This morning we'll continue with putting on the armor of God. We live in a world that bombards us with things that battle against our souls. And God has provided armament to be able to resist them, not only to resist, but to stand strong and firm and hold our ground. We start by putting on the belt of truth, seeking until we are confident we have found genuine truth, and then hanging a life of integrity on what we know to be true. Then we put on the breastplate of righteousness, a determination to do whatever it takes to be righteous before God, doing what is right as much as possible, and then receiving his forgiveness for the times we fail. Then we put on our feet the protection of the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace, taking initiative to set the tone of righteousness in our world, not leaving it to the devil’s distortions. And today we lift up the shield of faith.
And I hope you are seeing that these are pieces of armor that do no good sitting on the shelf. We have to put each one on. We have to put each one on many times because the battle never really stops.
And these are not pieces of armor that we need to manufacture ourselves. This is God's armor. He provides it. We just need to put it on and put it to use.
This morning we move on to the fourth piece, the shield of faith, Ephesians 6:10 17
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench 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."
The Apostle Paul knew a lot about Roman soldiers. He got arrested by them plenty of times for disturbing the peace. He would come into a city that had never heard about Jesus before and tell everyone who would listen what God had done. And there were usually some who were so closed minded that they would stir up a riot or something in protest. And Paul would be the one who got arrested. He spent many long hours chained to Roman soldiers in the dungeons. But he made good use of the time.
For one thing he took it as a chance to catch up on his correspondence. And we should be thankful for the time Paul spent in jail because many of those letters have been treasured and protected by the church. Most of Paul’s letters that we have today in the New Testament were written in jail. If he hadn’t been locked up he might have traveled to Philippi and Ephesus and just told them what was on his heart for them and his words would have been lost.
But Paul also saw that his imprisonments provided him with the best captive audiences he ever had. In his letter to the Philippians he said that he didn’t mind being in jail because as the different soldiers came and went on their shifts of being chained to him he had been able to tell every soldier in the local imperial guard about Jesus.
Maybe it was one of those guards who told him about a day when they had faced fiery darts in a battle. Some armies used small, hand-held darts, with the tips dipped in pitch, and then set on fire. Not only could they wound you. But they could set your clothing on fire, or your tent, or even your wooden shield.
So as a defense the Roman soldiers used large shields. The Greek word for the kind of shield Paul is talking about is from the same word as a door. They were large and rectangular shaped, four feet high. You could hide behind them pretty well. In those days they would have been made of wood, but trimmed with metal and covered with leather. If they were expecting to face fiery darts, they might wet the leather down so that any darts that stuck in the leather would be extinguished. The Roman soldiers would line up in squares with the front row holding these shields up, side by side in a wall, with sharp pikes sticking out between them. The second row would hold more shields over the heads of the front row to protect them from stones or arrows flying through the air. And these formations were the tanks of the ancient world, which could plow through the enemy lines. They demolished army after army that dared to defy them.
But Paul wasn't really talking about military tactics here. He was talking about spiritual survival, or, really, spiritual victory, in the face of a serious attack.
What are the things that make it hard for us to sustain our faithfulness to God? What are the attacks we face?
Sometimes being a Christian is difficult. There are always at least a few folks around town who mock things of the Spirit, who will try to embarrass us, belittle us. That hurts. We will be tempted to just sort of keep our faith quiet, forget about our commitments to God and try to go it on our own. They can discourage us, wound us in our spirits. But if our faith is strong, the words just bounce off and we are free to love even our opponents.
There are all sorts of temptations that come our way, flashy, bright, exciting things that promise happiness and fulfillment. If we aren't on our guard they'll draw us away from God, and if we get separated from the source of our spiritual life we'll shrivel up inside. But if our faith is strong they won’t pull us off track.
No matter how many of these fiery darts come shooting at us, God has given us a defense. It's big and it’s strong enough to hold up through the worst blast if we will keep it up in place. We can hide safely behind it if we choose. And this big shield is faith. And it really is a big shield. It really can protect us.
I once heard a story of a young child who was asked what faith is. And the answer came back. "Faith is believing something that you know isn't true." But that kind of faith really isn't good for much. It doesn't last very long. It won't carry you through much of a crisis at all. It's stupid to try to base your life on things that you can't trust.
That may sound foolish, but there is a strong trend today to be spiritual, to have faith, without naming any God in particular or committing to any doctrines, just believe in spirituality itself. It’s no wonder that so many people vacillate this way and that, following one religious fad after another, cobbling together an incredible mix of ideas. It’s no wonder that so many modern people are sucked in by temptations and fall down flat in moral lapses. They haven’t done the work of understanding what they believe. The belt of truth is the first piece of armor to put on. If you skip it, none of the rest can hold together. Faith in faith itself isn’t good for much.
