2026_03_08 God's Armor: Faith

God himself is the shield. Remember, this is the armor of God. God himself is the shield as we trust in him. Focus is not on how strong or weak my faith is or is not, but on God and how strong and faithful he is. The shield of faith is about God's faithfulness and power, not about my ability. God has made many promises in the bible. We may fail in our promises, but god is perfect in character. It's impossible for him to lie, and he keeps his promises. And so faith is trusting in our faithful God is trusting in his promises. [00:44:22] (43 seconds)  #GodIsMyShield

As we trust him in his unfailing faithfulness, and his unchanging promises, his mighty acts, as we trust him, that is a shield that protects us from the flaming arrows of the enemy. Klein Snodgrass, in his commentary on Ephesians wrote this, the truth that faith protects us is not to suggest that humans protect themselves by their power to believe. To speak of faith is not to focus on human belief, but on the faithfulness of God. Faith is relational, describing reliance on a reliable God. To say, I have faith, does not so much say anything about oneself. Rather, it says, god is a trustworthy god. [00:43:11] (57 seconds)  #RelianceOnGod

See, sometimes when we're in places of struggle or going through difficulties or facing things in our life, we ask ourselves, do I have enough faith to protect myself against the enemy's assaults? That's the wrong question. Faith isn't a feeling. The question is, does god have enough power and grace to protect me? That's the question. See, faith isn't looking inside and saying, do I get enough of this stuff? It's looking up. Is faith in him? And the answer to that is always, yes, he does. [00:39:13] (40 seconds)  #LookUpToGod

What I learned was that the rope was strong enough to hold me. The the question wasn't whether I could walk on a cliff. I couldn't. The question was, was the rope trustworthy enough to trust my life too? God is almighty. He's all loving, all good, always faithful. He's strong. Much more than a thousand pound test rope. We can lean back upon him with full confidence. We can trust him with our life. It's not about us. It's about him. [00:42:25] (47 seconds)  #LeanBackOnGod

All of these deadly errors of persecution or temptation or inner struggles, can be countered with the shield of faith. This shield never fails. Paul says it can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. All of them. We need faith. But we need to ask the question, what is faith? And that brings me to my first major point as we discuss faith this morning. Faith is relying on our reliable god and his unfailing promises. Faith is relying on our reliable god and his unfailing promises. [00:38:24] (49 seconds)  #ShieldOfFaith

The shield which quenches the flaming arrows of the evil one is faith in God and his promises. A faith that is made complete by our actions. God is always with you. Expect his continual grace. He's your dad. He loves you. He sent his son to die for you. He's cleansed you, washed you, sanctified you, made you a new creation. He's with you. Know and embrace God's faithfulness and goodness and his promises. Trust in our trustworthy God to fulfill them. Put your faith into action. Let's pray. Heavenly father, your word is so powerful. You are so powerful, Lord. [01:07:08] (52 seconds)  #FaithInAction

And we've seen in Ephesians six that there's an epic war going on in the visible realm between the forces of good and the forces of evil. And though Satan is a defeated enemy, we have to be on our guard. Paul tells us, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. We've took several weeks to look at this look at the schemes of the devil. Now we're looking at that full armor of God that enables us to stand firm against Satan. Today, our topic is god's armor, faith, a powerful shield that protects us from the flaming arrows of the enemy. [00:28:15] (44 seconds)  #ArmorOfGod

And if they struck you, they would continue burning inside your body even after you removed the arrow. It's a terrible thing. And if they hit your shield, they could set your shield on fire. So Roman soldiers were known to douse their shields in water to soak that leather so that the shield would extinguish those flaming arrows. When advancing, soldiers would often use what is called the tortoise formation. The shields actually had hooks on both sides that allow them to link their shields together, and they put them in front of themselves on sides above themselves to create a tortoise, a protective covering that would block all those flaming arrows. [00:35:55] (50 seconds)  #QuenchTheArrows