

That's how it starts.

That we believe that Jesus Christ raised from the dead,

that he died for our sins.

We confess with our mouth that he is Lord, right?

And then the second part of that

is faith in the character of God.

So both in the instances of doubt and of temptation,

we look and we say,

I trust that God loves me.

I have faith that,

that God knows what's best for me.

I have faith that God will lead me in the right ways.

I have faith that even though I think I know,

I trust that God still knows better.

That we look to live out in our lives,

faithful living.

What does that look like?

I base my life on the trust that I have in God.

So people get uncomfortable when we talk about finances,

specifically giving.

Do we give?

Financially and say,

I'm going to offer this as a sacrifice to the Lord

because I'm called to live faithfully,

even though I don't really know

how I'm going to pay for this or do these things.

This money's the Lord's anyway.

I'm going to be faithful with it.

When it comes to our time,

man, I just don't feel like I have enough time in the day.

One of my favorite quotes by Martin Luther,

he says, I have so much to do this morning.

So I'm going to spend four hours instead of two in prayer.

Four hours, two hours.

That's crazy, right?

But he looks, he says,

that's what's of crucial importance.

I say, that's what matters.

I have faith that that's important.

And so I'm going to give it even more importance

on days when I need it extra.

Well, I say that God's word matters in my life.

I'm going to actually study it for the first time.

I may have questions.

I mean, it all makes sense.

But I say that I trust in God's word.

I'm going to study God's word.

Fill in the blank.

All the different ways in which God calls us to live.

We look and we say,

what does faithfully living look like?

What I say I believe,

if I truly believe it,

I will live differently because of it.

And I will live without reservation or fear

because that's how I'm called to live.

That's how I'm called to live.

We look and we say,

we live according to the faith.

We raise our shield in faith.

And so when temptation,

when doubt,

when all these things come,

we look and say,

this is my God.

And I have faith.

I have faith in him.

The very act of raising a shield

to incoming arrows is faith.

I trust that this shield will stop these arrows.

Because if this shield doesn't,

they're going right through.

And where are they hitting?

It's an act of faith.

We look and we say,

I have no hope against the attacks of the evil one

except trusting that my God

and the way in which he calls me to live

will protect me,

will be,

will be what's best in my life.

And so we live by faith.

We're called to live by faith.

And so my encouragement to you this evening

is to look and say,

where in your life do you need to live by faith?

What are some areas in your life

that you need to hand over to God?

Is it your time?

Maybe is it some sin that you've been keeping quiet?

Maybe is it asking the questions

that you've been doubting

and letting start a fire in your heart,

burning down your life.

Maybe it's giving over certain relationships

to the Lord.

Maybe it's your time,

how you spend your time.

Maybe it's diving into God's word.

What does it look like to live faithfully

and raise your shield?

Let's pray.

Lord, tonight we pray

and we ask that you'd help us

to raise our shields of faith.

Lord, as the enemy sends doubt our way,

as the enemy sends temptation our way,

Lord, I pray that we would resist

not according to our own strength,

not according to our own strength,

not according to our own plans and tactics,

but according to that

which you've equipped us with, faith.

Lord, I pray that tonight

you'd help us to respond in faith.

Lord, that as table leaders come down,

that you would impress upon the people in this room

their need to turn to you for faith,

that they would be willing,

have courage and boldness,

willingness to come down

and pray with our table leaders down here.

Lord, I pray that you'd help each one of us

to grow in faith,

to grow in the ways that we faithfully live,

whether that be in certain areas,

with certain things like our time

or maybe our finances

or maybe relationships

or maybe that's simply

in bringing things to light

and putting out things

which are burning down our life.

Lord, I pray that tonight

you would help us to see the necessity of faith

and specifically for those in this room

who don't know you,

the need that they have for a faith in you,

the gospel. Lord, we love you in your precious and holy name, Jesus' name. Amen.