But there are other people who make the opposite error and refuse to believe in anything. They go through life without commitments, without purpose, without meaning. They find it very difficult to trust in anyone or any thing. They find it difficult to make commitments to anything. They are always guarded, always distant, always moving on without commitment.
How much better to be able to live by faith, to search until you find something you can depend on, something that is worth getting excited about, something that will give direction and meaning to your life, something that will connect you to the eternal, creator God, a living faith.
If you don't have faith it really doesn't matter much how good or great God is. If you don't open your heart to him, if you don't study his word, the Bible, if you don't make an effort to find out what he wants to make of your life, if you don't really trust him, he won't make much of a difference in your life. Faith is the bond that connects us to the blessings of God.
It's a decision to trust that connects us to the power of God. Faith doesn't manufacture anything that wasn't there before. It just connects us to the source of the power. If we keep our faith up, if we keep in touch with God, so that our minds are regularly reminded of his goodness, so that we take time for him to guide us and shape us, those darts of the devil just bounce off. If we know for sure that God is true and good, it won't really matter what other people say about our faith. When we are tempted to sell our souls to accumulate the shiny trinkets of the world, the temptation won't amount to much at all if our hearts are filled with the wonder of God's goodness.
Let me tell you a missionary story. I love missionary stories. Gladys Aylward was a missionary in China in the early days of the Second World War, while the Japanese were invading China. She ran an orphanage for Chinese children. As the destruction of the fighting between the Chinese and Japanese got worse and worse, the orphanage swelled to over 100 children. Food and clothing were very difficult to find. She had almost no help, almost no money. It was a desperate situation. It seemed impossible to care for all those children, but she couldn't turn them away. Word came that the Japanese were advancing to the town where the orphanage was located. There would be horrible destruction. There was no choice but to move the children several hundred miles to a safe area. So, with a lot of prayers, she set out on foot with over 100 children. Every minute of the day was a constant worry, to find food, to find shelter, to care for the younger children who couldn't keep up, to care for those who fell ill or became injured, to make sure no one got lost. One night she lay awake all night trying to figure out a way to make this work. In the morning she was convinced there was no hope, her mind and her body were exhausted. There just didn't seem to be any hope at all. They had come to a large river which was soon to become the front lines. The Japanese had bombed out all the bridges, trying to keep the Chinese army from retreating, pinning them with their backs against the river. The Chinese still retreated across the river, using boats. But they took every boat they needed across with them and destroyed the rest so that there would be nothing left to help the Japanese follow them across. The river was far too wide for children to cross. There were no phones working to call for help, and who could help them, anyway in the middle of a war?
One of the orphans, a 13 year-old girl, reminded Gladys Aylward that Moses had been able to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness. But Gladys answered, "I'm not Moses." "Of course you aren't," the girl answered, “but God is still God." That gave her encouragement to hang on just a little longer. And then, just when they needed it, a Chinese officer showed up and got them across. Maybe God had the situation well in hand all along.
Are you naturally a great Christian leader? Neither am I! Can you just stand there alone and take all the battering that our world sends your way? Neither can I. But faith connects us with the power of God. Look at God, not yourself. Maybe I'm not Moses. But God is still God. So I'd better put my faith in him, and not in myself.
Our text says for us to take the shield of faith. Where do you get faith? Do you just wait for it to hit you? Is it something that God gives to some and not to others? No, God wants us all to come to faith, but we need to take some steps to take it up.
One day the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. You can read about it in Luke 17:5-10. And Jesus answered them in two parts. Both parts seem pretty strange at the first reading.
The first part of his answer was a promise. He said, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.”
That’s quite a promise! But faith comes from hearing God’s promises. Faith is possible for us because God is dependable and has made known to us where we can depend on him. If you want your faith to grow, devote yourself to reading the Bible. Pay special attention to God’s promises. The more you understand what God has promised to do and what God hasn’t promised to do, the more you can start to step out and act in faith. Look at God’s promises.
If all you have is a very fuzzy idea of what God is like and what he has promised to do, then your faith won’t have much staying power at all.
And then the second thing he said was: "Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!
What does acting like a slave have to do with building faith? Everything! If you sit off at a distance and have no involvement in doing the work of God, you will never experience God’s power. It’s those who jump in, put the promises to the test, and obey God’s word in detail at every opportunity, who start to discover that it works, that God’s power is here, working even through them. And do you know what happens to their faith? It grows.
If you want to increase your faith do two things. Read the Bible. Read it. Read it. Read it. Pay special attention to the things that God promises to do.
And then obey it. Obey it. Obey it. And your faith will grow. AMEN
